My time in Quebec is slowly coming to an end and I know I will miss my home here very much. I have become very comfortable in my new home and with the people in my community. In less than one month I will be heading to a foreign country, where I will be residing for 3 months, living and learning about the African culture. My time will be spent much like it is here in Quebec, working on farm land and learning more as I go along. I have had a lot of thoughts run through my mind lately about what I’ve experienced and what I am going to experience. I have to admit, I am a little nervous about living in a country where running water is considered a luxury and in the village I’ll be staying, nonexistent. Although there will be many challenges heading my way, I know that those challenges will be easier to overcome knowing I have God on my side. This experience is going to teach me many things about myself that I have yet to discover. I have already noticed some positive changes within myself that will help me grow into the person I think I’m meant to be. I know when I return to Canada, I will have a completely different perspective on life and I’m willing to make the efforts to do something positive with it. I believe everyone is given different experiences in their lifetime for a reason, and this one will and has already started to change my life in a positive way. I have made really good friends that I know I will keep in contact with for years to come. The program has been great so far and I have enjoyed my time here. There have been some difficulties along the way, but if everything was perfect it would get kind of boring. Not everything is going to work out perfectly and I know in Mali that will be the case for a lot of things. Thankfully I have a great team that I can turn to when I need them.
During my free time when Rahama and I are not working, we have the tendency to go for long bike rides or walks around Riviere Ouelle. This in my opinion is great, because I love exploring new areas and learning more about the community I’m in. There is this one place I like to go which is located down by the water in Riviere Ouelle. I like to sit on this piece of cement that overlooks the water and watch the sunset while I think about things. I really enjoy this simplicity and the laid back lifestyle. Although there is a lot of work to do on the farm, I always have the much needed time for myself. The other place that I absolutely love going is to the camping grounds as I have previously mentioned in my other blogs. The long bike ride is great for me and it allows me to clear my head and get little frustrations out. Yes, life here is great and hopefully Mali will exceed even my highest expectations as well.
I have always been one who has enjoyed going to new places and exploring everything. Rahama and I seem to go lots of places with our host mom and her friends, as they enjoy showing us around Quebec. We have gone to Kamouraska and St. Denis to tour the churches and the old shops. These are the more touristy areas and remind me of some touristy lakes back in Saskatchewan. This past weekend was a pretty exciting one as we did a lot. On Sunday August 15th, Rahama and I went with our host mom’s friend Francis to a church in a small village called St. Roch Des-Aulnaies. This church was absolutely gorgeous as every church seems to be with all the amazing old architecture. We happened to go to the one service a year where the community is allowed to bring their pets to the service. It was pretty neat seeing dogs and cats in the church while the priest gave his sermon. Even the priest himself had his dog with him up at the altar. Even though the service was in French, I enjoyed listening to the music and was able to understand all the prayers as it was a Catholic church, and I myself am Catholic. After the church service the priest went outside with all the pets and their owners to bless the animals and the bigger animals, like horses that were not able to enter the church. The Saint who this church is named after was very fond of animals. After we watched a little bit of the blessing ceremony, we went with Francis to the basement of the church. She took us under the church where there was an old graveyard that the church was built on top of in the 1700’s. It was very neat and a little creepy seeing all the old gravestones go far under the church, where we could not even walk. Rahama and I thought it was pretty cool, so we took some pictures and looked around for a bit. Afterwards we went to and old mill, that still makes different types of flour today. On the lot, there was an old manor that you could tour called the “Manor of Des-Aulnaies”. We went on the tour and toured the gorgeous Victorian home and the beautiful gardens. The tour was very neat, as I enjoy looking at old things and seeing how people lived in the past. Afterwards we toured the old mill and saw how they make the flour with the huge water wheel. If you ever have the chance to come to Quebec and tour around the Des-Aulnaies area, I suggest you do as there is a lot of interesting history to it. To end the long day, Rahama and I went with Francis and her son on a car tour through the mountains. It's so beautiful here and I absolutely love the scenery!
My group has been really great so far, and I am enjoying getting to know them more and more each day. Our new group member Liam from Ontario had arrived last week and we were able to get to know him as a group last Friday. He is very nice and is Anglophone, but knows some French which is good for him as he is starting the program a little late. He seems to be very laid back and easy to talk to. He had done a similar program to Jeunese Canada Monde called Yitimivik, which is also a governmentally funded program, but they don’t leave Canada. Today (Friday) our group went to some of our team members work project to plant trees. We are planting 150 trees in two days to make up for our carbon footprint that we will be making on our way to Mali. This was for 4 of our group member’s project called “Green Miles.” It was really fun, but extremely hot! There was lots of pictures taken and I’m sure that some of them are laugh worthy. Next Friday is my and Rahama’s project that we have to present to the group for the entire day. I am getting a little nervous for it as don’t know how I’ll do with talking to the group in all French. I know it will go fine though, so all I need to do is keep working on my French and planning out the day. Other than that, my group is great and I am having a blast getting to spend time with them. I hope to upload my blog sooner the next time, but I just get so busy! I know I’ve said it before that I would do it sooner, but I have come to the conclusion that I suck at uploading it when I say I will. Anyways, I hope to get at least a couple more up before Mali, but until then,
Au Revior!
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