Hi Everyone!
Things are looking exciting again, now that the homesickness has passed and I've met the 9 other people that will be my family for the next 5 months. The last week I spent in Victoria will definitely go down in the history books as one to remember and I'm feeling refreshed and ready for an adventure.
Living together in Sooke feels a bit like we're wannabe supermodels contestants on Americas Next Top Model, as we're set up in a beautiful vacation home decorated solely by aboriginal art and complete with a massage chair, waterfall showers and a flat screen t.v.
http://www.sookeoceanresort.com/photos/sooke-ocean-resort-2.html Living in luxury feels odd, seeing as how we'll be living in houses made of mud in Uganda very soon.
Our group of interns have already bonded and are sharing inside jokes, I feel like I'm going to be making friends for life, which is important, considering we are going to be each others only support for 5 months in another country. I've come down with a cold but there is another woman in my group that is also sick, we decided to "man up" and support each other. I'm elated I didn't spend the day in bed trying to recover because we would have missed the opportunity to learn about T'Sooke Nation.
We spent today at the T'Sooke Reserve and had the pleasure of learning about their use of sustainable technology with the hope of sharing this knowledge with the rural villages in Uganda. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtZ9GA4qRfJc%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&h=zAQHwuqNCAQE-hJezH970mOM9Erpkw314J6kg3_zk-l-Kvg Their vision statement is to have a healthy and safe community that is self sufficient and they are certainly well on their way to achieving that. As the number one user of solar energy in Canada, the community uses solar panels placed on the roofs of the band council office, fisheries department office and individual family homes. They are using sunlight to power their electricity needs, hot water tanks and making a profit by selling the energy surplus back to BChydro. In addition to no longer relying on Hydro for electricity 11 months out of every year, they created 40 new on-reserve jobs by having the installation company hire and train local people.
What I found interesting is the use of solar energy is fairly affordable. Each solar panel costs $1000 and is subsidized by federal government funding and grants. In fact, T'Sooke nation had 100% of it subsidized and these solar panels will provide free energy for a guaranteed 25 years.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to Victoria to receive our travel vaccinations and while I'm used to giving other people needles, the thought of receiving the necessary polio, yellow fever, tetanus, Hep A and B, etc, is not a particularly exciting thought. What is an exciting thought is continuing to receive an education is sustainable development. On Friday we will be participating in a "Zero Mile Diet," which involves hiking down to the ocean and eating whatever we find, whether it be clams, fish or seaweed. I am starting to truly believe that the first nations people of Canada will lead our country back to sustainable living.
Things are looking exciting again, now that the homesickness has passed and I've met the 9 other people that will be my family for the next 5 months. The last week I spent in Victoria will definitely go down in the history books as one to remember and I'm feeling refreshed and ready for an adventure.
Living together in Sooke feels a bit like we're wannabe supermodels contestants on Americas Next Top Model, as we're set up in a beautiful vacation home decorated solely by aboriginal art and complete with a massage chair, waterfall showers and a flat screen t.v.
http://www.sookeoceanresort.com/photos/sooke-ocean-resort-2.html Living in luxury feels odd, seeing as how we'll be living in houses made of mud in Uganda very soon.
Our group of interns have already bonded and are sharing inside jokes, I feel like I'm going to be making friends for life, which is important, considering we are going to be each others only support for 5 months in another country. I've come down with a cold but there is another woman in my group that is also sick, we decided to "man up" and support each other. I'm elated I didn't spend the day in bed trying to recover because we would have missed the opportunity to learn about T'Sooke Nation.
We spent today at the T'Sooke Reserve and had the pleasure of learning about their use of sustainable technology with the hope of sharing this knowledge with the rural villages in Uganda. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtZ9GA4qRfJc%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&h=zAQHwuqNCAQE-hJezH970mOM9Erpkw314J6kg3_zk-l-Kvg Their vision statement is to have a healthy and safe community that is self sufficient and they are certainly well on their way to achieving that. As the number one user of solar energy in Canada, the community uses solar panels placed on the roofs of the band council office, fisheries department office and individual family homes. They are using sunlight to power their electricity needs, hot water tanks and making a profit by selling the energy surplus back to BChydro. In addition to no longer relying on Hydro for electricity 11 months out of every year, they created 40 new on-reserve jobs by having the installation company hire and train local people.
What I found interesting is the use of solar energy is fairly affordable. Each solar panel costs $1000 and is subsidized by federal government funding and grants. In fact, T'Sooke nation had 100% of it subsidized and these solar panels will provide free energy for a guaranteed 25 years.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to Victoria to receive our travel vaccinations and while I'm used to giving other people needles, the thought of receiving the necessary polio, yellow fever, tetanus, Hep A and B, etc, is not a particularly exciting thought. What is an exciting thought is continuing to receive an education is sustainable development. On Friday we will be participating in a "Zero Mile Diet," which involves hiking down to the ocean and eating whatever we find, whether it be clams, fish or seaweed. I am starting to truly believe that the first nations people of Canada will lead our country back to sustainable living.
As always, love to Moosmas, Davey Baby, The Social Work class of Shelly Johnson and Natalie Clark and special appreciation to the people of T'Sooke reserve for having us as guests on their land and sharing their knowledge with us.
Meegwetch
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