The Halfway Point (Already??!)
Hello Readers!
Week 3 was a blast! We can’t believe we are half way through initiative. The following post describes our past week and introduces…wait for it….BISON SPOTTING!! Our main event last week was having the opportunity to attend spring camp with the grade 2/ 3’s in the morning! Our camp days began with a QHO lesson followed by camp games and enjoying some food over the fire. We taught short lessons on Bullying & Teasing, Respect, Expressing Emotions, and fun leadership games. After these morning lessons, we headed back to Deh Gah to teach the older grades in the afternoon!
Although we haven’t spent a full day out at camp yet, we have heard it can be quite the time! Often, the kids enjoyed the afternoons hiking, eating bannock and making fresh soup with available meat (swan, whitefish, moose). A main camp past time is watching how to catch, gut and smoke fish! Students eagerly crowd the table as the teachers skillfully prepare and gut the fish-sometimes when it’s still flopping around! We admit to squirming at first, but we appreciated watching this process in its entirely. It was truly amazing to see the comfort and knowledge that the kids have on the land. Some didn’t even hesitate to kiss the fish right on the lips! (shown below).
After our mornings at camp, we then returned in the afternoon to teach the older grades. Our focus last week was Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Depression and Anxiety, Body Image, and Sleep & Personal Hygiene! It was a challenging transition into some more serious topics, but we found students were very receptive and had great questions.
What else did Fort P have in store for us besides teaching? On Sunday we did lovely hour-long walk to Big River Restaurant about 5km down the road. We ate a buffet breakfast and then rolled our way home, completing the 5km trek back in far more than an hour... This weekend was our very first BISON SIGHTING! After hearing about the elusive bison for so long, we were finally graced with their presence! We spotted 2 bison peacefully grazing in the front yard early Monday morning, it was quite the surprise! They are very timid and gentle beasts, however we kept our distance just to be safe!
At the request of some students in the grade 6/7 class, we spent some time this weekend filming and compiling videos from our time in Fort Providence. They really wanted us to sing for them, but since we’re not the best, we are making a video instead…SHH! (For any curious readers, the song we are performing is the rap hit 'See You Again' from the Furious 7 soundtrack- at their request!)
We hope everyone had a fun and safe May long weekend. Second half of initiative here we come!!
Xoxo
M&E in Fort P.
