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***

4 tampons, 3 lubricated condoms and 2 wooden penises…its Sexual Health Week in Webequie!

The wolf pack holds strong.

Late Sunday Afternoon: silence in the kitchen. Meagan angrily uses all of her elbow grease to scrape the burned remnants off the bottom of the pot, while Sarah stands in silence dish-rag in hand. Hilary, demoted to laundry in the bathtub…

3 hours earlier…Hilary enthusiastically offered to put her savy culinary skills to work by making a chili that would last us the week. Meagan and Sarah, overjoyed with the offer, continued prepping lessons as Head-Chef Hilary skipped to the kitchen unsupervised. Twenty-minutes later, Sous-Chef Sarah and (s)Moke Control Meagan (alliterations are hard…) decided to check on the chef hard at work, or so they thought… Hilary was concentrated on writing in her journal, while smoke billowed from the pot. Don’t worry folks, the fire alarm doesn’t work unless the kids pull it. After switching pots, and then burning it again, Hilary was demoted to picking the burned lentils out of the chili. Props to Hilary for using all ingredients available in the kitchen. To replicate this meal (minus burn-age), see the ingredients below:

1) Lentils (“a BUTT load of lentils”: Hilary)

2) Chickpeas (“a CRAP TON”: Hilary)

3) Tomato sauce

4) Salsa

5) Hot Sauce (to taste, ie. half a bottle) (“MORE PLEASE”: Sarah)

6) Mystery meat sauce (“pretty sure it was pork…”: Meagan)

7) Diced tomatoes

8) Sketchy dollar deal celery and onions

9) Any spice left behind by the previous construction workers

Result: dense, protein-packed chili to feed three “big eaters” for the next week. Mmmmm! Jealous?

On Saturday morning, we woke up for our first Saturday Craft event. We had a really good turn out and the kids enjoyed making paper animal puppets and painted rock bugs. Unfortunately, our crafts didn’t end as smoothly as they began… The afternoon ended with the three of us scrubbing an entire bottle of mustard (from where you ask? Your guess is as good as ours) off the gym door on our hands and knees. This was shortly followed by us sweeping up the remaining evidence of tire marks across the gym floor and remnants of mustard and sparkles. Next Saturday, we tackle sports.

After this we bought a well-deserved tub of ice cream (each) and hovered it before heading over to the sweat lodge. The three of us attempting to figure out appropriate “sweat lodge attire” from our limited understandings of the ceremony (courtesy of wikipedia) was quite the production. The comedy routine continued as we ventured across the street in our matching lululemon outfits to find the “brown and gold building”. Pink towels in hand, we were committed to sticking to our no-nudity-pact as we were unsure how reliable our internet sources were. Just as we were calming down, our nerves returned when Bob (the school counselor who invited us to the sweat lodge) announced, “Okay people, time to strip down. Sorry there’s no curtain ladies”. Sheer panic. We began to slowly undress. First by removing our shoes…then socks…then sweaters, while watching the elders for any sign of conduct. Our fear grew when we got a glimpse of Levi (the prescription drug abuse/misuse coordinator for the band office) in his underwear. Don’t worry, the undressing stopped here. For anyone who may not know, a sweat lodge is similar to a sauna in that hot rocks are placed in the centre of a small hut and water is poured over the rocks to create steam. Unlike a typical sauna, the sweat was accompanied by singing, prayer, drumming, tobacco offerings and complete darkness. None of us have ever sweat so much in our lives. The ceremony was a really amazing and spiritual experience and we were really thankful that we were able to be a part of such an important part of First Nation culture. We were honoured to be invited to and see how integral the sweat lodge is to maintaining physical and mental wellness for First Nations peoples.

Sexual health is another crucial component to the lessons we teach in each community and we began the week by teaching puberty and contraceptives. Always fun lessons! As “bear-sing” (tween slang for embarrassing, DUH) as these lessons sometimes are, the students were quite receptive to the material we taught. Today at the field we learned just how carefully the young ones had been listening. These 8 year olds, had taken it upon themselves to pop into the Nursing Station and pick up pamphlets on sexual health. They took this to the next level by filling in all the remaining anatomy (such as sperm and egg) that we had gone over in the lesson as well as explaining the process of ejaculation to a fellow classmate. A+ for extra credit!

Stay Classy,

Puberty Princesses.

DISCLAIMER: So there may have been some slight exaggeration on the chili front, as smoke did not exactly “billow” from the pot. The chili is edible and we are looking forward to the next four meals. Hilary did a smashing job at the Laundromat aka our tub, although we all took turns ringing it out for the next 2 days. Regrettably, the room remains moist.

Craft Saturday!!!

At least the kids are honest…

In the middle of our classic blog brainstorming session while washing dishes, our ingenious thoughts were interrupted by the sound of children’s stomping feet, shortly followed by the whaling of the fire alarm. When the children were asked by the Northern Store manager what they were doing outside, they responded, “we pulled the fire alarm!” … we appreciate their honesty. When we tried to give them an important life lesson about not pulling fire alarms when there is no emergency, they asked us with sheepish politeness, “why don’t you just turn it off?” Fighting back the laughter, we attempted to continue our scolding. So apologies if this blog is not up to par; our ears are still ringing.

We have had a successful first week teaching physical health: nutrition, hygiene, fitness, and diabetes. The kids really seemed to respond well to our interactive lesson plans. Our proud moment of the week was when we invented a pretty hilarious game for the Grade 6, 7, 8 classes where we gave them 30 dollars of fake money for the Northern Store, which we created in the classroom. The store included a wide variety of food items to choose from, which were organized into a produce section (the bookshelf), the refrigerated items (the window sill), and assorted dry goods (the back counter). From these items, the kids were instructed to make a balanced meal and “purchase” their items at the cash register (the fisher-price toy borrowed from the kindergarten class). A smashing hit!

We received some very well thought out questions and responses to our lessons. These were closely followed by some more…abstract responses. In the physical activity lesson (our first day of teaching) with the K4 class, we had a bit of a situation. You know…the classic teacher (Meagan) beats the student at a competitive round of Duck Duck Goose, resulting in many, many tears. In the nutrition lesson, students offered an array of new perspectives on nutrition that we had not previously considered. These included healthy meat and alternative items like mouse, spider, and our favourite, fart…Sarah’s response, “no, no we don’t eat that”. The diabetes lesson ran quite smoothly yesterday, other than the slight bump (literally) in the lesson, which will probably be appearing on Sarah’s head in the next day or two. Lets just say recovery position gone wrong.

In between all of our extracurricular activities and lessons this week, we managed to have a chance to meet Levi (the Prescription Drug Rehab Coordinator for the Band Office), who gave us some great insight into the ways in which we can develop our program to meet the needs of the community. Levi is a very well respected and influential member of the community and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with him. After an hour-long discussion, he provided us with a comprehensive report and action plan for Webequie. We hope that in collaboration with this action plan and some of the other ideas he suggested, we can really create awareness in the community about the dangers of using prescription drugs. One of the ways in which we plan to do this is by setting up a booth at the career fair (an event attended by the entire community), to provide resources for support. We are really looking forward to planning this event in collaboration with the school, the nursing station, and the band office.

The teachers at the school have eased our transition into our first week of teaching by including us in their various games and activities. Yesterday we were invited to indulge in Bannock Friday, which was even better than it sounds (especially given our limited food resources back at the hotel). We were then introduced to the Annual Webequie Icebreak Competition – a prestigious competition that has increased in cost over the past few years; the $0.50 buy-in has now inflated to a whopping $10. The object is to estimate the exact date when the entire lake will be free of ice. The stakes are high, winner takes all, and Norman is the official judge. Things are heating up (and we are not talking about the dogs this time folks!) as the competition is cutthroat. At this point, we are not sure where our allies and enemies lie. We do not know who to trust – we have heard insider information from many sides. We are taking the weekend to contemplate our guess. Any bets?

Stay Classy,

The Tooter’s Tutors

Note: We are missing Bryan’s presence as he has returned home for the week and are only consoled by knowing: 1) He is still reading the blog. 2) He is coming back in 5 days and approximately 7 hours, 15 minutes, 37 seconds? 3) That he returns with food, such as the “cheap meat” we requested, to replenish our diminishing reserves.

Spring is in the air and the wolf pack can smell it…

Kurt didn't know what a portable was. Exhibit A.

Things have heated up in Webequie, and we are not talking about the weather. Yes folks, the dogs/wolves are in heat. Keep all single canines and females alike, locked up. Our wolf pack woes continue as they now serenade us with howls as we sprint past them on our run.

As we are fearing for our safety from the wolf pack, we have legitimately become best friends with our neighbour Bryan (some wishes do come true girls). Also note, Bryan is now reading this blog… “Hi BryBry!” He has also taken us for a few tours of the community in his luxurious cop truck. The massive black metal bars don’t make for the ideal touring vehicle. Stops on the journey included: “Beverly Hills” (this is the community’s nickname for the new housing development), the new cemetery, the dump, and a guided tour of the NAPS police station – there are 3 cells, one for each of us, so we will make sure we don’t steal any of Bryan’s fridge favs.

In other kitchen adventures, we have attempted to exemplify QHO’s goals in all aspects of our lives, even on rainy days. This led us to perform a series of indoor workouts in our communal kitchen, using weights such as hot chocolate tubs, mayonnaise jars, tomato soup, and a mystery kitchen appliance. Meagan picked up the mystery appliance passing it to Sarah as an appropriate weight. Sarah smiled, “Thanks Meg!” and continued to lift this appliance as oil started pouring from all sides. “Whoops, it’s a deep fryer!” Hilary shook her head as she continued to hoist the flat of tomato soup. We burned some more calories cleaning this mess up. Maybe we will stick to runs in the future.

On a more serious note, since we are the first QHO initiative in Webequie, we are continuing to spend a large portion of our time working on learning some of the health issues that are prevalent in the community. This week, we have had meetings with Cornelius (the chief), Marilyn (a supervisor from Tikinagan, Family & Children Services), Neville (a substance abuse counselor at the Nursing Station), and various teachers at the school. We have also met with Bob Wabasse (a school counselor) who has been and will continue to be an asset to developing our initiative in the school and the community. He has provided us with a lot of insight into the complexities of the community and ways in which we can work together to help contribute our time effectively. For example, Bob has offered to translate a sharing circle with elders in the community about prescription drug abuse. We are really excited that all of the staff at the school and band office have been so supportive and accommodating with all of our many ideas and we are eager to put them into action.

Furthermore, our calendar of events is action packed with teaching hours, a daily Walking Club, Sports and Crafts Saturdays, 2 Girls Nights, and a Movie project. We are hoping that this movie project will engage older students in a leadership role and will emphasize some of the health topics we have been focusing on. This project will involve the entire student body in the production of the films and we hope to show them to the entire community at the end of our stay.

Today was the inauguration of the Webequie Walking Club; a big turn out, we might add! Events ran smoothly and the kids seemed to really enjoy being outside. The walk wouldn’t have been the same without the accompaniment of Webequie’s finest officer, Bryan, as he drove past briefly, sirens blaring. As the walk neared its end (or so we thought), we had issues in communicating this to all members of the club. Kids started to refuse to tell us where they lived and we ended up walking almost the entire reserve, in the hopes of passing their houses at some point along the way. An hour and a half later, we returned to our room exhausted and exhilarated for round 2 tomorrow. Thus we have issued the 3 official rules of Walking Club:

The first rule of walking club:

You do not talk about walking club.

The second rule of walking club:

You do not talk about walking club.

The third rule of walking club:

If it’s your first day, you have to tell us where you live.

Stay Classy,

The Wacky Weightlifters

Disclaimer: Hybrid wolves are NOT real wolves. Due to an influx of emails regarding the nature of these beasts, we would like to clarify that the wolf pack does in fact consist of dogs that resemble wolves, not purebred wolves. Thank you.

Disclaimer 2: We don’t expect Internet anytime soon as the modem/router has now been stolen from the hotel office. Bummer.

 Meg in the back of the cop truck.

The wolf pack loves us!

The Wolfpack Expands.

Another eventful couple days in Webequie! We've been meeting with various community members to figure out what topics will be most relevant for us to start teaching next week. After talking with Cliff, the nurse in charge at the nursing station, we realized that highlighting aspects of substance abuse and STI's will be quite relevant due to the needle exchange program that is set up in the community. We also met with a mental health worker named Emily, who gave us insight into the different support groups available in Webequie, as well as the importance of discussing anger and grief management, bullying and conflict resolution. It has been nice to speak to a wide array of individuals, with many varying perspectives on where our lessons will be most useful.

We talked with a few school staff, Mary, the principal, Matthew, the grade 5 teacher, and Norman, the alternate education teacher. Mom's fear not, our next door neighbour is a NAPS (Nishanawbe Aski Police Services) officer, Bryan, who makes us feel right at home in the hotel. He is happy to give us tips and answer all of our many many questions. He is starting to warm up to us and might even be enjoying our company during meals. He has also been kind enough to donate an entire box of bottled water, so we do not have to continue our intense water boiling regime.

In other news, the weather has been rather unexpected as it is currently 17 degrees and sunny. Ironically, we wake up to the sound of skidoos in the morning, going across the frozen lake.

Our accommodations are working out well, minus the fact that we cannot figure out the phone or internet. It also looks as if we are living with a man as the toilet seat must be raised in order to shut the bathroom door due to tight quarters. On the plus side, we are learning how to maneuver in very small spaces!

Looks like a lot, but rationing has already begun...

Our wolfpack is looking quite promising, although there was a slight quarrel this morning between 2 members of our little family. We think they have sorted out their issues though and using our conflict resolution lesson, we are looking forward to moving forward in a positive light. During the slight episode this morning, we befriended two young girls in the K-4 and K-5 class, who found our backpacks and rainboots quite amusing. Starting next week we will be meeting more kids in the school and hopefully they will be as easily entertained by our antics.

Stay classy,

Bryan's Besties. (we wish...)

Our 300lb Journey to Webequie.

We arrived at the airport with 4 large suitcases, a hockey bag, 3 secretly overweight carry-ons, 3 backpacks, and our smiling faces – ready to take on any strict service agents. Unfortunately, our smiling faces did not help and we spent half an hour, sweating and grunting, re-organizing all 11 bags to make weight requirements. Clothes, tuna, and protein powder were flying all over the airport while other travelers watched in horror. We had to sacrifice 3 cans of corn, as our first act of charity, offering it to an unsuspecting and appreciative bystander. The service agent eased up on the weight restrictions after realizing we were volunteering our time.

With our stress gone and our bags checked, Hilary and Sarah sat in their sweat as Meagan embraced hers with a classic mouth-open snooze for the plane ride – destination Thunder Bay. After another rearranging effort in Thunder Bay, we managed to get settled into our cozy 12-seater plane. We made a friend who is in the midst of doing several community wellbeing assessment reports for various Northern Ontario communities. We hope to stay in touch next year to overview his assessment package. Our intimate flying experience included touchdowns in Fort Hope, Lansdowne and lastly Webequie. Each take off was TURBO speed, so fast that the seats began to fall apart – Meagan sat in fear, Hilary enjoyed her first turbo-prop experience, and Sarah held strong. On the other hand, the pilot loved life and kept us entertained with his animated fire escape directions at every stop.

Upon arrival in Webequie, Jonas picked us up from the airport (drove on to the tarmark) and met us with a smile. He seemed un-phased by our obscene amount of luggage, and drove us to the hotel on the snowy roads. He told us we would be “living close to the grocery store”. Somewhat of an understatement, as we are living IN the hotel, located in the grocery store – Meagan’s dream come true. Upon arrival at the grocery store/hotel the entire community lost power and the hotel reception was closed. We sat in the lobby, in darkness, awaiting someone/anyone to let us in.

Finally settled into our hotel, we realized we had a kitchen (yay!), and proceeded to label all of our cherished possessions for the communal fridge, ie. the mass block of Costco cheese (2.3kg). We ventured out on a walk, got the lay of the land, although many people in the community are away this week for the goose hunt. We are currently in the process of trying to find someone to show us how to pluck feathers, as that seems to be the hobby of the week.

Woke up this morning, half cooked, over easy as we realized we had no way to release the heat from our room – limited ventilation L. We met Mary the principal, and Cliff, the nurse in charge, to help get a feel for the important issues in the community. We now have some great ideas for teaching in the school!

We decided to not let the carbohydrates win and went for a run – aka started our running club. We started off our running club with a few friends, trailing along behind. The numbers began to grow to a pack of 9. Unfortunately, this pack was drooling more than we were as they were hybrid wolves. We slowed our run down as we feared being mauled. Most had collars and were rather friendly. We are looking forward to expanding the species in our running club.

We are having limited internet, but cannot wait to reconnect with our blogging community.

Stay classy,

The Webequie Wolfpack.

Turkey & Cheese Anyone?!