Que Bola?

Today, I shall begin with sad news and move towards a rundown of everything I ate for dinner on thursday.

On Thursday we lost a participant. It was definitely a shock to all of us. She was having difficulty with her host mother, and was missing the freedom she had with friends and family back home. She talked with our project supervisor and they decided that she was not at the right stage in her life to do this program. Personally, I found this very hard as she is one of the participants who I fell closest to, and she was excellent in the group! It is weird to say this, but it was like there was death in the group. I look forward to keeping in touch with her and seeing where she goes in her life. She is a very amazing person! Anyways, a new participant will be arriving in the next few days. I know that we will make her feel welcome and we will do our best to integrate her into our already well established group.

Last Thursday was some kind of Cuban socialist long live the revolution day! And as such we partied hard until 8 o’clock! For this celebration we were requested to all work with our counterpart at making an authentic Cuban dish. When it came time to eat we all placed our dishes on a table and described the contents. Here is a run-down of the food which was consumed. 1) Rice and Beans, 2) Rice and Beans with green pepper, 3) Rice and Beans with red pepper, 4) rice and beans with pork, 5) Rice and beans with green pepper, red pepper and pork (our dish), 6) Rice pudding, 7) Perrogies (can you guess which nationality brought perrogies???). After reflecting on this situation I came to the conclusion that Cubans are a rice and beans type of people. In Cuba they have white people (rice), black people (beans), and brown people (if you mash rice and beans together they turn brown!). I think this is a very multi-cultural dish and I also think that Canada needs one dish which represents all of the cultures which make up Canada… On second thought our national food does accomplish this, the doughnut with sprinkles! When it was time to leave I proceeded to the exterior outdoors of the building. As I was waiting for my ride, I saw something which I had not seen for an entire month. A young lad on a unicycle! This was not any ordinary unicycle, it was a Kris Holmes free style uni. I was beside myself. I called him over and we began talking about one wheeling. He even let me ride it. It felt so good to hop around on one wheel again!

I am currently planning an educational activity day (ead) with three other participants. Our ead is going to be on youth and media. We should have two guest speakers, and I am trying to get a bus (for free) to take us to Owen Sound for a tour of a radio station. The ead is on Thursday. There are definitely many things which need to fall into place before this ead becomes a reality. I hope for the best!!!

On Friday was the Meaford fair! I had an awesome time. There tons of motorcycles, old beautiful cars, police and cute little kids. They had various stations of activities for the kids. Hammer and bell game (does this thing actually have a name?), hockey type game???, and the jolly green dinosaur bouncing castle. I was responsible for the jolly green dinosaur bouncing castle. It was excellent to see so many kids bouncing up and down having a truly jolly time! I was surprised and very happy to only have one injury (and many other minor injuries)! It reminded me of my jolly jumping days. It looks like flipping and jumping head first into inflatable walls is as fun now as it was last year when I did it!

On Saturday we had a party for all the participants at my host families house. It was excellent! We danced with brooms, listened to reggaeton, and the Cubanas attempted to teach me Cuban dancing. Apparently, I am bad at Cuban dancing, however I am learning… You could definitely see a difference in the cultures. The Canadians danced and then sat around the fire staring at it and talking to each other. None of the cuabns sat around the fire for the entire night. We definitely had different approaches to a camp fire party!

Yesterday, my host family took Jorge and I to Toronto to watch a Blue Jays game. Jorge had the time of his life! The game was riveting to him, and he was blown away by the CN tower. After the game we dined out at the Rain forest Cafe! Another great day in Ontario.

Lastly, someone asked me how Meaford compares to the West Coast. From what I have oberved so far, it rains alot less and sepember is much warmer here (although they have been setting many records this month). The culture here is a little different. You do not get that same sense of culture and abundant activities as you do in Vancouver. It is a small community here. I will let you know more as the weather gets frigid!

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