Arriving in Chisasibi

Before I start things off, I want to give you guys a look at my beard. Here's a video of Cole from my group doing an interpretive dance representing the life of a butterfly while we were camping at Quetico Park with the Alberton Katimavik group. I'm in the background (the one with a beard): http://www.youtube.com/user/arxyn17#p/a/u/0/XgHcQiTI0pU

Also, I want to point out my newfound Katima-fame. If you Google-search "Katimavik Thunder Bay" the fourth hit is my original blog, and if you Google image-search "Katimavik competencies" the first hit is a picture of me! To a lesser extent, I plugged Pierre's pet rabbit Whisky's video on my Katimavik blog, and his view count doubled. It went from 14 to 28. That's not bad.

Anyway, our PL gave us a real good send-off from Thunder Bay. She got us all to select nine beads from a bead store called Jangles, one representing each member of the group, with an explanation for why we chose them, and string them onto a bracelet. I wore my bracelet every day until we were doing a dreamcatcher-making workshop in Chisasibi, and our new PL suggested we use them to decorate our dreamcatcher. I thought it seemed like a good idea, because I'll probably only wear a Katima-bracelet outside of Katimavik for a couple weeks, but I'll probably use a dreamcatcher for years. I lost Pierre's bead, and Clay's wouldn't fit, so I wound up with no dreamcatcher, and no bracelet, and now I'm scared that all of the things I learned from Pierre will disappear from my mind because I lost his sacred bead! NO! I learned so much from him!

She also gave us each a little gift package. A rock from Mt. McKay, an animal representing us, and a note with an explanation as to why. I got the rooster, because of my affinity with birds, because birds are capable of picking up on things that other creatures aren't, like I can, and because it is a symbol of my growing initiative. She has a toy goat which she carries everywhere. I'm doing the same with my rooster.

I have to plug this song in memory of my T-Bay PL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBmlyfWd5GQ

(I really hope that's the right video, since I can't watch them myself on this slow computer)

Our group decided to all do seperate Final Presentations, because we couldn't find one we all wanted to do. I did a presentation on my hat. I made a poster of all the pins I got in T-Bay and told the story behind each.

I completed my hat in T-Bay, too. Filled the entire rim with pins. I first finished it when we were camping at Quetico, and a girl from Alberton gave me a Drumheller, Alberta pin, but I managed to reorganize them so that I could fit more on. There's absolutely no more space, now. The finishing pin turned out to be a Chisasibi, Cree Nation pin which I got for volunteering at a cultural camping trip called Mamouidow.

When we left, we stopped over in Montreal for six hours before taking another flight from a smaller airline to Chisasibi. Me, Clay, Pierre and Rachel missed the flight and our punishment was a free day in Montreal!

...Well, our real punishment was missing seeing eleven bears, which Devon, Cole and Marie got to see by chance on their first day.

Em got a special leave to go to her sister's wedding, so we all arrived in pieces. When I first found out that it was only Devon, Cole and Marie to get on our third flight, I felt like this was like elimination rounds, and only one person would actually make it to Chisasibi.

Anyway, the people in Chisasibi are really friendly. Unfortunately, I have not gotten to experience culture shock or racism. In Montreal, everyone spoke English, and in Chisasibi, everyone speaks English, too.

Around here, Katimavik are like celebrities. I remember our PL turned on the radio, and we heard the last Katimavik crew introduce themselves between songs. Everyone knows who we are.

In Summerside, we did less work than in Thunder Bay, but got more acknowledgement. In Chisasibi, we do less work than we did in Summerside, but get more acknowledgement.

Actually, there's a lot of similarities between Summerside and Chisasibi. People in Chisasibi prefer Pepsi to Coke, and say dinner instead of lunch, and supper instead of dinner, just like in Summerside!

But on the flip side of all the positivity, we've been here for less than two weeks, and there's already been:
-one murder
-two rapings
-one plane crash
-one suicide

That's significant for a community of 3000 people. Every time something like this happens, it rocks the community, because everyone knows each other, at least on an extended level.

Okay, so in Quebec there is this brand of beer called Griffon. It comes as a red ale and a blonde ale. Obviously, I want to try it, since it has my namesake, but we're in a dry community. That means that we aren't allowed to consume alcohol! But it's only a dry community for Katimavik, not for the village! (Did you know I'm in a Cree Aboriginal village in Quebec?) And if we're caught, we don't get a verbal warning, or a CTI, or even a Final Warning. We get kicked out! And the village is small enough that everything comes back to this PL!

Here are some reviews of Griffon beer:
http://www.united-nations-of-beer.com/griffon-rousse.html
http://www.united-nations-of-beer.com/griffon-extra-pale-ale.html

If it were just a Final Warning, I'd think, "They're not going to kick me out in the last month of the program, and I've made five months with a clean slate". But an automatic kick out in the last month of the program?! You HAVE to respect that!

When we first came to the new house, we were assigned a task. We each chose a random balloon, popped it, and found a slip of paper inside. The slip of paper had an animal on it, and whatever animal you drew, you would have to ask around the community to learn more about. I drew rabbit. This means that, between rooster and rabbit, I got the smallest animal of everyone in my group both times, which is funny because I'm the largest person.

I haven't learned a ton, and I've been asking around. I've learned that rabbit in Cree is wopsh, that their fur is used for blankets and children's coats, that these are warm in winter but cool in the other seasons, and that you can make good dumplings out of them.

I think the new house has an impractical setup. It has two common areas, but they're not large enough for everyone to chill in at once. It like, forces the group to divide. It's the first house I've felt myself hanging out in my room. I think that's the mark of a bad Katima-house. Our Summerside one had only one common area, but it was large, so everyone hung out in the same area, promoting unity. Thunder Bay had two large common areas, so people could or could not divide. I think it's better motivation if people are forced to be together through the bad times, but it's still better than a house that forces the group to divide.

It does, however, have a dishwashing machine, and we're actually ALLOWED TO USE IT! Thunder Bay had a television and dishwasher which we weren't allowed to use.

I feel like the group has gone full cycle. At Summerside we all acted like we did at home. In Thunder Bay, it seemed like we all demonstrated new aspects of positive personal development which we learned through Katimavik. In Chisasibi, we all act like we did at the beginning of the program! In the end, we didn't learn anything! I told this to Cole, and we both burst out laughing. I'm glad he laughed, because if he cried, I just might have as well.

Final rotation battle for chairperson. This time, I matched off against Pierre. Like last time, it was real bloody. Both of us were betrayed by someone we were great friends with, and it came out a draw. I won on a coin flip. I felt bad. I wouldn't have competed against him, but I was nominated. I tried to give him the position, but he wouldn't take it. So I get chariperson, two terms in a row, and for the entire last half of the program.

We saw the Northern Lights. The local don't like them. They believe they're dangerous and they can kill you. There are ritual behaviours they act out in order to ward them off.

We went camping for a week with the Cree. Turned down bacon, ham, spare ribs, beans because they were bacon-baked, marshmallows because they have geletin, but ate tarmigan, caribou, goose, beaver and bear. I'm sorry, Katima-vegis!

There are seven people who turned vegetarian inside Katimavik, to my knowledge. In the two clusters I've been in, there were only a total of four original vegetarians. That's four to eleven!

The cluster vegetarians forgave me pretty quick, but the two in my group are kind of leary. I upset them pretty bad, but they're coming around...