Canada Part 1

Hello! Salut!
Already, almost a month and a half have passed since the team came to Canada from Ukraine. The Christmas holidays were a relaxing time, but it's got busy again lately. The week before Christmas, the team volunteered again at the Cancer Society and Christmas Bureau in Mission. I stayed home two days that week, because I was sick. But on the 23rd I volunteered for the Salvation Army and collected donations outside a strip mall. The night before, I was also able to go to a birthday party for two of my teammates. On the evening of the 23rd, I went skating with my host family and other teammates. Sasha, my counterpart/roommate and I spent our Christmas with our host family. On the 24th, our hosts' friends came over in the afternoon, and in the evening we drove to Vancouver to see a light show. We returned to Mission, and I went to midnight mass. Christmas morning we exchanged gifts. That night we had a feast with ham, stuffing, etc. On Boxing Day my parents came to visit me! They flew from Edmonton to Vancouver, rented a car, and picked up Sasha and me in Mission. That afternoon, we went to Surrey and ate supper at my aunt Suzanne's. After, we drove to downtown Vancouver and stayed at a hotel. The next day, we went to Science world where we saw the famous Body Worlds exhibit. It was very impressive. Then, my parents took us back to Mission. It was great to see them. The next week was "Community Orientation Week" for the team, when we got familiar with the city a bit more. On Tuesday the 28th, we did a workshop put on by the NGO Oxfam Canada. The next day, something big happened. Sasha and I learned that our host family was unhappy and no longer wanted to host us. I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that there were some misunderstandings and a lack of communication. Anyway, we now have a new host family. They are actually hosting two other program participants! Our new host family consists of two men, Dan and John. They are cousins to each other. They have generously opened their house to us, and I am thankful. We moved in just last Sunday (January 9), as Sasha and I lived with one of the supervisors for a week and a half while he found us a new host family. Apart from our domestic situation, our involvement in group activities and work went on as planned. On December 30 the team visited the local Sikh temple and RCMP detachment. On the 31 we met to talk about cultural differences and to decide our work placements. I am volunteering 3 days a week at Mission Multicultural Services. My work partner is Sashko, another Ukrainian participant. To celebrate New Years, the team ate supper at the Sikh temple and then met at one of the host families' house for a party. It was very fun. By January 1, my cold was almost finally gone, so I started going regularly to the Leisure centre with its fitness room and swimming pool. The first week of the new year our work placements began. However, my work supervisor, Dr. Kusum Soni, was still on holidays, so Sashko and I had to find something else to do that week. We researched the concept of a living, or human, library and wrote a proposal for one at the Mission library. The idea is that people act as books, and the public comes to the library and "signs out" these human books to learn about them. These human "books" are people who have experienced prejudice and possibly discrimination. So the goal is to deconstruct stereotypes and create understanding between people. We now have our work supervisor's support and have got in touch with the public library. We hope to do the event in late February. We will try to get the whole team involved in organizing. I was able to watch the Canadian junior team's elimination matches that week. It was a big shock when they lost to the Russians! On Friday January 7 was Orthodox Christmas, so the whole team traveled to the Ukrainian Orthodox church in Chilliwack, BC for mass there. That night, we made a big supper at my temporary home (the supervisor's place) with Ukrainian dishes. On Saturday night I played bowling with some other teammates. Last Monday (the 10th) was the first EAD (educational activity day) of the Canadian phase. The topic was water (including its health benefits). In this phase, EADs are on Mondays, we're at our work placements Tuesday to Thursday, and the CADs (community activity days) are on Fridays. Last week was mine and Sashko's first official week at our work placement. We got oriented, helped clean up the office, and made some phone calls. The Multicultural Services centre's main focus is helping immigrants integrate into the community and providing forms and counseling for them. Last Friday it was both Old (Ukrainian) New Year's day and the birthday of one participant, so we met at his place in the evening for a party. During the day, for our CAD, I sold raffle tickets again for the Cancer Society. Other participants were doing a bottle drive to raise money for the women's resource society. On Saturday the whole team volunteered at the Mission health fair: setting up, greeting and directing visitors, cleaning up, etc. Yesterday I went for a driving tour and hike of the forest and water ways near Mission with Sasha and my other housemate/teammate Bogdan. We saw some beautiful landscape and a couple dams. Today's EAD was on nutrition. Sasha and I are responsible for next Monday's EAD; the topic will be alternative medicines. So I have a busy week ahead preparing for that and also the mid-phase evaluation next Tuesday to Thursday. We will probably go to Harrison, BC for that. The past while I was also helping with our team's newsletter. We write a monthly newsletter for the community. I wrote a few articles and proofread some others. I'm aware that only 8 weeks remain in the program. It's hard to believe that it's going to end. I must make the best of the remaining time.
mc
Pictures: 1. a dam on the Stave River near Mission; 2. on top of the dam; 3. standing by a lake; 4. another lake; 5. a gingerbread Santa sleigh we made with our old host family; 6. Science World in Vancouver; 7. the light show at Stanley Park; and 8. the Ukrainian participants singing at our celebration of Orthodox Christmas in Chilliwack.