Hey Hey Hey

Gooooood afternoon everyone!

Sorry for taking so long but I get a little lazy every now and then. Well that and I haven't been around much lately either.

So work is work. It's daycare like and some of the kids are getting a little too attatched to me. I can't go into the young toddler room sometimes because if Boubacar sees me he'll start crying when I leave, then I have to carry him around everywhere then he cries again when I send him back :) The kids are so cute!

Alors, every trimester we have a thing called 'billeting' where all of the participants are separated and sent to live with a family in the area so that they can better discover the culture blah blah blah. Welllll seeing as we're here in Chisasibi, Katimavik couldn't find 11 families that wanted us however there was one guy who was willing to take all of us which ended up being SOOOOOO cool!

So on the 10th, we all packed up our stuff (10 days worth, so of course the van was packed full) and headed out to Radisson, a small town abouuuut 85km east (?) from Chisasibi. It's where LG 1 or 2 is located I can't remember. Either way, it came to be when they were building the Dam's as a place for them construction workers to stay and ended up becoming a small community. That could be wrong, feel free to correct me if you know.

Anyways about 40 km from Radisson is the Cox family farm it's huge and they don't stay there all the time but this really cool guy named Sylvain stays there and maintains the place and there are 19 dogs mostly huskies and they are so cute and one is half wolf and there was no running water or electricity i.e. we had to flush the toilets with a bucket and drink from a natural spring.

While there we helped building a traditional Mitagin (like a teepee but not a teepee cause teepees are really different), I'm pretty sure the Cree's working on it were laughing at us but it's okay cause we had a moss fight and it was fun. Then, we collected Spruce Bows for the floor othe non-traditional Mitagin and we 'installed' the floor, horribly but it worked, then we got to sleep out there for the rest of the nights. It was all fun until the fire went out (it happened every night because no one wanted to get up to tend it) and then it would be freezing cold in our Mitagin.

We also mapped trails, heard wolves howling, saw a bunch of animal tracks, and peed in the forrest. It was very educational heha.

Sooo we came back to Chisasibi and everyone fought for the showers and we all stank like sweat poop and dog but eventually everyone was clean and missed the bush.

This week, Charles and I are house managers so we've been cleaning and making bread and singing our hearts out. I got to sleep in until 10:30 this morning, it was so nice, but then i had to clean the bathrooms, which isn't too bad I just prefer sleeping.

Coming up soon in this wonderful town of Chisasibi, the annual Christmas parade, in which we are registered as 11 reindeer pulling a sleigh. Here's how it works.
The 10 participants are the reindeer, and our PC Karine Gravel will be here that weekend because she has to check on us so she will be Rudolph (she doesn't know this yet, shh) and Marc, our PL, will be an elf because he looks like an elf driving the sleigh :)

Also....I can't remember right now, but there's snow and probably gingerbread houses and french movie nights and lots of fun.

I'm out for the night, bon soiree/journee whatever time it is where you are,
PEACE!

p.s.-my french is coming along quite lovely, a nurse at the hospital actually thought I was bilingual and my french teacher says I am quite knowledgable, however not modest. bye!

In Loving Memory

(my apologies, this is the only picture I had)

I am writing a blog this evening dedicated to a young boy named Matteo Riopel.

Matteo was a child at the daycare that I am currently doing my volunteer work at. He was in the toddler room, taken care of every day by Nathalie Orr and Bessie House. Although I never worked closely with him, I did visit his room almost every day and had the chance to see him running around and playing with the other children.

Matteo was born with a sickness that caused many complications as he was growing. A few weeks ago he also underwent an intensive surgery which he appeared to have recovered from fully. He returned to the daycare playful and happy, the only difference being the type and amount of food he was allowed to eat.

On the morning of November 03, 2008, Matteo was Med-Evac'd to Montreal's children's hospital where he was put into intensive care. The following day news reached the daycare from Matteo's aunt that he was not doing too well and the chances seemed slim. By the night of Tuesday November 04, 208, Matteo silently passed, in the company of his closest family.

A parent should never have to experience the pain and agony of outliving their child. My deepest condolences go out to the Riopel family on this sad occasion.

Rest In Peace,

Matteo Riopel

December 29, 2005-November 04, 2008

Dork, For, Smork, Caaaar.

Don't feel like typing all too much so here are some pictas!!!!!


Sunday October 26th: Unfortunately, one of our group members, Monicka, decided to quit the program and head home for good. She had a number of reasons and told the group one night during a discussion. Although it was very upsetting we all agreed that it was for the best and took her to the airport to see her off on Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday October 28th: First snowfall of the season!!!!! Very windy but also exciting. The snow didn't stay on the ground on Wednesday but it snowed again Wednesday night and the snow has stayed since. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! :)

Thursday October 30th: Early Halloween at the daycare!!! The daycare had a party for the kids on Thursday afternoon, with activities and goodies (with toothbrushes). Most of the kids dressed up and were they ever cute!!! This is Ivan-Marcus, one of the infants, dressed as Eeyor from Winnie The Pooh.

Also Thursday: A couple more of the kids at the daycare. This is Rihanna on the left and Youdin on the right (as a lobster!). They are also in the infant room.

Thursday: This is Meequin (his name means 'feather' in Cree). He is in the Pre-K room at the daycare and is one of the children with special needs. He is such an angel and he's so coool!

Thursday: Inside the gym at the daycare during the pie throwning contest. The poor victim here is Nathalie, one of the Toddler educators, and the kids are all taking turns trying to hit her face with the pies. Also, dressed as Batman, there is Kristin, another educator in the Pre-K room, she's kneeling on the floor.

Phtog