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)