Tue, 6-23-08 End of Orientation

It's here. The end of my orientation! One of our final events included visiting Grandville Island, a unique cluster of art shops, cafes, and farmers markets. 

On thursday, we drove to a college campus and did a ropes course together. This being a typical team-building event, turned out to be a lot more challenging than I expected! The ropes were strung from tree to tree at least 10m off the ground (about 30 feet!). Ok, so that isn't super high, but when you're standing on something that resembles dental floss, it seems a lot higher. 

As the grand finale, we spent friday on yet an other retreat. This time, we piled into a car, and I drove us to a monastery about 2 hours away. Our objective was to take the full day to reflect in complete solitude on what we were learning these last three weeks. We each had our own room, including a hard couch and a little cross on the wall (just like in the movies!), and were left to enjoy the silence. (I did spot a few monks playing cards in the afternoon).

Now the first stage of Nieu Communities begins. But, until I understand it better, I won't try to explain it to you yet.  Cheers!

Sun, 6-15-08, Car-free-festival

Need a haircut? Need a massage, a spiritual reading, your fortune told, some portuguese style chicken? Or perhaps, you have the urge to learn belly-dancing, to join in on the merry making of a mardi gras band, to express your inner roller-derby girl, or just the need to save baby kittens or whales, then this is the perfect festival for you! I spent the day walking the crowded streets of Commercial Drive to the beat of drums and live Jazz music, enjoying the Car-Free-Vancouver-Day-Festival. 

Anything you can possibly imagine exist on the streets today (even free coffee samples everywhere)! 

The house on the left is my house.

Saturday, June 14th

The sun finally came out today! After a week of so-so weather, it's beginning to feel like summer. Of course, Commercial drive is crawling with people eating ice cream and buying fresh fruits and veggies (EVERYTHING here is organic, vegan, international, or locally grown). 

Yesterday was spent working in the community garden. One of the ministries here, is centered around this garden as a way to connect with the neighborhood and homeless. Our job was to weed.... 

Later that night, I had dinner with my roommates Anjali and Emmanuel. We've been learning a lot about our cultural differences and expectations. The biggest issue so far, was establishing a list of what foods were considered "community foods" (that is, shared by all of us). In the end, we ended up deciding that only condiments were to be shared because none of us eat the same foods!

Last night then, during dinner, I was introduced to the way they both eat chicken legs... Though I was a little timid, I was schooled in how to eat the meat, cartledge, and the bone. Gulp. Never eaten a bone before. 

Oh, one more thing, these are a few pictures of my bathroom. I found a bucket of yellow paint and decided to paint the bathroom yesterday. Cheers!

Oh, it does rain!

I heard that Vancouver was rainy, but until today, I didn't really know just HOW rainy it is. Yikes. We spent the day getting to know the city by walking for hours and hours through the pouring rain. Though it wasn't too cold, by the time dinner rolled around, we were chilled to the bone! Nothing like heavy rain to explore the city with (we took pictures in Stanley park).

As I have mentioned before, right now we are going through our orientation weeks. That means that we spend a good chunk, every day, learning about and exploring our new host country. Yesterday (sunday), I got to check out a local church and was surprised to find a fiddle-player as one of the worship leaders. It added quite a unique sound! 

My new housemate and team member Anjali, invited one of her non-Christian friends to join us for church. Afterwards, we sat out on our steps, watching people, and discussing her first experience of church. It was the perfect way to end the day. 

By the way, this is my team with the Staff members. 

Making it to Vancouver...

After catching a boarder guard in a bad mood (grumble), I finally made it to Vancouver BC. An incredibly beautiful city, now to be my new home for the next year. 

I live in 

East Vancouver, off of Commercial Drive. If any of you have been here, you'll know that it's a popular hippy-kind-of-area that is jam-packed with Cafes, Shops, Pubs, 

and Supermarkets. It draws all kinds of people from Backpackers, Tourists, and Homeless to Urban-City-Dwellers, Families, and Weed-Smoking-Hippies. I love the plethora of faces you find here and 

the fact that everything is within walking distance! 

My Nieu Communities Team consists of two families with little kids (the children are sooo cute!!) 

and my housemates and I. 

Emmanuel comes from Cameroon and Anjolie is from India and together we occupy the quaintest little house.Thanks to Tim, Andrea, and Katharina (my friends from LA) who helped move me in, I feel quite at home in my new room. 

As Orientation takes three weeks, we spent the first week on Galiano Island together. 

Though it felt a little crazy to run off on a retreat the moment I arrived here, it was a great way to jump start knowing each other. The Staff is a team of six, all well adjusted to life in Canada (Many of them had originally worked with the Nieu Communities Team in South Africa or had been Apprentices themselves in Vancouver).

So, there's plenty more to write about, but for now..... Cheers!