Bad Ass Club

Our little group of 18 has had enough drama within the last two months to have our own reality T.V. show. Doris, one of the girls from Ghana, just recently got the H1N1! As well Gabe, the participant from Quebec, almost got kicked out of the program. What happened was the Night before Halloween Dave, Gabe, Sasha, Carmen, Casey, and myself went to the bar for a couple drinks. Now considering this is a dry program, going out for drinks wasn't allowed in the first place, but we thought that we could do it without our supervisor finding out. So the night was going pretty good, all the girls were in their Halloween costumes and singing karaoke. And we decide to leave the bar and go to a club to go dancing. But as we are leaving we notice that Gabe is gone. We eventually find her, trying to go to Carmen's house to get new shoes. When we find her we go to the club, by hitching a ride with a couple we just met. Then we get there and it turns out it is actually a bar, but with a live band so we go in. And the bartender looks at Gabe's ID and says its a fake (which it was). So Gabe freaks out and calls the bartender a racist for not accepting Quebec IDs. Eventually the Bartender lets us stay but said we would get kicked out if they saw Gabe with a drink in her hand. We stay for a little while and Sasha, Gabe, Dave, and I leave fairly early. But when we leave Gabe runs up ahead of us, freaking out. So I run to catch up with her, but eventually she starts sprinting. I go back to find Dave and Sasha who are gone. So I decide to take a cab home, thinking that Gabe could handle herself. The next morning I wake up and find out that Gabe didn't come home. They found her eventually, claiming she blacked out. Because Gabe and I were both underage we could of possible been kicked out. But the group covered for me and told our supervisor that I didn't drink. Everyone else got level one warning, and Gabe got a level 2 warning. The next Wednesday we discuss as a group, and Simon, being a dumbass, tells the group the he had a beer once during this program. So he is most likely going to get a warning and join the "Bad Ass club" with the rest of the group! Its all been great fun!! :D

Freddy Beach

Still in love with the province of New Brunswick!! For the Thanksgiving weekend, with my family, I went to the capital of the province, Fredricton. Fredricton is a beautiful city with a rich downtown, full of local restaurants, Coffee shops, and stores. I spent the two days living with my host mother's, Stacey, parents. As well Stacey's sisters joined us for thanksgiving dinner. In Freddy Beach we also did a little Geo Caching and sight seeing.

The weekend after our group of 19 went to a little city called Murray Corner. There we spent the weekend at camp Ta-Wa-Si doing our "Mid Project." Since we are halfway through our Canadian Phase, we spent the weekend debriefing and reflecting on our trip so far. The camp itself was very cold, as none of the buildings were insulated, and only the main hall had heating. Location wise, it was beautiful camp. The camp was right on the coast, where the confederation bridge was visible. As well, on clear days and clear nights, we were able to see Prince Edward Island across the ocean. The three days spent at the camp was a lot fun where we were able to spend time around a camp fire, eating, and playing a little soccer.

So far the highlight of my trip has been my amazing host family. Every night, My counterpart Ernest and I stay up considerably late talking to our host parents, or playing cards, or watching movies with them. They have been alot fun and have really gone out of their way to make us feel part of the family. This year we are part of their Christmas card photo and their Pumpkin carving party photo invitation. As well they convinced Ernest to apply for school in New Brunswick. Ernest just recently got accepted into Mount Allison University, which is in Sackville New Brunswick, about 30 mins from Moncton. As well I am really enjoying spending time with the kids. Last Monday I went to the fire hall with Eli and his grade one class, and spent the afternoon volunteering in his class. It was alot of fun spending the day with a bunch of 6 year olds.

Canada World Youth, The Soap Opera!

This has been a crazy week. As of now, we are one less supervisor, one less particpant, and one less host family. Jeff, our one and only supervisor, has been stressed out of his mind, first with his Ghanaian counterpart being sent home. Jingles, the Ghanaian supervisor, had been sent home due to sexual harrassment accusations. As well he had made some poor decisions with a certain female particpant, thus leading to his de - selection. We will be getting a replacment within the next 3 week to a month but till then we have Jeff and Beth, a fill in when Jeff is away. Just to add more to the mixture one of the Canadian Participant, had decided to go home, and left on a plane back to Alberta. After all of this, when we think that we can not add more to the drama, two of the particpants got fed up with their host family, and left, and are currently staying at Beth's house until another host family can be found. They left after they had come home to a house full of people they didn't know and after they realized someone had been going through their personal belongings. As well they had been living in house with 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 4 other people who constantly had other people over.

Besides that, things have been great. :) My counterpart, Ernest, and I having been spending alot of time with our host family. It has been so great living with them as they have been very open, flexible, and wanting to learn new things. Over the weekend we went apple picking with the family. It was an interesting expierence, seeing probably about 400 - 500 people at the orchard. After a 45 min wait we got onto a tractor where it took us to the picking sight where we propped the kids up on our shoulders as they picked apples. It was great fun!!

We just celebrated my counterparts, ernest's Birthday. On his actual birthday, we had dinner with our host family, Rissoto and Chicken, followed by vegan chocolate cupcakes! Then on the Friday afterwards we had a birthday party for Ernest and, another particpant, Simon, where we dressed up and enjoyed a potluck dinner. The food we had was quite a broad spectrum. It varied from kraft dinner with hot dogs, poutine, to fufu (A Cassava food) with soup, and a roasted chicken. As well people dressed up with Ghanain styled clothing. It was a fun night of dancing, eating, and talking.

Orientation Camps Finally Over!!

Loving the city of Moncton, not to big and not to small, with lots of thing to do and see. It also doesn't hurt that everyone here seems to be incredibly happy and friendly. For those of you who ever plan to visit New Brunswick, heads up, it is not a fishing province. In the two or so weeks I have been here, I have seen one small fish market, and have not personally met a fisherman. Next weekend our host family is planning on taking us to Fredricton and maybe we will see some fisherman there?

So far everything has been pretty slow going. Last Friday we finished our community orientation camp and found out our volunteer placements for the next three months. Dorothy - Ann, from Ghana, will be working with myself every Tuesday and Thursday morning, bright and early at 6am at the Rogers community TV show. I am hoping that I will eventually become a morning person. Till then I am going to have to rely on some good coffee and a kick in the but from my host family and my counter part. As well on Fridays I will be working at Youth Quest, the local youth center. I am really looking forward to work on some new youth programming in the Community.

As far as everything else, things are running smoothly. This last weekend my counterpart Ernest and I saw WWE (Wrestling) live in Moncton. Can't say I am the biggest wrestling fan, but Ernest seemed to really enjoy it. Ernest has been a great counterpart. Everything has been great and he seems to balance me out well, he is an introvert, I am Extrovert, he is a morning person, and I am a late night person. There couldn't of been a better match. As well the family has been great. Stanley the cat, who I am severely allergic too, got me really sick and the family actually took the cat away for the three months that I am here. But for a few more day I am taking four different types of pills and I have two inhalers, oh the joy!! But I am glad the cat is gone and the kids seem to be more happy with the fact that I am not sick instead of missing their Stanley. I am so incredibly happy that I was put with the host family I have now.

Bible Camp?

After 30 hours of no sleep, expensive airport food, and crying babies in the seat behind me, I finally arrived to the beautiful city of Halifax. At the airport I was introduced to 17 other Canadian students taking part of the Canada World Youth Program, from all over the country. From there we all packed on to a bus and travelled to Mount Traber Bible Camp where our orientation camp began. At the camp we got ready to meet the 18 other participant from Ghana who arrived that night.

The 5 day camp consisted team building workshop, dancing (traditional Ghanaian dance!!), singing the "culture shock", and many long drawn out workshops that everyone seemed to enjoy :). As well we managed to talk about the showers for about half an hour with the director, trying to come up with a schedule, until everyone became frustrated enough that we eventually just let the director decide (giving the 18 boys 8 showers in the morning, and the 18 girls 2 showers in the morning?). But besides that it was great to spend time with everyone doing late night swims and attempting to speak french.

After the camp, we were bussed to our host community (Moncton), where we were met up with our host families. My counterpart, Ernest, and I, were placed with a family with four children, and a cat. Bryce and Stacey Ford (the parents) were great people who brought us the their heritage home in the center of Moncton. The 4 Children are all under the age of 8 and are quite a handful. Ben, the oldest, likes to read and play in the sand, Eli (6) is more quiet and composed, Matt (4) is very active and loves to wrestle, and Molly (2), who loves to be naked!!