Fall in Hay River

The last few days Hay River has seen beautiful fall weather, no snow to be seen, the rain and wind has gone and the sun is out. Yesterday it topped 17 and the fall colours are just SO beautiful!

Everyday I find myself feeling more and more settled in Hay River as I meet more and more people and get to know the students and teachers better at the schools. Most days I help out in the Kindergarten class in the morning, giving one-one help to kids who need a little extra attention with their writing and basic fine motor skills. Once again I am reminded that Kindergartners are painfully honest. The other day I had a little girl come right up close to me and say “what's wrong with your face?”. I pointed to my freckles and said “do you mean these?” she said “yeahhhh” I then went on to explain what freckles were and that I was actually not the only person in the world that had them. Hilarious! At lunch I hang out with a great group of year 7's and supervise their lunch room, then I am out around the playground with the students. In the afternoons I am in the grade four classroom where I help support the teacher and spend time with a few boys who are a little bit of a handful. There is one particular boy who comes from a pretty difficult background and therefore has some pretty major behavioural issues but I am really enjoying hanging out with him even though sometimes it is a challenge, I hope that I can build a good relationship with him and share some fun times.

Field trip to the Beaver Dam

Besides making it into the local paper several times and getting my housemate to cut my hair, so much has happened over the last few weeks, this may turn out to be a long blog, so apologies in advance. There have been so many highlights but I would have to say last night was a ripper. Last night was my first Ice Hockey training. I suited up in my excessive padding and hit the ice. It's not as easy as it looks to skate around when you feel like an ompa loompa but it was so much fun and while I need a lot more practice I managed to fluke a goal in the practice match. Can't wait to play again!

Really enjoying living with my new housemates Elizabeth (another volunteer) and Annabelle. We enjoy some GREAT meals together, even though they are vegetarian ones, go exploring, and hit up garage sales on a regular basis. I recently acquired some used ice skates for $2, a bedside lamp for $2 and a Clarinet (which seemed like a good idea at the time) for $5.
The other week I joined the teachers for a cultural day as part of their professional development. We went for a tour of the local native reserve, listened to native men speak and share their cultural practices and cooked meat, fish and bannock (traditional bread, similar to damper) and drank spruce tea made from the branches of the Black Spruce Tree, all very yummy! It was such a privilege to listen to the native men talk about their way of life, they have such incredible respect for the land and what it produces and value the knowledge passed on from one generation to the next so highly. I could have listened to them talk and share their stories for hours. I'm really enjoying learning about the culture of the native Canadians from this area.



Great Slave Lake



Last weekend Elizabeth and I agreed to help out with the soccer tournament that Hay River hosted this year. All the schools from the district, as far as 6 hours away came to Hay River to compete and all stayed in the local High School. Our job was to stay up all night both Friday and Saturday night and supervise. Essentially making sure the building doesn't burn down and that no one who wasn't a part of the tournament tried to get in. It was tough to stay awake and unfortunately it mean I wasn't able to watch the fist game of the AFL grand final but we recovered well and the building still stands thanks to us.
In the early hours of Friday night Elizabeth and I attended the Hay River Pub to watch the AFL grandfinal. I was so pumped that they screened it just for me, even though I had to try to explain several times what it was I was trying to watch. As it turns out no one had a clue what AFL was in Hay River until Friday Night. Hay River is now a better place!

It's hard to believe I've been away from Australia now for so many months. I am a little worried that two people in the last few weeks have commented that I don't have a very strong Australian access. I was almost offended but I am continuing to work hard at mumbling my words together and not pronouncing any 'r' sounds. However I do sometimes have to put on a Canadian accent for the Kindergarten kids otherwise they can't understand me. So the Aussie accent still must be there after all.

I have been keeping my eyes out for the Northern Lights but haven't managed to see them yet, apparently it's not the best time of the year yet, but there's still a chance. Can't wait!