Rick Jr. at NYA’s Orientation Camp in Ottawa. Photo: Thorsten Gohl

Hi, my name is Rick Jr. Oyukuluk. I am from Arctic Bay, Nunavut, I am enjoying my time here in Hamilton, Ontario. When we were flying to Ottawa I was very excited that it was going to be my very first time in the south. When we got to the airport I was nervous to see beautiful places, like stores and everything like that. When I got outside with my friend from home Napassi, I was like, when I breathe it’s not the same thing as where we live. And also I was getting to see lots of cars and places that I’ve never seen before, and I was worried about the half hour drive to the camp where we stayed.

I couldn’t sleep when we got to the cabin because I was too happy to be down south. After the day we woke up it was very nice out, sunny and and I was getting very hot like super fast. And I couldn’t wait till we went to the baseball game, and to the swimming pool. But after we went to those places I was thinking that we were going to go shopping but we didn’t and I was worried about that because we only went to two places in Ottawa. And I didn’t know there were going to be a lot of mosquitos at the camp, but there were a lot of them. 

In Hamilton I usually go to work at 8:30 now with the kids at a martial arts summer camp. Before that I worked at a restaurant called Except for Kenneth, but not anymore. The place is very different from my home town, and the weather here is too hot for me. As usual my home town is colder right now, but sometimes it’s hot too. My host family and I went to the Music Festival a few days ago, and we enjoyed it very much. There were people dancing and celebrating, and also we went to Canada’s Wonderland, and Niagara Falls. It was so beautiful to see Buffalo, United States of America, and we have our own TV, weights and a couch in our bedroom. Thank you…!

Courtnee prepares muktuk to share at orientation from a beluga whale she caught in the spring.

Hello, my name is Courtnee Keevik I’m from Tuktoyaktuk, NT which has a population of 1000 people so its very much different for me to be living in such a big reserve here on Six Nations, ON. When I first left home I was not excited at all, I had so many different feelings inside of me of worry, loneliness, and scared. But now that I’m here I’m loving it so much and trying to make the best of it because this is a once in a lifetime experience! I’ve only been in this program for 3 weeks and I’ve learned so much about myself. I feel more independent as a person and almost like I can do anything haha. Additionally, let me tell you a few things about what I do on a daily basis which is work. My work placement consists of working with kids ages 5-13 from 8:30am til 4pm. Basically what I do is supervise them and play sports with them all day, we also travel a lot and go to parks and awesome places like Canada’s Wonderland. I enjoy being with these kids all day, they definitely brighten up my day and make me feel like a better person. My host family has 3 members in this household including my host mother (Brooke Powless), my host father (Bud Powless) and host brother (Steven Powless) and 2 other daughters Skyler and Kelsey Powless who don’t live in the residence. They’re so generous all the time and make me feel so at home and I think that’s why I haven’t gotten homesick at all yet. I enjoy spending my days with them and am even excited to get off work to see them! Such an awesome and amazing family! There are so many things that are different here in the South than in the North. I’ve experienced so many new things already pretty much everyday and will keep doing so until my 5 weeks is up! Everyday Brooke takes us to do something we’ve never done before and I love her for that. But, the houses here are very spread out unlike back home where they’re all so close together. Also, the stores are huge compared to out tiny Northern and Stanton stores. Ive also seen animals that I’ve never see in my life before so thats pretty cool! I’ve seen bison, cows, donkeys, racoons, killer whales and pigs. All these animals you don’t see up North so it was awesome! Also, the culture here really isn’t any different we all have the same beliefs and we all do the same things like dances and stuff. But we speak different languages but I think thats an awesome thing to learn about. So far I’ve seen/done shopping, radio bingo, glow in the dark golfing, mini putting, bowling, sprint car racing, tubing, paddle boarding, went to marine land and mowed a lawn for the first time. More things to come as this trip isn’t over yet!

Napassi is seen here playing volleyball with fellow NYA Next Participants during free time at the Algonquin College residence. (Photo: Thorsten Gohl)

My name is Napassi Joseph, I am from Arctic Bay Nunavut. I did my Canadian Phase in 2013. I was placed in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

This summer is the best summer ever!! I am so thankful for the NYA staff for giving me this awesome opportunity. NYA next gave me hope and confidence. I am telling you that, who ever is reading this, if you did this program, you’d have so much fun too. The best program ever. We went to the Ottawa Champions baseball game and we will be going to a Toronto Blue Jays game when we get to Toronto. Our course this summer is carpentry. I thought I would never like carpentry but it is my favourite thing to do now. I hope more people will apply for this program next year. If you think this program will give you nothing, you are wrong. It will give you anything you wanted this summer. Some of the other participants saw a wild turkey but I did not so I hope I get to see one when we get to re-orientation. We also did “lets talk science” and I got to see what my DNA look like lol. fun! I will never forget this experience.

Olaf tries out an experiment during some Let’s Talk Science programming. Credit: Thorsten Gohl

Hi my name is Olaf Christensen, I’m from Grise Fiord, NU.

I’m going to be telling you about my experiences in Ottawa from this summer. During Orientation we went to go see the baseball game which was really exciting because it was my first time to attend a baseball game. On our first arrival to Algonquin college, we settled in for a day and went shopping at Rideau Centre. Started our carpentry class on Monday of our first week, and our first task was to make a picture frame and we are still in the process of making it, and also did some activities like playing sports at the court yard with the college students.

Before we did our first presentation to the Britannia Woods event, my group and I had to go work on it at the aboriginal centre but it was closed and we also got lost in the building hahaha. On our second presentation, we went to Jaku Konbit and did our presentation there which was really interesting because they we’re mostly from the middle eastern Africa and we played some activities with them, had some barbequed burgers and got to know them a little more. We also did ”lets talk science’’ which was fun, we learnt about our DNA and did some other fun stuff related to science. On the morning of July 14 we did the programming with ‘’OCISCO’’ and with immigrants from Syria, which was interesting, we demonstrated some Inuit games to them and they really enjoyed it. We also had some volunteers from the Syrian people try out our Inuit games and had some barbequed burgers and hotdogs.

On the weekend of Friday, we went camping at the Fitzroy Provincial Park, it was so much fun! it was my first time camping in the south! We went beaching and played beach volley ball and also saw a raccoon eating our garbage at night, it was so funny. Well, because we thought it would come in to our tents so we were very cautious to see what was going to happen. We told scary ghost stories at night by the fire pit which was nice and relaxing and also very horrific.

Furthermore, we still have like 3 weeks left of the program to end our summer. Ill keep you guys all updated!

Boris on placement at Algonquin College in Ottawa.

Hi, my name is Boris Eyakfwo, and I am from Gameti, NT. I did my Canadian phase in 2013, here I was placed in Hamilton, Ontario. This year I am now a participant for the NYA Next Program, so far during this program it has been amazing and I’ve been cherishing every moment I have spent here. I am really looking forward to see how my summer goes in Ottawa, I didn’t know what to expect when I first applied, but now that I’ve been accepted and experiencing this change, I’m loving it. This program has taught me how important my culture is to me, how I shall learn, and practice it in every day’s life, I am pushing myself to become a better leader and have shown it this summer day by day. I have recently done three drum dance demo’s in Ottawa for three different groups, I’ve taught others my culture and traditional values. It took me three years to accomplish that and NYA was one of the main reasons why I’ve gotten more passionate about my culture. During orientation it was great meeting new people, seeing some old faces and bonding with the other participants, I didn’t expect us to grow as a family, or to have this amazing support for one another, but we do. It was an unbelievable week at orientation, where I’ve come to realize I learned more about myself and what I was capable of doing, I just needed to break out of my shyness, but I am still working on it and hoping I won’t get shy by the end of this summer. Going to the Ottawa Champions baseball game was one of my favourite recreational actives here because I am a fan of baseball. When we first arrived at Algonquin College, it didn’t feel like home until I got settled in, being around people who I am comfortable with, and it made it easier to make myself at home. Once we started our carpentry class, I didn’t know what to expect or to like it, but I do and I know that it will soon help us in life, we also have recently gone camping at Fitzroy Park, where it felt like home, making the fire’s, and cooking some hamburgers on the land, along with going canoeing. I was very overwhelmed but also very grateful to go camping with my NYA family, I wish we could do more of that this summer, but so far we have done many great things and more to come. I’m very blessed to be here in Ottawa with great friends who are very supportive, I cannot thank the NYA staff enough for giving me The BEST Summer of my life, Masi Cho to everyone who has gotten me this far, I appreciate this opportunity in the best way possible.

Orientation is complete and after five fun filled days of learning, meeting new friends, and getting prepared the 58 Participants in this year’s programs have travelled to their host communities. In the Canadian Program the 42 youth have travelled in pairs to 17 host communities across British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia and began their volunteer work placements yesterday. In NYA Next the 16 Participants moved into Algonquin College residence on Friday, and have already been busy with many different activities, before beginning their training class in the Construction Trades this morning.

Make sure to check back here often to follow all of the Participants adventures as they will begin posting their blog updates soon!

Here are some photos from Orientation – check them out! All credit to our awesome volunteer Thorsten Gohl who spent the week with us taking photos at Orientation!

We have just finished merging all of our past participant blog posts to this site. Here you can now find past participants’ recounts of their experiences with NYA. We will also be posting continual updates here as we gear up for another exciting summer. Be sure to check in regularly to keep up to date with all things NYA!

Cora Rabisca (front row, far right) with most of the international group, Group Leaders, and Staff at the airport.

My international trip was to Guatemala. It was my first time leaving Canada, being so far away from home, and not able to call, but I had internet access so I could still keep in touch with my family and friends back home. The whole international group left on June 25, 2015 and we arrived in Guatemala City. We stayed the night and met up with our Group Leader in Guatemala the next day. His name was Lucho and he spoke Spanish and English so he translated for us. He also knew the city and other villages well. The international team had to be split up into 2 groups there were 9 people on each team. Team A went to Totonicapán & Team Eh went to Tecpan to build homes with Habitat for Humanity. It was great and a blessing building a home for a family that needed it. We made the work go by faster.

We had activities each day and fun things too like going to the market and to a smoothie shop. We would have a day or two of rest in between workdays, but we always ended up doing something. We saw beautiful views, mountains, and lakes, and went for drives around the town we stayed in. We met people from different parts of the world. Most of the Mayan people I met were generally short, so for them I was big and tall. A group of women I met there assumed I had a husband and children until I told them my age. They were surprised. I asked them if I could take a photo with them. It was their first time seeing an ipod with a camera. All the women and their kids jumped in and had their picture taken with me.

Once we completed our first home building, we went to another location to build a second house. It was way up in the altitude, high up on the mountain. We walked down a steep hill. It was easy walking down but once we were done working we had to walk back up. It felt as if I had just walked a marathon. It was so hot; we applied sunscreen at least twice during the walk. We came back to our hotel and rested before supper. Two of my friends and I were laying down and chilling, when it sounded like someone knocking on the door, I yelled “COME IN!” then suddenly the whole hotel was shaking a little. The earthquake was happening right under out feet. My friend said “OK, just stay calm” but I ran out the door! I was panicking. The earthquake lasted for half a minute.

A few days later we went to the natural hot springs. We stayed in Totonicapán for 2 weeks. The third week, we reunited with the other group and spent a week together. The last day we said our goodbyes. We left Guatemala on August 15, 2015 and got to Ottawa at 12 midnight and the Staff came to meet us.

The international trip was great – it was an awesome experience. We had good Group Leaders and a one-of-a-kind Guatemalan Group Leader. I well NEVER forget this summer volunteer trip. The ride had its ups and downs, agreements and disagreements, crazy, funny, good, bad, sad, and happy moments. I have to say I had LOUD laughing moments, and other moments where I wanted to go home. But HAH look where I am NOW. I’ve made it back to Ottawa, Canada. We made it to Re-Orientation safe and sound. I am glad and happy we made it through the 3 weeks in Guatemala. Now it’s my time to go home and share my experiences and tell my stories to my family and peers.

Cora Rabisca