Hi, my name is Hailey Pijamini, I’m from Grise Fiord, Nunavut. My placement buddy is Kelsey Sheetoga from Whale Cove, Nunavut. We were both placed in Oakville, Ontario with our host family, Catherine and her two twin boys, and they have three pets, two cockapoo dogs, who are named Leo and Parker, and a little rabbit, Harvey.

Oakville is so different compared to Grise Fiord, there’s so much greenery and man made buildings. Their stores are really big, and there’s just so many that I can barely count.

I have been volunteering at a kid’s activity camp, Frontline Outreach, and their mission is to serve, and help others serve the disadvantaged with dignity, humility and compassion.

It’s been great working with Frontline Outreach, my supervisor, Kelly, has been super nice ever since I started volunteering. And my co-workers seem like fun people, one time we all played a game called Mafia, it’s a game where you’re assigned a card, and depending on the card you get, you can either be a Mafia, Doctor, Cop or Civilian, and it can get quite chaotic.

There’s so much to do in Oakville, so far me and Kelsey have done a lot, like go shopping, go to restaurants or places to eat, we even played VR games twice, we played first person shooters in a place called Zero Latency VR, and a zombie shooting game in another place called Mirage VR.

But the biggest thing we did, was go to Niagara Falls with our host family. Catherine booked us a tour at a place called Niagara Parks Power Station, which shows the history of the power station. They also had a tunnel leading to a closer view of Niagara Falls, and it was a beautiful sight to see, the water caused a rainbow, and you can see the city from the distance.

It’s been difficult making friends in Oakville for me, but I have made great friends with a lot of other participants of NYA, it’s so cool to have friends from all over Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Even after all of this, I feel like I would stay in Grise Fiord. As much as I enjoy staying in places like Oakville, nothing can truly replace home. I don’t think I’ll stay in Grise forever, but I want to stay close to my family and friends until I’m ready to live somewhere else.

I’m so thankful for everyone that had helped me get to this point, especially to NYA, my Mentor, and everyone else who helped me get into NYA. I’ll never regret signing up, and I hope future participants won’t regret signing up either. 

Thanks for reading!