A Rainy Day…

Today’s weather was much like the majority that we have endured so far in Fort Hope. It was cold, wet, rainy and windy…I’m beginning to think that someone at the weather channel just rolls the dice when predicting weather for Fort Hope. I mean seriously, I looked at the forecast yesterday morning and they were calling for sun and no rain…I think they got it a little wrong. Anyway, as a result, our numbers were significantly down in the morning. It seems that people are even more unenthusiastic about getting up for camp when it is raining outside. I don’t particularly blame them for this, but it made for a slow morning. This afternoon things picked up a bit and our attendance numbers actually may have spiked slightly. We had our kids write letters to the local band council and played a lively game of floor hockey.

As you may be able to tell, the day was kind of slow, and I think the weather sort of crushed everyone’s spirit a little bit. On the positive side, there are some amazing events coming up in the community…Tomorrow there is a swimming race from the mainland to one of the islands and back. We are hoping to be done camp by the time the race is finishing so that we can head down and watch the capitivating conclusion to the race! Tomorrow also marks the beginning of the Pow wow celebrations. We’re not really 100% sure what the schedule is, but we were told by one of the organizers to just ‘follow the sound of the drums’ and we’d find out what was going on. We’re starting to be able to deal with this ‘rough’ planning of things! I’ll probably have lots to say about the events that transpire this weekend, so get ready to read!

In addition, today also marked the beginning of my role as a music teacher. Some of the kids approached me about learning how to sing ‘The Climb’ by Miley Cyrus, so we started working on that tonight. I was rather concerned that things were just going to fall flat, but surprisingly the evening went rather well. I had a nice small group of 4 girls who wanted to work on the song, and after some coaxing were actually willing to try out the whole singing thing. It is quite a challenge to get these girls to talk a lot of the time, so singing is definitely not in their nature. It took me the better part of an hour, but eventually the girls began to sing and make a considerable racket. I had to employ all sorts of bush league tactics to get them to sing…For example, I had them scream at me as loud as they could until they actually made some noise…I know that screaming is not good for your singing voice, but I just needed to draw these girls out of their shells. Once it started to work the singing came pretty easily. We didn’t exactly make much progress with the song, but the girls weren’t bored and they definitely learned something, so I was happy.

My final bit of exciting news for the evening is to inform you that I am now officially finished Catcher in the Rye. I am now fully qualified to explain the name ‘Cofield’. The book was definitely an interesting read, and it is more of a character sketch than anything else. I really enjoyed the writing and flow of the novel. I must say that I was extremely frustrated by Mr. Holden Cauffield, but I suppose the book is supposed to make you feel that way.

Alright, I’ve made myself a promise that I will go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, so I’m done writing for now!

–Be kind to each other and don’t fall down…