I think after tonight, the whole group might just be friends.
It seems the impossible rift that we thought existed between us disappeared with a nice, long, agreeable discussion about everyone in the group. Tonight we took time to discuss who bothers us, how they bother us, and how we can improve...
And we were successful.
You could feel the energy of the group going up and up and up, to this crescendo where everyone locked in and finally connected.
Now... I guess the real Katimavik experience can begin.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
We're Katima-back!
I have 70 mosquito bites on various parts of my body, my back hurts, and my liver is clean. Matty boy is back from the woods, but not back in his own head yet. It's been a f***in' coons age since I've written anything.
For the most part, we've spent the last week splitting and stacking firewood. The owners of Campe de L'Arche have a massive wood burning furnace, that not only draws on fire to heat the place, but also burns up the smoke into additional energy and provides a clean fuel source.
On some days, the girls would clean or help cook meals. Alex and I got to play with a giant saw/milling machine. We also had to help the owners landscape their front yard, so got to pull some huge rocks out of the river, finding some silver in the process :)
One day we decided to see how far it would be to the next town to grab a beer at the bar. When we should have went right, we went straight, and ended up walking for 6 hours around the farmlands of St Elzere. Beautiful as it was, I have never sincerely wished to never walk during thunderstorms again. We left at 9 in the morning, and got home around 5, with poutine breaks in between.
One of the last nights I was there, I cut my foot open in a game of Battle Boats. Battle Boats is a game where you two teams of two attack each other in canoes and try to sink the other teams boat. During my kamikaze attacks, I caught my foot on a screw. Ow.
Now that we're back in the house, it seems all the bonding has been for naught. We're back to our bickering, back to cliques, and still have no Project Leader. Sarah came and went, as she lives in Rimouski, four hours away. Alice was a great PL for the week she was here, but has to resume teaching in late August, so she left. Now we're alone in this house, and I fear for the most part that we'll kill each other, or at least some of each other.
I feel like this blog post should be more fulfilling, but I'm gonna go get a cigar.
For the most part, we've spent the last week splitting and stacking firewood. The owners of Campe de L'Arche have a massive wood burning furnace, that not only draws on fire to heat the place, but also burns up the smoke into additional energy and provides a clean fuel source.
On some days, the girls would clean or help cook meals. Alex and I got to play with a giant saw/milling machine. We also had to help the owners landscape their front yard, so got to pull some huge rocks out of the river, finding some silver in the process :)
One day we decided to see how far it would be to the next town to grab a beer at the bar. When we should have went right, we went straight, and ended up walking for 6 hours around the farmlands of St Elzere. Beautiful as it was, I have never sincerely wished to never walk during thunderstorms again. We left at 9 in the morning, and got home around 5, with poutine breaks in between.
One of the last nights I was there, I cut my foot open in a game of Battle Boats. Battle Boats is a game where you two teams of two attack each other in canoes and try to sink the other teams boat. During my kamikaze attacks, I caught my foot on a screw. Ow.
Now that we're back in the house, it seems all the bonding has been for naught. We're back to our bickering, back to cliques, and still have no Project Leader. Sarah came and went, as she lives in Rimouski, four hours away. Alice was a great PL for the week she was here, but has to resume teaching in late August, so she left. Now we're alone in this house, and I fear for the most part that we'll kill each other, or at least some of each other.
I feel like this blog post should be more fulfilling, but I'm gonna go get a cigar.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Reshuffling the 21161
What a fucking week.
My Project Leader, Neil, was fired for what the Katimofficials described as incompetence. Basically, he couldn't keep up with the bureaucratic aspect of his job and the paper work bent him over and... yeah. Regardless, it's a load of crap. He was potentially the nicest guy I ever met, and everyone in the house can back me up on that one. He was kicked out before I even got home from work, which had me feeling like I didn't even get to say good-bye...
But then we found him at the Corsaire later that night, and, as you can tell by my facebook profile, we got some hilarious DBZ themed pictures. Did I mention the new volunteers were with us? Probably should have.
Skip back to earlier in the day.
I came home depressed because I assumed Neil was never going to be seen again. I opened the door and met Damon's equivalent, Stephan. If you don't remember me talking about Damon getting kicked out, yeah, he did. And another metal head took his place, this one being bilingual. He's a cool dude, and adjusting to our rag-tag, bitchy group fairly quickly.
Then there's Rosalie. Rosalie is a super quiet french girl with more sketches than words. "Her drawing r lik rly-rly gud gaiz." Seriously, I look forward to drafting a tattoo with that chick, because I know it's going to come out rly-rly gud.
Friday and Saturday night we volunteered at Festivent, an extension of Celebration Levis, and managed not to tear each others throats out as a result. It was actually a really cool festival. There were hot air balloons everywhere, one as the Planters Peanuts mascot, one was Darth Vaders helmet, one was a tourist penguin with a hawaiin shirt. There was a mini carnival set up with rides and donuts and llamas. But the only thing that you give a shit about is Bran Van 3000 and Wyclef Jean.
Both the shows were AMAZING. Yes, Bran Van played Drinking in LA, and yes it was sweet.
Yes, Wyclef is now dreadless (you don' gatta be dread to be rastaa), yes his show was sweet, and yes, he went Jimi Hendrix on everyone's ass. He played a solo on his knees, behind his head, and then with his teeth. It was so fucking cool. I have footage and pictures but my Macbook is too shitty to take uploads seriously. Check Facebook later and you can see some of the blurry shitt shots I took.
I miss everyone back home a ton, especially my dog.
My Project Leader, Neil, was fired for what the Katimofficials described as incompetence. Basically, he couldn't keep up with the bureaucratic aspect of his job and the paper work bent him over and... yeah. Regardless, it's a load of crap. He was potentially the nicest guy I ever met, and everyone in the house can back me up on that one. He was kicked out before I even got home from work, which had me feeling like I didn't even get to say good-bye...
But then we found him at the Corsaire later that night, and, as you can tell by my facebook profile, we got some hilarious DBZ themed pictures. Did I mention the new volunteers were with us? Probably should have.
Skip back to earlier in the day.
I came home depressed because I assumed Neil was never going to be seen again. I opened the door and met Damon's equivalent, Stephan. If you don't remember me talking about Damon getting kicked out, yeah, he did. And another metal head took his place, this one being bilingual. He's a cool dude, and adjusting to our rag-tag, bitchy group fairly quickly.
Then there's Rosalie. Rosalie is a super quiet french girl with more sketches than words. "Her drawing r lik rly-rly gud gaiz." Seriously, I look forward to drafting a tattoo with that chick, because I know it's going to come out rly-rly gud.
Friday and Saturday night we volunteered at Festivent, an extension of Celebration Levis, and managed not to tear each others throats out as a result. It was actually a really cool festival. There were hot air balloons everywhere, one as the Planters Peanuts mascot, one was Darth Vaders helmet, one was a tourist penguin with a hawaiin shirt. There was a mini carnival set up with rides and donuts and llamas. But the only thing that you give a shit about is Bran Van 3000 and Wyclef Jean.
Both the shows were AMAZING. Yes, Bran Van played Drinking in LA, and yes it was sweet.
Yes, Wyclef is now dreadless (you don' gatta be dread to be rastaa), yes his show was sweet, and yes, he went Jimi Hendrix on everyone's ass. He played a solo on his knees, behind his head, and then with his teeth. It was so fucking cool. I have footage and pictures but my Macbook is too shitty to take uploads seriously. Check Facebook later and you can see some of the blurry shitt shots I took.
I miss everyone back home a ton, especially my dog.
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