Oi

So after 2 days of travel and 4 plane rides we arrived in Maputo, Mozambique. Upon getting off the plane we were hit with 30º heat. Our whole group was wearing jackets, and sweaters. I on the other hand mailed my only jacket back home 2 days before leaving Alberta, and had been wearing my sandles for the whole journy. Customes was pleasnly quick and easy. Once leaving the airport and heading out onto the street it kind of sunk in that we were in Africa. Our Mozambiqian supervisor met us and hearded us all into a chappa which was blairing hiphop. for anyone who hasn´t seen a chappa before( I haven´t ), it´s a van that has 24 +/- seats. Everyone that I have seen was about to explode or fall apart. Also they are the fastest and scariest machine I´ve ever been in. Some how 22 of us fit into this strange, funny, smelly vihicle and head to our hostle called "The Base" Maputo is a very loud, crazy, destroyed city. The road have huge holes in them. Some road are more holes with islands of pavement that drivers swirve to avoid.

After two days at The Base we somehow all fit into another chappa( 24 people, with 3 bags for each person ) and drive for 6 hours to Inhambane. For the whole drive there are people... Everywhere. Poor people who sell things on the side of the road. Most of them have no power and a small bamboo house. Once and a while we pull over to the side of the road and honk the horn a few times. Within seconds the Chappa is swarmed with people selling things. you just open your window, pay the money and get your Santal juice. There are many markets that are just vehicles parked in a heap, and houndres of people walking around knocking on windows.

Inhambane is much cleaner and friendlier than Maputo. Although not many people use garbage cans. Often there is jsut garbage everywhere. My "homestead" seems to be bigger than most and has a house for my host mom and dad / Dining room / TV room. There is a house for Simon and I / 3 host brothers. A cooking shelter, an outhouse, a shower shelter, and there are also two houses I think my family rents out. There are 2 mango trees in my yard, a Tangerine tree, lemon tree, coco nut tree, banana tree, and some other fruit I´ve never heard of.

There is sand everywhere! I swim in the Indian Ocean everyday, and eat a mango everyday.
The sun rises at 4:45... and 15 - 30 minutes before that every rooster( and there are lots of them ) crows. There are chickens and goats everywhere... roaming free. haha.

Tofo beach is beutiful and only 30 meticais ( about a dollar fifty ) return trip.

I am having troubel uploading photo´s but ill keep trying.

ps I know my spelling is horrrrraqbafble lol1

This one's for you Erin!

This a class photo of Mrs. Maslyk's grade 2 class at Centennial school. This is where I spent my Mondays. This really made me miss being in grade 2... a lot. I could spell the words... I could do the math, and the science was so simple but fun!




On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings I spent my time at the food bank sorting food, putting together "hampers" for the poor, and also making sure the group was fully stalked with Clodhoppers as there seemed to be an infinite amount of them.

The bread table...

More Kraft Dinner than anyone should ever eat... except maybe Sam Kingston...

Sam smells

Holy crap Africa tomorrow! I'm sure my updates will be much more exciting than this boring one.

Banff take two

So this week the whole CWY group got to travel to Banff VIA the Lion's Club tour bus. The weekend consisted of a tour of Banff, street wandering, hiking to the top of Sulfur Mountain, bathing in a hot spring, partying at the "Hoodoo" club (including a couple drinks and a warning), and sleeping in a church basement.

Banff has a strangely perfect vibe about it. There aren't and big box stores... and there is no garbage..also there are deer walking around through the street at night down town. I think there are only 6k people that live there, but it's the best 6k people.

On another note Africa is in n 5 days! !!!

That means visiting 5 airports, and spending 2 days in transit. Can't wait

Well less than two weeks left in 'lil ol Wetaskiwin. The future holds two more work days, four or five group days filled with hours of orientation, a cultural show, and a weekend in Banff. Golly.
It's hard to think that in twelve days our group will be hopping through five airports over eighteen hours or so. Followed by an eight hour bus ride...maybe next to a group of chickens.


Although time is coming close to an end, things are as busy as ever. Today we went out to another participant's family cottage in the middle of nowhere and went for a wagon ride/ hot dog roast. The cottages have no running water, or electricity. Yep you guessed it.... Out houses! All and all a very neet place to hang out for a weekend.


!!!

Where are you from again?

So I've learned that PEI is the best place ever created in the eyes of Wetaskiwin'ites.

Everytime our CWY group is ever introduced and we go through the gruling task of giving our life stories and the what it is we do and all that jazz.

"Hi whats your name?"

"I'm Crizalda from Mozambique!"

"OK"

"I'm Simon from Kenya!"

"Oh, OK"

"I'm Chadwick from Prince Edward Island"

"OHHHH, from PEI?? What part of PEI are you from? Oh that's just wonderful!!! OMG!!!!"

This is every conversation I've ever had.

Wattta weekend

So this first picture isn't apart of my awesome weekend... But it was a wicket fun day of playing with the four wheeler.

Friday started with a trip to the Reynolds Museum. This Mr Reynolds is the reason why the slogan "cars cost less in Wetaskiwin" exists. We got to see lots of neat things including the first electric car made in the early 1900's.

From the museum a fellow program and I stopped in at the Boston Pizza for a delicious lunch and a pitcher of beer and some. After a pint of peach schnapps or so we traveled for an hour to the lacomb corn maze! After running around getting lost in the maze for a while we decided to have a Heineken.. or two. By this time it's dark and it was time to bring out the masks and scare some children. After an hour and some it was time to go... A Rockstar and Vodka, more Peach Schnapps and a shooter we headed home.

Hanging out at home for an hour or so we decided to have some Zambooka and light it on fire in our mouths.

By this time it is time to head to a club called "Players." After more Rockstar and Vodka and a couple shots of rum we end up on the dance floor at the club. Here we dance like we haven't been in a club in months....because we haven't. A couple trips to the bush outside the bar for rum and a whole lot more dancing we end up home. Surely nothing can top this night.

Ten O'clock the next morning it's time to volunteer at the library's annual book sale. 2 hours of being cold later it's time to rake leaves at the Cambell's(where I've spent the last forty eight hours.) After making a huge pile of leaves we end up sleeping on top of it for over a half an hour. At four O'clock we head out to the country to volunteer at a Big Red Barn Dance(complete with wagon rides) to raise money for the hospital. We direct traffic for a hour and head inside for food and drinks. After several drinks we are dancing to a band made of two men who know every old time/ country song ever made. And how we danced.....

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

murp

So things in Wetaskiwin go on as normal... Tomorrow the Mozambiqan and CWY head haunchos are coming to town for a Thanksgiving dinner made by us the participants... Simon and I just finished making two delicious looking pumpkin pies which I will no go take a picture of. We also have tomorrow untill about five o'clock to come up with a bunch of acts for a talent show. All we have so far is a garbage bag full of halloween costumes from the salvation army...

Desperados

For some reason when people find out that your a part of CWY they want to give you things.

Today a friend of my host family gave us a dozen Tequila Infused beers.

Awesome!

Pow Wowza

I just got home from the Hobbema reserve and holy moly it was neato! In the center of the room there was a HUGE pile of food. Everyone was instructed to bring a container and fork to eat, and a bag for all the extra food so nothing went to eat. Three elders, and 10 or so servers sat in a circle around the food. A peace pipe was lit and passed clockwise around the circle. everyone had a puff and smudged. The food was passed out (always clockwise, starting from the east) untill all was gone. once it was blessed everyone began to eat. Once the food was gone a group of 10 sat in the middle of the room and sang and played drums. this lasted for about a minute, and after a minutes break they would start again. Everytime the music started a dance circle would form.

We were told that often a powwow goes on untill early the next morning.

Overdue Update

It's been a while since I've updated blog...

This past week my host family took my counter part and I to the mountains! We stayed in a place called the Rocky Mountain Ski Chalet outide of Banff in Canmore. We traveled to a bunch of places and saw a zillion(wow!) waterfalls.

We hiked a for an afternoon at a place called Johnson's Canyon. The trail followed along side a stream that has eroded a nice deep canyon complete with water falls, and pools filled with bright blue water! Neato!

We also went to Lake Louise. One of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. I'll have you note me in the water. I'll also have you note the glacier on the top of the mountain melting, being the sole source of water in Lake Louise...

Also I finally have a job! Hurray! 2 days a week, for 6 hours or so.... life is hard.

In the mornings I work at the soup kitchen, and in the afternoon I work at the Salvation Army thrift store! The hardest part about work is NOT taking home junk. When I'm bored I tend to waste money.. and at 1/2 price for volunteers... and the most expensive thing in the store being around 5 bucks.... meh we'll see how things go.

Since my current family is leaving for a month to travel the world Simon and I get a new host family, which we met last night. They seem like very nice people...but the most important thing is that they also have a hot tub...and ALSO make thier own wine!! Yay!!

Anyway, I'm off to Hobbema the near by Cree indian reserve for a pow wow. Food,dancing, peace pipe, sweat lodge, and all that jazz.

- Squating Dog

Yummy yummy cake for Simon

I made a birthday cake for Simon today!

Hurray for Cake!

OOL SETS 3.0

After a long hard morning doing what ever it is that we do, the stress had built up and the only solution was to buy slushies and add a little something extra...

On another note I pass this advertisment every day on my travels...

Tomorrow me and an African get to go to the market and beg strangers for a host family that we can live with for the next 2 1/2 months! Wish us luck!

Lazy Sunday

I earned this sweet ribbon for participating in the Terry Fox run this morning.

I also invested a smooth 50 cents in a sticker machine and got this witty bumper sticker...

A true Canadian eh?

Today I manged to hit up the two thrift shops in Wetaskiwin, and managed to buy a real Canadain accessory to show the Africans.

This bad boy cost me a buck at the "Salvation Army blow out sale."

I've yet to take it off, which is sad because it smells like it's been in someones basment for the last 10 years...

Sweet Ride

So this will be my mode of transportation for the next three months. She's not the cutest chick in town, but she has big tires for the snow and a rack in the back for what ever I need to take home...

Bonus!

Sometimes knowing the right person helps...

Our host family took us to a gym where they thought they could get us a group rate at yoga, or rock climbing, but all we got were $50 worth of boston Pizza cupons. Aparently the owner of the gym also owns the local BP.

Wow $50.. thats almost enough for an app and a drink at BP!

A long hard day...

Life in Wetaskiwin is hard...
Between sleeping in and teaching my counterpart Simon to ride a bike I managed to squeeze in some time for the bare escentuals...

Wine cellar

Living room hot tub

Simon from Kenya

Chadwick enjoying some homemade vinho

I will try and keep this blog updated with my future struggles.

The best money can buy!

Now that I have bought a pair of Birkenstocks I basicly sleep in them....

Sunflower!

I was scared that I wasn't going to see any sunflowers before I left, but on a walk today look what I found!

an evening stroll

I love how green Charlottetown gets in the summer. I felt I should use my camera for once and take a couple shots...

This is a trail across the road

Brighton Rd, home of the Chadwick

Neat