The month of August, where have you gone? I am heading home in a few hours and have decided that I was going to sit down and write this blog as I don’t think I will be able to get to sleep any time soon. I am feeling sadness knowing that my time with BFN has come to a close and that I must leave these amazing people but I am also feeling excitement. I get to go home after a very long four months to see my family, friends and animals!
The month of August, just like July, was filled with so many awesome activities, even more than July (did not think that this was possible!) Where do I start with what has been experienced in the month of August. The month started with a bang! The second annual youth culture camp began the weekend of August 6 and finished August 11. Being able to attend the youth culture camp was amazing as I was able to learn about the Beaver culture.
The youth culture camp is similar to the adult culture camp but is only for youth. For a week, youth are taken to an ancestral ground called Two Lakes where they will camp for a week and learn everything about their Beaver culture. Two Lakes is very far into the bush and has no cell reception. This was chosen on purpose for the youth as it allows them to take a step back from their phones and to focus on learning about their culture. This includes learning the traditional Beaver language, how to bead, how to make dry meat and how to survive in the wilderness. Karmy and I gave a special talk to the youth about our university experience and what it means to us to be able to go into post secondary education. While many of the youth are nowhere near ready to think about post secondary, it helps show the youth what is possible with hard work and that dreams can be achievable.
Outside the culture camp, I was able to help with preparing food boxes for the community as well as help deliver them. This was one task that I was very excited to help with as it was something that last year's interns helped with. This is an amazing opportunity to connect with the community a little better. The first thing that needed to be done was bring in all of the groceries into the community center. This was hard work as we were experiencing a heat wave and there were a lot of items, spanning from heavy to light. We formed an assembly line which helped the process move a little quicker and smoother. The next day was when the delivery of the food boxes began. The food boxes were being delivered to anyone who was registered with the band and who lived on reserve. The first food box deliveries were done in Boyer and went very smoothly. Myself along with a community member and a youth delivered the food boxes. If I did not have the youth with me, I would not have been able to deliver most of the food boxes. After a long day of being in the heat, I was gifted my own food box (I was not expecting this as I was two weeks from going home). This made my heart feel very warm but also sad because it was this day that I realized that I was going home very soon.
After the food box deliveries and the culture camp had ended, it was time for me to take some youth to the Youth Tee Pee Summit that was happening at Poundmakers, located in St. Albert. We left on a Monday as the event began the following day. Monday was the travel and get settled day. It was also a day that I got to see my mom for the first time in months. It was very lovely to see my mom. We went out for dinner and spoke for hours upon hours. The following day, myself and the other chaperone took the youth to the event, got them registered and listened to multiple people speak. The next day, we went back to the summit where we got to listen to two Olympians speak. This was amazing as I have never seen nor listened to an Olympian speak before. They talked about perseverance and how the youth can do anything they put their minds to. Their dreams can be achieved with a little hard work. Of course I got to take a few pictures with the Olympians as well as hold a medal!!! (They are a lot heavier then you would think) At the same time as the summit was going on, the Alberta Indigenous Games were also happening. We took some time out of our days to go and watch some of the youth from BFN compete. When I showed up, the youth were surprised to see me and excited that I was going to watch them play. The girls volleyball team got 9th out of 26! This is a vast improvement to last year where they came in last.
The last week of August flew by. I spent the entire week with the youth workers, finishing up any projects that they had on the go as well as helping them prepare for the adult culture camp that was happening just days after I leave. It was also during this week that we took the youth workers to Machesis lake to learn about how climate change can and is affecting the trees. We met with a few researchers from the UofA and got to use this tool that drilled into the middle of a tree. This was done so we could see how the tree has grown and what years it has experienced some trouble growing. In order to get to the trees that the researchers were looking for, we had to go on a bit of a hike (this was my first hike of the summer). The youth also learnt about how a certain type of moss can affect tree growth and make the trees look kind of creepy.
To end my week, Leah, my coordinator as well as some people from the community took Karmy and I out for dinner. This was our last day with the community and it was a time to talk about all of the things that we had accomplished during the summer as well as say some good byes. I am not very good with goodbyes, so it was a time of keeping my tears at bay. After the dinner, Karmy and I went back to the loft to start packing. I had indeed procrastinated and had left all of my packing to the last minute. My excess is that I did not want to believe that I was actually going home in mere hours. With lots of music and caffeine, I was packed and ready to head on home!
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