Debriefing.

The time has come where Katimavik is coming to the end. If the program had been the 9 months we had all signed up for, we would be reaching the start of our final rotation, but rather in two days we are making the sad, yet equally joyous voyage home.
Debriefing activities which focused on just Quebec were planned by us group members and have taken place over the last two days.
Last night MA, Zoe and Kate did their activity which covered group living in dynamic. They gave each group member a mountain to represent a hard time, a tree to represent a time of growth, a heart for a time of love, a sun for a happy moment and a stop sign for a new start. We had a timeline and each group member put their objects where they felt it belonged over the 6 months and why. I put my stop sign at the start because I felt we all had the oppertunity to start fresh and sort of be whoever we wanted to be because we didn't know eachother before the program. I put my sunshine at the end of november, one of our last nights in Vander where we all had matching timhortons mugs and walked to timhortons in the middle of the night in the middle of the street together. I put my tree in the first billeting section because it was our first time away from eachother since the start of the program, I put my mountain in the two weeks of hell at the end of Jan start of Feb, and my heart at the start of the program because that's when we had to many conversations late at night about life and at the time it made me so excited to spend time with the group I had been given and appreciate the group I was in so much, because I could tell I was in the right place with the right people who had similar intrests as me, and NO I didn't cry at all when telling this to everyone... hardy har har.

This morning when I got up for breakfast people were giggling and making many references to my camera so I turned it on and found a wide array of extremely artistic photographs of couches, silly faces and the inside of my project leaders mouth. Stephane had found it and decided that he'd spend his valuable time and leave me with some of his extremely rare photography. These are my favourites.


After breakfast I was sitting and drinking my juice when I witnessed a spontaneous massage train through the kitchen, dining room area. Since my camera was nearby for the epic pictures already taken for me that morning I also snapped this candid moment.

After the dishes and massages, it was me and Eve and Isaacs turn and we had the competency category. We got everyone to rate how they felt we did on doing activities which covered all 8 of our competencies and then they were allowed to use that many fingers to support an exercise ball as a group. It was cool to see if the ball balanced or not, and it really sparked some interesting conversation about whether or not the group felt we had spent considerable time on learning about the French culture, and about languages in Canada and the identity of Canada.
After was Jared and Brandon and they had 11 random objects and by rotating objects we all had to relate them to our workplace. It got a little old after about 6 rotations, but it was funny to hear all the work memories it brought up from everyone, and we never really would sit down and talk about our work experience because it was just something we would all do everyday and not really talk about so it was cool hearing about what everyone thought about their workplaces.
After supper it was Sara(h)s and Ryan who organized a scavenger hunt. I was on Eve's team and we had to collect a packet of salt and pepper from Ashton's the best place for poutine, a napkin from Star Cafe, a hangout for uni students, from Espresso lab, an empty cup, a nice internet cafe, from the movie theatre the clap a photograph, and Timmies a small treat. When we got home there was hot chocolate and doughnuts for all of us and we spoke about our favourite place and least favourite places in the community.
We decided to stay in for the rest of the night and everyone except Eve and Brandon played monopoly. It was cute though, because even though they didnt play they stayed in the room and the entire group was together the whole night. In between her turns Sara managed to paint mine, Eve's, her own, Sarahs, and Kate's nails! She's kinda professional.
We were tired so we paused the game until tomorrow but at this point Zoe and Sarah are raking in the dough, and we have a death alley on our hands.


But we're cute, and intense monopoly players, and me and Kate are losing, lol!

The other night I decided I simply needed a picture with the bagged milk that is ever so popular here in quebec. Here you buy plastic bags of milk, cut the tops off and put the bag in a little jug, def not a thing you see in the west so Sarah and I took photos with this eastern rarity.


We also figured out that in Quebec, we haven't had a SINGLE group picture, because everytime we seem to take one, at least one person is missing for whatever reason so we took our first complete group picture in our living room this afternoon, with 3 days of Katimavik left.
You know, with two days left, and me able to say, 'See you on Wednesday...' a fear truely shoots through my body. Over these past six months I have had the oppertunity to go through so much, so many experiences, good and bad, and learn so much about myself and the people around me. I know that Katelyn love's stars and can see the Ocean from her bedroom, and that Sara is italian and wants to be a teacher and that Sarah wants to be Vegan and wants to have dreads, and how Ryan has his pilots license and loves living in northern Canada, and that Isaac is accepted to University and likes meat, and Brandon loves Parkour and second hand stores, and Evelyne loves working at night time and going out, and that Zoe is extremely artistic and loves places with mellow atmosphere's and that Jared likes to read and loves history, that Marc-Andre has an adventerous spirit and can run an entire farm. And I learnt to face conflict head on, to be honest with myself, to follow and do what I want to do, and to be independent.
I learnt how to cook, how to manage my time, to be less lazy, and to live in a house with 10 other teenagers.
I've slept on plastic matresses, I've volunteered in minus temperatures of extended amounts of time, I've taken public transit in a city I didn't know, I've spoken a new language, I've learnt that I don't like sorting clothes, I've tasted real Quebec Poutine, I've seen carnaval and bonhomme, I've eaten soup out of tupperwear, I've house managed solo style, I've eating soup with plastic in it, I've pulled all nighters, I've built card cities, I've lived near a river, I've sent more postcards than I can count, I've written almost two journals worth of my experiences.
I will cry when I say goodbye to my Katima family, I will sleep when I get onto the plane to forget reality, I will cry again when I see my family and my dog again. My heart will be happy when I can share a room with my sister again, grocery shop and play computer with my dad, and sit with my mom for hours and talk, and give her the longest hug I can imagine, when I hug my dog again for the first time. I will smile when I see Lisa, and Cally, and all the dear friends I've missed this whole time. I will change my cell-phone number from Quebec local to Edmonton, and I will find a job again.
I will be a Katima-Victim, and I will never forget the things I experienced in these six months.

Thanks for reading, xoxo