So Long, Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight.

Blogging community: we regret to inform you that this will be our last blog. Our 6 weeks spent in Webequie have flown by and we cannot believe that Saturday we will be back on the mainland of Thunder Bay, Ontario (cell phone reception?) and after a 4 hour lay-over Toronto, Ontario. The people and kids we have met here in Webequie have been so welcoming and memorable – we have so many thank you’s to give. We spent 7 hours slaving away on 27 personalized, hand-made Thank You Cards, which still do not express our gratitude.

Reflecting on our time here, we will miss the hilarious one-liners of all the kids:

1) “Do you speak British Columbian?”

2) Question box of the week: topic bullying – “does lady gaga wear makeup?”

3) A kid throws rocks, “be nice”, he responds, “be nice to your p**sy”

4) Best Jeopardy team names: Team Justin Beaver (an actual person in Webequie…), Eaglebanana, and our favourite, The Ladies Choice

As well as our personalized nicknames:

Hilary: Celery, Small (and many other height oriented terms of endearment that are not blog appropriate…)

Meagan: Sasquatch, Meagely, Big, Suzy

And Sarah: Sarily, Normal, Madame Bieber, Todd.

We also must mention our furry wolf friends, who will be greatly missed. Due to our much lighter baggage coming home, we hope to bring back some hybrid wolves, as well as some children (don’t worry, they will be checked in separate luggage).

Our project has come to a close with a few monumental events. We held a Boy’s Night this last Wednesday, in which we made dinner, cookies, played numerous rounds of pictionary, and ended with sports in the gym. Eleven boys between the ages of 11 and 13 showed up for the festivities. The night started great - highlights included: eating hot sauce covered pasta with no hands, a competitive game of soccer-baseball, and much hilarity for us as we found out the boys write their girlfriends names on the inside of their hats (Hilary + Meagan + Sarah = LOVE T.I.E).

T.I.E. = true if erased..duh

We encountered some difficulties during the end of the night, as the boys may have had a little too much fun as they refused to leave…This led to desperate clinging to anything and everything in the gym, punching bag and microphone included. 2 hours later, we sauntered home and ate our feelings.

You may be wondering folks…did we go swimming? The answer is YES. The other question…did it snow yesterday? The answer is also YES. After declaring at school that today was the day, we put on our brave faces (and our play clothes), and got ready for our icy dip. Many of the kids ended up joining us, as well as ½ the mosquitoes in Ontario. We had a large audience and several kids joined in after much coxing and borderline peer pressure. A great way to end our week, and lead into tomorrow’s Health Movie Screening, which we have been filming with the kids this past week. This movie will be shown to the entire school at the monthly Awards Ceremony.

We didn’t want to say this earlier, for fear of jinxing Mother Nature…but we have been bug free for 37 days. Today was the first day of bugs, but we are still black fly free. Our choice to not buy bug spray due to economic hardships paid off. We didn’t have the space for it on the way here anyways.

While we are really sad to leave Webequie, the project has been a great success and we are excited to announce its continuation next year. This year was a pilot initiative, and we have been so lucky with the people we have met and the relationships we have built. Two Peer Educators will be hired in Fall 2011 to visit Webequie – spread the word! (Shameless QHO Plug…).

As much as we have enjoyed being blogging bitties, we also appreciate our faithful blog followers. We hope our blog has entertained you ½ as much as it has entertained us.

Word to the Webequie Wannabes, aka all you Northern Nancy’s: your awkward alliterations can’t compare to our perfect puns and witty words.

Adieu, Adieu, to ye and ye and ye.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pungent Pilot Porkers.

(we have eaten our 300lbs)

“3 Funnest Ladies in Town”

Today the tribes merged, as new guests have arrived at the hotel - bringing with them food and preserves. They are leaving on Thursday. We may not have to start eating one another if they leave food behind. Yesterday, casually digging amongst the boxes of remnants from last Christmas, Sarah found a box of pancake mix. There was no expiry date, all systems go! On the breakfast menu: pancakes, syrup and smiles all around.

Speaking of “borrowing” food, our Girl’s Night menu consisted of a block of mozzarella found in the freezer (didn’t know you could freeze cheese?), half a gallon of PREGO (tomato sauce) we found in the fridge, and an industrialize size bag of flour used for the make shift pizzas (all 10 of them!). All of the aforementioned ingredients were courtesy of the construction company that was here at Christmas. Hopefully they don’t come back before we leave on Saturday! If they do, we will have to resort to our airport tactics of pulling the charity card.

The pizza making led into a miniature food fight consisting of flour, dough, and odds and ends left over from our gimp bracelets. Girl’s Night round two was an even bigger success than the first. Fourteen girls showed up and were keen to do all the crafts we had planned for them. Some of these included: tissue paper bowl making, beading, gimp bracelets, personalized picture frames, and an epic marathon of photo shoots and videos galore (courtesy of photobooth). As our beauty barf masks were so well received at the last Girl’s Night, we didn’t want to deny the new group of girl’s this spa experience. Problem: it’s Survivor Week, and we are out of oatmeal. Luckily, we have improved our scrounging skills and found a box of corn flakes. Mask ingredients round two: honey, sugar, and cornflakes. Yes folks, it burns. Don’t try this at home.

Something else not to try at home…trust falls off of desks. With our savvy supervision, leadership games were a huge hit among all the grades. We have never seen the grade 1’s line up so quickly and quietly. Just to paint you a picture of what the grade 1 class is usually like…we enter the class with the kids sitting quietly at their desks, casually reading their books…we leave the class with 20 screaming children clinging to our backs and the windows, feet stirring tubs of crayons, chanting our “names”: Smeg-aly, Celery, and Sarahly aka Big, Normal, Small.

Small, Normal, Big.

Speaking about normal, do you normally go on 6 hour fishing trips? WE DO! We were lucky enough to be invited fishing by a couple of the teachers at the school. We got the grand tour of Webequie island, as well as a bit of a history lesson from Norman, who has lived in the community his whole life. Sites included: eagles, loons, geese, and even patches of snow. The dynamic between best friends, Norman and Eric, cannot be put into words. They are pretty much like a happy version of the movie, “Grumpy Old Men”. They kept us entertained for the entire 6 hours. A boat full of snacks, five smiling faces, and 32 fish later, we returned with dinner, to the bright city lights of Webequie. This has been one of our best experiences so far and we are happy to have been included on their trip.

Stay Classy,

Fishing Fanatics.

The Tribe has Spoken.

Exhibit A: make a funny face.

Remember that time when we said it was hot, sunny, and the kids were swimming? And that people down south should be jealous? Oh right. It is now –10 degrees at night, snowing and we are without heat, hot water, telephone, and to top it all off, Bryan has left us again (forever). Thankfully, Barney Beaver (the hotel manager), has come to our rescue once again, providing us with the aforementioned amenities. Without him, we would still be suffering from brain freeze in an attempt to wash our hair.

As we are beginning to enjoy chili round two, Hilary almost saw chili round three as a child head-butted her minutes after scarfing down this delicacy. The kids have continued to humour us with their ongoing antics in the cold weather. There is never a dull moment of toilet tag, especially when the game is interrupted for sexual health lessons regarding the wolf pack. Some of these include having the children teach us about how puppies are made by pointing out the humping dogs. The kids were also keen to point out the aroused dog, asking us uncomfortable questions about his anatomy. Karen, the high school teacher, continues to walk to school with a staff, fending off the wolf pack, as they are tracking the scent of her female dog that is currently in heat. It is no longer sexual health week in Webequie, but the topic seems to persist…

We have been busy for the past few weeks planning for the Career Fair. The Career Fair is attended by the whole community and flights are chartered in for different organizations to set up booths; we were very privileged to be given a spot this year. We set up a poster-board, powerpoint, and pamphlets on Substance Abuse and the ways to seek help in Webequie. We also had a quiz for people to fill out regarding Substance Abuse in the community. These quizzes were submitted for the chance to win 2 prizes, which were generously donated by Levi at the Band Office. We had a lot of people stopping by our booth and asking us questions. It was a great way to raise awareness about the effects of drugs on the body, emotions, and the community.

So proud of our poster & pamphlets!

As our 39 days in Webequie come to a close, we are beginning to take on the mentality of Survivor. It is no coincidence that the television show also runs for 39 days. From our first days in Webequie, we have been planning for this Survivor week, as we will be eating the remnants of our 300lbs of food and scrounging the leftovers from other hotel guests. We pray new guests arrive soon. Today was a good day. We received half a jar of peanut butter and a quarter of a tin of instant coffee. Let us hope we can only be so lucky tomorrow.

Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.

Stay Classy,

Hungry Hunnies.

*DISCLAIMER: Please note, we are lost on this island without Bryan. Please also note that Bryan is a Lord of the Rings guru. We made him a card resembling Mount Doom. To give you a little taste of the card, here is a tidbit of our witty ditty:

Frodo and Sam went on a great trek,

They made many friends they wouldn’t forget.

Bryan guided them along their way,

Protecting them from danger and the dogs that stray.

To serve and protect is Bryan’s duty,

Taking it to heart and earning some booty.

Bryan kept the ring near and dear to his heart,

Just like the wolf pack has been from the start.

Sarah, Hilary, and Meagan, the stars of the hotel,

Thoroughly enjoyed Bryan’s company…he was swell!

So now that it’s time to say a tearful goodbye,

We can take comfort in the cheap meat we have left to fry!

A long awaited photo of Constable Doherty.

He pretended he didn’t like the card, but he did bring it with him on the plane and it is probably on his fridge.

Beauty barf anyone?

Just "chillin".

GIRL'S NIGHT! Our frog cupcake creations.

Roaming around the Webequie desert.

 “Hello…How bout that Walking Club? I guess that’s what they call it in Webequie. Ha. Ha… You guys might not know this, but we consider ourselves a bit like loners – we tend to think of ourselves as a three-man wolfpack. But when we brought Bryan home, we knew he was one of our own. And the wolfpack, it grew by one. So there, there was four of us in the wolfpack. We were alone first in the pack and then Bryan joined in later. And one week ago, when Bryan introduced us to the cheap meat, we thought, wait a second. Could it be? And now we know for sure, we just added 2 porkchops to our wolfpack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together in Webequie, looking for free food and children to play with.” [slight copyright infringement – The Hangover]

Dear parents, The Hangover is a movie…Sometimes we call ourselves the wolf pack to be funny

We have been graced with heat and sunshine for the past week – sorry to all those reading who are enduring the rain and cold weather down south. Before we found our sunscreen in the bottom of one of our suitcases, the sun left its kiss on Sarah’s neck. The kids decided her peeling skin was a hickey from her boyfriend, Justin Beiber. Although the sun has been shining, there is still ice covering the shore of the lake. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped the kids from running full force down to the water and swimming for hours on end. We only made it up to our ankles before we retreated back to the beach. We’ve made a promise to the kids that we will go swimming before we leave…we may regret this in a week or to as it is sure to remain icy, frigid, and full of leeches.

You may have been wondering why we (the wolf pack) has been on hiatus from the blogging world (NO, we are not in heat – we are sticking to contract!). We have been really busy with community events and “chillin” with our “ever smooth legs” – glad the kids are so observant of our personal hygiene regimes. Walking Club has turned into an after school games club. This is constantly challenging our creativity skills as we strive to come up with more games beyond the staples of: huckle-buckle, octopus, relay races, blob tag, and toilet tag. These games quickly lead to beach swimming where we struggle to come up with new excuses why we aren't in the water.

Last Friday was one of the most fun nights we have had yet. It was GIRL’S NIGHT in Webequie! You know the classic nail painting, makeovers, bracelet making, dinner and a movie. We started off the evening by whipping up some cupcakes to later be decorated into frogs. It was an action packed night, but the highlight was definitely the homemade, budget facemasks, which were a lovely consistency, highly resembling baby vomit. After Meagan was the guinea pig, we can’t believe the girls joined in the festivities. What was in these masks you ask? Oatmeal, honey, and milk…that’s it. Cucumbers were not in the budget either, so we replaced this spa necessity with apple slices. As the masks burned our faces and the apples began to brown, we decided it was time to quickly remove the masks from our faces. From time to time we find remnants of “beauty barf” in mysterious locations around the bathroom and kitchen.

To talk about something a bit more appetizing, we put our resume skills to work this week making close to a thousand sandwiches for the community at the Band Hall. We had a shortened teaching schedule this past week, due to a death in the community, but made the most of our time helping out wherever needed. Monday was the funeral, so we pitched in by putting our culinary skills to work and cleaning and setting up for the multiple ceremonies. We were glad that we could be of help to the community in such a hard time and our previous employment backgrounds came in handy as we pumped out sandwiches in assembly line fashion. Meagan used her hybrid multi-tasking skills to prepare the bread, meat, and cheese for Sarah to gracefully spread the mayonnaise using her Common Ground expertise. Hilary put her previous gift-wrapping skills to work by saran-ing the hundreds of sandwiches with ease and care.

That's all for now folks,

Stay Classy,

The Budget Beauty Babes.

***INTERNET IS BEING VERY TEMPERAMENTAL. PICTURES COMING SOON IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS***