The night before the trip towards Beaver First Nation was full of last minute packing and nervously watching the time. I told myself that I was not going to wait until the last minute to pack but I still procrastinated until the last minute. While I may have been feeling a little nervous, the feeling of excitement kept me up late. On May 16, 2022, it was time to get ready and before I knew it, I was loading up my suitcases into the back of the vehicle and we were on our way on a 7 hour car ride. As I sat in the back seat, I listened to music and watched the scenery around me change from city landscape to forest. It was my job to look out for wildlife (sadly, the only thing that was spotted was various deer and a dead bear).
The first stop on our trip was at Westlock, a rural farming town. We stopped at the local Tim Hortons to stretch our legs, get coffee, tea, food, and use the bathroom. After this stop, we drove for some time before reaching Slave Lake, a town which I had previously been to with my family when I was younger. Here we stretched our legs as the next part of our trip would be one of the longer stretches. One memorable part of the stretch of the journey was how fast the landscape changed. One moment, we were surrounded by farmer's fields and the next we were surrounded by lush green forests. It was also during this part of the journey we started to listen to a podcast called Slumtown, a Edmonton podcast about the “problem properties” of certain areas in Edmonton. This podcast was very enlightening as it taught me how some neighborhoods in Edmonton are facing various problems, especially with narcotics.
The second to last stop was a little community named Red Earth Creek. It was here where we again stretched our legs and got some gas. We also took a picture that included last year's interns Andrew and Kylie. It turns out that this may become a tradition to be carried out for the years to come. The last leg of our journey felt like the longest, probably because I knew that we were getting close and I was so excited to unpack and get settled. We arrived in Beaver First Nation shortly after dinner, quickly unpacked the car and headed over to the health center where Chinese food had been picked up for us. It was during this dinner that my fellow intern Karmy and I got to connect with some people from the community as well as the previous interns.
After a filling dinner, we returned back to the loft above the firehall which is where we will be staying this summer. Karmy and I chatted with Andrew and Kylie as well as created a grocery list. After a long day of travel, I went to bed looking forward to what the next day had in store for me.
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