Final Farewells!

A fantastic last week here in Webequie! Our trip has been full of laughter, heart-warming conversation, adventure and learning.

Tuesday we taught stress management in class. This was a highly recommended topic and we were able to build off anger management as well. After our last call in to John’s WAHSA lecture, we had our final sports club – it lasted over two hours! We played broom ball, hockey, AND soccer. It was hilarious to watch the kids and their never-ending energy. Each time they seemed to be loosing steam, we switched sports and suddenly they were running and competing all over again!

Wednesday was one of our favorite lessons. After receiving questions about University in the question box, we were so excited to create a Finding Your Dream Job presentation for the older students. Our slideshow consisted of a variety of University and College programs... Law, Business, Criminal Justice, Skilled Trades, Aboriginal Studies, Medicine, Nursing, Mental Health, Mining, Teaching, Art School, Aviation and more! We talked about our positive University experiences (our favorite slide: A Day in the Life of a Student), emphasizing the support that is available when you enroll in these post-secondary programs.  With the younger students, our presentation turned into a game of charades! Students took turns picking jobs out of the box then acting them out. The lesson was definitely a hit and we had so much fun watching some very creative interpretations (picture a grade 2 gangsta as a ballerina)!

With our food supply quickly diminishing and realizing we still had a box of pancake mix to spare… we thought what better addition to our second QHO Movie Night than chocolate chip pancakes. We had a great turn out and Justice was as happy as a clam since we showed her favorite movie, Brother Bear!

Branching off of our Careers lesson, we spent Thursday talking about smart goal setting and planning for success. We were also very excited to show a slideshow of all the pictures we had been taking during our trip at the Flea Market. Between Justin Bieber’s professional scenic/portrait pictures and all the funny ones that turned up when the kids tested out Fatti’s camera during after school events, the slideshow was a great way to show community members what we had been up to during the past five weeks. The kids loved seeing themselves and it was a great way to wrap up our last official teaching day in Webequie. After the Flea, we headed to the Northern for a night of cupcake baking and Thank You card writing! Justice “Betty Crocker” Durland naturally excelled in the baking department, while Fabi was on writing duty.. working at a slow and steady snail’s pace after having to relocate to the other side of the room in order to avoid distraction and “get in the zone”.

"Let's bake some cupcakes!"

Friday was bitter sweet! Our last official day in the school.. but so many exciting activities planned. We woke up at the crack of dawn to ice the 96 cupcakes.. in a conveyor belt technique, the task was accomplished in a very efficient manner! We visited each class.. eating cupcakes, students signing our Webequie backpacks (compliments of the Career Fair) and taking group pictures! At the month end assembly, we had another chance to play our picture slideshow. It was a chance for all the students to see themselves in action, as well as a genius way to keep everyone quiet during the assembly.. a win-win! After lunch we headed to drop off our Thank You cards at the Education Board, Band Office, Nursing Station and Northern Store.

Grade 2s: Charades Masters!

woops

Goodies for the teachers

We knew we were on a lucky streak when we were invited to listen to (and meet) the Minister of Environment Peter Kent speak with the Chief of Webequie in regards to their continuing teamwork on the Ring of Fire development. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the efforts to make future developments more environment and cultural sensitive. Justice – the politics nerd – was beyond excited to shake a hand that had obviously shaken Stephen Harper’s hand! It was also interesting to listen to Michael Fox, Webequie’s senior director for the Ring of Fire, and all the factors that must be considered in making decisions that will so greatly impact Canada’s future and the security of First Nations’ communities across Ontario. Justice and Fabi now have a much greater appreciation of the complicated nature of these decisions and will look forward to reading developments in the news in the future!

Michael Fox's presentation about the Ring of Fire
(photograph via politics nerd)

After school we enjoyed some beautiful Webequie weather.. kites, popsicles and our first swim of the summer! Somehow the kids convinced us to join them for a June 1^st dip which was a hilarious adventure indeed.. after about an hour of toe dipping and searching for the “perfect spot”, Fabi took the first plunge - what a champ! Fabi swam at least 25 yards into the lake (dodging ice bergs… okay, no, but it was cold enough!) and convinced all the kids to hop in the water! We later found out the water was about 5-10 degrees. Thank goodness for Constable Bryan’s famous homemade moose chili to warm us up at the end of the day!

Hi Fabi!

WooOoOoO!

Couldn't ask for a better last day in Webequie!

Saturday morning, sadly, Justice and Fabi packed their few belongings (we packed mostly food and crafts!) and said our final farewells. We took a private jet (aka a very empty flight) to Thunder Bay and were warmly greeted by Fabi’s family. After a ceremonious “first Timmies” and exchanging some fun stories, Justice departed for Toronto.

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to the warm and welcoming community of Webequie, the beautiful teachers and the inspirational people we met. Justice and Fabi will forever hold the memories of those five weeks close to our hearts. This experience has taught us so much about ourselves and this diverse country. Finally, thank YOU for following our adventures and sharing in our lessons learned!

And for the last time…

Best part of the last week:

Heartwarming Thank You cards from the kiddies 

"I love QHO! You guys got A+"

Best lesson of the last week:
Finding Your Dream Job presentation- Gotta a love a good PowerPoint!

Grossest part of the last week:

The kids screaming "Thank Youuu" with a mouth full of cake

Most embarrassing part of the last week:

Justice’s wimpiness about the cold water temperatures

Signature moves:

Fabi’s care and compassion for everyone she meets
Justice’s contagious enthusiasm and positive energy 

Food of choice:

Bryan’s homemade moose chili.. nom nom nom

Best Purchase:
Beautiful beaded moccasins

Looking Forward To:

Sharing our stories with friends and family :)


Meegwetch!

Leadership Camp!

Our last week here in Webequie! We have accomplished so much, yet we still have so much more planned for this week.

This weekend we hosted our Leadership Camp with great success. Unfortunately, the snow-y weather on Saturday meant attendance was very low; however, it also meant the most committed children came out! On Saturday, we focused on team dynamics, communication, and risk trust and risk. We had a lot of fun games, such as fort-building, a blind-folded scavenger hunt, trust falls, stories, and much more fun. The kids loved all the activities and participated thoughtfully in debriefs after each unit. The giant bag of Jelly Bellies helped keep sugar levels high enough for over three hours of fun! Saturday night we tried our luck at Bingo once again. It was a lot of fun seeing the kids and Justice even splurged on a $4 can of pop!

On Sunday, it was a beautiful sunny day and lots of young ones came over intrigued by our fun and laughter. We had a lot of fun teaching all about leadership styles, conflict resolution and planning for success… We kept the curriculum very activity-heavy to encourage the younger students along. The best part of the day must have been the spider-web activity. It was so fun to watch the children think of a solution to the problem cooperatively and then lift each other through the web to the other side! A great moment of success for Fabi and Justice.

Planning the route

Success!

As soon as the Leadership Camp finished, we rushed to meet our favorite local, Norman, at his boat for an exciting afternoon of fishing. This was another amazing experience in Webequie! Norman and Eric, a high school teacher, Justice and Fabi spent nearly seven hours on the water, exploring the vastness of the Great North and fishing until the boat could handle no more! Norman was an outstanding fisher, reeling one in every other minute – ha! Fabi and Justice struggled a bit more, but both successfully caught some walleye and documented it with plenty of photos. Justice (aka the Pike whisperer) threw back more fish than she caught, because according to Norman, the Pike were just not up to our standards. We shared plenty of laughs, catching rocks, the anchor or each other as often (if not more) than we caught fish. Boating back in the beautiful sunset was gorgeous (and chilly) and a perfect way to end our last weekend up North.

The view on our way back from fishing all day

We’re especially looking forward to our last week of teaching, as we have hand-selected topics that we feel are most relevant to the students based on our time here and talking to community leaders. Today we had a very successful lesson on anger management! Other topics we hope to cover include stress management, university and career options, and goal-setting. After school we hosted our last craft club. We had great fun making “slime” with the kids. Just like quick sand, slime is solid when moved quickly and liquid when stirred slowly. What great fun learning about consistencies and scientific substances – ha!

Craft Club: Playing with the Slime!

As if the day could get any more fun, we played a hilarious game of soccer in the pouring rain (they’re forecasting snow). The older students shared great laughs slipping and sliding all over the field and getting soaking wet!

Best part of the week(end):

Sitting inside the fort eating jellybeans! We sat inside the fort we built on Saturday for nearly a half hour giggling over the silly flavoured jelly bellies :)

Best lesson (of the Leadership Camp):

Warm fuzzies at the end of leadership camp on Sunday! We sat down by the water’s edge, writing down our favourite qualities about each other.

Grossest part of the week(end):

            Getting intimate with our first catch of the day!

Most embarrassing part of the week(end):
            Fabi’s catch rate on the fishing trip- 1 fish every 2 hours, maybe next time!
           
Signature moves:
            New names: Fatti and Justin Bieber

Food of choice:
            Bannock dogs (yes, this is like a pogo steroids)

Best Purchase:

$3 strawberries!

Looking Forward To:

            EVERYTHING DURING OUR LAST WEEK!

            Sports, movies, fun lessons, perhaps even a birthday party?!

S'mores & Snow Storms

            We’ve had a jammed packed long weekend and short week since we last posted!

            Friday we kicked off the long weekend with a fun night of Bingo. Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything but the plenty of smiles and laughs made up for that. The host generously announced our Victoria Day Long Weekend Activities in both English and Oji-Cree.. And with that, the weekend began!

            Saturday’s heavy rains proved too much of a challenge for us to overcome. After calling everyone in the community looking for an indoor venue for an activity, we dedicated the day to movies, baking and some much needed TLC.

           

            But Sunday we were back high-kickin’ and rockin’! We successfully hosted a huge wiener roast with over 30 children. We all hiked out to North Point, a beautiful site along  the water.  After Fabi and Justice attempted to build a fire, the older boys initiated a much needed intervention. They reorganized our chaotic pile of twigs, branches and paper, and soon we had a great fire going. We spent the afternoon roasting up 4 bags of marshmallows, 4 packages of hot dogs, and a box of frozen burgers. Along with that, we finished 2 bags of bread, an abundance of hamburger buns, a box of graham crackers and many, many chocolate bars! The kids even enjoyed the first (hopefully?) swim of the year!

            Monday, Fabi and Justice hosted a girls lunch and a boys afternoon. The girls lunch was great fun, with all types of activities including baking cupcakes (vanilla confetti meets crispy crunch bars), painting nails (with Fabi’s help), making tuna melts and soup, crafts and many laughs! It was exciting to see girls of all ages there, and nice to see the girls working together on lunch and nail polish. The boys afternoon was great fun. An intense game of floor hockey lasted well over two hours. Many lemonade breaks and some “dirt and worms” helped keep the players going. Officially accident prone, Fabi managed to get a ball in the face right before the night’s festivities came to an end.. a close call but no reconstructive surgery was necessary.

Girls Lunch: Photobooth Fun!

                                                                         Boys' Night: Face-Off at Center "Ice"


            Tuesday and Wednesday were dedicated to reviewing the Substance Abuse Unit we started last week. We pushed our “gurney” around all week (aka projector/laptop combo) and used many YouTube clips to reinforce our lessons, which always seemed to be a hit! Tuesday we had another opportunity to call in to John’s WAHSA Lecture regarding Sexual Health. We discussed the importance of setting personal boundaries prior to engaging in sexual activity, getting tested for STIs regularly, as well as the best practices for protecting against unwanted pregnancy and STIs.

           

            Our main focus for the week was creating a bullying video to share with the students. We chose student leaders from the older grades who we thought would be great role models for this leadership project. The group met after school throughout the week where they brainstormed, filmed and edited an entertaining video about their Mission To Stop Bullying! Not only was the movie a big hit in the classrooms, but it was so exciting to see the students excelling in all aspects of the project. We were proud mama bears to say the least!

Hard at work!

            Unfortunately we aren’t particularly jumping for joy as we leave school today. Before leaving we must dress up in our boots, rain jackets and as many layers as we could find because overnight and all day it's been snowing. A beautiful December-esque blanket of snow now covers the island. Although this may be charming in early spring, the fact that is has come post May 2-4 is a bit depressing for us and the kids. Hard to believe we were in the water last weekend! Anyways, it’s all part of the fun here in Webequie. We hope the weather heats up a little for this weekend, since we are very excited for some outdoor activities during our 2-day leadership camp!

Before

After

Holy Liffft!

Best part of the week:

Making a bullying video after-school with class leaders featuring T. Swift: 

Why you gotta be so mean?

Best lesson thus far:

Prescription drugs: Although one of our more difficult lessons, students were extremely patient and attentive as we tried to get through all the info during our shortened week

Grossest part of the week:

Justice eating week old yogurt (conserving precious dairy products)
awww yeahh

Most embarrassing part of the week:

Justice making a K5 cry by not giving him a high five in time

       

Signature moves:

Fabi’s seed and chickpea diet (wittle birdie)

Justice’s awesome T. Swift covers in class (S.O.S)

    

Drink of choice:

Spiced Cinnamon Chai Tea 

           

Best Purchase(s):

Apple Cinnamon Cheerios & Corn Niblets

Looking Forward To:

This weekend’s SJMEC Leadership Conference: Roughly 30 students have signed up and we’re looking forward to a fun-filled weekend of activities that focus on Leadership Skills, Conflict Resolution, Planning for Success and much more

Have a great weekend!

Justice & Fabi

Holy liffft! (new fav saying compliments of Paula B)

It’s a 5 day weekend here in Webequie and we’re crossing our fingers for some nice weather! Despite some water pipe problems and school being cancelled, we had a very productive Thursday. 

We had the pleasure of meeting John Stradiotto at the Career Fair. John is a teacher with WAHSA, a distance education program that enables students to complete their high school diploma from home. Like other WAHSA courses, John’s lectures broadcast all over Northwestern Ontario so students can tune in and call in. Since a lot of our topics overlap with John’s current curriculum, he invited us to call in during yesterday’s Nutrition lecture. Justice could be a radio announcer, Fab a little nervous.. both loved the experience! It was more a relaxed conversation about Nutrition in the North and we talked about realistic ways to create healthy meals when shopping at a smaller grocery store, being conscious of sugar and salt content when selecting items, as well as the importance of sleep. We had a great time and will be calling in next week to discuss sexual health topics that we covered this past week! 

After our radio debut, we played yet another game of soccer baseball and then headed off to the North Point with the boys for some partridge hunting! Although we came back empty handed, we had a great time relaxing, searching for snail shells and taking in the beautiful scenery.

We are looking forward to the weekend and plan on holding our first QHO wiener roast.. off to purchase marshmallows and other supplies!

Have a great weekend,

Fab and Justice

Weeks 2 & 3 !

Hard to believe it’s week 3 here in Webequie - time is flying!

Last week, we taught sexual health and healthy relationships in the school. We used “The Game of Life: Puberty Edition” to teach all the children about the changes our body goes through physically and emotionally during puberty. We also had many fun demonstrations, such as the condom demonstration that was very popular. Power outages on the Tuesday and Wednesday forced us to think of creative ways to condense and review the material, since there were larger gaps between our lessons. Overall, it was an excellent week of teaching.

Our after school programs continued to be a huge success last week. We made stain glass windows during our craft club, managing the chaos of glue and tissue paper fairly well! Thursday we introduced soccer baseball to the kids and that has been very popular ever since, although we doubt they fully understand the rules – ha! Friday we hosted our first QHO Movie Night. Despite the small crowd due to late notice, we had great fun projecting Horton Hears a Who! (compliments of the technologically savy Justice Durland). Lots of popcorn and lots of laughter was a perfect ending to a good week.

Saturday – oh Saturday – had a hilarious turn of events. After preparing all morning for the Summer Olympics 2012 with various arts and crafts (including country flags, a “dragon boat”, torches, etc.), we dragged our supplies outside into a hurricane wind. The hurricane wind quickly brought in the scariest cloud we’ve ever seen (could have sworn the world was ending). Screaming (and laughing) we all ran into the gym. Unfortunately most of our Olympic activities were lost, so played the Ultimate Frisbee instead. It quickly became very intense, and the game got so heated that even Fabi – the fair play goddess – began to scream at the top of her lungs for her players to get focused and open!

This week has been very successful so far. We have been teaching Substance Abuse in the school. We have had to adjust to teaching a much more serious topic. It has been difficult to teach these difficult topics in an engaging and relevant way. However, we have tried to stay upbeat and use trivia games and board games to keep the young ones happy.

Wednesday afternoon was the 17^th Annual Webequie Career Fair. Fabi and Justice were lucky enough to reserve a both for a nutrition board. It was an excellent opportunity to reach out to the community at large, and discuss relevant issues with local parents and elders. We offered several healthy budget-wise recipe options, as well as information about reading nutrition labels and cutting back on sugary foods. Our fruit basket door prize was extremely popular, featuring real “treats” like pineapple, cantaloupe and mangos! Fabi and Justice both received “Certificates of Participation” on stage at the end of the day as well as a bag and travel mug! The travel mug has already been put to good use!

At the Career Fair, we met the health teacher from WAHSA and had a great discussion with him regarding the main issues in regards to health issues and teaching health issues in Northern communities. He had great insight and will be a great resource to use in the future. In addition, we will be guest speaking on his radio channel high school course about our experience and QHO health topics!!! We are both so excited (and nervous) to be radio stars – ha!

Post Career Fair activities included a game of soccer baseball with the older students and putting our Nutrition booth recipe handouts to good use: a healthy and delicious rice dish! Getting to know some of the older students has definitely been a highlight of this week. We even threw out the idea of starting a “Quit Club” where students can kick some unhealthy habits like smoking or simply fitting in more physical activity- plans are in the works!

Unfortunately, a water pipe broke in the school this morning… So no school (again) today. We are spending this well needed time to catch up on lesson plans and blogging!

Best part of the week:

Hanging out with our favorite NAPS police office, Constable Bryan Doherty! Fellow Survivor fan and master lasagna maker took time out of his busy schedule to help us assemble our Nutrition Booth, what a gem.

Best lesson thus far:

Grade 5 Safe Sex Lesson: Justice reveals wooden penis very suddenly out of a paper bag for the condom demonstration, watching the students eyes pop out of their head was priceless!

Grossest part of the week:

Invited over to Tony’s house for dinner. Ulterior motives were revealed as we proceeded to clean the cheese stains that were conveniently located all over the kitchen.. Well worth the delicious meal!

Most embarrassing part of the week:
            No first aid needed this week- success! Although some interesting off-topic questions have   

           emerged in our Question Box, they shall not be named…
           
Signature moves:
            Fabi’s permanent messy bun
            Justice’s “ever light hair”
           

Drink of choice:
            Almond milk (for Fabi.. lactose problems): Both grateful for all the fresh produce Mr. Spiess 

            shipped up for the second half of our trip!

           

Best Purchase(s):

1) Straws- Used to simulate the effects of smoking: running, pushups, and playing a game of Smokes & Ladders were all done while breathing through the straws

2) Pizzas- Shannon, one of the lovely teachers here at the school, is making homemade pizzas for tomorrow… may or may not have each ordered our own..

Looking Forward To:

            Bingo and the Flea Market on Friday – great way to kick off the May long weekend!

Ever!

Justice & Fabi

Week 1 in Webby!

Fabi and Justice here, feeling very guilty that we haven’t blogged since our arrival!  Webequie has been amazing so far – the people are so kind, the children are so enthusiastic and the accommodations are so generous.

We arrived on Sunday with all of our luggage including three extremely heavy bags of food supplies. After settling into the comfy homes of two amazing teachers, we kicked into high drive on Monday. We met with as many people as we could find, including those at the school and health center. Tuesday we began teaching physical health. All week we worked on hygiene, nutrition, diabetes and physical activity. It was great to get to know the kids and our lesson plans included many games!

In addition to all of our lessons, we have also been hosting after school activities each day. Mondays are crafts club, Tuesdays are sports club, and Wednesday are dance club! The clubs have been very popular – about 40+ children have attended each day! This was quite a shock, as we were expecting only a few. We have had to adjust our plans to accommodate the large and enthusiastic crowd!  Thursday we got to meet the high school students when we invited them to help us plan next week’s lessons for community hours! It was a great opportunity to start reaching out to those students, and we think they really enjoyed reading the material in a more informal setting.

Sports Club: Broom Ball!!!

Crafts Club: making stain glass windows 

The highlight of the week must have been when we were invited to participate in a sweat lodge ON DAY FIVE! The sweat lodge was the most amazing experience for both Fabi and Justice! We claim that it is definitely one of our top 5 life experiences. We were very honoured to be invited and extremely gracious that the sweat lodge leader translated some of the ceremony so we could follow along in English! A sweat lodge is a traditional ceremony, considered to be between prayer and meditation. We gathered inside a pit (so low we had to be sitting and crouched, and small enough to be sitting side by side!) where heated rocks were placed in the middle. Water was continually added to the rocks and created enough steam to put any hot yoga class to shame! Each sweat lodge involves a different traditional story, all centered around the coming together of the four elements: water, earth, wind and fire. The men and women sit on opposite sides to represent the equality between genders. Fabi even got to be the “grandmother” figure and beat her stick along to the leader’s drumming (SO JEALOUS – HATE HER!) 

Justice and her mini wolf pack 

Spring time in Webequie!

Saturday was a very fun day – we hosted the Amazing Race: Webequie! We had the children run all over town to various locations looking for clues and participating in challenges like a water balloon toss, relay race and much more fun! Again, a really large crowd showed up to participate! It was so great to watch the older children help out the younger children along the race, especially some of the tougher boys! We had many laughs with the kids about how exhausting the race was and how important staying in shape really is!

frolicking 

Bedazzled Amazing Race Clues

Teams assembling!

This week has been interesting due to the constant power outages! What a great adventure! The outages began Monday evening and the power has been off and on all week. As a result, school has been cancelled a lot and we have only managed to squeeze in a few puberty lessons here and there. Monday’s craft club was a great success because we invited only grades 2-4, which was a much more manageable group size. Then we played soccer with the older students afterwards, with big foot (Fabi) and Bryan the police officer! Yesterday we taught the kids soccer baseball, another afternoon of great fun and cute kids!

Best part of the week:

Lunch break coincides with the Ellen DeGeneres show on TV!

Best lesson thus far:

Game of Life: Puberty Edition board game was a huge hit! Including a huge board, dice, and “puberty cards” which students enthusiastically (though often silently) read aloud!

Grossest part of the week:

Revealing the decayed tooth after setting it in a cup of coke for 4 days!

Most embarrassing part of the week:
            Fabi falling flat on her face during a morning run and having to go to the nursing station for
            first aid… AKA We can never leave her unsupervised again…

           
Signature moves:
            Justice’s high kicks and Fabi’s fog-horn groan

Drink of choice:
            Sioux Lookout banana nut coffee

Best Purchase:

$10 bunch of bananas

Looking Forward To:

            Nutrition booth at the upcoming Career Fair

In the meantime, Justice is loving all the competitive (sometimes too competitive) sports with the children, while Fabi prefers frolicking around the playground with the younger ones.

We have now been summoned to make (more) friendship bracelets.

Toodaloo

Day 1

We may have just completed the hardest task of the entire trip - packing! Heading to the airport now and can't wait to start our adventure (:

Wish us luck (but actually... we don't know if we are allowed all this luggage on the plane!!)