I Remember The First Time

I remember the first time I saw the sun rise over Rainy Lake, just north of Fort Frances Ontario. I was on my way to a meeting at Mitaanjigamiing (Multi Use Facility) organized by Grand Council Treaty #3. 

I was fifty eight years old and travelling with two others whose ages probably did not quite add up to fifty eight. We'd driven the day before along the highway between Thunder Bay and Fort Frances. Snow had fallen the whole way. Visibility on the highway wasn't too bad, but, when you looked to the side when the trees parted, the horizon vanished behind an impenetrable wall of white. All the plows were behind us. The tires on our rented SUV churned through two centimetres of fallen snow. The trip, normally a four hour drive, took every minute of five hours. 

The potential hazards of that drive did not preoccupy our minds as much as the potential hazard facing us the next day.

The Mitaanjigamiing was more than an hour's drive away from our hotel by the highway, but twenty minutes by ice road. My young companions spent their time after we'd arrived at our hotel and eaten dinner canvassing the locals about the state of the ice road.

It tells you something that none of the locals - the non-First Nations locals - were even aware that there was an ice road.

As a last resort, my companions drove out and took a look at the road themselves. It had been recently plowed. "If a snow plow can make it without falling through the ice," they thought, "then so can we."

I was persuaded (and impressed) by their reconnaissance and felt confident enough the next day that I not only travelled with them to cross on the ice road, but had a colleague snap a happy photo of the moment.

For the record, I am standing on terra firma on the approach to the road. The ice road itself is that band of white just above the near vegetation and below the dark band of the horizon. 

The ice road was easily twenty metres wide and followed the shoreline. We were supposed to have crossed on the road with several others attending the meeting, but, we'd lost contact with them, so we just headed out on our own.

The rule we broke by doing that was we failed to offer tobacco to the spirits before we crossed. For the trip back, we gave two offerings of tobacco. 

Remembering Aunt Betty 

Betty at the Clark Family Reunion, Qualicum Beach, July 2015

I remember my first strong impression of my Aunt Betty. We were in her house in Sparwood B.C. I was about twelve years old.

Her daughter Barbara was married either that day or the day before (I can't remember), and Betty was throwing a back yard party as part of the celebrations. 

As a young one, I was expected to help. Under Betty's direction, I made devilled eggs: peeling the hard boiled eggs, slicing them carefully in two, mashing the yolks with salt, pepper and mustard and loading the mixture back onto the rubbery egg white. I put the eggs on a plate, conferring with Betty in detail about the arrangement and whether the eggs should be dusted with paprika. I was wholly engrossed by this task, happy to be helpful and Betty was my kind, wise guide. 

It's the best gift of this weird thing called memory that the earliest ones are the strongest and last the longest. So when I'm elderly, frail, and forgetting, this will be my recollection of my Aunt Betty.

Betty was my dad's oldest sister and with her passing at about the same time I was making the trip back on the ice road, the last of that generation. All my father's siblings, and my father, are now gone.

Thanks for reading.

Karen

My New Year's Resolution: Revisited

Waterlogue interpretation of the sunset in Barbados

Those following the news know that I managed to keep my New Years resolution within just days of making it. 

Can't tell you what a relief that was.

But, there's still most of the year left, so I think I should try again.

Next week I will travel for two days in order to spend one day in the booming metropolis of Fort Frances, Ontario. I'm venturing to the "north" - Fort Frances is actually farther south than Winnipeg - to have a chat about climate change with fifty or so people who identify themselves as being under "Treaty Three."

This should be interesting. It's my fourth such meeting, but all the others have been in places like Thunder Bay and Sudbury, where it's easy to fly in and out, or easy to drive to like Niagara Falls. 

This trip, I will be flying to Thunder Bay and then hopping in a vehicle with four other public servants and driving for hours to Fort Frances. Part of the trip includes a jaunt over an ice road - which is a fancy way of saying we'll be driving over a frozen body of water.

Coincidentally, ice roads - and the impacts of climate change thereon - will be one of the topics of discussion at the meeting. Warmer weather shortens the viable life of these roads, strands northern communities, massively increases the cost of living in those communities and creates hazards for people travelling along those roads.

With this in mind, I am going to update my NYR to: for 2016, I resolve to do everything I can to keep my feet out of freezing water.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Here's What I Meant To Show You

The view from our window.

The view at poolside.

At the water's edge: an artist taking all day to paint a picture of the water's edge. The "freelance vendors" like this fellow were tolerated by the management and they worked hard to build the relationships necessary to land a sale - either a ride on a Jet ski, a painting or some beach jewellery.

The sunsets are famous and also serve to highlight the many (many) fine cruise ships plying the waters of the Caribbean.

It's hard to get a shot without one of those suckers in there somewhere.

This is the back side of a typical house just outside of Holetown, Barbados. Holetown, by the way, got its name from the creek - the "hole" - that met the sea back in the days when England was laying claim to empire. The "hole" was a safe place to run the ship in, and was also where the outside hulls of the ships would be cleaned. 

Also, can you see the monkey in this shot?

Cute little KIA, just made for the tropics.

Lovely public beach between our hotel and Holetown.

Can you see the monkey in this shot? 

Feeding frenzy at the Barbados Wildlife Reserve. Keep your eye on those tortoises.

The spectators also partook of the frenzy, some of them releasing their children into the fray because they are just idiots I guess. 

Look at those tortoises. That is just crazy.

Fun fact: the paths in the Barbados Wildlife Reserve are made from bricks brought in ships from Scotland as ballast in the heyday of the sugar cane trade, and were laid, many years ago now, by Alex Wood, the current Executive Director of the Climate Change Directorate at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. Go figure.

Just another sunset.

The crab who ruled the south end of the beach. I'd say his / her body was about the size of my hand.

And just in case you thought it was my idea: 

Thanks for reading!

Karen

So Sad To Go

We're in that awkward space where every cold weather escapee finds themselves, half in and half out of the vacation dream.

But, the vacation is over; the bag's packed, the room keys have been surrendered, and there's nothing to do but sit around in clothes that are too warm for the local weather and wait for the whole travel thing to begin: get picked up, checked in, security scanned and boarded - and after several hours of sitting in cramped confines everything will be as it was, as if the holiday never happened. Except for the suntan and bruises that won't fade right away.

We really enjoyed this, our third Caribbean vacation in four decades. I would attribute the success to good weather, a nice place, good food and a club full of holiday goers who pretty much left us alone. But for the conversations we had with hotel staff and the freelance vendors on the beach and the short exchange when Justice mooched a butt off of Bruce, our conversations almost never extended beyond "good morning" and "excuse me".

We have been asked by several of the staff as we have said our good byes whether we will be back again. Recalling we don't spend many holidays in the sun, it is a hard question to answer.

Would we come back? Sure.

Will we come back? I dunno.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Famous Barbadians

For information about all the people featured on Barbadian money and/or whose names identify local streets, I strongly recommend the rest of the Internet.

For information about  the most famous people we have encountered on our holiday, you need look no further.

I've already mentioned one fellow, the chap who mooched a smoke off Bruce, the gentleman named Justice, with whom and his ever-changing array of drinking partners we have amused ourselves by imagining names:

- Jasper and Casper
- Keith and Heath
- Edmund and Redmund
- Maurice and Boris
- Irvin and Mervyn
- Leon and Dion
- Gerry and Harry
- Cederic and Frederic
- Lenny and Denny
- Dennis and Ennis
- Mason and Jason
- Hilton and Milton
- Laurence and Torrence

... You get the idea.

Anyway, we were chatting with the friendly and knowledgeable driver, whose name was Roger, who took us to and from the Nature Reserve the other day, observing the heavy British occupation of our resort and mentioning Justice - but not his name - as a sort of archetype ....

"Justice!" said Roger, who knew exactly who we meant just by the description, "everyone knows Justice and he knows everyone else. He's been around that resort since forever."

And sure enough he had been, claiming, according to Roger, "to have hammered the first nail in the place."

Justice is the club fixture. He is always there. Always chatting someone up. To the extent to which I have observed him in his natural habitat, I can only conclude that he never stops talking. Roger surmised that Justice has a bottomless well of conversation and will talk about anything and everything. Unless he repeats himself a lot, and even if he does, Jutice must have a vast horde of lore  to regale the tourists.

Roger must also have a vast horde. He's a driver who's been around for twenty years. He's shepherded the likes of Peter C. Newman and many others. He was born in Barbados, but his family moved to Conneticut when he was 8 years old. He volunteered this information freely but I had already guessed something like that would have been the case when I heard him speak with the accent of an American radio announcer.

There are less than three hundred thousand Barbadians living on a volcanic extrusion less than 450 square kilometres in area. Everyone is famous to the extent that someone else - either Justice or Roger - can tell you a few things about them.

They can even tell you a thing or two about us.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

More Mouth-Watering Monkeys

We did not go to the Barbados Nature Reserve yesterday as previously planned for the perfectly legitimate vacation-based-reason that I had just had my nails done.

But we did go today.

Once again I am full of regret that I cannot share any of the pictures I took. The "nature reserve" is in fact primarily a brocket deer and red-footed tortoise preserve. There are a few other free animals at the reserve and some more in cages - including a handsome, big iguana from Cuba.

The Internet makes most of feeding time at the reserve - every afternoon at 2. The comments make it sound as if the monkeys are the main attraction, but I personally will put my money on the tortoises. While we were wandering around looking at the interesting mahogany forest, catching glimpses of resting deer, impressive roosters and peacocks, and monkeys, lots and lots of monkeys, we also saw all these tortoises - like to the tune of two every four square meters - many of them, from all parts of the reserve, moving at an impressive clip.

I asked Bruce at the time what he thought they might be moving for. "Because they can," was the completely plausible reply.

We did a circuit of the reserve - which is about an acre smaller than the footprint of the club we're staying at (4 acres, then), and then went to the spot where the feeding happens. That made it clear what all the tortoise motion was was about. Yes, the space where they dumped the wheelbarrow full of cut yams, cucumbers, squash and other fleshy veg was half-circled by a gang of about twenty deer, and, as feeding progressed, as many as a dozen monkeys joined in the fray, but the tortoises were truly the major presence. The deer and monkeys could of course arrive from anywhere on the site in almost no time, but the turtles must have started their trip some time earlier that day to be at the right spot. Impressive.

I promise. Photos to follow.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Bajan Eats and Other Resort Details

This is an all-inclusive resort, where they will charge your room five dollars for a litre bottle of water and then pour you ten ounces of Napoleon brandy "no charge."

Of course, the day revolves around food. The dining room is a regimented space where formidable hostesses wield almost limitless power over where you will sit, which benefice is granted at breakfast only after you have made a reservation for where and when you will eat dinner.

There are two choices of where you can eat dinner. Either the Sunset dining room which is most but not all nights a buffet, and Enid's, a sit-down restaurant. The buffet splits itself between "Bajan" (local) cooking and food the British patrons most like to eat - especially when it comes to dessert. Enid's focuses on Caribbean cuisine, and is my preferred spot of the two. This is not to say the food's not good in the Sunset - I just prefer a la carte to buffet.

The best food we've had so far:

- chicken wings with a guava barbecue sauce at Enid's
- Rum Jumbi beef at Enid's
- bbq'd flank steak at Sunset - not served on the buffet but hot off the outdoor grill and done just the way I like it
- bbq'd chicken at Sunset - also hot off the grill
- and fish fritters at Sunset - fresh out of the giant steaming pot of super hot fat

So this isn't a health club-type resort.

The desserts are also split between Bajan and British, and, after some taste-testing, I have decided to stay away from both. Bruce, on the other hand, has enjoyed trifle, bread pudding and custard (hot!) and, today, two unidentifiable and truly appalling concoctions that defy description.

Thanks for reading!

Tomorrow, drinks!

Karen

Live From Barbados

Sadly, for reasons unknown, I can't post pictures from my iPad onto this blog. This makes no sense, but is the sad truth, so I cannot share until I get home some pictures of the very lovely environs Bruce and I are enjoying here at the Club Spa and Resort in Holetown, Barbados.

We don't know why they call it Holetown.

Here are some of the things we have found out about:

 - name of the local beer: Banks - a distinguished member of the refreshing, light-bodied Caribbean beer family
- what ARE the things making those crazy piping noises in the garden as soon as the sun goes down? They are whistling frogs. Tiny, lavender-blue frogs that sing like the choir invisible. All night. Every night.
- what's the name of at least one of the two British stalwarts who park themselves by the bar every morning when it opens at ten and stay there until 11 p.m when it closes? We have named them variously Nigel and Roger, Terry and Gerry, Randy and Peter - but one of them introduced himself today when he bummed a cigarette from Bruce. His name is Justice. So the other one must be Augustus.
- how much damage can you do if you slip and fall on the hard tile floors in the hotel room at the end of the first full day in Barbados? Quite a lot actually. I more or less lost the use of my arms - with which I broke my fall - for our second full day in Barbados. But, now, on the third full day, while I am sporting truly impressive bruises, I can use my arms enough to type this. I'm well on the way to recovery and very happy that I didn't break anything that belonged to me.
- who usually comes to this resort? Overwhelmingly, almost without exception: Brits. We are odd and exotic because we come from Canada. The friendly gentleman who greeted us on the path the morning we were wandering around orienting ourselves and who eventually identified himself as the executive director of the resort, guessed we were American. That's how odd it is that Canadians come to this resort. Can't think of why that should be, except the awesome power of word of mouth. More Canadians may arrive after this.

It is a lovely resort. Barbados is a lovely place.

We went out in a boat to see turtles today and did see one. Tomorrow we're going to the Nature Reserve to see land-based turtles, deer, and lots and lots of monkeys. The animals are not caged in the Reserve, but they are fed. Everyone on Tripadvisor says you totally must be there for the 2:00 feeding time. That's where we'll be.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

My New Year's Resolution

"Percolated" cafe-chair-made "Eiffel Tower" at Le Bourget, Paris, France, December 2015

Among the jillion details waiting for me when I got back from Paris was the training I needed to take because I volunteered to be redeployed in the event that Ontario Correctional Services staff go on strike - which they may very well do on January 10, 2016.

Having learned lessons during the last strike, when managers were dropped into the middle of correctional facilities without a lot of information to help them deal with their new circumstances - and left there for more than fifty days - this time, the government decided to err on the other side.

Over the course of two and a half days, public service managers heard about everything correctional-institution-related from "when is the period of highest risk for offender suicides?" to "what to wear when patrolling the halls." 

Hundreds took the training, which was offered live to about 200 people in a big meeting room in Queen's Park and by webcast to many more in locations across the province.

While two trainers answered questions in the room, another trainer answered questions online. People watching online - including me - could see the online answers, but not the questions.

Most people don't volunteer to go to jail. But when they do, these answers to unseen questions reveal what's on their minds:

• You may bring your topper if it is for a single bed.
• Yes there will be sheets provided and a blanket.
• Bring layers, the jails can be cold especially in the evening.
• Yes you will have access to a fridge.
• You could possibly do laundry every day if you like!
• Yes there will be a TV/lounge staff area.
• No you can not bring in a queen size bed mattress.
• You may bring sleeping bags.
• You may bring some food such as protein bars. Do not bring in groceries. Space is limited.
• Yes...you may bring in any technology that you prefer.
• The type of lock for storage does not matter...combination or key.
• Please do not use your own vehicle.

I won't be in the country on January 10, so who knows when or where I will be deployed. While it is not likely - due to my physical impairment - that they'll put me on patrol duty inside a super jail, it is 100% likely that I will be brought in to assist in some fashion for some period of time. Wherever it is, it will be intense.

And this is why, although it is almost entirely beyond my control to keep it, my New Years resolution is to stay out of jail in 2016.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen