Once at the reserve, we got to truly experience Paul's amazing driving skills when we had to navigate through small, unpaved, and winding roads with our enormous bus as we did three-point turns. The drive to get to the camp itself was an adventure. We got lost, Mavis flirted to get directions, and then we almost got lost again with no cell phone reception to call for help. But luckily no desperate calls were needed and we ended up getting to the camp in one piece.

At the teepees we delivered our luggage before having lunch with Rev. Margaret Mullin, Stella Blackbird, and Audrey Bone, amongst other reserve residents.

We were told by Rev. Margaret that we were to take off our watches, that we were now on "native time." She said that we would be going medicine picking, swimming in the lake, having dinner, and then doing teachings. None of the activities were for a specific amount of time, rather dinner started whenever swimming ended.

We went medicine picking with Audrey and Stella who are both elders and medicine women. Stella did a prayer before we began, then divided us into four groups to each search for a certain type of plant to pick. We spread out throughout the fields and gathered them in pillowcases. Before we left the fields though, we were warned by some Parks Canada employees that we needed to watch out for bison in the area that could charge at us, but everybody made it back to the bus safe and sound.

The lake we swam at next was beautiful and crystal clear, and many of us enjoyed the water once we became used to its coldness. Some of us talked on the shores or sat and tied up medicine with Rev. Margaret and Stella at picnic tables in the afternoon sun before heading to supper.

In the early evening with a fire crackling in the background, we sat in a silent circle watching Stella, Audrey, and Rev. Margaret teach us about the medicine wheel.

Hello readers!

Today was a day like no other, and one that I'm sure we will never forget.

All packed up with our multiple bags of luggage that had been scattered throughout our Winnipeg residence, we boarded the bus nice and early to head off to the Keeseekoowenin Reserve this morning. To our delight the drive was only three to four hours, really short when compared to our previous eight hour excursions.

We travelled across some of Canada's flattest land, through the Assiniboine Valley, and listened to Mavis' stories from when she was a minister in a small Manitoba town similar to the ones we were passing by. Part way through our drive we were met with an obstacle when our bus came face-to-face with a combine on a small two-lane road, and soon suggestions began flying about how to handle the situation, most of which were along the lines of "let's stare it down, Paul!"

Tune in tomorrow for more details of this adventure...

VBC - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

The next morning we enjoyed a hearty breakfast at the residence and then headed off to work. Paul, our bus driver, did some amazing driving getting us through the streets of inner city Winnipeg and safely to our work sites. We divided into four groups: a kitchen crew, a VBC Flora House crew, a VBC Mission crew and a construction crew. The kitchen folk, Sharon, Kris, Erika, Lindsay and Alexis did the lunch shopping and preparation for both of our camps. The VBC crews led the Vacation Bible Camps and the construction crew discussed plans with the staff at the Mission regarding what projects would be most beneficial to work on. The kids usually arrived around 10am. Some of the highlights of our mornings were: hearing Matt S. lead "We will, we will praise Him", Beth C. leading the shark song and Keela leading the Martian song. Andrew W. did an amazing job as a snack leader (and was very innovative when Tom and Noah finished off all of the jello by mistake!). Abbey P. and Ashley J. ended up co-ordinating the Flora House site VBC, as Mavis was busy ensuring supplies were purchased and delivered for the construction crew. Ben M, Bryce and Matt did an amazing job building shelves at Flora House.

In the afternoons, we enjoyed various road trips with our VBC friends. On Monday, we went to the Winnipeg Zoo. On Tuesday, we went to Fort Whyte and walked some beautiful trails together. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a trip to Oak Hammock Marsh and spent the afternoon learning about wetlands and skimming pond critters off a dock in the swamp.(this despite a fear of bugs among a few of our girls!)

We met some wonderful children who have already overcome many obstacles in their lives. We learned of the challenges of living in this poverty stricken neighbourhood.

In the evenings, we hung up our blue work shirts and had some fun. On Monday night, we danced the evening away on a river cruise. Chelsea and Jessica F. sure can do the limbo! Andrew, Carter, the adults, the Westmount girls and Matt all sang karaoke. All of us danced and walked the deck and had a wonderful evening together.

Tuesday saw us eating dinner and doing some shopping at the Forks in the Winnipeg. It was a beautiful night and a great way to unwind after a busy day.

Wednesday night, we all enjoyed Folklorama, the longest and largest folk festival in the world. We had dinner at the Celtic Ireland pavilion and saw some amazing Irish dancing. We then traveled in our bus to Africa where we were amazed by the colourful costumes and upbeat music and entertainment. We crawled into our beds at 11pm - tired but ready for a new adventure on Thursday - a trip to Keeseekoowenin Reserve.

Sunday's Carnival

We arrived at Winnipeg Inner City Mission on Sunday afternoon, ready to work, wearing our bright green shirts. Approximately 150 members of the community came to the Carnival and we spent the afternoon serving hamburgs, awarding prizes, running bouncy castles and slip 'n slides and face painting.

It was a sweltering day, but we all had a lot of fun - particularly watching a few of the boys enjoying the slip 'n slide and getting a bit wet ourselves! We met Rev. Margaret Mullin, the executive director at Winnipeg Inner City Mission. After the carnival, we checked in to the Canadian Mennonite University residence - everyone was really happy with our residence rooms - we played some cards in the common room, and spent the night visiting and planning for our Vacation Bible camp.

Day #2 (Saturday)

Hello awesome readers!

The weather as we started off today was much better than yesterday's with clear skies and sunlight, not to mention a great night's sleep!

At noon we got off at a scenic rest stop to make our own sandwiches, play games, and give the youth - as well as Paul our bus driver - a well-needed stretch.

Entertainment on the bus was varied and definitely creative. One of the many things to pass the time were song-making competitions, one of which was about a naked mole rat allowing Mavis to show off her wonderful song-writing capabilities and for us to demonstrate our unique ability to find a rhyme for any word. Games were also played that involved us moving seats, getting to know each other better, chanting, and making secret handshakes. It was also amusing to see the antics ensuing and to hear the announcements made by Mavis and Joanne as they both really enjoyed using the microphone on the bus. We learned new songs to teach to the kids at VBS, Beth Currie french-braided hair, Kris Kuhlmann-Bigg kept us supplied with food for the long hours, card games were played in the back seats, and movies were watched. But for the eight hour bus ride today, some of us learned that the quickest way to make the time fly was sleep as we rolled through the prairies.

Eventually the 800km that seemed impossible to sit through reached 20, and we finally got to our hotel. In groups we went out to have dinner at the surrounding restaurants or the food court at the nearby mall, and to shop at the stores. People went down to swim at the pool before we had to head to Oasis for closing thoughts on the day, last minute details for tomorrow, and to receive our little letters from the invisible man on the bus, Mr. Kobold.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day, but we have a lot of excitement because we're arriving in Winnipeg!!

Farewell,
Your Presbyhooligans

Day #1

Hello Wonderful Readers:

The day started early for the 26 youth and 6 adults going on this wonderful trip. We gathered together in the parking lot of the old ice house at 5:30 this morning in the pouring rain! Luckily it calmed down after an hour or so of driving. The day started off slow, youth and leaders tried to catch up on extra sleep while it was still dark. We hit the border around 7:30 and were well on our way. After catching some more zzz and watching an episode of ER, the youth and leaders played an on the bus icebreaker to get to know each other. After arranging ourselves alphabetically, we did some singing before settling back into our seats for another hour or so before lunch. The bus stopped for lunch in Michigan. Back on the bus we did some more singing, watched "Mamma Mia" and had some rather loud laughter as youth got to know each other, we all chose our camp names. Our VBC theme is "Rock the Boat" so all of our names are boat related. Some examples are: Captain, Undertow, Tidal and Wave and Peter Pan! We arrived in Janesville, Wisconsin at about 4:00 their time which is about 5:00 your time. Don't worry, the time change confused us too! After and amazing dinner at Cracker Barrel and some nice down time in their amazing rocking lawn chairs we took a trip to the Walmart to get some fruits and meats for lunch tomorrow and some extra supplies that may have been forgotten. Now safe and sound at the hotel, some youth are swimming and some are already asleep but one thing is certain, this trip will be AWESOME!