for whatever it's worth...

Kayaking around Port Matoon Island June 2006

2006-07-17T16:02:00.000-03:00

Back in Canada

2006-07-17T15:43:00.000-03:00

I've managed settled back into life here in Canada. Before leaving Swaziland I took a little trip in Mozambique and stayed for about a week and a half in Tofo village. Was able to complete my Open Water Diving certification in one of the worlds top diving locations. Because the place was quite remote I was the only one in the course.. but there were a few people who just hung around and went diving everday. Not a bad life at all.

However, I did bring home a little of Mozambique with me... It took a full day of travelling 10 hrs.. from Tofo to Maputo and then another 4 hrs to Manzini, Swazialand! I ended up leaving Swaziland on April 5th (the next day around lunch) and got back to Canada about 30 hrs later. I was feeling pretty good during the trip but about a day after getting back to Canada the water bourne parasite I picked up in Mozambique had decided to start messing up my stomache... I was never so sick in my life and after a day of.... "losing fluids" I had a job interview with the Halifax Regional Development Agency. After the job interview I had to hang out in town for a while but I ended up in the hospital for dehydration that eve!

Well I got the job with the HRDA and things are just fine these days. I've managed to squeeze a lot of kayaking and mountain biking into my schedule and even got a job as a kayak guide with Sea Sun Kayaks in Prospect...Lots of fun.

I've been slow to post and I'm not sure if I'll continue this since I'm not on the road anymore...

Cheers

2006-03-06T06:29:00.000-04:00

This is the largest river in Swaziland... can't for the life of me remember the name but I'm in the back of the second boat. Lots of crazy class IV rapids, strong currents which pulled some girls shoes & shorts off during an unplanned swim, and waterfalls on this river.

2006-03-03T11:37:00.000-04:00

Up close and personal.

2006-03-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

Look closely here.... I'm glad I was in a car while passing these guys.

2006-03-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

This elephant was HUGE! Big as a house and did a good job of scaring all the cars away.

2006-03-03T11:19:00.000-04:00

Kruger National Game Park, South Africa

2006-03-03T11:16:00.000-04:00

A major perk to volunteering in Southern Africa is all the opportunities to visit the great parks on the weekend. I spent 3 days at Kruger National Park in South Africa, which is one of the most famous game parks in the world. The size of this park is incredible it would take about 10 hours to drive from one end to the other and it's larger than a lot of African countries!

In the first 10 mins I saw giraffes, monkeys, and African Buffalo. The south end of the park is low-level plain, which are and were HOT on the day that I arrived. It must have been above 40 degrees making it uncomfortably hot driving in a car with the windows all open... made it something like a blow-dryer. Everything was much bigger than I expected in Kruger even the camps. The camps range in price from about $10 CAD - thousands per night... Needless to say, I got the $10 /night tenting spots. The main camps for people doing self-driving safari were all quite nice. Great restaurants and info kiosk the swimming pools were full of hot water... even with a constant stream of cold coming in.

Maybe I'm tired of typing but the pics say a thousand words.....

2006-03-03T11:01:00.000-04:00

Typical Vistas in Malolotja. Trust me it might look like rolling hills but it's a tough hike!!! Most ridges are 4000 - 6000ft. Great park though lots of wildlife & other than the baboons pretty safe to hike around in with out the fear of getting attacked by wildlife :)

2006-03-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

Inside Forbes Reef Mine. I'm in quite far here (maybe 250meters) and when I took this pic the bats started flying around. Quite creepy!!

Forbes Reef Gold Mine

2006-03-02T10:58:00.000-04:00

If anything like this existed in Canada I'm sure there would be a big tourist trap associated i.e. lots of novelty products, permits or admission fees etc... but here the mine isn't advertised I was at Malolotja park for a day before I learned of the mines existence. It wasn't that difficult to find the mine but the signs were all faded and there was nothing legible written. But the trail was in good shape and after the 3 hrs I realized that I forgot my flashlight!!!! I was able to find some candles and was packing matches so I just walked inside. It was hard to fathom that the mine was actually 46,000 years old. Anything older than 200 yrs. is ancient in Canada so this was quite special.

The mineshaft was about 6 ft. by 4ft for the first couple hundred meters but as I got further back it kept getting narrower and shorter. The mine is home to a bat colony and it had a few different routes. When I took a couple pictures it bothered the bats and they started flying around and I admit that I bolted out of there when this happened.

I found three other mines, which were all about the same just shorter. It's still hard to believe that the mine has survived for so long. Other than that Malolotja had spectacular scenery. Herds of Zebra & Besbuit were all over the place especially close to the camp area. On my hike to the Malolotja falls I started to get stalked by a group of Baboons. I was walking in a valley and had to cross over a ridge to get to the waterfalls but the Baboons were keeping pace with me on the ridge above. As I started walking up the hillside the Baboons started barking and I could see some more coming over the top of the ridge to "greet me". None of the park staff warned me about Baboons but I've heard they will be violent and steal hikers backpacks for the food. I ended up just truing around and following another trail. I saw a lot of wildlife up close and personal on this hiking trip... sometimes too close for comfort.

2006-02-16T05:42:00.000-04:00

Well I've been in Swaziland for about a month now and have started really adjusting to my new life.

Every morning I start my day in a meeting full of HIV nurses & counsellors. They all take turns facilitating a session on something to do with common health problems & counselling people with HIV. What makes this stuff real is walking down the street and picking out people with the symptoms we talked about. There are a lot of middle class Swazi's in Manzini and a huge mall that's just as nice as anything I've seen in Canada but the poverty is intense. About 50% of the population is unemployed and live out in the country. A lot of the time there is just an elderly grandmother raising her 5 - 10 grandkids. The typical story goes... mother dies of HIV and the father will either abandon the kids & / or die within a year of the mother.

It's quite disturbing to witness. There is so much info. around about HIV/ AIDS.. maybe there is too much. The TASC Sex show went on the road to some markets a couple weeks ago asking people about safe sex practices & some trying to get info on basic stuff about AIDS. Maybe it was the camera and nerves but 6 out of 10 were way off. There always seems to be a new remedy for curing HIV right now it's male circumcision will cure & prevent it.

I've been out with the Rural Community Response HIV Cousellors a few times & I wondered why there were "drivers" & a fleet of huge SUV's until I went out with them. It's always an adventure doing home visits in the rural communities since off the main highways there are no real roads in Swaziland you literally drive on the sides of mountains and on occasion just through open spots in the bush. Hearing stories about what's going on is hard enough but seeing some of the poverty and children dying makes everything hit home. There is a legit program that just started here called "Young Heroes", www.youngheroes.org.sz it's an initiative by the National Emergency Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA), & seeks to inspire teenagers in the affluent West to sponsor orphans. If anything I would suggest you check out the site it's got some stories & pics and has a good stategy to keep families together.

Other than work I've been having a good time getting out of Manzini on the weekends. I'm getting pretty good at finding my way around Swaziland. It's not that hard to travel by kombi but it can be confusing at times. The Kombi Rink has hundreds of vans and thousands of people going everywhere. Last weekend I hiked though a game park and saw a hippo eating, tons of Wildebeest, & Impala (deer like animals). Actually, hippo's are the most dangerous animals in Africa and kill more humans than any other big animal. The hiking is wonderful & trails are great. I hiked up to the top of Execution mountain which you can guess was the site of many executions. People believed to be witches and warlocks were given a little bit of a choice they could lean back and be stabbed with a spear or jump off the cliff which has a about a 2000 foot drop. On the bright side if someone lived they were set free. Despite this horrible history it had a great view & when I was on top even a rainbow in the valley below.

2006-02-16T04:39:00.000-04:00

Meeting in Ngomazie. Not a bad place for a meeting... the only dangerous thing about this is the falling Mango's.

2006-02-16T04:02:00.000-04:00

Top of Execution Rock in the Mlilwanie Wildlife Park. It took a couple hours to get to the top... but it was worth the effort.

2006-02-04T04:51:00.000-04:00

Soweto, South Africa. This is the largest township in South Africa with a population of 4 million. I'm actually standing outside the childhood house of Nelson Mandeal. Two Nobel Peace prize winners grew up on this block.

2006-02-04T04:33:00.000-04:00

Picture of Swaziland! This is just outside Manzini.

10,000 Shoes & 5,000 questions

2006-02-04T04:26:00.000-04:00

So far life in Manzini is pretty sweet. My apartment is central to pretty much everything I would ever need to access and the temp. is very moderate (avg. 23 - 28 in the daytime and about 15 at night) however, it's 35 right now!!! The people here are wonderful and despite having to go home before dark on the nights when I don’t have access to a backkie there is plenty of opportunity to socialize after work. I ended up buying a TV & DVD player and a cell phone the other day (268) 623-1978.

I've been working for 2 weeks now and I'm learning lots about international aid to NGO's here. One story I thought was worth sharing revolves around a corporate donation of Nike tennis shoes to the Manzini Youth Centre. World Vision will often drop off a container of stuff to the youth centre, which cares for about 400 orphan boys between the ages of 5 - 12. A friend of mine who works there talked about his first day about a year and a half ago when a truck dropped off container with a huge WV stamp on the side. To his surprise he would have to suspend his regular duties as a social worker to sort out these shoes most of which were size 12 and higher! From that day on he has been asked a minimum of 10 - 40 times per day about how someone can get a pair of Nike tennis shoes. The shoes have caused such a commotion in town that the kids who got a pair have been mugged, been in fights, and even stabbed for their pair of bright white tennis shoes. To add more to this story the shoes are manufactured defects and all pretty much fall apart once they get wet. Swaziland has pretty intense thunderstorms and showers almost everyday during the rainy season. So less than 25% of the shoes have been given out because maybe 12 Swazis can wear size 11 + shoes and questions are still bombard the Manzini Youth Centre. The director has gotten so fed up that he actually welded the container shut and just waited for the next World Vision drop-off to give them back. This week everyone was glad to accept a new container from World Vision until they opened it and found 10,000 bras and stockings!

It's easy to criticize World Vision for their logistical flops but they do occasional drop off things that the centre needs and uses quite a bit. I think this problem stems more from the muti-national companies who are clearing their warehouses of crap they can't sell to anyone and decide to pack it all up for a World Vision donation for the tax write off & space. If you’re a Seinfield fan this may remind you of the "Muffin bottom donations" ;)

2006-02-04T04:07:00.000-04:00

Usakos, Namibia. One of my fav. pics this is in the Kalahari Desert edge & it's green this time of year because it's the rainy season.

2006-02-02T11:03:00.000-04:00

I helped slaughter a goat while traveling in Namibia. Poor thing didn't stand a chance :( I'm not a vegetarian yet but getting close. After you skin the goat it's important to wash it and leave it to dry in the sun.

Road to Manzini

2006-01-27T02:44:00.000-04:00

The 10 day trip to Manzini was wonderful, exciting, and a great introduction to Southern Africa. On the plane to London I ran into a friend from high school and had a great time catching up and talking with someone else who is venturing into the unknown. Making my way from Windhoek, Namibia to Swakopmund was very nice and my introduction to a (combi) These are pretty basic Volkswagen cargo vans that people pack full. I guess sometimes the drivers will have to push people in as they slam the doors and someone told me they were in one that had 26 people but only seats for 16.

Namibia is a really nice country which far surpassed any expectations I had about the standard of life here in Southern Africa. Swakopmund appears out of nowhere after hours of driving through the Kalahari Desert with nothing in sight other than dirt, bushes, and mountains in the background. It has been really influenced by the Germans so there are tons of German tourists and everyone seems to speak German, English, and Africanns in the town. I ended up staying at the youth hostel which was beautiful and basically on the beach. Contrasting the swanky tourist area Swakopmund has a lot of poverty. About 4 kms from the centre of town you arrive in the Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC) this is where the majority of the local people actually live. Some houses are made out of concrete and have power & water but there are endless rows of houses made out of a mixture of scrap wood, tin siding, and billboards.

I ended up joining Laura, Agnis, and a CWY group to work on a farm in Usakos which is about two hours of a drive into the desert. The place was stunning! On the first night we ended up slaughtering a goat for supper. It was a good thing to witness the real cost of being a carnivore but pretty disturbing at the sometime. The next day we all started work on around 7 am and planted some trees, weeded, and just cleaned up the yard. I was able to handle the heat until about 11 when I basically just found my way back to the house and passed out for eight hours. It was a great way to get over the jet leg.

In Swakop I basically ate great food at beach side cafe's & just hung out. One day I went Paragliding at the dunes and had to climb up a sand dune that was the same height as a building with 20 floors. The top of the dune was quite pointy and the other side was steep but, massive 20 story sand dunes were all that I could see and the ocean on the other side. Namibia is the only place in the world where people can climb to the top of a sand dune and paraglide. It's pretty easy I think there could have been a sack of potatoes tied to the parachute and the same thing would happen during the descent. One of the clients who was having a really hard time climbing the dune so everyone climbed in the back of their 4wd truck and we attempted to drive up the dune! We made it about 3/4 of the way to the top of the dune and then got the truck stuck. All part of the adventure here.

I made my way back to Johannesburg for a day and took a tour of the city with a local guide. Maybe because I was with a guide the city seemed pretty normal. I think part of it had to do with the fact that we were in the high security areas. However, at 6 pm the security guards go home and the downtown core is a very dangerous place to walk and even drive around. I visited the township of Soweto which is the largest township in South Africa with a population of about 4 million. Within one block you can visit the original home of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and a school where a young boy was shot by the police which started a revolution in the 70's. It wasn't surreal or anything walking past the homes of influential people who have had an enormous impact in the county & world. This street looked just like every other street in the area the only difference was a memorial for the young boy and a lot of people selling crafts on the side of the street. In my opinion Jo'burg is really overpriced and basically just like any other big city. One major difference between Canada though is the gated communities in the suburbs. I'll never forget the endless 12 foot walls around every building, barbwire, and electric fencing.

I've only been in Manzini for a couple days now and have been welcomed very warmly. On the first day I was greeted at the airport by some staff from TASC and Gerry who works for Crossroads. My apartment is huge and has everything that an apt. in Canada would have. I made my way to an Italian restaurant where all of the volunteers hang out on Friday nights for some beer and pizza. There is a small community of about 15 ex-pats working here. Most of them are working in someway with HIV but there are others who are building schools and working with youth. The real introduction to the city was my first ride in a Backie! You can't walk at night here and the edicate for going out is that someone needs to be driving a truck. The driver will stay until the last person wants to leave and they might even end up going to sleep in their truck until the party retires for the night. Basically everyone jumps into the back of the truck and gets dropped off at their doorstep. It's so nice to be wearing a t-shirt and shorts driving in the back of a truck in January :)

Cheers,

One more time

2005-12-26T00:05:00.000-04:00

Nick and I had the chance to see each other before he left for Cuba. If you look behind us you will notice an endless line of luggage because we were moving 57 CWY participants! To make this more interesting we left Halifax at 4 am on a Saturday morning during a snowstorm. It's not exactly my idea of a goodtime but I had lots of fun anyway.
Moving a group this size is difficult but it's not anymore stressful than a group of 10.

I hope everyone made it to their destination safe and somewhat sound!

Heading to Swaziland

2005-12-11T23:01:00.000-04:00

Now this is the second time I've tried posting this so I hope it works now.

On December 22 I finished my contract with Canada World Youth!! What an interesting experince working with this organization over the past year! not everything went as planned and please pinch me if anything in my life ever goes as planned because I don't know how I'll handle it ;)

I had such a great time working with all the participants and my lovely counterpart over the summer. When I returned to Halifax CWY had me support some of the projects in Atlantic Canada and I got to facilitate things for the three Cuba and the Brazil teams. I really got a kick out of working with all the different groups and seeing what has to happen behind the scenes to make the CWY program actually happen. The secret is all in the logistics and having a level head in the stressful situations that tend to develop.

My next job will take me to the Kingdom of Swaziland.

I leave Halifax on January 9th to work at The Aids Support and Information Network (TASC). It's through a partnership with Canadian Crossroads International, AIDS Moncton, AIDS Saint John. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to work in this field and have a chance to live in Africa. It's going to be a challenge but that's what makes life interesting.

I think my life is a vacation but I actually have the chance to take my first real "vacation" ever! in South Africa ten days before I start working with TASC! I might go on a safari or just get drunk on the beach it all depends if things end up going as planned ;)

I'll keep this thing update more frequently when I'm away... until then have a great Christmas and New Years!

new link to pics

2005-10-25T20:50:00.000-03:00

Well I had to do some asking around but I found a place to store an unlimited amount of photos online for next to nothing!!! I had to scrap the first site because it wanted $50!!! to post pics. I'm way to cheap to do something like that. The new site is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhartling/

All it took was hurricane Wilma to get me to stay inside long enough to post the photos. Nothing is in order yet but I have to give my work laptop back this week so I'll get to organizing a smaller photo file around Christmas :) All you CWY party pants download to your hearts content! Or you can just check out the site when you want to remember all the goodtimes. If you id things as favorites I'll be sure to add them to a smaller photo album.

enjoy!

Link to Pics http://public.fotki.com/johnladeda

2005-10-20T23:17:00.000-03:00

Hey guys,

I know I've been a while getting this done but it's a work in process. I have figured out how to do this online photo thing. So try this link http://public.fotki.com/johnladeda and I'll keep adding to it over the next couple weeks and figure out how to put a pretty little link on the side bar of this blog... enjoy and let me know what you think.

Going Camping again this weekend!!! Last weekend was awsome! I built a tarp shealter and it held up through a tunderstorm!

Home again :)

2005-10-11T20:48:00.000-03:00

Halifax has been treating me great! It’s been 2 weeks now and this is the first night I’ve had supper in my apt. catching up with everyone has been wonderful and seeing the family on the weekend was great! Plus the turkey & stuffing was outstanding!

I ended up finding a great place to rent in the North End of Halifax. It’s a nice leisurely 10 min bike ride straight to my office in the morning plus fully furnished minus the bed of course, I’m still on the floor but only until I can figure out how to move my new comfortable bed from Pugwash to Halifax… so if you know anyone in the area with a mini-van let me know!

I have officially sent the Russia file away to the head office for review and tomorrow will start my new job with Canada World Youth. There are a lot of really cool projects on the go and who knows where I might end up??? I’ll just have to wait and see but it looks like the majority of things will not take me away from Halifax for more than a couple weeks at a time. Who knows when the cold December wind starts blowing in my face and freezing my fingers I might be more willing to take up an offer to head south this winter.

I wrote a really great story about behind how I bought my new kayak… but my post disappeared when I tried to spell check and I lost everything… So I can’t bear to write it again. I did buy a beautiful kayak a couple days after I got back in town and what a great boat. I had it in Pugwash over the weekend and have been logging a bit of time out in Lawerencetown… Despite the wet rainy thanksgiving weekend the water was warm and the rain keep all those darn motor boats from disturbing wildlife.

I’ll post some more stuff and pics when I have a chance and get over losing at least an hours worth of typing to the void of space we call the internet. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Reflections on a trip gone…. “Bye”

2005-09-24T07:05:00.000-03:00

After a few months in Russia it's almost time to go back home and have to re-adjust back to Canada . As I am in the process of rushing to get all the little things done before I leave like buy souvenirs for people, prepare the debriefing training, wrap up the little details for the program that I'm responsibleile for and say some goodbyes... I will really miss this place.

Russia is a tough place but I'll say that everyone is in this together and it seems to be a unifying thing that creates more meaningful relationships than we might be used to in Canada. I have only watched about four movies in two months, haven't really read any news, and had to wash my clothes by hand! Some of my personal standards like cleanliness, comfort, and minor in-convinces will be forever changed because of Russia. When I return I'll have a much better appreciation of how much more difficult things could just be... if you don't know it we have it so damn easy in Canada!!

After much thought and painfully long walks home because the tram decided to go a different way, painfully spent nights sleeping on the floor and using my tin foil space blanket and curtain, I've discovered or decided that I am an optimist not a pessimist because I know things could always be worse and Kaliningrad is not a hard place to live. I have a grocery store 2 mins from my front doorstep, hot water, power, and a public transit system that will blow the socks off any system you'll get in Canada. When the buses and trams go the wrong way it' probably just me not really understanding the system; so I guess they are going the right way and I'm just a slow learner. If you take a look at some of the pictures I've posted from Kalliningrad it's easy to see that I'm really not "Rough-in it" here.

A couple hard things for me to see are the poor elderly population. While Russia was communist the government controlled inflation by setting prices and not changing them for seventy years. With the stroke of a pen by Yelsen overnight around 150 million people lost everything they had in the bank. For example, I have lots of books in my apartment the price (before 1991) of a hard cover edition of The Great Gatsby was 1 Rubble and 43 Kopeks the value of this may have been somewhere between 5- 10 dollars in Canada. Right now, one Kopek is around 1/2000 zanths of a dollar! I just do the rourubles about 20 Rubbles for every Canadian dollar. So 1 Rubble and 43 kopeks is about 7 cents now! Also, as a comparison there is a book I would like to buy before I leaverubles cost 700 Rubbles...Which sounds a lot worse than it is maybe $30 bucks and it would cost about $60 in Canada.

With all that said the elderly are poor if you were older than 50 or 60 in the 1990's and had saved anything it was all of a sudden gone. There are a lot of old women that sit and sell things on the street all day.. mostly berries, fruit, and flowers. The other day I was walking home and there are about 5 people who I always pass by they were throwing a old piece of plastic around with a dog that looked like a stray but everyone looked so happy and the dog was wagging its tail so fast you could tell it was happy. Just sweet moment because most of the time everyone seems so board.

Not long after I arrived here I was on my way to meet with someone and it was pouring outside so I was taking shelter at a tram stop and there was an old man who was either drunk and beat up or delusional and really hurt. He was saying something to the people around him but he was ignored after a couple minutes a cop came by and started talking laughed and left?? This guys face was blood you could see where he had to wipe around his eyes and around his mouth because blood was getting in. There is nothing I could do to help this guy having only mastered about 2 words in the Russian language the other day just walking home I passed an old lady who may have been 75 or 80 yrs. on a the busiest pedestrian traffic street in the citycomparable to Halifax's Spring Garden Rd. x 5.. she was on the sidewalk on her hands and knees and crying like baby. Somethings break my heart over here thankfully a couple Babushkas were helping this lady out.

I don't want to make Russia seem like it ignores the elderly population but they have some problems that are much more amplified because of the poverty caused by the end of communism and the capitalist system. This generation had to really pay and are suffering so much for their freedom? There is a pension system for seniors and a lot of the old ladies that sell things in the streets do have homes they are just trying to make an extra buck because they can't get a job. The CWY group had a meeting with 9 seniors and the director of Social Services. They talked about their lives and somethings that they did were outstanding one woman talked about how she was a nurse in WWII andexperiencedy of a war it was her experince of being stuck in St. Petersburg when the Gremans surounded the city for months. They had no supplies in the hospitals while a battle was raging outside over 20 million Russians were killed in the war. WWII memorials are such a big part of the city I'm in since this is where Germany launched some major attacks from and used to be German land before & during the war. I was sitting by the director of Social Services and she told me that this woman who is now 86 yrs old was one of Kaliningrads finest war heroes. Other women were once doctors, marathon runners, and one woman worked on a famous scientific vescircumnavigatinged about her trips circumnavigating the world. The group of privileged Canadians were all pretty much in awe or at least I wasÂ It's great to be in the presence of REAL greatness. These women come to the soup kitchen, do yoga, and art at the seniors centre. When I get back to Canada I've decided that I'll go and volunteer with old folks homes and play the guitar during some special events ;)

I've also seen so much compassion in the street. A couple weeks ago I was walking home and saw a soldier holding the hand and comforting an old man who was crying I don't know what the background to this was but it looked like it could have been bad news... There are many people who have really gone out of their way to accommodate me and the CWY group so I know there is a lot of good out there it's always easier to see the harder things sometimes. With the language barrier all I can do is see things most of the time so who knows howexperience anything I reinforcedly is.

This experince has really reenforced my belief that as a North American I am so wasteful and lazy. I recognize this but I think my society is so fucked up. How can people buy a neighbor'sent an apartment and not know their neighbours, work your ass off doing ??? so you can buy more absolutely useless crap that you have to have, waste yadvertisingching tv with constant streams of adverstising trying to encerealyou to buy more junk or sugary breakfast creal... A real commercial I heard while I lived on PEI said and I quote, (You need to drink the Sweet, Sweet Prince Edward Island milk) we have something seriously wrong with us!

Like I said before there have been somethings over the summer that will never forget and it's hard to explain... I know that when I return home most people will not really care too much about my trip to Russia this summer. I'll probably just say that it has been really quite interesting :)

2005-09-13T07:51:00.000-03:00

Banya... a few weeks ago I posted something about going to the Russian Banya. This is the only pictire that turned out because it was so damn hot. If you look closely I'm wearing the Banya hat and ready to hit anyone who crosses my path with a bunch of branches.

2005-09-13T07:47:00.000-03:00

This is the only picture I have of Nick where he is not picking his nose... maybe I'll teach him to wave for photos.

Btw... Shooting arrows is a lot harder than it looks.

Fashion EAD

2005-09-13T07:39:00.000-03:00

Regardless of age and education when the opportunity to dress up and play comes along everyone is always interested.

Our wonderful fashion EAD... I've never seen real Russians dress this way but hey this is non-formal education.

2005-09-11T07:07:00.000-03:00

This church is one of the centre pieces of Kaliningrad... everythings seems to be under construction but I have not seen any difference in this church since July...

2005-09-11T07:00:00.000-03:00

I just think this is a funny pic. people are all very authentic when acting things out here... I think this guy was trying to get enough money to set him free...

2005-09-11T06:52:00.000-03:00

Spetlagorks... Great beach... and the nicest community I've been to yet. I actually went on a trip with some parts. in Aug. and thought we were in Spetlagorks but we were in Zelenongratks I didn't know this until yesterday when I went to Zelenongratks with a host family... at least it's easy to get back to Kaliningrad! or I would be really, really lost.

Anyways, to explain this picture... we met a drunk guy at our mid-project who was telling us 0about different places in Russia and he did the devil horns... with a "whoooo... you know Moscow... I don't like" so it's the joke of the week.

Just go with the flow and hope you don't get hit by a car

2005-09-11T06:44:00.000-03:00

September is quickly passing by and I think that I’m doing more and more everyday over here (only 16 days left before the Canadians head home). We are having some issues with our work placements for the participants ending early so Lilya and I have started taking them with us to work in the community. It’s always much more interesting meeting with the ex directors or program people in the community with our participants in tow. For example, on Tuesday we decided to bring two participants along to an organization that I identified on a walk. I could read “International Public Centre” on the sign outside of the building and people were leaving with guitars so I just went in and introduced myself but of course no one spoke English. Regardless of that Lilya and I scheduled a meeting with the executive director and what a cool cat… he is the Russian Bob Hanna. When he saw one of our participants with a guitar he made some quick phone calls and invited a professor of classical music to come and meet us. We went for a walk with this guy and ended up going to a seniors centre where we ate lots of cookies and drank a lot of coffee… we all must have had 3 cups it was the best coffee I’ve had since being here…. Anyways, we negotiated some deal for us to come back and put on a concert for the seniors and left on the way back we pointed at this old church and he was like “in” so we had a private tour of a 700 year old church that is used mainly for operas now and has a pipe organ with 3500 pipes. Someone was walking on the stage and something was said in Russian and she whipped out this harp and gave us a private performance…. It was amazing especially with the acoustics of this building. Then we went outside and walked around the corner into a bar. This guy just sat down and nodded for 5 Bermuth Martinis and we watched a boxing match for a while (this was quite interesting since sometimes we can wait 30 mins for a waiter to come over). When we returned to his office a professional classical guitar player was there and he gave us a private concert followed by some instruction and he made some other phone calls to invite a rock band to play with us in the evening. We spent most of the day having a wonderful tour of the city that no tourist would see. Even when Lilya left for another meeting we had no problems communicating with this guy.

Lilya and I will be meeting with some people from the government on Monday because they think we are some sort of religious cult…. Apparently religious cults are the only kind of foreigners who come to “help” the community… at least we are making an impression here J It’s cool to see what can just happen in the run of a day because everyone is so special.

2005-09-05T06:42:00.000-03:00

Close talker on the tram... Sometimes people talk Russian to us and regardless of us saying "ya ney paniemayau" - I don't understand - they just talk louder, slower, and sometimes closer.

2005-09-05T06:30:00.000-03:00

This is the back window of a city bus... you can see that someone scratched The Bettles on the window... From what I gather the Bettles were very popular here in Russia.... and of course they still are.

2005-09-05T06:24:00.000-03:00

This pic is from the mid-evil castle festival I went to in Aug..... Most of the Casle was in ruins but it was very interesting to roam around.

Russian Pizza

2005-09-03T10:40:00.000-03:00

It's hard to get good pizza here.... so some parts. came over and we tried to make it but the oven didn't work and we have no pans.

This black crust it the result of trying to fry our pizza. You can see that the back of the pizza is as black as Daves shirt.... Just what I like brunt on bottom and raw on top!

Toliets

2005-09-03T10:32:00.000-03:00

These are actully pretty rare in the city... but they still have them.... the city toliets are pretty standard westeren stlye minus the seats.... I still haven't figured out why.

Battle

2005-09-03T10:28:00.000-03:00

These guys were crazy!! I don't have anytime to post the other pics now but they were running at each other with knives, axes, and swords.

The House of Soviets

2005-09-03T10:20:00.000-03:00

Construction of this building was started over 30 years ago and the foundation is actually a 14th century castle. It was the oldest and largest castle in Konesburg before WWII.

The Hang out spot

2005-09-03T10:11:00.000-03:00

This is where I spend a lot of time reading and hanging out with some of the CWY parts. it's about a 20 min walk from my house and across the street from a grocery store.

The church is 750 years old and has just been restored. You can't really tell but this is on a small island in the city. Before WWII over 30,000 people lived here and it was totally destroyed during the war. Also, Imanuel Kants ashes are in the church.

Four Days on the Spit

2005-08-30T05:08:00.000-03:00

Lesnony

I’ve just returned from the CWY Mid-Project retreat yesterday and finally had a chance to clean myself up a little bit. I had a great time delivering the Mid-Project with Lilya. We were on the Caspian Spit which is only 50 kms from Kaliningrad but it’s like another world. The Spit is about 100 kms long and its width ranges from 300 – 900 meters. One side has the Baltic Sea and the other holds the fresh water Caspian Bay. We stayed at a Russian hide away no place foreigners would really be able to find and rented cabins for 350 rubbles per night that’s about $15.00 Canadian… oh it’s going to be hard adjusting back to the prices in Canada.
We had a great time during the Mid-Project adn I was glad that we were able to have four days to deliver the sessions. The participants to facilitated some things and coordinated all the food for the weekend. Everyone was well fed… I worried a little bit about having 11 hungry people in the country but I’m glad that they bought too much food rather than not having enough.

We rented a Bunya “Russian Sauna” and it was quite the Russian experience. The Bunya is a dry sauna building with three rooms one is a sitting and drinking room the other is a cool down pool and finally the sauna. There is fire place on the outside which heats up a big pile of rocks on the inside of the sauna. After we put water on the rocks it got so hot that it was hard to breath. The temp. in the sauna was about 90 Celsius!! And the Russians with us wanted to make it hotter!! The Canadians were able to handle it ok… I was sweating so much there was a constant stream of water running off my chin and I think I lost a couple pounds just through sweat. The first time the water was put on the rocks my entire body was covered with an instantaneous layer of sweat. After people were able to adjust to the heat the tree branches were pulled out and soaked in water for a while then people hit each other with them. This process is supposed to get the blood flowing and of course it allows people to take out some fustrations because you can really hit people hard. After about 10 mins everyone needed a break and jumped into the cold pool to freeze for a couple mins… a quick shot of vodka, pickle, water and back in the bunya… this process repeated itself for about 3 hours… until people stopped sweating in the bunya and we risked passing out from the heat. The bunya definitely makes you feel clean and totally relaxed… everyone went straight to bed after this and nobody complained about not getting a goodnight sleep all weekend.

There is always one thing that doesn’t go as planned and this time it was the bus… We were all packed up and ready to go about 30 mins early… and we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited…. Etc… no bus.. So we decided to wait for the next bus and all took off to a local café & beach for a couple hours. When we returned we waited again… same results.. so after waiting for about 4 hours we decide to start walking to Zelenogrask which was about 15 kms away. This normally wouldn’t be a problem but we were carrying all our stuff for a four day camp. I had my big suitcase with all my clothes, CWY program materials, Lilyas stuff, bedding, and a very heavy backpack with the kitchen pots and pans, and left over food, plus a guitar. After walking for about ten minutes we hailed a bus that was driving by and whatever exchange took place didn’t seem to workout… but as the bus drove off the driver must have looked back and had some pity on us. He decided to stop and drove us all the way back to Kaliningrad! We had the entire luxury bus to ourselves!! I’m not joking.. this was the nicest bus I’ve ever been on and it cost about 550 rubbles or $25 Cdn. to take the entire group back to the city. In a nutshell that is how Russia works…making plans around a system that is set-up is never a guarantee. At the bus stop the locals were hailing cars and getting drives with them to wherever it was they were going…. I don’t think this is that uncommon… in my opinion it was a good experience for the group.

I am planning to take a few days off in a week or two and I think that I’ll return to the Caspian Spit and bike the Spit up to the Lithuanian boarder. There are four communities along the spit with little guest houses and nature trail and there is a UNESCO site with an amazing dune system I would like to explore…

So all’s well in Russia. The CWY participants will leave in exactly one month from now and I’m planning on joining them until we hit Warsaw. It looks like my flight is a bit screwed up so I might have to stay in Poland by myself for a little while until I can catch a flight back to Canada.
Cheers,

2005-08-24T10:31:00.000-03:00

the bettles really made an impact all over the world... look near the bottom of the window

A Night at the Castle

2005-08-22T09:58:00.000-03:00

I went to a mid-evil festival at a 14th century castle this weekend with the CWY group. I really wanted to get out of the city and a great opportunity presented itself with the help of one of our Host Families. Once we arrived and organizers found out that “Kaniskies” were attending the festival they invited us to stay for the night and the actors gave up their beds for us! Now that's Russian hospitality! I’ve never expected the night to be so fun and sooo hard on the old body.

There was a performance by an acting company out of Spvetlagorsks and they preformed outside stories from mid-evil times basically they had the prince meeting princess, slaying dragons, and betral kind of stories. The festival was held inside the square of a castle which made the atmosphere prefect. There were some crazy sword fighting scenes and I thought for sure someone was going to get killed but they managed to stay alive.

The best performance was the Legend of Prometheus and the Fire to the People from Greek mythology. The performance took place at night and it was all coordinated with music (not words!! But I had an interpreter just incase) It was an amazing play. The entire CWY group ended up leaving their seats to sit right up front on the grass… there was one loose fire ball that went into the audience but it never hit my guys. It really sucks that I broke my digital camera.. I’ll get some pics from the participants in the weeks to come.

After the performances ended (around 23:00) there was a big party for the actors and volunteers of the festival. I had my first real campfire in Russia and it was inside the grounds of an old castle! I’m finding out that Russians really take partying seriously. Some of the performers were great guitar players and of course I was able to sing a few tunes :)

It’s really common to meet people who can speak some English…. Better than our Russian but not enough to have a conversation.. only enough to toast the occasional shot of Vodka . People have a pretty basic life out here and people don’t have the “stuff” a.k.a useless crap we are used to in Canada. It’s great to see that things are being used after 50 years or more. We were making tea on the fire with an iron pot that looked like it was it was orignally from the castle. Also, people made pourage some kind of old WWII vehicle. It looked like a portable generator but someone set up to work like an outdoor oven.

I tried to get some sleep around 2:30 and there were no blankets left!! I had as fleece jacket on and nylon pants but the night was really, really COLD. I went camping last March and I was much warmer than camping here in August with no blanket. I had to get up and move around a couple times during the night just to warm up. I got up at 5:30 because I thought I was starting to become hypothermic…. I went for a walk around the town for about an hour and it was a bit like walking back in time. There were a lot of people up at this time on a Sunday morning… some people staggering home after a heavy night of drinking, some people still drinking, police out in full force stopping drivers and going through their cars, old women using homemade brooms sweeping off the sidewalks, and old men fishing on the banks of the river that ran through the town. I saw the sunrise and I had to use it warm my freezing body up a few degrees.

I survived “just barley” my first camping experience here. All the CWY participants were cold and tired when we caught the bus back to the city but everyone thought it was worth the pain.

I’ll be really busy until next Sunday as the groups Mid-Project camp gets underway. We are going to “camp!!” now everyone knows to bring lots of blankets!!! I’m even going to take my curtain to use as a blanket. We will spend four days on the Casa Spit from Thrus – Sunday.

Here for a goodtime .... not a longtime

2005-08-16T08:58:00.000-03:00

Well Russia is starting to feel like home and the CWY group is starting to work like a real group with some problems. It’s still hard to think that all the pain and suffering I went though in Charlottetown was for nothing!! Those sleepless nights and awkward intrusive conversations looking for host families were all for nothing except my own personal experience. I’ll admit that it was good to experience the “Island” lifestyle for a couple months, make some good connections, and always have some good a.k.a – free camping spots on the Island which will always come in handy in the future. I will just leave it at that and move on.

As of today it looks like I will end up working out of the Halifax office of Canada World Youth unless a job opens up in the field. If that happens I will be shipped off to who knows where … and when. I’m really looking forward to spending the fall in Halifax. My plan is just to take things one day at a time. However, if anyone knows of a good job opening up in October - ?? … Let me know! I’m not very worried about this but after working on an employment program for a couple years I know how hard it can be to find a good job in the Maritimes.

Just a note to remind everyone how small the world is…. I was talking with Cheslov last night who has been the CWY Russian Project Supervisor for the past three years and a participant the year before…. His host community was Halifax, NS and work placement was at CEED (where I worked before CWY). He remembers working with the famous Steve Fury & the folks at OFB.

About half of the participants including me are sick right now… I only brought 2 books outside of my CWY stuff so it can get a bit boring lying around the apt. This is what I recommend people take overseas with them when they travel in the context of CWY… A laptop that can play DVD’s and CD ROM movies with a couple decent speakers. Some comedies like the sampans, family guy, futurerama, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, Tom Green show! And of course a few movies… mostly just silly ones that your participants can laugh at but I’d take a couple that have some bigger picture messages. I didn’t bring any movies and my laptop will not play any video for some reason “codec”. It’s too bad because there is a huge underground DVD/ CD/ & MP3!!! market here… I can buy DVD’s of movies still in the theater for 100 Rubbles which is about $5.00 Canadian. So far, I’ve bought 10 MP3 CD’s with an average of 150 songs or 10 albums on them for about $50.00 CDN… I think I’ll just go nuts before I leave and stock up on MP3’s if I don’t like them they will make great gifts/ re-gifts.

Don’t bring a lot of clothes!!! 2 dressy shirts, 3 T-shirts, 1 sweater, and 2 pairs of pants/ shorts are all you’ll ever need. I end up wearing the same thing most of time anyways… in Russia you have a house outfit and an outside one so things stay clean a bit longer… and washing clothes is such hard work I end up being extra careful that I don’t sweat too much. So my clothes are dirty, I’m covered in mosquito bites, currently sick, and I can’t speak the language… a great ambassador for Canada!!

There is an English section in the library so I’m going to explore that a bit this week. And maybe I’ll get a few more MP3’s. I really want to start exploring the country side.. there is a good bus system out of Kaliningrad & I’ve found out there is some kayaking in the north so I’m going to try and find my way.. Please pray for me J

On a lighter note….There was a huge storm here over the last couple days… we had trees falling, flooding, power outages, and everyone was basically storm stayed for a couple days. It was a constant downpour for two days! Kind of reminds me of an extended Nor’easter/ Sou’wester or whatever they call those storms coming up the coast in the Maritimes.

Cheers…. I hope everyone is having a great summer!!! I can’t believe it’s August 16th already!

It's finally decided

2005-08-11T06:14:00.000-03:00

I found out the this week that CWY has cancelled the Canadian phase of my project. I will come back to Canada after the Russia phase is complete on Ocotober 1st and depending on what's availible with CWY I could be a Project Supervisor in another program (if someone leaves), return and work out of the Halifax office until the end of my contract, or just leave CWY.

Let me know if you know of any cool jobs that are available in Canada or overseas... I'm not sure what I'll do yet but I'm open to possibilities...

Hitting the airwaves

2005-08-07T14:46:00.000-03:00

We are trying everything here to get Russian Participants... We used this interview to talk about the need for Russian participants and the TV staition actually became a really cool work placement for our group and a summer job for a Russian guy who hangs out with our group a lot.

Kak DELA!

2005-08-07T14:40:00.001-03:00

I think that everyone has finally settled in over here… getting around the city is still a bit difficult but everyone seems to show up at the different places we meet. I am pretty confident that I could walk home from anywhere in town I have basically walked from one end of town to another today and I found everything with no problems.

This language is quite tough to learn for Anglophones… I tend to stress the “S’ sound and people say I sound like a Russian Shawn Connery which isn’t that bad… I think. It’s a humbling experience going into a store and trying to communicate things I know that I can pronounce but the clerks just laugh and start pointing at things so I always end up pointing and just making noise. For example, simple things like “water without gas” which sounds something like “vada beeaz gaza” I know people understand me but they just like making fun of the foreigner or I have a really, really, really bad accent.

Kaliningrad is an interesting town it has just celebrated its 750^th birthday and the government has invested a lot of money into improving city spaces. I guess a lot of work has been done and there are tons of new buildings going up which look nicer than most apt./ office buildings in Canada. Every city is dirty but here the pollution seems to stick on you. I was walking the other day along a river that runs through town and smelt this horrible stench and when I looked down along the side of the river and there were hundreds of dead fish and then I noticed fish floating belly up all over the place but in some places the banks were white with fish that were washed ashore. It’s an interesting site being from Canada … but I think we are better at hiding our environmental mess like the Halifax solution to sewage…. building longer pipes into the sea. In a couple weeks one of CWY groups will focus on the environment in Kaliningrad for their Education Activity Day (EAD) so I’m going to be very interested in learning about the issues.

There is a karaoke place in a park close to my house. It’s a real authentic Russian party over there all the time. On Friday night a participant and I sang an English song and the crowd was shocked… I don’t think an English person has ever sung karaoke there before. When we were singing (Proud Mary –C.C.R) everyone seemed to enjoy it after the disbelief wore off. I’m going to take all the CWY participants there during some small group meetings. This will be a great way to end the night… They don’t have many English songs but the essentials are all there… Village People -YMCA, Lot’s of the Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, Eagles, Deep Purple, & Abba.

Finally, one great thing about this place is the MP3 CDS you can buy for next to nothing. I bought a few MP3 cd’s and on one of them I got 9 complete albums of Bob Dylan for about $6.00 CDN/ 200 Rolling Stones songs for the same amount/ 7 albums of Pink Floyd. In my opinion this is the best thing since sliced bread! I plan to have a pretty good CD collection by the time I return to Canada.

Laundry in Russia

2005-08-07T14:34:00.000-03:00

It's hard work doing laundry here. I thought that people would like to see me hard at work washing my unmentionables. Great way to spend a Friday night!

My first bathroom

2005-08-07T14:26:00.000-03:00

For some strange reason I always take a picture of bathrooms in my life. This is what my first bathroom looked like in Russia when I moved in. It was not as bad as people said it could be. At least there was a toliet seat... some of the participants in CWY live in great aptartments with LCD screen TV's but no toilet seats??? and a lot of public washrooms are missing this vital piece of equipment.... I'll figure this mystery out before I leave but so far no luck.

opps wrong cafe

2005-08-07T07:44:00.000-03:00

Well I thought that I would put some good stuff on my blog today but the Internet Cafe will not let me use my floppy disk to load things. It's a lot of work to check e-mail here in Kaliningrad there is only 1 place my Hotmail works and I have to go to the opposite side of town for my Canada World Youth email.

Everything is fine... Kaliningrad is not that big of a city after some self-exploration. I can walk across the entire city in 2 - 3 hrs. and the bus system is not that confusing anymore for me and the CWY participants. I went to Spetlagork yesterday, which is a beach community and about 45 mins by train out of the city. It was great there was some party going on with parades, outdoor concerts, dancing, tradiontal food, art, & of-course the beach!

We had our first EAD - Educational Activity Day on Friday, August 5th... I was a bit worried going into it because all the past participants I've talk to told me they can only remember how boring EAD's were but my participants seemed to enjoy themselves. Everyone said they liked it in their evaluations and they are starting to take over and lead the sessions now. So I think we are doing something right....

apt. view

2005-08-04T11:45:00.000-03:00

I moved in with my countepart Lilya last week and now live in an area I'll never be able to pronounce. It's great.

Cava Beach ... CWY group July 2005

2005-08-04T11:42:00.000-03:00

Some time at the Beach

2005-08-01T05:36:00.000-03:00

Hey there,

Well the CWY group has finally started working! We are all much more comfortable finding our way in the city now and the host families are really starting to help us out alot. One of the host families invited everyone to the beach and I think everyone had a great time... I know I did. We were on a remote beach and basically alone. It was so nice to breath clean air and relax in the sun.

We managed to get about 15 people there and had a great time swimming in the Baltic Sea. The water is at least 17 degrees and the waves were great to do some white water air mattress rafting.

I managed to break my digital camrea (I have no luck with these things & hope the warranty will cover it) When I return I am going to buy a camera cased in rubber. I'll try to figure out how to download the pics I already took but it's a slow process.

здрАЬстьуйте

2005-07-27T09:08:00.000-03:00

Hey there,

I've been in Russia for over a week now and it's almost like being on another planet. I really didn't expect such a difference in the culture and how difficult it has been to do simple things... like take a bus or buy an extension cord.

I live in a real soviet style apartment building and I think the rent is something like $40 US per month. My address is 20 - 5 ул злония = Green street or (ZELoonyi - Dvasait Payit) . It's been interesting just trying to find my way home It's almost like working my way through a corn-field maze because there are about 50 buildings that all look the same and the only thing that ids them are some paint infront of the door. After a week I've been able to make it home alone though... One small success.

Luckly I have my counterpart Lilya has been very helpful with me and the CWY group. We are in a very unusual situation where there are no Russian participants yet. The Canadians have been managing to find their way around just fine (so far). Next week everyone will start their workplacement and this will finally give me a break so I can start exploring the city a little bit.

I've got lots to say but I'll have to save it for another time... I'm actually lost right now but just happened to stumble across an (интзпнит кафи) or an Internet Cafe as we know it.

So I'm fine and I'll try to post some pics next week.

my telephone number is (country code- 011) +7 9114848605

Cheers!!

John

2005-07-06T20:24:00.000-03:00

I know this is a deep post
Posted by Picasa

2005-07-06T20:23:00.000-03:00

A thing of beauty
Posted by Picasa

My favorite snack

2005-07-06T20:09:00.000-03:00

I know it's a bit silly to tell the world about my favorite snack but man these things are so good I have to spread the word.

President's Choice vanilla & Almond Ice Cream Bars ROCK!! I think they are better than any iced creamed dessert that I've ever had before. If you ever wandering aimlessly through the aisles at the superstore pick-up a box and let me know what you think.

I hope you will enjoy.

John

2005-07-04T09:20:00.000-03:00

packing up
Posted by Picasa

2005-07-03T20:31:00.000-03:00

True Love
Posted by Picasa

2005-07-03T20:29:00.000-03:00

Your chariot awaits
Posted by Picasa

July 1 Weekend

2005-07-03T20:12:00.000-03:00

My program to Russia has been delayed for a couple weeks because of some logistical problems so I was able to host a camping party at my place in PEI over the July 1 weekend. I had a goodtime and I think everyone else was happy with their experience.

One funny thing about this camping trip that made it special was Kelly who had to use a walker to get around because of a broken foot. On the last night we decided that a wheelbarrow would make a good vehicle for transporting her to the fire pit. This turned out to be a great way of getting her down hills and though rough fields. Also, it was a good laugh not at Kelly but the situation in general..... The pics say 1000 words.

:)

2005-06-30T23:35:00.000-03:00

My question is... where does this person cook?
Posted by John

2005-06-30T23:34:00.000-03:00

the dry goods.. some boxes are full but have past thier best before date.
Posted by Picasa

2005-06-30T23:33:00.000-03:00

collecting fridge magnets is sort of normal but this is cutting the fine line into crazy
Posted by Picasa

And I thought my mother is a pac rat

2005-06-30T23:19:00.000-03:00

I was checking out this pilot forum for a good laugh today. The Canadian forums are so funny and offensive one of the largest supported by the Canadian Owners and Pilots Assoc had to actually be taken offline. Someone posted this link about someone's mother and her obsessive collecting habits and there were 65 post between someone who I think was the actual child of this woman...... anyways getting back to the point someone posted this link and I had to LMAO.

http://www.auctions-registration.com/ebay/

2005-06-21T00:21:00.000-03:00

Maritimers are always ready to party.
Posted by Hello

2005-06-21T00:16:00.000-03:00

Our attempt to educate the rest of Canada about what happens in the kitchen.
Posted by Hello

First Impressions - unfortunately are remembered

2005-06-20T23:40:00.000-03:00

I went to Montreal for a week to participate in the Canada World Youth National Field Staff Orientation Training. What a fabulous time!! CWY has an amazing staff team and all I can say is "wow".

I'll just share a quick story about the first impression I made which will looked back on and already has many times at the NFSO with many laughs.

I traveled to Montreal at an unnatural hour on Saturday morning. I had to catch a cab to the Hfx. airport around 6 am and arrived in Montreal at 8:30am. When I got outside the temp was already in the high 20's. I decided to catch the bus and subway to my hotel to save money and I had plenty of time to kill. The Grand Prix was happening in Montreal that day and traveling on the subway proved challenging. This weekend is the busiest time during the year for the city. Trust me you don't want to be hauling around a big suitcase and backpack on the subway during the Grand Prix weekend.

I arrived at the hostel around 10 and went to have a shower and I thought the sinage was very confusing. I got out and there were actual nuns in the bathroom! The showers were private and the bathrooms shared (I think). I set out to see the city and at lunch the temp was around 35 degrees and if you know me well this is well above my instant sweat temp.

So I ended up walking around and getting totally lost without a map and not knowing how to speak the language that all the signs are printed in. I walked for about 2 hours and ended up right back where I started. I have no idea how this happened but it felt pretty good seeing something I could recognize. Eventually I found a street full of outdoor bars and set myself down for a few beers in the shade.

I stumbled back to the hostel around 7pm and that's when I ran into the first CWY staff in my journeys. No question I was feeling pretty inebriated, was coated with many layers of sweat, bloodshot eyes and sun burn. The people I met asked me about were the showers were and I started going on about being careful because there were nuns in the bathroom.

So was this was the first impression I gave to CWY staff I've met outside my own office. The reputation of Maritimers as heavy drunks was definitely reinforced.

Actually, the first person I met ended up being my roommate at the training for the week so I heard him tell this story many times.

Excuses... Being prepared helps make people sweat

2005-06-08T23:50:00.000-03:00

I'm almost finished here in PEI and my lists for host families grows a bit and gets shorter everyday. One interesting phenomenon though is the variety of excuses I hear on a regular bases. I think there are a lot of Canadians who want to make people feel good and pretend to go along with things even when they're not interested. However, in order to do this one needs to have excellent excuses. I'm prepared now for all possibilities trust me... I haven't heard them all but I'm getting close.

Today I was meeting with this potential Host Family the couple were both my age (late 20's) and they are currently hosting a student from Hong Kong so I thought this would be easy. It's not easy to make it to peoples homes for in person discussions (about 1 in 15 contacts go this far) When the time came for them to say "we're interested OR we're not interested" The bad excuses started flying...

1. We have to go on vacation so we can't do it...
My response... "No problem I've got back-up families who will take the participants in so you leave for your vacations or any other emergencies that might arise".

2. I don't know if we can get them to the work placements on time during the week.
My response... "Not a problem there is a couple work placements within a 10 min walk I'll just make sure you get those youth".
3. Rooms to small....

I had to let this couple down here because it was starting to get pathetic. I mean just say "no" I really had to tell two grown well educated adults that it's ok if they aren't interested being a host family with Canada World Youth it isn't for everyone.

All my responses are accurate I really do have some temp host families and they did live within walking distance to a placement.

I guess the moral here is to always be prepared for excuses people throw at you. It's pretty easy to make someone uncomfortable but maybe along the way they'll learn a thing or two about life. I wish that I could take a picture of these sorts of things.

Milestones met! - update on Canada World Youth stuff

2005-06-04T22:10:00.001-03:00

I've been here for about a month now and have met more people than I ever thought possible, had many very strange conversations, and have faced utter rejection at least 200 times. I realize now why former Canada World Youth staff are such sought after commodities. I actually interviewed someone a couple years ago who had worked for CWY. He stood out like a shining star but unfortunately he couldn't get the proper car insurance he needed for the job. (that might happen to me in the future because I'm driving a rental)

This is a tough job no bones about it. To make it more interesting I'm one of 5 projects that are "reverse" which means I'll be going overseas with the group first and then returning to for the Canadian phase. So the planning I'm doing in May & June will not actually unfold until the group arrives in October.

I set some goals before heading to Charlottetown and they were to:
Before June 10th
1. Identify at least 12 (semi-committed) Host Families
2. Identify and prep. all the volunteer work placements (for 18 youth) with 9 new organizations,
3. Start work on the education plan.

To date I've got 12 potential Host families (nine will be needed), all the volunteer work placements are looking good, and I'm starting to discuss the education plan with Lilya (my Russian Co-worker) she has been a teacher for the past few years so that's an added bonus!!

My time is almost up here on the island and it seems like my job just keeps going. One question I get asked a lot is what do you do during the day?
Saturday, June 4th.

8 - 9 Stopped at 2 yardsales ... no Host family prospects and lots of garbage for sale
9 - 11 Confederation Trail Community Bike Ride... gave out 2 brochures to potential HF's -
11 - 12 Farmers Market... Introduced myself to about 10 people no real help with Host Family Search
12 - 1 Went to a Pancake Breakfast. I was late but the two cleaning up gave me free pancakes & good conversation. I got both their numbers (one was a city councilor) will call next week
1 - 1:30 Charity Car wash... PEI parents for French will get CWY info. into the next newsletter re: Host Family Search and got the car washed for 4 bucks. it was really dirty.
130 - 2:30 Habitat for Humanity Baby Barn Challenge... I helped tear down the set & met the executive director (will meet more formally next week) also met a potential Host Family and gave about 10 brochures out to volunteers who all said they would give them to people they think would be good host families (anything is better than nothing)
2:30 - 6:00 me time... went to a movie, the gym, and supper
6:00 - 6:30 Horse track. No luck finding anyone interested in anything but watching the horses... lesson learned don't go recruit host families at the track!!
6:30 - 9:00 Christian Rock Concert... I stumbled across this and thought what the hell I ended up meting 3 nice potential families and gave out a few brochures.

That's about it... I'm sure I've missed a few things but Saturdays are mainly spent connecting with new people who I'll follow up with next week. It's really exhausting just talking with strangers all the time but I know that will change in the very near future!

I'll stop by Halifax on June 10th for the day before I leave for Montreal. To my knowledge there is a party going on with the folks from CEED so I'll see you there. Anyone else feel free to email me.

Cheers,

The Murphy Philosophy - Smile because tomorrow will only be worse

2005-06-01T22:21:00.000-03:00

If you don't remember or know Murphy's Laws are I've pasted them below. I don't think I'm a pessimist (you can judge that for yourself) I think these laws are good to remember for everyday life. I'm sure everyone has had things go wrong before so this doesn't need a prelude.

Enjoy!

MURPHY'S LAWS
1. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
2. Everything takes longer than you think.
3. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
4. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
5. If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
6. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
7. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
8. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
9. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
10. Mother nature is a bitch.
11. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
12. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
13. Every solution breeds new problems.

Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Murphy's Corollaries
1. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

Commentaries on Murphy's Laws

If we lose much by having things go wrong, take all possible care.
If we have nothing to lose by change, relax.
If we have everything to gain by change, relax.
If it doesn't matter, it does not matter.

Proof that Murphy's Law is a Constant in my Universe

2005-05-29T20:30:00.000-03:00

In life there are many moments to worthy of remembrance. I think I have a good one to share.

Last Saturday (May 28) I had my first kayaking tour arranged. I was going to take out two people on a very simple "learn to kayak course"No problems, I have it covered I thought to myself. When I arrived at the location we were launching from there was the Red Cross Relay taking place and few hundred people lined the shores. To say the least it was a bit confusing and I found the kayaks but no staff. I was early so I took a walk, had some lunch, and got changed for the trip. There was supposed to be someone there to prep the gear and do the briefing with a large group of paddlers & I would take my two away for their lesson. That person didn't show. A guy with a pissy attitude did show-up and told me to get my act together and take these confused people out on the water. Just to clarify I don't actually work for this kayaking company I just help out to get free rentals.

I figured what the heck... I'm up for the challenge & I can do this no problem. So we cancelled the learn to kayak and I got a group of six ready for a day of kayaking. Our launching point was a dock just before the end of the Red Cross Relay Race. To make matters worse the dock was packed with people cheering on the relay teams so I had to put the kayaks in on both sides and I thought it would be easy for for a couple people to follow me around the dock to meet up with the other paddlers. (NOT TRUE)

I had asked everyone to wait until I was in the water beside their boats before they got in their kayak. I helped the first woman in and she took off so I went to slow her down but in 10 seconds she was in the middle of the final 100 meter leg of the relay race with no idea how to turn her friggin kayak. I went out to tow her in and while I was half way I hear "help" another person decided they would get into their kayak without my help and tipped over!!! This was in the first minute of my 1/2 day tour!

Someone on the dock helped the woman who fell in and emptied her boat out while I chased down the woman in the way of the relay racers. After about twenty minutes (something that should have taken 3 - 4 max). Everyone was in their boats and ready to go even the woman that fell in was ready for an adventure.

It ended up being a good day there were and everyone managed to stay upright and more importantly alive!

Let me know if you ever see this on one of those home video TV shows. I think with all the video cameras going to capture the relay race there must have been someone who picked up my situation.

There are no real morals to this story... I may have a couple more grey hairs but it was worth it in the end...

2005-05-28T00:31:00.000-03:00

I'd classify this as a calm moment during the training.
Posted by John

Rough Days at Sea

2005-05-28T00:22:00.000-03:00

I did some training with Jim Price who is has been a kayaking instructor for 25+ years. What an experience!!! Outside Expeditions let me take a four day kayak course with them in return for some guiding that I’ll do in June. There were only three students which turned out to be an excellent ratio. May hasn’t been great weather here on PEI everyday we spent battling high winds, swells, surf, and rain. The worst day ended up being our evaluation day... we had winds in excess of 50km/ hr, 6ft swells, surf, rain and the temp was a balmy 5 degrees. I’m glad I had a dry jacket and pogies for this but I couldn’t find my hat. Lesson learned for the future …. Always bring a waterproof hat!! Around 80% of your body heat escapes though your head.

Jim took us into conditions where we really could get tipped on purpose. In the first hour of the program one student was tipped over by the surf and got washed up on shore. Her wetsuit was loose so the cold water was next to her skin and to get back out though the surf she had to do a quick beach launch which meant there was no time to do up the spray skirt (that keeps water out of the kayak) she got soaked even more on the way back out to meet up with the rest of us.

With all that said it was a terrifyingly wonderful time. Jim Price knows his stuff and is hands down the best instructor I’ve ever had. The course taught me where my limits are and if I want to take kayaking seriously how much I need to learn. For now, I’ll just help out when I can be of service and paddle in rough seas with people more experienced than me.

I’ll be teaching a “learn to kayak” ½ day program in Brudenell, PEI (by myself). So hopefully I managed to learn something over the winter.

2005-05-17T16:42:00.000-03:00

Exposed Skeleton Forest (most of it is under the sand). Greenwich Dunes, PEI
Posted by Hello

2005-05-17T16:38:00.000-03:00

Greenwich Dunes, PEI
Posted by Hello

Greenwich Dunes, PEI

2005-05-17T16:22:00.000-03:00

I took a little road trip to the Greenwich Dunes National Park. The park has a couple 4 km trails all of which lead out to the dunes and a pretty barren sand landscape. This dune site is one of the most important natural areas in PEI and it's kept that way by a proactive Nature Trust Society which keeps the luxury resort developers from paving over.

This Dune system is pacticuarly rare because it's a "parabolic wandering dune" moving from the tip of the peninsula in the direction of the forest. The leading edge of the system is moving inland at a rate of 3 - 6 meters /yr. White birch trees can be seen sticking up through the sand creating the largest skeleton forest in North America.

If you into dunes it would be a great hike.

2005-05-17T16:20:00.000-03:00

The Stompin' Tom Museum! I think it's worthy of a pic here because someone took the time to nail a big boot on the wall. Nail Pond, PEI
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T22:03:00.000-03:00

When I first saw this I thought the guy was trapped in by the tide but... he was actually farming! Read the West Side Story for more info.
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T22:02:00.000-03:00

8 km submarine rock reef... Largest one in North America. Doesn't look very exciting.
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T21:59:00.000-03:00

The former Elephant Rock. It has lost it's trunk, head, and front legs to natural causes..
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T21:56:00.000-03:00

"a fair shake" is what a good crop is called.
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T21:51:00.000-03:00

Irish Moss Farming
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T21:50:00.000-03:00

Irish Moss Farming at Cape North, PEI
Posted by Hello

2005-05-14T21:28:00.000-03:00

One of the many reasons I don't mind getting lost here. Picture is of Great Blue Heorns they are over 1 meter tall and there are 14 colonies on PEI.
Posted by Hello

West Side Story

2005-05-14T21:27:00.000-03:00

Well I don't have much of a story about this but I took a tour of the PEI's West End with Alison who's a friend from Hfx. and a former local West Side Kid. The geography of PEI's North Cape is pretty harsh and changes quite rapidly from one eco-sytem to another in a five minute walk you can see the following; bogs - dunes - forest - bars - gutters - etc....

We came across a rare encounter with an Irish Moss Farmer. After a storm or some event that uproots the plant horses are used to manually harvest the moss from the beach. Irish Moss gets processed and "carageenin" is extracted which is a thickening agent in baking products, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

Cape North PEI also has the longest submarine rock reef in North America extending 8 kms out underwater from the tip of PEI.... doesn't look very exciting when there is a full tide but you can walk the reef for a couple kms when the tide goes out. There is a wind farm on the West End as well. In a 50 km/ hr wind one of these turbines can produce enough power to supply 660 homes.

2005-05-14T21:21:00.000-03:00

The back roads of PEI. One thing you can be sure of here is that there will be a house every one km.
Posted by Hello

Getting Lost

2005-05-14T21:04:00.000-03:00

I've managed to get myself lost in PEI more than I have anywhere else. It seems as if the good people of PEI are not used to giving out their civic address the following is a list of actual directions I have written in my agenda... (Behind the white church, up the hill and across the bridge, when the road gets bumpy turn into a driveway with a green birdhouse, brown trim, you'll see it when your at the top of the hill, first find the school, etc....)

It doesn't really matter because I'm still learning the lay of the land and it's a very senic place. I've actually met some really interesting people by just knocking on their door and asking for directions while I'm lost in the country.

I thought I would post a couple pictures of my getting lost adventures.... It's easy to see why I don't mind taking the long way around.

2005-05-03T21:28:00.000-03:00

kitchen view
Posted by Hello

2005-05-03T21:26:00.000-03:00

my new freinds.. bert & ernie
Posted by Hello

2005-05-03T21:19:00.000-03:00

The best PEI Canada World Youth Office ever.... however most of the work will be done from the trunk of my car... I guess somethings will never change
Posted by Hello

PEI here I am like it or not...

2005-05-03T20:57:00.000-03:00

I got myself set-up in PEI really quick... a skill I've always managed to use is my natural instinct to find a deal. I decided to splurge and get my own apt. see some of the pics above... it's great!! I have a fully furnished one bedroom with an office / sunroom, working fireplace (wood in the stables), hot tub, bbq, 3 dogs, 4 horses, and great landlords.... the list goes on but I'll just stop here.

So for now I'm living in Clyde River (about 10kms outside Ch'town). The view is unbelievable and I can now say that I have lived on a farm. It's really just stables people rent to keep horses but it's all very interesting... I never know what to say or do to the horses when they run up to me like dogs but I'll figure it out.....

PEI is more laid back than Halifax and I'm adjusting just fine so far. It's only Tuesday and I've managed to cover a lot of ground here (so far - so good)

Feel free to give me a call @ 902-675-3185

2005-05-03T20:56:00.000-03:00

OFB'ers ... breif but wonderful experince.. good luck
Posted by Hello

2005-05-03T20:53:00.000-03:00

YEP'ers.... they are probably happy I won't be lying across their legs anymore ;)
Posted by Hello

2005-05-03T20:50:00.000-03:00

the ceed loan gang (don't get on their bad side)
Posted by Hello

Farewell To CEED

2005-04-17T22:51:00.000-03:00

For the past four years (since 2001) I've been working at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED)... Whew I'm glad my new job will have a shorter name. I've worked on a youth employment project and in the Open for Business - an entrepreneurship resource centre. Both jobs allowed me to gain great experience and challenge myself along the way. I'll always credit CEED for giving me amazing opportunities and a chance to challenge myself. I've been very fortunate to be part of so many wonderful things going on in the community!! All the staff and the partners I've worked with in the community are like a second family to me & "I'm sure they know who they are" You'll be will be missed...

try to keep in touch :)

2005-04-14T22:00:00.000-03:00

Sea Sun Guide Training
Posted by Hello

Kayak Guide Training

2005-04-14T21:42:00.000-03:00

I've been in guide training with Sea Sun Kayaks since January 2005 and it's been a really great experience. There has been a pretty dedicated group of six students and personally my skills have developed a lot since we started. I can't believe I didn't know some of the stuff we covered... so simple but the secrets are in the details.

Here's a list of what we covered:

Level 1 CRCA Skills certification, Wilderness & Remote First Aid Training & Cert., Plenty of trip/course shadowing time
Training in: PEP (Powerful Efficiant Paddling) Eskimo Rolling, Cookery/recipes, Self & Assisted Rescues, Coastal Navigation/Map work, Advanced Strokes (Theory/Practical), NS Nature Interpretation (Theory), Exposed Coastline Paddling, Sea Kayak/Tourism Employment in NS (Classroom), Free sea kayak equipment rentals, Job shadowing trips! Employment possibilites with Sea Sun upon graduation. Since I'm moving to PEI in May Rob helped set me up with a job guiding for Outside Expeditions in North Rustico, PEI.

For some more info. check out the Sea Sun website www.paddlenovascotia.com

The photo is of the class Rob-instructor, Jan-Mark, Charles, Me, Michelle, & Greg notice the ice in the corner) the water is freezing in March & April but regardless of that it's great to be out on the water.

2005-03-28T21:29:00.000-04:00

Cow Bay Moose
Posted by Hello