Ottawa Orientation continues

Yesterday, our new CTF-FCE Executive Director, Annette Bouzi delivered one of her first speeches in her new role. We were receptive of course!

Welcoming Annette Bouzi

We continue to receive training in preparation for our various countries. Many of the teams, especially the ones going to African countries will leave tomorrow afternoon. We will head to the airport in the middle of the night tomorrow and get to Guyana through Barbados at 8pm. We are excited and ready!

This evening we walked past the parliament buildings (whch are under construction), I knocked on Mark Carney\s office door--no answer. I stopped to say hi to Oscar Peterson before heading back to the U of Ottawa residence where we are staying. Talk to you from Guyana!

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I'll have a blue Christmas without you

One of my homework assignments for the forest therapy course is to find a “sitspot”, a place to sit with the natural world and allow nature to work its way in. My sitspot on the ship is in the bow of the U deck. When the crew is working on the deck, it can be quite noisy and some parts of the engine are noisy too. I am glad to have my fancy musician’s earplugs. They allow me to hear everything (even small details) but they lower the decibel level to protect hearing. I use these when I need to. But at the bow, there is a miraculous quiet, and I listen to the waves against the ship, watching the birds and the changing sky. On the starboard side in the early afternoon, or the portside in the morning, I find the most exquisite variations in blue. Perhaps I’ll see a greenish blue--let’s call it aqua, or a light greyish blue or on cloudy days a darker grey like a blackboard. I love to see the particular blue that falls somewhere between denim and royal blue with...

Kibi (Week Two)

Our second week was spent at the Kibi Presbyterian College of Education in Kibi--pronounced chibi, and sometimes spelled Kyebi. It was a gorgeous campus in a valley, surrounded by mountains. There was a garden, used by students, and many fruit trees (mango, papaya, banana, coconut), available to students to help themselves to! We had cocoyam for our supper one night. The leaves grow plentifully and Ghanaiansr refer to it as "spinach." cocoyam leaves growing all over the campus The campus had lush plant life, especially hibiscus--they also serve hibiscus drinks which are delicious. Did you know that Ghana (at least in the south of the country where we were) has red soil just like PEI? The pictures of red soil that I took don't look quite red. In real life the soil is a much brighter red. The second week was a replica of the first. Two cohorts from the Volta and Eastern regions. Opening ceremonies, 2 days of 4, 2 hour classes, a closing ceremony and Canada/Ghana night. For...

Here is my new blog. I hope to document my adventure from July 2019 to August 2020. I got here by having a "deferred salary" (imagine the good fortune I have to work in a profession where this is possible), so I have been earning 80% of my salary these past four years and will earn the same next year, my fifth year. It is a sabbatical, an adventure, a journey of self-discovery and perhaps an indulgence. Friends and colleagues have requested a blog to keep up with me. I don't know how faithful I will be when posting (I'm not much of a journal person) but I hope to connect with you every week or so.

The Adventures of Lynne

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