Sally, right, with fellow NYA Next Participant Rahabi at NYA’s Orientation Camp in Ottawa. (Photo Credit: Thorsten Gohl)

My summer of 2016 is going well. I met new friends from NU & NWT and I already knew some from last year in 2015. At orientation we had fun activities like ice breakers to get to know everyone. We played one game where we were passing a ball to each other and memorizing who we gave the ball to. We had to say “thank you” and the name of the person who gave us the ball, then say “here you go” and the name of the next person we were passing it to. It was fun and we kept getting mixed up. The second week we met Mexican people also living at Algonquin College. It was their first day here and we were glad to meet them and we became good friends with all of them. Camping was a good experience too, cause it was my first time to camp in the city, but when we got there it was hardcore raining and we were setting up tents. The next day camping we went to the beach to go swimming then we got to go kayaking and canoeing. It was also my first time kayaking & canoeing and it was really fun. It’s always good to try new things. The last night of camping at around 1:35am our tent almost fell on us. It was raining too so four of us had to fix it. I went to go wake up the two leaders to go help so they did, and when we were done someone saw a frog that was almost going in the tent & she freaked out. She was like “omg omg the frog might go in!” while jumping hahahha! I thought she was going to faint or fall but she didn’t hahahha! but at the end it was ok. Bec the Executive Director had the NYA Nexters over for dinner and I loved it. It was sooo good, especially the desserts. When we were done we got to talk around with everyone. Summer is going well so far and I love it so much. We’re surrounded by good people and we support each other. Carpentry is going well too. I like learning new things and I finished constructing my picture frame. We learned how & what to use for the wood. Thank you for your time for reading this haha 🙂