Cabins, Turtles, Drums and Kids

‘She laid her head down and knew it was right’

I am in love. Not with a specific person, but with a country. I am in love with Canada, or at least Ontario (so far). The people are amazingly friendly, the scenery is wild and pure and beautiful, the sunsets are unbelievable and the Canadian way of life is perfect. Yes, I have only been here for 2 weeks and yes, I have only seen a tiny bit of the whole country, but I am in love with it.

The first 10 days were part of pre-camp, in which we had workshops and preps for our activities. It was hard at the beginning, because almost everyone knows each other, because most of them have been coming here for years and years. However, everyone was really friendly and I soon got to know (almost) all their names. We had loads of workshops about our role as a counselor, prejudices, keys to success and how to deal with certain situations.

The kids arrived only a couple of days ago, but it feels like they have been here for weeks. I don’t have a cabin at the moment, but I am resource for the expo section (12-13), which is called the ‘friendly aunt’, who hangs out with all the kids and doesn’t have to discipline them. We only have 16 in the section, which made is easy to remember all their names!

In the morning I am either teaching horseback riding or environmental education. The afternoon is different every time; sometimes ridings, swimming or something crafty. The evening program is different every day and occasionally the schedule allows me to go riding with one of the other riding staff members.

On their first full day of camp a special guest came to teach the kids. She is a native Canadian, who lived in a reservation during her childhood, after which she decided to leave and study Herbal medicine, reiki and several traditional healing methods. For us she gave a drum making and talking stick workshop. The first one took place during the day and consisted of three parts: putting lard on the wood, piercing the animal skin and attaching the skin to the wood by ‘sowing’ it. It was a really interesting workshop, especially because she told about different rituals used in the process of the drum making and ceremonies in which the drums are used. Traditionally, you drum on the rhythm of your own heartbeat, so everyone drums a different rhythm. She will be coming back to teach us the specific of that.

In the evening she did a talking stick workshop, in which she told us about the Elder Councils of her community. In these councils the Talking stick is used, to ensure everyone gets to speak and to stimulate the use of deepest layer of brain. We use different layers of the brain, with the dinosaur part being the most primitive and impromptu one, and the deepest layers being the rational thinking part. When we have the sudden urge to speak in, let’s say, a meeting, it is often the dinosaur part of the brain that is engaged. With the talking stick, this person has to wait and ‘hold his thought’, however, often the urge to speak disappears, because the thinking part of the brain is stimulate and takes over.

I spent my first Half-Day at the cottage of the aunt of one of the other staff members. The cottage is on an island, so after an interesting ride on a windy dirt track, we had to switch to a little boat. The cabin itself is beautiful, with loads of wood and an amazing view of the lake. There were no ‘artificial’ sounds, only the rustling of the trees and squirrels and the sounds of the water against the rocks.

The professor and the coffee cup
One day a professor came into the class with an empty jar, a bag of rocks and two cups of coffee. He emptied the rocks into the jar and asked his students: ‘is the jar full now?’. The students said; ‘yes it it’. The professor smiled, while he reached underneath his desk and got a bag of gravel. He poured the bag of gravel into the jar, mixed it, so that the gravel filled the space between the rocks. He asked his class; ‘is the jar full now?’. The class laughed, while saying; ‘Yes sir, the jar is full now’. Again, the professor reached underneath his desk and got out a bag of sand. He filled the spaces between the gravel with the sand. The students laughed and the professor said; ‘the rocks represent the foundations in life; family, friends, and whatever else is the most important to you. The gravel symbolizes individual important things; a house, a car, etc. The sand stands for the small and unimportant everyday things, which defers our attention from the gravel and most importantly the rocks.’ One student stood up and asked; ‘What about the coffee?’. The professor smiled and poured the two cups of coffee into the jar while saying; ‘It doesn’t matter how full our lives our, there is always time for a cup of coffee with a friend.’.