Hay River here I come!

After doing some travelling and seeing the beautiful Canadian country I was feeling ready to settle somewhere for a few months. I looked into many different opportunities for work or volunteering but nothing really seemed to sit right, until I came across a education project in the Northwest Territories. It was something that grabbed me straight away but thought I was probably too late as schools started any day and the project asked for a 10 month commitment whereas I was only planing on being in Canada until December. I fired off an email anyway not thinking anything would come of it. It turned out however that a school in Hay River who already had one volunteer was requesting another and that they would be happy to have me for the three months I could commit too. From there everything happened very fast and after a lovely phone interview everything was set.

I'll be flying out to Hay River within the week to help out in the schools there. My role will pretty much be doing whatever needs to be done including classroom help, hanging out with students, student welfare to coaching sporting teams. Volunteers who come to the community also often get involved in running other youth programs and events for the community like plays, music nights, sports night etc. I am really excited about what I'll be able to get involved in.

The project is one where my role in the school will be a volunteer role however the project covers the cost of my travel there, my food and accommodation and provides some small spending money. From what I understand it is a community of about 3600 people with a large native population and therefore life sometimes operates a little differently. I can already see that there is a very strong sense of community and I really look forward to getting to know people in the town.

I've been told that I'll be able to borrow some winter clothing as temperatures can get to -40 degrees. The other downside is that in the middle of winter there is very limited daylight but I've been told that the auroras (the northern lights) in the sky are breathtaking!

I'm really looking forward to experiencing life differently to anything before and I'm hoping I can build some great relationships with the youth. I'm also looking forward to trying new things like ice-skating on a frozen lake, ice fishing and riding a ski-doo!

Here are some beautiful photographs taken from the blog of David Overall who has been a volunteer in the Northwest Territories for the past year.