Day #54

We have spent much of the last two months living in a fantasy world. Our lives in Fort Hope have taken place within a bubble, without intrusion from the outside world. Today we were reminded that a world does in fact function outside of Fort Hope. For the past two months we have been fortunate enough to live alone in one of four apartments at our teacheridge. Today our solitude was disrupted by the arrival of teachers! In what was a true sign of our impending departure and the approaching end of summer, a group of Fort Hope teachers arrived today. We now have neighbours underneath us, and in the two apartments beside us. We don’t necessarily mind the fact that we are no longer alone, it is just a little strange to have others around again!

Aside from the arrival of the teachers, our day was interesting in many ways. The first notable aspect was the fact that the temperature had dropped suddenly to a frigid 7 degrees Celsius overnight. It was back to typical summer 2009 weather in Fort Hope…7 degrees, windy and rainy. Today was also the day that we got together to begin planning what is to be a hectic final week in the community. We had to lay plans for our final 4 days of camp, our camp cleanup and our final camp party. Needless to say, we have a lot of ducks that still need lining. Our planning meeting lasted a quality 3 hours today and, for the first time in a couple of weeks, featured some moderate tension. As always, we worked out any issues, and things are looking busy, but good for next week.

In order to be ready to leave Fort Hope next Saturday we have to write a number of reports, submit a number of forms and cleanup a number of locations! On top of that, our program is being put on display this Wednesday. We’re looking forward to entertaining a visitor for the day, but also realize that we are going to have to focus if we want to make a strong impression.

The final part of today was our ‘Guys Night’ for our 10-11 boys. The boys were bouncing off the walls and acting completely immature, so it was exactly how we had planned it! We had a great time making bannock dogs, taking pictures, playing cards and watching ‘Dark Night’. We walked them home at 10pm and are now just finished cleaning up the mess!

Tomorrow stands to be another day of preparation for the week ahead. We’re going to do our best to get a head start on some of our report writing, and perhaps do a cursory clean of our house and the portables. The days are flipping by rather quickly…It will be next Saturday before we know it!