My name is Sarah Lee-ci Gon and I was placed to stay in Ottawa!
I come from a community called Behchoko in the Northwest Territories, my community holds a population of 1,950. It is also the biggest community in the Northwest Territories!
My host mother Mariamanda stays in a house apartment with her neighbor Lucio. I had to share a room with my placement buddy, Ts’ahlekea.
The neighborhood is very hot and humid, it’s great for the beautiful plants that are planted around the neighborhood! My host mother and buddy went out for sushi on one of the first days.
During my stay in Ottawa, I am volunteering at Wabano Indigenous center. It is a fun and interesting place to be and work at. All the staff and workers say that they like working there. I don’t blame them, I really enjoyed my time volunteering there with them. One my first week, I got to paint chocolate and wrap them. The best part is that they let me take chocolate home to share with my host family. The pictures show my work/art on dark/milk chocolate.
Not only did I get to make chocolate, but I got to join the summer camps! I really enjoyed volunteering at the camps with the kids and staff. My job while at camp was to watch kids with safety and to follow the rules in the Wabano camp as to the place we are at. I really had fun doing it, the staff and supervisor let me have some too as I was with the kids. I went to Flying squirrel (an indoor trampoline/playground.) Calypso (Biggest waterpark in canada.)
So far, I have made friends with Ts’ahlekea! She is very nice and creative to be around with. My host mother isn’t what I expected at all, in a good way. They both are nice and Mariamanda tries her best to make me comfortable at my stay.
I got lots of volunteering hours and surprisingly spent my entire allowance on the first weeks, but I managed to save more now than the first weeks.
The thing I learned is to have a flexible schedule, anything could happen and change the schedule you are used to. I also learned a few things from the Inuit and Metis nations. It’s called smudging, it’s rude to take photos during the ceremony and I kinda forgot to take pictures afterwards.
The most important thing I learned so far is to save money! Everything is expensive here, you will need to manage your finances for your needs and wants.
Other than the things I learned. I noticed many things are different here in the south to the north, for instance, there is much more heat than in the north, plus HUMIDITY. All these different things make me want to go home. But instead of seeing the cons, I saw the pros. I noticed how different and clean it was. I like how people made it organized, for example, they have a system with recycling and garbage, there is even a plastic one!
Anywho, the best thing I did was when Mariamanda told me and Ts’ahlekea about a Japanese festival, I thought it was gonna be cool to check out the cool stuff they would offer at the festival. When we got there, it looked like the festival was set up in a gym. They had animals made out of paper, little games, little pots, jewelry, and Ukatas. It is exciting to wear yukatas with my buddy. We got to wear it for $10 and walk around for 30 minutes in it. My buddy got her name in Japanese, but I didn’t. They kinda took too long with my Yukata. I was kinda upset, but knew I would be able to someday if I came again. Either way, I was happy to be here in Ottawa 🙂
