i'm a hustler baby, i sell water to a well....

hey y'all,

guess i am overdue for an update. so, since i last wrote i flew into toronto and met up with jolene. we travelled from toronto to kitchener where we have been staying at an older couple named dwyer and sheila who are friends of jolene's and have been lucky to be able to use it as a bit of a home base.

after a few days of soaking up each other's awesomeness and trying to unpack as many stories and pictures as possible, we started to prepare for our bike journey to the niagara region. and shortly after taking in a few comforts from home, we embarked on our journey.

 we biked from kitchener to guelph to meet with a rad couple named pam and colleen who are friends of jolene's and camped in their backyard for two nights. we spent the days checking out an street art festival, going to the farmer's market, and hanging out with pam and colleen's 4 month old and 3 year old girls.   

on the third morning we got back on the o'le iron horses and biked to burlington and stayed at a really terrible and overpriced rv-park. the next day we rolled down the escarpment and hit lake ontario and biked along the shoreline for the entire day... after our "great" experience in the rv-park, we decided to take our chances and set up tent on the side of the road that night somewhere near port-dalhousie. we found a little patch of tall grass near a train-line and called it a night. it was a pretty good experience overall, minus the passing trains that were more of a full-body experience when the passed, haha.

the next day we continued biking along the shoreline and then cut down to a little campground about 15km south of niagara-on-the-lake town, and stayed at that campground for the next 4 nights as we did day-trips around the area.

we spent one day biking around to a couple vineyards and doing some tastings and tours. we got a really rad tour and the jackson-trigg's winery, which was really informative and made me realize i know nothing about wine. it also may be the first time i found a wine that i actually really, really liked.


we spent another day biking around the old-town of niagara-on-the-lake. it's basically a bunch of outrageously large and expensive lake-side victorian style homes with a main street that was pretty much the same as the main drag of banff. it was really touristy and kind of weird.

it was at this time that the culture shock really set in. coming from a place where people live on a dollar a day and being one of the only white people for miles around; to being in a place where there is nothing but old, rich, white people walking around and going to vineyards and buying up all the ice wine and maple products the tourist stores could offer.... it was a pretty big swing. the cultural spectrum was about as diverse as a blank piece of paper.

but, we did get to check out a bunch of historical sites relating to the war of 1812. it was pretty cool, especially since it's the 200th anniversary of peace in that region, so they had some pretty cool stuff going on.... it was also really interesting just to read about the war and the stuff that went on. turns out i really knew nothing about canada's history, heh.

and then on our last day in the area, we headed down to niagara falls.

if i could describe this portion of our journey... i would use the word 'surreal'.

on top of the fact that the falls themselves were one of the most breathtaking things i've ever seen... it was also just a total sensory overload.

we decided to embrace the touristy side and do the maid of the mist, which was the best idea we made all day. i thought i knew what we were getting into becuase all i could think about was jim carrey in that blue poncho during 'bruce almighty', but it was way crazier than i could have imagined. 

'maid of the mist' is a bit of false advertisement.... more fitting would be : 'how about you pay 20 dollars to drive this little boat so close to the waterfall that you are literally being pelted in the face with buckets of water to the point where you can't actually even open your eyes without feeling like your eyeballs are sandblasted'. that said, it was actually so much fun, and i'm so glad that we did it. but it did feel like i put on a poncho in order to step into a shower.

after that we decided to check out clifton hill... which leads us to the worst decision we made all day. i am still reeling from this part of the trip, haha. it was an absolute debauchery having this gaudy, tacky street so close to such a marvel of nature. it was like walking out of a place of serenity into the stampede midway. it was awful.... plus, who decided that when people go to see a waterfall, they probably want to follow it up with a trip through a wax-museum and a 4D movie?

anyways... enough ranting. we finished our day by hiking down to the whirlpool, which is a few km's north of the falls and had a picnic and just chilled by the river before watching the sunset go down with a bottle of wine. it was a great end to our time in niagara. 

the next morning we woke up and biked back to kitchener in a physically gruelling 2-day stretch, and then crashed back in kitchener.

so that's that.... 

now we are just chilling in kitchener and spending our time getting ready to head into toronto and check out a few concerts and take in a jay's game. after that, we'll be preparing for our delegation in kenora.

sorry this is so to the point, but i'm finding myself not wanting to spend much time on the computer with so much to take in and so much going on (plus, having such a good-looking date all the time). but, hopefully it gives a good overview of our last few weeks.

peace.

halfway home....

as i am typing this, i am about 40 hours away from hopping on a plane to head back to canada for the next leg of the journey.... it's a bit surreal to be honest.

this time in malawi has undoubtedly been some of the most intense months of inner-reflection that i have ever had. on top of that, the amount of cross-cultural experience i've gotten through this has been really intense and caused for a lot of reflection as well. i sat down to write this post and try and give a good overall recap of my time here and what i've learned... but looking back on these 3 months, i've realized that i'm leaving feeling like i know less than when i started... and definitely that i have more questions than answers. however, i feel somewhat at peace about it, and i have a lot to unpack and try and make sense of during me and jolene's time bicycling around southern ontario for the coming month and a half. so basically what i'm saying is don't look for any gems of insight or in this post, because i don't got 'em... but i'm looking forward to the months and probably years of processing this time and can't wait to sit down with you all and have face to face chats over a drink and discuss my experiences and to hear what i've missed back home.

while i don't have a tonne of insight as to a recap of my experience here, i can definitely put more words to some cool things that have happened during my time here...

one of the biggest changes during my 3 months has been the emergence of a previously un-touched garden at one of the off-sight properties. when i first showed up, brad (the previous short-time director) had just started to begin the process of getting the garden going. at that point, the soil hadn't been touched, and the spot where the garden had once been was small, run down, and needed a lot of work to even get started. during my 3 months here, i have been lucky enough to see (and definitely can't take much credit for) the garden not only flourish and actually start producing vegetables, but expand beyond the size of the original garden and see chinese cabbage, rape, mustard, tomatoes and onions now growing. we are also now also tasting the fruits of the labor, as some of our meals are now being supplied by the garden...with many more to come.

we've also planted a bunch of fruit trees on the property... we've planted over 50 trees with a mix of papaya, mango [pictured above], banana and guava. unfortunately, the cold season has not been too cold, and we've been stuck in a two week hot spell that has wreaked havoc on the garden and the orchard, so we've lost quite a few trees and plants, but we're hoping that it won't be a big issue and have re-planted trees and vegetables in their place now.

to accommodate the expansion of the garden, the old fence was knocked out and a new fence was built to surround the entirety of the garden and orchard, so that the neighbors cattle and goats can't come help themselves. like i said, i can't claim much in regards to the success of the garden project... but i definitely put in some long, hot, and sweaty days at the garden during the start of the project... and found it to be a good stress reliever during my month in the director role to walk over to the garden and spend a few hours watering the vegetables and trees.. so i spent a couple hours almost every day with the o'le watering can. if you compare the state of the garden [pictured below] to the state of where it was even a month or so ago when i posted about the start of the germination and planting... it's definitely something that i am pretty stoked to have even played a small part in.



also during this time of trying to think about what to write... i've realized that during all the words that i've written in the last 3 months, i've basically written nothing about the kids... which is a bit ironic seeing as i am at an orphanage of about 120 kids, haha. it's definitely been fun to be in a place packed full of so many children and youth... and even on days that i was pretty home-sick or frustrated with the things that i was working through or processing, it was pretty tough to stay pessimistic when you can't walk for more than a few feet without having a child run up to you ready to do a puzzle, play, read, or dance.

i was also fortunate enough to be able to spend the time that i did with the teachers and kids doing the PE program. and even though the amount of time that i got to invest in PE (and into hanging with the kids in general) dwindled pretty considerably after my role shifted... some of my best memories are playing bucket-ball and running the world's most ghetto slip'n'slide with the kids. in fact, the majority of my favorite memories now that i think about it have been with the kids...

overall, i think i'm going to mourn the loss of the pace of life at the centre and in malawi in general. i am not looking forward to heading back to the business of life in canada... and when i think back to how outrageously busy my life was during my time back at the inn, i can barely believe i survived, haha. honestly, not having a phone that was attached to my hip at every single second, and not constantly being on the internet has been really freeing.

thinking about stepping foot back on canadian soil definitely has me caught up in pretty mixed emotions... it's strange because i'm not going straight home... and have two totally different sections of travel still ahead of me : bicycling and camping around southern ontario for a month and a bit, and then the CPT aboriginal delegation near kenora.... it's crazy to think that i'm still 2 months away from being in calgary.

however, going back to canada in general has me pretty apprehensive. don't get me wrong, there are things i'm excited about when i think of leaving malawi, and number one on that list is seeing jolene... and that should not be understated. 3 months apart is way too long, and i'm counting down the hours until we meet in the airport. however, i'm expecting the transition back into the developed world to be a pretty tough one. one of the greatest things about this time has been the almost complete detachment from the consumer culture, that and the fact that i haven't had to hear one bit of information about which celebrity is dating who or what happened in whatever tv show people think is cool right now, or fashion or admittedly even the lessened amount of hockey news... i also really tried to stay off facebook during my time in malawi because it's really hard to try and think about giving a shit (or try not to be angry when thining about) about what sunglasses or snowboard or car that someone bought or where they went to lunch or what new haircut or color they got when you are in a culture that over half of the population live off of a dollar a day. it really puts it in perspective what matters when you can isolate yourself from it all for a while. however, i can't avoid all these things once i get back to canada... and undoubtedly, i will buy into it in some regards as well. but even thinking about my personal lifestyle and what that will look like when i return to calgary has me pretty turned around. so, all that said... uneasiness and apprehension are my personal buzz words for my return. 

on a lighter note... i'm writing this from lilongwe, which is the capital city of malawi. it's actually a kind of fun time to be in the capital city, as people are gearing up for independence day which is tomorrow, july 6th (the same day i fly out). apparently the celebration has been cut down a bit from previous years due to available funds, but i've heard that it's still gonna be a big party.... the centre is also doing a bit of a celebration, and  i'm a bit sad i couldn't be around to see it... however, there's a taste of the poetic in the fact that i am leaving the country on the day that malawians celebrate their freedom from the white colonial rule, heh....

on that note... i end this. the next time i write will be after consuming a long awaited veggie-dog, an ice-cream sandwich, some hasbrowns and an ice cold beer (please let the seeming contradiction of that last statement compared to the rest of my writing slide...)


peace.