The first week has been pretty intense and busy!! Our project
started last Friday (August 6th) with all of the Canadian participants
doing exchange projects with Honduras. It turns out that there are 3
groups who are doing exchanges with Honduras this year. One is paired
with a community in North Bay, another is a women's group working out of
Hamilton for their Canadian phase and last but not least (and by far
the best of the 3 ;) ) The Perth-Gracias group!! haha
The Canadians gathered at Pearson Airport on Friday and were bussed of
to Mt. Mary in Hamilton for a 4 day, 3 night training and orientation
camp. We met up with out Honduran counterparts the following day! We
were then run through mazes, impossible logic problems, and
death-defying physical challenges. No just kidding, but we DID have to
sit through 3 full days (9:30am-10pm) of cultural sensitivity training,
seminars on sexual harassment, power, privilege and oppression, and lots
of other wonderful things with 17 strangers who were to be our family
for the next 6 months. After that, we were all piled on a bus (again)
and driven to Perth for another 3 full days of seminars -__- So it's
been a pretty heavy week! Nothing compares though to our first week of
the BEE ride last year through Hokkaido. Since I survived that, and
STILL had a great time, I'm more or less convinced that I can get
through a full week of pretty much anything and still be in high-spirits
;) haha
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| Frame collected from one of the Bee hives at Blue Chicory |
So, more specifically to me, I have been paired with a girl named Gaby from Honduras. She is 19 and is a very good singer. She is also awesome! It's only been a few days and I'm sure we will have some tough moments, but I think we will have a great time working together for the next 6 months. We get along really well and seem to have a similar communication style and understanding :)
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| extraction! |
We are working at Blue Chicory Farm about 30min outside of the small town of Perth. It is TOTAL country-side and I am in love. There are a number of small fields for the vegetables that the farm is growing, about 25 chickens (there was a small chicken massacre the day we arrived though. It seems that a fox got into the chicken coup :( ), and Honey bees!! We haven't done much farm work yet due to the 3 days of seminars in Perth that we were required to attend, but we extracted some honey on Friday before the farmer's market (which was Saturday) and it was amazing. Bee's are so cool! I'm so excited to learn more about them over the next few months. I'm also very excited to learn more about organic farming!!
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| Our table at the Perth Farmer's Market! |
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| The best carrots i've ever tasted. seriously. |
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| another view of our table |
We also had a movie night last night for a sneak preview of the new
documentary "
The clean bin project". It is about a couple from
Vancouver that challenged each other to a competition of least waste
production over the course of a year. The goal was 0 waste. They also
decided to film the competition and made it into a documentary that they
are now biking across Canada to promote! They were all the way in
Perth yesterday and are heading out towards Ottawa and then Montreal
from here! If you have time and are in the area, check them out!
Alright, so this update is getting pretty long. . .and it's only been a week!!!!
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| CWY volunteers enjoying a day off together :) |
But
I'm having an amazing time so far! I'm so happy to be on this exchange
and am really looking forward to the rest of the journey. We've met so
many incredible people already!
Hope you are doing great wherever you are and whatever you are doing too.
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