Dear Diary,

It has been two weeks since our last entry. So much has happened…where to begin? Last week Jamie and Meagan taught substances to the grade one to eight classes, which went really well. The older grades began to participate with the anonymous question box, which helped us gear our kits towards the needs of the students. Our topics included smoking, alcohol, and drugs pertinent in the community. After meeting with the head nurse Daisy, we had a much better understanding of the extent to which these substances play a role in the community, and the resources that are available here in Mishkeegogamang.

This week we are teaching sexual health, which has been a little more difficult because there are not many kids in school this week. This is because the bus hasn’t been running. Hopefully everything will be back to normal next week, and we will be able to continue on with our lessons as planned. We are currently planning a field trip with the grade 7 and 8 classes out on the land which has been postponed to this coming Monday. We are also getting excited for the sheep farm field trip with the younger grades next week, and our girls’ night this Saturday.

As Layla and Kirié have spent more time in the schools, we’ve gotten to know the kids on a much more personal level, and even the ones who seemed reluctant to participate in our lessons are starting to open up to us. It has been really rewarding to see the kids both inside and outside of a classroom environment. We’ve found it tremendously encouraging to see the kids who struggle within the four walls of a classroom really excel in other activities.

Substance abuse and responsible sexuality/puberty have been tremendously rewarding topics to teach. The kids have been really curious and full of questions for us, which really helps us to feel like we’re here for a reason and we are actually able to teach them something. We had a few discussions with different parents of our students who were curious about the content of our classes. It was exciting to have parents take interest in our lessons and be able to discuss the reasons and values behind the content that we teach. The topics in these past two weeks have been more focused on the older grades in the school, but we have managed to still stay quite engaged with the younger groups by teaching some of our lessons in a way that they are relevant to the younger kids and also by participating in afterschool activities, playing with them at recess and lunch, and helping out when teachers need a little break.

This Saturday, as alluded to above, we’ll be running a ‘Girls Night’ for girls from both Crolancia and Missabay at Crolancia School. We are planning on preparing a meal together and doing fun, girly, hang-out stuff. Since a lot of the activities that are available within this community are sports-focused, we thought it would be nice to provide an alternative for the night. We’ve recruited many women from the school and community to help out, and we hope it goes well.

The weather has been great, and the kids have even convinced us to come swimming a couple of times. We’re a bit jealous that these kids have such an amazing, clean lake to enjoy so often. It’s a small glimpse at the benefits of life in this community and the natural beauty that surrounds it.

Aside from hanging out at the beach, we’ve also continued to help out with and organize Friday Fun Night. We attended a Recreation Committee Meeting, and are planning on organizing a big barbeque on the last Friday before we leave town.

Alongside all of that, we’re also managing to get a little bit of time for ourselves. The trip up to Stirland Lake and the real end of the road was beautiful. Our May Long Weekend was spent fishing and staying at the Hoffman’s cottage. We really are just so grateful to Miles for taking us out so often and showing us what Pickle Lake really has to offer. Although, as he told us, it’s not too hard to convince him to go out fishing for a day. But we still really appreciate it, and our time here in Pickle Lake would be so different without that family.

Lots of love,
xoxo
Pickle Pals

Canoe trips, piggy-back rides, dirty jokes, and black flies.

Hello Again!

Since our last posting, we’ve all settled into our project routines. Last Sunday, we went to the Hoffman’s early in the morning, and soon piled into canoes and headed off down the Albany River. As we paddled, some people sang Disney songs, some played games, and Roy fish while Lucie paddled along. At a small set of rapids, Roy caught a speckled trout, which he cleaned and saved for later. We enjoyed lunch and more fishing at July Falls and hung out around the fire while Roy continued to fish. We then paddled back up the river to the Hoffman’s, where Lucie fried up the trout for us. It was amazing.

On the weekends and after school all four of us spend much of our time at the Crolancia playground playing soccer, ‘grounders’, tag, and an assortment of other games with the kids. They seem happy to have new people to play with, and the older schoolgirls seem to be excited about having a Queen’s boy around.

Layla and Kirié have become a regular fixture at Crolancia’s Breakfast Club. There, we help dish out an assortment of healthy breakfast foods and make friends with all of the kids. With our first week almost done, we have taught almost all of the physical health lessons to all of the different classes. Each class has it’s charms and difficult things to work through. The kindergarten kids are absolutely adorable, and when asked “What’s a way that you can get hurt on the way to school?” their response is “Can you push me on the swings at recess?”. The grade 1/2 class is equally adorable and very busy. They’re great brain-stormers and get excited about our sticker reward system. The 3/4/5 class is very creative bunch! They always want to share their personal stories, even when they aren’t related to anything we’re talking about. The 6/7/8 class is wonderful. They’re the biggest group in the school, and while the teachers have trouble with their energy level, it works well with our lessons. They’re so curious, it’s funny to see how shocked they are when we answer their anonymous questions seriously. The 9/10 class was the hardest to deal with at first because of their reluctance to participate. As we learn how to relate to them and show them that we’re not here to preach at them, they seem to be slowly opening up.

We spend a lot of time with the kids. We try and go out for both morning and afternoon recess and eat lunch with them as well. The kids are full of questions about our lives, some more appropriate than others. We quickly learned that once we give one kid a piggy-back ride, we will be giving piggy-back rides for the next hour. The teachers and staff at Crolanica are all so welcoming and helpful. It’s nice to be able to chat with them between classes to maintain our sanity. The situation here is quite different than down South. We’re amazed and inspired to see that the staff at Crolanica can maintain such a high level of commitment and energy and ensure that there are after-school activities for the kids everyday of the week and that the classrooms maintain as welcoming and enriching as they can be. We’re exhausted after our first week, but in best way possible.

Meagan and Jamie’s first full day at Missabay consisted of helping out with garbage collection around the community. Throughout the day we got to see more of the reserve, while hanging out with the kids. Numerous piggybacks and a barbeque later, we felt fully welcomed into the school. The kids are full of energy and spunk and we couldn’t wait to begin our teaching the following Monday.

This week we have become fully integrated into the workings of the school and have begun to form strong bonds with both the teachers and the students. Each day this week we have taught all of the kids from grade senior kindergarten to grade 8 and have covered topics including Hygiene, Fitness, Nutrition and Diabetes. Each grade presents its own challenges, yet are continuously exciting and fun to teach.

On top of all the excitement at school we are busy planning numerous extracurricular activities. We have arranged a day of cultural learning for the grade 6, 7, and 8 kids, with an elder in the community. We are planning on taking the kids out to learn more about the importance of the land to the community and will learn skills such as setting up fishnets and trapping. We are also in the process of organizing a night for the girls of both Pickle Lake and Mishkeegogamang with the help of a local O.P.P officer, Diana, in order to discuss the importance of healthy relationships. Another project we are working on is setting up a meeting with elders in the community to discuss the effects and consequences of prevalent drugs in the community.

Having sifted through the dirty jokes, inappropriate comments, and accusations of QHO romances between the two of us, we have gotten to know most of the kids and are beginning to learn most of their 100 names. The next four weeks promise to be full of laughs, tears, and more inappropriate jokes, yet we cannot wait and are already beginning to wish we had more time at the school.

The four of us are all looking forward to getting a little bit of sleep and relaxation this weekend between playing with the kids, attending a teacher’s baby shower, and making a trip with Miles to a nearby ghost-town. The black flies have come out, but are not biting yet, so we’re trying to spend as much time outside as possible before the feasting begins.

Goodnight from the end of the highway!

First posting from the end of the highway

Hey Everyone!

We’re getting all settled into town here, but our lack of Internet connection may result in some sporadic blog timings. After an amazing breakfast of pancakes and fruit, courtesy of Meagan’s mom, we loaded into the car and headed out of Toronto at 6am on Monday morning. About thirty minutes into the drive, we realized that Mick, our Australian GPS guide, had sent us the wrong way and we were forced to turn around. The next little while was uneventful, except for a few bathroom breaks, gas stops, and the realization that our DVD player didn’t work. We continued north-west, gradually seeing fewer cars, but surprisingly consistent LCBO’s and Tim Horton’s. Little did we know, gas stations were to become a rarity and our gas continued to drop to empty. Finally, a sign told us that there was gas eight kilometers ahead and was the last gas station for 126km. We pulled in, only to find that it was closed for another six days. Kirié and Jaime wandered the area looking for a jerry can or someone who could give us some gas. We returned with a piece of hose and windshield wiper fluid container with the intention of siphoning some gas from a broken down old vehicle. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the gas tank, and instead were able to backtrack to an out-of-the-way small town where we were able to buy some gas. With a full tank, we continued on while Meagan slept. We blasted ‘90’s music and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Ontario. Later, in another attempt to find gas, Mick sent us 3km down an abandoned gravel road, which to our surprise, actually took us to a gas station. As it began to get dark, the rain started but an hour later we arrived in Thunder Bay and pulled into the house of Layla’s cousins, Jenn and Matt. After a nice, hot shower it was bed time. 16.5 hours closer to Pickle Lake.

In the morning, we repacked the van, we went to breakfast at 'The Hoito’, a Finnish pancake place, and all left painfully full (except for Meagan). Realizing that our tire was again flat, we went to the Canadian Tire to patch it. While we waited, we finished our other errands, and with a new tire continued towards Pickle Lake. We were soon pulled over for speeding, but hearing we were going to Pickle Lake, the officer joked that he usually catches people speeding away from Pickle Lake, not towards it. Decided that our trip to Pickle Lake was punishment enough, he let us go. We turned onto the 599, and about three hours later arrived in Pickle Lake.

There, we called Lucie Hoffman – our main contact in the town – and were guided by her son, Miles, to their beautiful home. Lucie had prepared us moose-meat spaghetti, or ‘mooseghetti’, which was amazing. We then went to our apartment, not much to look at from the outside, but nice on the inside. We moved in, watched a movie, and went to bed.

On our first morning, we relaxed around the house until 1pm when Lucie came to pick us up for our tour of the town. We started at the airport – which moves the most freight of any airport in Ontario – and got to see the weather station where Lucie and her husband, Roy, work. Next it was onto the Ministry of Natural Resources fire station, where we received an extensive tour. The man was very friendly, and seemed extremely excited to show us around – probably because he doesn’t get many visitors. We then went to the Post Office, the Northern (grocery) Store, and the gas station/auto mechanic shop where Miles works. There we saw Miles and met the famous Kent (the volunteer’s landlord last year), who surpassed all of our expectations. We then went to Crolancia, the school in Pickle Lake, and got a quick tour. The kids seemed very excited, which was encouraging.

That night, we went to what we thought would be dinner, but turned out to just be desserts (which served fine in the end) at Roy and Lucie’s house. There, we met the only female OPP officer, Dianna, who was incredibly friendly and had much advice to give us. She seemed keen to help us out and start a girls night program. We also met with many teachers and community members who were all excited to see us and had much to share about the community.

On our second day, we went to Crolanica to help out with their daily breakfast program. It was really great to meet some of the kids, who all seemed super excited to see the ‘Queen’s Kids’. Jaime seemed quite relieved and excited to find some other boys (even if they were only 12) to have to ‘man talk’ with. Then we drove to the nursing station at Mish (the reserve), and will hopefully be meeting with the nurse tomorrow. Then we went to the band office and met with Connie, the Chief. She was very nice and offered much advice and guidance for our project. She even suggested getting one of the community members to take some kids as well as ourselves out on the land with the elders. We then went to Missabay, the school on the reserve, and met with Ida, our main contact there. We also met Ashley, one of the teachers, who seemed highly enthusiastic. Jaime and Meagan arranged to go help with the belated Earth Day celebrations the next day and get more acquainted with the school.

Later in the day, we decided to go play soccer with the Crolanica kids, but arrived too late and found that they had already left the school. Instead, we went on a hike through some awesome trails down to Graveyard Lake. We sat in the sun, and enjoyed the afternoon. We then returned home, made some pretty tasty nachos and delicious shepherd’s pie. We invited Miles over, watched a movie, and then let Miles take us out, Pickle Lake-style.

Miles brought us to a creek down on the reserve, where some of the sucker fish from the lake come to spawn. The fish are only there spawning for about five days of the year, so it was pretty amazing that we got to see them. Having no teeth and no sharp fins, Miles taught us how the catch the fish with our bare hands. We were all pretty excited, and had a lot of fun with it. We finished the night with some stargazing and even spotted some green Northern Lights. Being pretty excited about our day, we packed it in.

Goodnight from the end of the highway – stay tuned.