Second addition to my last blog:
Canada Day was just like any other day here, as it’s not a big celebration for most in Quebec. It defiantly wasn’t like home, where I am used to being with friends and watching the fireworks. Even though Quebec is in Canada, the culture is completely different and something I’m still getting used to. While here I have experienced a lot in such a short period of time. I was able to watch a baby calve being born (Gross, yes, but it is defiantly a cool experience and something I suggest you to see if the opportunity ever arises).Gardening has been pretty sweet and I’ve also lifted and cut more wood in a day then I ever thought I would in a lifetime. I lifted a lot of hay as well, and those little hay bales are deceiving. You pick up one thinking it’s going to be lighter than it actually is and you almost throw out your back. I got these epic bruises on both sides of my right knee slipping through the gap of the platform and the trailer. Yes, only I could do that even when I made a mental note of the gap. It was funny though, but defiantly not graceful. Lifting hay isn’t all that bad though, I may come back with some serious muscles! I’ll leave that to your discretion though haha. I learned many things so far, but one thing I’ve learned is that I don’t think professional painting is in my future, but who knows? I have painted so much wood and one heck of a dog house, that I may be the next Picasso. Okay, that’s not going to happen, but I know by the end of this I may never want to paint anything red again! There is defiantly not a lack of travelling with my host family as I’ve already travelled to Quebec City and to smaller towns. I know Quebec City may not seem that exciting, but it’s actually very beautiful. We recently went to Quebec City for my host family’s granddaughter’s 3rd birthday and for a baptism. We’re going to go back soon to look around the city and explore. I have also been to the beach that is on the St. Laurent River. It’s across the road from a very large and popular campground, where we met 3 out of 6 guys who are doing something called the “Tandem Tour”, where they are biking across Canada. They started in British Columbia and are going to Halifax on a 4 person bicycle. There are lots of bonfires and hanging out and there is internet connection! It isn’t a beach that I’m used to with only sand, it’s full of huge rocks and seaweed/plants where the tide comes in every 7 hours. Roger (our host dad) took us to one of the barns and found us some bikes to use. We washed them, put some air in the tires and they are good to go! Ocean and I are going to start biking there when we have free time and just relax and take in everything around us. It is only a 15 minute bike ride from my home so I think I’ll be going there quite a bit to swim and have some time to myself. Ooooh, exciting news! One of the huskie dogs (Chinook) had a puppy and it’s so tiny and so cute! I was able to hold it the other day and I fell in love with it! Her eyes aren’t opened yet as she is only a week old, but I get to name her. Not sure what to name it yet, but when I do I’ll let you know. Oh, when I have time I will be uploading some much needed pictures to facebook , so that you can see what my experience has been like. I’ll try and post some on my blog as well.
Quebec so far has been exciting and frustrating. Frustrating only because of the language barrier, but I’m learning and trying, eventually it will be easier. Everything is great here, but I do miss Saskatoon. I’m far from home and wish I could see everyone that I miss, but when I get back In December, every hug and hello will be worth the wait. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve been gone! It seems like such a long time and it has gone pretty fast. Before I know it, I’ll be in Africa living a life so different from anything I’ve ever known. I’ll get to play some real African soccer and play with wonderful kids in the villages and orphanages. I’ll also most likely burn, even with SPF 60 sunscreen. Knowing me, I won’t be pasty white when I return, but a nice dark shade of red. Well I hope everything is going great for everyone back home, and until next time, which hopefully won’t be that long!
Au Revoir!
Friday, July 16, 2010
I finally found the Internet! :)
Bonjour!
I apologize for leaving my blog vacant for so long, but when Rahama (my counterpart) and I were transferred to our new family, I found out very quickly that they did not have the internet. This of course was a shock to me, as I was hoping to be able to keep in contact with everyone back home. As you may have noticed, I found internet in a small cafe close to my home, where I am able to go during my free time (which doesn’t come all that often as I’m always doing something). Well I am defiantly not going to do a day by day addition to my blog this time as it has been two weeks and that would be way too long for me to write and you to read! I promise I will not put you through that torture haha.
My last blog entry left off with me informing you that Rahama and I were in between homes and were on our way to meet our new family. My new host parents are Terese and Roger, whom I might add are extremely wonderful! They are an older couple who live on a dairy farm in Riviere Quelle (a small village, much like a suburb, but with mostly farms and Quebec has lots of these!) Riviere Quelle is about a 8 minute drive to La Pocatiere, so it doesn’t take long to get there for our team meetings every Friday. They have 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls, but only Andre, 1 of the boys lives at the home. He works on the farm and does a lot of the work for his parents. He reminds me of having an older brother as he is much older than me and he likes to bug Rahama and I. Fortunately, he can speak English as my host parents and Rahama cannot. The farm has lots of different kinds of animals and I absolutely love that! They have 3 husky dogs, which are absolutely adorable and very friendly. They have lots of cows of course as it’s a dairy farm and some baby calves. I named two of the baby calves, one is Lucy and the other was Annabelle. Annabelle is now a Ricardo, as I recently found out that it was a male. They all look the same and I wasn’t getting into the crate to check which sex it was haha. I do wish Ricardo was a girl as the name Annabelle suited it very much. If you have ever seen that Christmas movie about the cow named Annabelle, then you would understand. (Yes, that was kind of random, once again, there will be random things in my blogs) There are lots of cats, but 3 of them live in the home, they have some horses and a rabbit, which recently had 6 babies. The rabbits are absolutely adorable and are like little fluff balls that hobble around as they can’t really hop yet. Rahama and I were able to hold them when they were only 3 days old and their eyes weren’t even opened yet! Rahama and I share a room, but it’s fairly large and we have lots of space to put our stuff and make it our own for the 3 months. The home is quite quaint and I am falling in love with its surroundings more and more each day. There is a small river across the road from my home and Rahama and I have gone on many long walks already, getting to know our new neighbourhood and village. Ocean and Daoule (two of the girls in our group) home is now only a short 15 minute walk from where we live, and that is nice as we visit each other when we have free time. I like to walk around the farm and explore everything. I quite like being around the cows and the other animals, and don’t even mind the smell all that much. Yes, that is a little weird coming from a city girl who had never lived on a farm before or anything that resembled a farm in any way. It is possible to go out of your comfort zone and actually like what is being handed to you. I am very pleased with my new home and I assure you I am extremely happy here.
One of the ways Rahama and I bond really well is through our long walks, as it is just us and natures beautiful surroundings. There is a lot more to look at on our walks then there is in Saskatchewan. There are actual mountains and small river streams that seem to appear every 25 minutes or so (While walking). I am getting along very well with my counterpart and we have lots of laughs. She is teaching me new words and phrases in French, even though she cannot speak English. I am starting to understand more and more each day and am able to form small sentences and communicate somewhat. I am happy with what I know, considering I knew absolutely no French when I came here. I will not be fluent for a while, and I defiantly won’t come home being fluent, but my hopes are that I come home with a great understanding of the language. My counterpart is 20 and will be turning 21 on August 8th. She is married and was married when she was only 14! For them that is normal in Mali, but to me that is so young, I can’t even imagine being married at 19! Haha.
My team is awesome and we have had a lot of good memories already. We hang out whenever we can and when we do we always have a good time. Every Saturday there is a public market, where some of the people in my group work with their host families. When a bunch of us are free we usually go to the public market and hangout. Every small town has a hangout spot and in La Pocatiere, the public market seems to be ours haha. Unfortunately, our group is short one Canadian for a while as Nigel from Alberta decided to go home. He didn’t think the program was for him, and everyone misses his humour. Fortunately, they found someone to replace Nigel’s spot and to be Kone’s counterpart. The new addition to our team is Kyle and he is from Nova Scotia. We have not met him yet as he doesn’t arrive until July 19th. Our group is anticipating his arrival and we are all excited to meet him and welcome him. Hopefully he adapts well to our group, but I am positive that he will fit right in. Every Friday we get together for our weekly meetings at the college in La Pocatiere, and we discuss our families and other topics. Recently we started our group presentations where we have to inform everyone on our topic. We have to do 2 presentaions, one in Canada and one in Mali. Each Canadian and their counterpart are considered a group, and Rahama and I have the topic of recycling/ compost. The Malians don’t really know much about recycling and composting, so this shall be interesting. So far three groups have gone and we have been able to tour a ferme ecole (A school for agriculture). The ferme ecole had so many sheep and goats. It was pretty interesting even though half of what was being said made no sense to me as it was all farm terms and in French. We were also able to tour the Ferme Cybelle, which is little shop set up for ice-cream treats, frozen yogurt and they have a huge strawberry/raspberry field in the back. They use what they grow for a lot of the products they make and they have days where people can pick their own. We did that one day and it was a lot of fun. I ate some strawberries while I picked them, but I assure you I picked more than I ate haha. From July 30th- August 1st our group gets to leave La Pocatiere and travel to Riviere De Loup. This three day trip is for our mid-way project, where we get to just be with our group and do activities that our committee has planned. We have a couple of committees made up of people in our group, who are all in charge of important things. This trip will be nice as it will be a short break from our work projects.
I apologize for leaving my blog vacant for so long, but when Rahama (my counterpart) and I were transferred to our new family, I found out very quickly that they did not have the internet. This of course was a shock to me, as I was hoping to be able to keep in contact with everyone back home. As you may have noticed, I found internet in a small cafe close to my home, where I am able to go during my free time (which doesn’t come all that often as I’m always doing something). Well I am defiantly not going to do a day by day addition to my blog this time as it has been two weeks and that would be way too long for me to write and you to read! I promise I will not put you through that torture haha.
My last blog entry left off with me informing you that Rahama and I were in between homes and were on our way to meet our new family. My new host parents are Terese and Roger, whom I might add are extremely wonderful! They are an older couple who live on a dairy farm in Riviere Quelle (a small village, much like a suburb, but with mostly farms and Quebec has lots of these!) Riviere Quelle is about a 8 minute drive to La Pocatiere, so it doesn’t take long to get there for our team meetings every Friday. They have 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls, but only Andre, 1 of the boys lives at the home. He works on the farm and does a lot of the work for his parents. He reminds me of having an older brother as he is much older than me and he likes to bug Rahama and I. Fortunately, he can speak English as my host parents and Rahama cannot. The farm has lots of different kinds of animals and I absolutely love that! They have 3 husky dogs, which are absolutely adorable and very friendly. They have lots of cows of course as it’s a dairy farm and some baby calves. I named two of the baby calves, one is Lucy and the other was Annabelle. Annabelle is now a Ricardo, as I recently found out that it was a male. They all look the same and I wasn’t getting into the crate to check which sex it was haha. I do wish Ricardo was a girl as the name Annabelle suited it very much. If you have ever seen that Christmas movie about the cow named Annabelle, then you would understand. (Yes, that was kind of random, once again, there will be random things in my blogs) There are lots of cats, but 3 of them live in the home, they have some horses and a rabbit, which recently had 6 babies. The rabbits are absolutely adorable and are like little fluff balls that hobble around as they can’t really hop yet. Rahama and I were able to hold them when they were only 3 days old and their eyes weren’t even opened yet! Rahama and I share a room, but it’s fairly large and we have lots of space to put our stuff and make it our own for the 3 months. The home is quite quaint and I am falling in love with its surroundings more and more each day. There is a small river across the road from my home and Rahama and I have gone on many long walks already, getting to know our new neighbourhood and village. Ocean and Daoule (two of the girls in our group) home is now only a short 15 minute walk from where we live, and that is nice as we visit each other when we have free time. I like to walk around the farm and explore everything. I quite like being around the cows and the other animals, and don’t even mind the smell all that much. Yes, that is a little weird coming from a city girl who had never lived on a farm before or anything that resembled a farm in any way. It is possible to go out of your comfort zone and actually like what is being handed to you. I am very pleased with my new home and I assure you I am extremely happy here.
One of the ways Rahama and I bond really well is through our long walks, as it is just us and natures beautiful surroundings. There is a lot more to look at on our walks then there is in Saskatchewan. There are actual mountains and small river streams that seem to appear every 25 minutes or so (While walking). I am getting along very well with my counterpart and we have lots of laughs. She is teaching me new words and phrases in French, even though she cannot speak English. I am starting to understand more and more each day and am able to form small sentences and communicate somewhat. I am happy with what I know, considering I knew absolutely no French when I came here. I will not be fluent for a while, and I defiantly won’t come home being fluent, but my hopes are that I come home with a great understanding of the language. My counterpart is 20 and will be turning 21 on August 8th. She is married and was married when she was only 14! For them that is normal in Mali, but to me that is so young, I can’t even imagine being married at 19! Haha.
My team is awesome and we have had a lot of good memories already. We hang out whenever we can and when we do we always have a good time. Every Saturday there is a public market, where some of the people in my group work with their host families. When a bunch of us are free we usually go to the public market and hangout. Every small town has a hangout spot and in La Pocatiere, the public market seems to be ours haha. Unfortunately, our group is short one Canadian for a while as Nigel from Alberta decided to go home. He didn’t think the program was for him, and everyone misses his humour. Fortunately, they found someone to replace Nigel’s spot and to be Kone’s counterpart. The new addition to our team is Kyle and he is from Nova Scotia. We have not met him yet as he doesn’t arrive until July 19th. Our group is anticipating his arrival and we are all excited to meet him and welcome him. Hopefully he adapts well to our group, but I am positive that he will fit right in. Every Friday we get together for our weekly meetings at the college in La Pocatiere, and we discuss our families and other topics. Recently we started our group presentations where we have to inform everyone on our topic. We have to do 2 presentaions, one in Canada and one in Mali. Each Canadian and their counterpart are considered a group, and Rahama and I have the topic of recycling/ compost. The Malians don’t really know much about recycling and composting, so this shall be interesting. So far three groups have gone and we have been able to tour a ferme ecole (A school for agriculture). The ferme ecole had so many sheep and goats. It was pretty interesting even though half of what was being said made no sense to me as it was all farm terms and in French. We were also able to tour the Ferme Cybelle, which is little shop set up for ice-cream treats, frozen yogurt and they have a huge strawberry/raspberry field in the back. They use what they grow for a lot of the products they make and they have days where people can pick their own. We did that one day and it was a lot of fun. I ate some strawberries while I picked them, but I assure you I picked more than I ate haha. From July 30th- August 1st our group gets to leave La Pocatiere and travel to Riviere De Loup. This three day trip is for our mid-way project, where we get to just be with our group and do activities that our committee has planned. We have a couple of committees made up of people in our group, who are all in charge of important things. This trip will be nice as it will be a short break from our work projects.
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