Goodbye Pickle!

Can you believe it? The Pickle Lakers have once again traversed the great Ontario highways to return home. We are relieved to inform you that the van (lovingly named Sully) has survived the astonishing 9000 kilometers we have racked up in the past 6 weeks. Props to Sully and a big thank you to Maggie’s family for allowing us to use it!

Our last week has been a blur. Monday and Tuesday were spent alongside our fellow Mish PE’s preparing for our Thank You Dinner at Missabay. The four PE’s welcomed the challenge of cooking up a meal for a large crowd. We prepared spaghetti, meatballs, and the crowd favorite…Mashed Potatoes!! Both parents and kids were in an out of the dinner. Many students stopped by after a nice dip in the lake and were eager to warm up and have a meal with friends. We had a wonderful time cooking up a storm, talking to the students, and snacking on some Mashed taters.

In the school we began our leadership and communication unit with the classes. The high school students were able to show off their creativity and teamwork when we held an auction of miscellaneous household items in class. The class was divided into two teams which bid against eachother for things such as tin cans, paper clips, cones, and empty cereal boxes. After obtaining all their loot they constructed “the most useful item” and had to market it to their teachers and us. We were quite impressed by the “windchime burglar alarm” and “all in one kitchen aid/alarm clock/cleaner” that they showed off to us with TV-worthy commercials! In another lesson this week we played a great game of Communities, in which two teams (or ‘communities) send spies to the other team to figure out the rules of the community. This game was a great way to discuss our own social norms as well as verbal/nonverbal communication.

In the primary school classes we also worked on communication and leadership. The classes particularly enjoyed our “alien game’ demonstrations in which the classes either instructed Maggie and Julia to hug or shake hands. Both resulted in belly slaps, silly dance moves, and plenty of giggles from all involved.

On our last day of school, Crolancia surprised us with a thank you ceremony, presenting us with CROLANCIA SWEATERS, which we later donned at the playground! It was such wonderful to see the whole school gathered and we felt so lucky to have spent 6 weeks with such a wonderful community. All of the students have been a pleasure to teach, and we have had such a terrific experience in Crolancia! After school we assisted Nick in hosting Boy to Manathon for our male population. The guys competed in Cracker Eating challenges, Push up Contests, Shootouts, and Grunting galore. It was a close competition, with all challengers racking up extra points for sportsmanship and and teamwork, but our winner from last year has reclaimed his title and the manliest of prizes: the QHO plunger.

After Boy to Manathon we ran around Pickle saying our goodbyes and packing up our bags. We took a break from the craziness to stop by the Weather Station, where Lucy and Roy were letting out the Weather Balloon. We had a mini meteorology lesson and watched as the balloon shot off at 1000 miles a minute!  Lucy took us over to the MNR base so we could check out the Water Bomber afterwards. It’s a huge, impressive plane which is able to swoop down into lakes and grab water in its belly.

Our time has flown by, and it is with much love and gratitude that we thank the entire community for welcoming us in so graciously. 

We will certainly never forget our time spent in Pickle Lake or the wonderful people we have met. Thank you all for the generosity and welcome we were showed. Pickle Lake, Crolancia and the people of both have such special places in our hearts. 

One last time,

Mama Jules and Aunt Maggie 

Julia was tickled (pickled?) to catch a fish!

It’s hard to believe in one week we will be back down South! Our last week is sure to fly by as we still have so many things we want to accomplish before another epic road trip with our loveable, noisy van named Sully. What have the Pickle PE's been up to? Well, last Saturday we had a wonderful afternoon spent at the park with all the children of Pickle. What started off as a game of Spud ended in many lovely chalk drawings around the school, a sing along courtesy of Nick and Josh, and many races around the school. I don’t think any of us have ever seen so many kids that were so eager to run laps around the school! It was really touching when some of the kids drew a chalk thank-you for us - such a lovely day! 

 

On Sunday we took a trip on the North Road to see the end of the highway and check out a closed-down Residential School. It really made an impact on all of us to see the closed down school and made us wonder what kind of impact it had on the community.

This week we focused on Substance Abuse with the Crolancia kids and our emphasis was on alcohol, inhalants, and pills. These lessons were very relevant for the community and we were really impressed by the students participation and the discussions we were able to have with the.  The 6,7,8 class was so really interested in the long-term realities of inhalants and alcohol use. We talked a lot about the permanent mental damage and impaired motor functions caused by prolonged substance abuse and how this can affect our daily lives.

 The students asked such smart and relevant questions!

The afternoon sports never slow down around here. The kids have Julia running loops around the school, Maggie dancing with the girls, and both of us have steadily improved our volleyball skills. We even got to show off our skills on the baseball diamond! Crolancia has put together a baseball team to take up to Dryden in a few weeks, so we decided to pop by baseball practice on Wednesday afternoon. We were both surprised to see that Maggie remembered any of her long-forgotten softball skills. What can we say? Surprising talents abound in Pickle!

 On Thursday we decided to give fishing another try. Julia finally got her first fish in Pickle!! I guess we should mention this was well after the other fishermen had caught their limit and were practically recruiting the fish for Julia. Nevertheless it was an exciting moment worth recording for the Pickle PE’s. We came home to the best fish fry ever, courtesy of Dianna, Mark, and Killer Krumbs.

Saturday was spent volunteering at a barbecue and hockey fundraiser. Julia and Maggie loved playing ball hockey with all the kids! Maggie's past hockey coaches were probably shuddering as Maggie taught all of the kids how to pass with their backhand. It was so nice to see some of the community members as well as everyone in Pickle is so lovely to talk to. In the evening we played volleyball with the older kids and witnessed possibly one of the best sunsets yet on Pickle Lake.

On Sunday, the annual 'Boys-to-Man(athon)' part 1 took place at Missbay. With a wonderful turnout of 15 boys and a beautiful sunny day, we were all set! Through grunting contests, log throwing, juice-chugging and cracker eating the Missabay boys became men. Julia wore a sweet bandana and showed off her mad skills while challenging the boys to push ups. The day ending with a celebratory swim in the Lake and Maggie learned how to lifeguard while watching for nibbling Pike. 

With our days numbered before we have to head home we are so excited to spend more time with the kids and people of Pickle!

Much love,

Finally-caught-a-fish-Julia and 'the only one who went swimming' (Maggie)

Cupcakes, Snow and How-to-say-No!

Where have the Pickle Lakers been all this time you ask? Not to worry, we can fill you in!

We are four weeks into our stay in the lovely town at the end of the highway. It is crazy to think we have only two more weeks left here, and so many more things to do! We have been running around for the past two weeks gearing up for Girl’s Nights, road tripping to Powwows, fishing, and lesson planning for all different grades.

Last week we started off our Mental Health unit at Crolancia, teaching about self respect, bullying, peer pressure, and conflict resolution. With the 1/2/3 class, our emphasis was on conflict resolution. All week we had Grade 1/2/3 kids coming up to us telling us to STAND TALL and TAKE A DEEP BREATH. It was great to see the students so engaged with the lesson. We also worked with the 6/7/8 students on Peer Pressure and we were so pleased to see them actively thinking about possible responses and ways of dealing with social pressures.  

On Friday the Pickle Laker PE’s were split apart in order to DOUBLE our outreach. Maggie was off to Mish with the MissaBay PE’s to help out at the Baby Centre and speak with Jeff about future outreach. It was really wonderful to be able to discuss the different programs that Maxine and Jeff run, which include Wolf Spirit, Girl Power and Mamo-Ombiggi- Owsowin. Julia hopped on a school bus with a group of Crolancia students to attend a Powwow at the Dryden Highschool. Julia rocked out to all of the girl’s music on the bus as they counted FIFTEEN BEARS on the ride there. Julia was in shock, but the kids assured her this was just a typical day in the North. At the Powwow everyone stood to see the awesome opening ceremony, marked by intense drumming and chanting by the circle elders. As the Powwow progressed all the students were invited to join in the dancing around the drums along with the ceremony dancers! It was such a cool sight to see, and it was great to watch all the Crolancia students join in with the crowd. At the end the dancers tried to instruct all of the teachers and older kids on how to do the Hunter’s Dance. Unfortunately, Julia definitely needs to work on her coordination before she is able to show off her new moves. 

As the long weekend approached, the four PE’s took a much needed trip to Dryden to stock up on groceries. Since it was a long weekend, we took Monday to explore the hiking trails around Pickle. This gave Maggie a prime opportunity to demonstrate her superb navigation skills! And by this we mean she unfortunately identified our location as the opposite side of town. After working up an appetite we drove to the dams for a bit of fishing, hoping to catch our dinner! The fish had other plans apparently though, so we nommed on some sunflower seeds and smores until a less fishy dinner was cooked up.

Our third week in Pickle flew by as well. Starting this week, Maggie and Julia will be working with the 6/7/8, grade girls and 1/2/3 girls everyday to focus on self esteem, respect, and communication skills. This is a really great opportunity for us to work so closely with the girls and we have been thrilled with the discussions and activities we have done with them. Our emphasis with the 6/7/8 grade girls has been on stress, conflict resolution and respect. It was definitely a highlight to see the girls so engaged with the worksheets we created as they wrote down what they were proud of and their ambitions.

 In the 1/2.3 class we have been focusing on friendships and the ways in which secrets and tattle tailing hurt people's feelings. They really enjoyed playing broken telephone and seeing how much the message can change from person to person. Additionally, we had a great chat about excluding (a new vocal word for the girls!) and how that makes friends feel. The girls loved writing kind messages to everybody when we did a warm fuzzes activity with the girls and we are happy to see them thinking that everyone in the class is friends and their is something unique about each of them.

With the 4/5 class our emphasis has been to teach them all about sexual anatomy and puberty. As Julia is convinced words  like “epididymis” and “fallopian tubes” are the funniest words in the world, the kids quickly got comfortable saying them. After a few lessons on puberty and sexual health vocab the kids got to show off their knowledge with the totally awesome GAME OF PUBERTY that Maggie worked hard to create (thanks for the inspiration, Justice and Fabi). The game included activities challenges, such as assemble a puzzle of the female and male sexual anatomy. They impressed the both of us by remembering everything we taught them and working super well together as a team. Props to you, Grades 4 and 5!!  

We had the opportunity to teach every single grade in the school in one day? Did we mention we did it TWICE this week?! Well it’s true, we were super excited to stop into every classroom with lessons on sexual health (including STI jeopardy for the high school students) or physical education for the younger kids. It was a great week at Crolancia, that is for sure.

Our third week in Pickle also featured two Girls Nights. Girl’s Night 1.0 took place on Wednesday afternoon right after school for the JK/SK and 1/2/3 ladies of Crolancia.  We started off with decorating cupcakes and creating clothespin creatures (Maggie is undeniably proud of being able to make crafts out of anything).We never realized just how much younger girls loves glitter and sprinkles After snack time we demonstrated our oatmeal face mask on our wonderful volunteer, Nick. After seeing just how much he loved it, of course all of the younger ladies were eager to have an oatmeal facemask as well!  After rocking out a bit to Call me Maybe, we finished up the afternoon with our special feature:  Giving Nick a makeover!  This was most certainly the highlight of the event, as the girls were able to show off their creativity and show off Nick’s inner beauty queen.

Still enthused from our successful girl’s night at Crolancia we were quick to start our work for girl’s night at Missabay! How many PE’s does it take to bake 50 + cupcakes?? How does one make enough frosting for 20 plus girls?? It appears that Nick does not know…. 

The PE’s were slightly delirious after hours spent baking cupcakes, mac and cheese, and bucket loads (literally, we ran out of bowls, so we used a pail) of frosting. It all was worth it though, as Girls Night 2.0  was a hit! We were so happy to spend time with over 20 girls from Grade 4,5,6,7, and 8 at Missabay on Friday evening. We began the night with fun games like Tape Tag and Huckle Buckle in the gym. Laura and Julia were the champs of Huckle Buckle, taking down the male squad of Nick and Matt (a teacher from Missabay) in the final round while Maggie lost her voice narrating the games. After running around for quite a while we had cupcake decorating and then had Missabay’s Next Top Model. Who were our top two contestants? Matt and Nick of course!! The ladies split up into teams to see who could make the most lovely models. We had two very interesting final contestants, that is for sure.  It was a night filled with giggles, MORE Call Me Maybe (we DEFINITELY know all the lyrics by heart at this point), and lots of smiling Missabay ladies. We don’t think anyone was quite ready for the night to end when the clock struck nine.

After so many busy days one might think we would be taking it easy and reveling in last's nights snow (Maggie might have exclaimed 'It's snowing!!" over 20 times). None of that though! We are off to get ready for Boy’s Afternoon with the younger fella’s of Crolancia, and then we’re all excited to watch a movie with the kids of Pickle Lake. 

Over and Out, Call Me Maybe (if I had cell service!), Much more Pickle Lovin and a whole new jar of peanut butter,

Mama Jules and Aunt Marge