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!