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?!