august 2013

august 18

so we got aly back [briefly] and she's now in victoria until the first day of school. we barely saw her when she was home because we had friends staying with us last week but she seems to have had a fantastic time in india. she was very nonchalant about everything -
was it hot [30, felt like 40 degrees]? 'i guess, kinda'
what about the humidity [95%]? 'yeah it was kinda damp'.
what about the monsoons? 'it rained a bit - it was difficult to get all the water out of the trenches when we got back from lunch so we could keep digging'
how about when when you were ill [ended up at the medical centre on antibiotics]? 'it was fine - i just didn't feel good for a day or 2'.

playing a game that involved not showing your teeth apparently!

they were at an elementary school digging foundations for a vegetable garden and foundations for washrooms. she wasn't too keen on using a pick axe to get through the concrete when they were preparing the foundations but she seems very happy to shovel her days away! it seems like it was a great mix of education, hard work and fun activities.

aly - unimpressed with her pick axe!

her highlights were the day they got to spend playing with the children from the school they were building at and doing a 'water walk'. for the water walk they walked to an open well, turned the pump to pull the water up and then walked with the water to a nearby village. in the village they visited a girl who had got married when she was 15 and now had a newborn baby. she showed them how to make roti. free the children is working to build her a chimney so her house doesn't fill with smoke every time she makes a meal. while they were there, the volunteers helped to put mud on the outside of the house

drawing the water up from the well - aly and friends playing the part of the ox

the open face well

carrying water up to the village

in the village house learning how to make roti [note the baby's crib in the background]

putting mud on the house

they had fun visiting various sites including fort kumbargh, doing yoga every morning, bollywood dancing and getting henna

aly's henna

fort kumbargh

each participant makes an action plan for when they get home. if i remember rightly, aly wants to increase awareness of child labour and encourage recycling and the use of environmentally-friendly products. she's also planning to save up/fundraise to go on another trip next year [maybe kenya?] so i guess that means it was a resounding success :)

she was hoping to be able to blog while she was india but as she pointed out in one of her first blog entires 'there are more cows than wifi' so she's got some posting to do now that she's back. i'll point you to it once she has it online.

meanwhile, back in canada, the adam's family returned toby to us this week and we had a great time with them.

toby skim boarding on centennial beach, vancouver, during his week away

connie helped me to stock my freezer full of meals for when i start working full time shortly. we finally went to the H2O centre in kelowna. the children had a great time on the slides and body surfing, whilst zoe and i preferred the lazy river and hot tub! we also spent quite a bit of time at gyro beach and the kids spent a couple of hours in the inflatable park on the lake which they loved. there was even a well timed user-testing session at club penguin which toby and justin were able participate in.

at gyro beach with the adams family

today we spent a lovely afternoon at zoe's best friend's birthday party. i'm definitely not ready for the summer to be over, so i've decided to remain in denial. the good news is that there's nothing better than september in kelowna when all the tourists have gone home [no offence tourist friends!] but the temperatures are still in the high 20s and we have the beaches and lake to ourselves!

zoe and i in lake okanagan

august 4

we've just had a lovely week in victoria. we decided to break up the 7 hour journey with an overnight stop in harrison hot springs - a place we've passed many times, but never called in. anyway, we had a lovely night and enjoyed the hot springs. why can't all swimming pools be fed by a nice hot spring? the lake looked great and we were very tempted by the wipeout-esq water park in the middle of harrison lake. unfortunately we had a ferry to catch so we'll need to come back another time to explore the waterfalls, lake, mineral museum, hot springs etc.

harrison lake

harrison lake

harrison lake

the rest of the journey was uneventful - and no whale sightings so far this year on the ferries which is a shame. we had a great time in victoria. i was working all week but it was lovely to have a change of scene. i love the fact my job is so mobile :) i'm always so grateful to have been born into this era.

shortly after arriving, we had a very interesting day moving the teenage turkeys down the road to a different field. we had the dream team of nikki, sascha [not keen on animals], me [not a fan of turkeys], toryn [turkey-phobic] and dani [bird phobic]. we began by hovering their pen over them to direct them down the hill. unfortunately we couldn't fit the pen all the way down the hill so we figured we could shepherd them in the general direction. unfortunately the turkeys had other plans and dived to the side towards the old pond. fortunately a strategically positioned set of golf clubs were distributed to all involved and with a little encouragement and a bit of prodding we finally got them heading in the right direction. after several other escape attempts, we decided that driving them the rest of the way might be an idea and so we threw nikki into the pen to persuade them they really wanted to go into a truck. just a couple more escapes at the other end but thanks to nikki and sascha's excellent turkey catching abilities we finally got them into their new home. phew! farming is definitely not for the faint of heart!

sascha had to fly back on tuesday but we did manage to squeeze in a round of golf becfore he left. his brother, pete arrived just as sascha was leaving. it was great to spend some time with pete and hitomi for the rest of the week as our paths rarely cross for any length of time.

zoe and sascha relaxing on the balcony

toby surprised us by diving into farm life with great gusto! he invented the 'farm olympics' with events such as duck wrangling and the team mucking event. he found some ducklings hatching one night, he took zoe down to collect eggs one day and he even got up to do the 6am feedings which aly has passed on since becoming a teenager!

speaking of aly. we have heard next to nothing - except a phone call from a coordinator to say she'd been shipped off to the medical clinic and was on antibiotics for tummy trouble - par for the course in india i guess. i cannot wait to see her again and am now counting the days until she's back. it's been very frustrating not being able to contact her or hear anything about what she's been doing [other than the odd group update]. she's not home for long before she heads to vancouver island to farm the rest of the summer so i'll have to cling onto her like a limpet for the little time she's here!

on the way back to kelowna we delivered toby to his best friend's place in richmond and zoe got to have a sleepover with her friend for a night. the best thing about leaving friends behind when you move is coming back to visit and feeling like you're home again :) it was just zoe and i for the journey home so i was a bit worried about whether we'd keep each other entertained enough for 5 hours. 3 DVDs and an ipad seemed to keep zoe content. i was a little bored when my podcasts ran out since there's very little radio to listen to going through the mountain passes. the journey was longer than normal thanks to most of british columbia descending on the beaches and lake in kelowna for the long weekend. anyway, we're home safe and sound and finding life as a family of 3 VERY strange! zoe's so quiet you could practically hear a pin drop.

toby at cordova bay

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