Composed Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wait a minute, Victoria. Where are you again? Well, seeing as you did not realise you could just scroll down to the previous blog and see, I will just tell you. I am in Sachigo Lake, Ontario. It is, I believe, the third furthest north community in Ontario, and so we have been receiving approximately 40 minutes of summer every two days since we arrived on Monday. But wow, is it worth it.
Since having on Monday I have made myself very much at home. I filled my room with 67 photos and postcards, am set up comfortably on a queen-sized bed (I had a box spring and mattress on the floor in M.D.), and I have a closet, drawers with a vanity mirror, and a standing set of drawers, most of which are empty. I definitely see how people could live in this house for a year.
The house, however, is not the best part of arriving in Sachigo by far. When we first arrived we were able to meet all of the council, and although it took almost an hour to be set up in our house, it did eventually occur. Lizzy and I are in one half of a duplex, and Ryan is on the other side. We do most of our eating and socialising on that side so that he doesn’t get lonely.
In the past three days we have had the task of trying to get to know the community, and run registration for campers. After sitting for about 14 hours total in M.D. doing registration, and having it turn into a mini-camp, we decided to cut back those hours and focus more on set up and planning. We only had 6 hours over two days this time, but registered 30% more people in the shorter time span! Perhaps that’s because Sachigo is about triple the size, with about 600 people living here.
While we were shopping for some camp supplies in the store, one of the local artists, Richard, invited us to come check out the shop where he designs all of his art. On Tuesday night we visited him, and along with showing us a magnificent array of art, he invited us to learn some as well! On Wednesday we went back to make Tamarack birds, made from tamarack wood, which smells lovely. We went out to collect branches, came back to clean them, and then formed the birds using only string, twigs, and a ball of string, nylon, and tamarack clippings. Pictures should be posted within a few weeks either here or on facebook.
As well as nightly art sessions, Ryan and I are attempting to start up a running club, although we are currently the only members. We’re going out every morning at 8AM for a jog around the community, which takes about half an hour. We have put up some posters and hopefully soon some others will join us. Tomorrow I think we might even convince Lizzy to come along!
One of the things I am most excited about is that we were invited to have our own radio slot here! We’re on just before curfew, 10-11PM. It is a great honour, and an awesome way to be able to get into the community and advertise camp. Tonight we had our first broadcast, and we will be back on tomorrow. The three of us played music, had camp reminders, and read from the novel Twilight. We even turned it into a bit of a radio show for our last page, with Lizzy narrating, Ryan speaking for the father, and I played Bella. It was thoroughly entertaining. I’m pretty pumped to see what we decide to do tomorrow!
Well, it is now midnight, and tomorrow is our first day of camp (as well as another day of our morning Running Club!), so I should be getting to sleep. I only have access to internet at the school during working hours, so this will be posted either tomorrow or Saturday. Apologies that I haven’t been able to reply to emails and messages lately. I did not get a chance to access the internet at all until today, and I am not sure when I will next, but keep them coming. I love hearing from everyone, even if it’s just a short note.
Good night, stay well, and enjoy your last month of summer. I know I will!
-V
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