The Beginning.

I have created this blog so that friends and family will be able to stay in touch with me during my time away. I am soon embarking on a nine month volunteer program that will take me ( as I have found out today) to Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia and it will be impossible to tell everyone I love what I am doing with my time away. This way I am hoping to give everyone the information they want. I decided to start this before I left so that I can give updates as they come.

So, some background information on where I am going, and what I am doing while there. I am participating in a program called Katimavik which is funded by the Canadian government and has been running for 30 years. The website (if you would like to look for yourselves) is www.katimavik.org/ . The object of the program is to introduce youth aged 17-21 to Canada and to immerse them in volunteer work, learn valuable leasons about healthy living, leadership, the environment, our official languages and the trials and tribulations of living with 10 other strangers in limited space. The volunteers are made into a group according to the socio-demographic of Canada, meaning that there will be:

1 project leader
1 person from BC or the Yukon
2 people from the Prairies, Northwest Territories or Nunavut
4 people from Ontario
3 people from Quebec
1 person from the Atlantic provinces

Some of you already know this since I have explained the program to a few people. So, to continue, we will be living in three different communities for three monthes each. In each community we will spend two weeks with a billeting family to get a feel of how a resident lives. After the two weeks we will be assigned to a volunteer position (some examples are working in a old age home, community centre, elementary school, national park etc.) and will work there for the duration of our stay. One of our locations will be entirely French speaking (i.e. my Quebec placement) and so we will have to learn to speak at least a workable French.

I think that is one of the parts I am most looking forward to. I really want to bilingual in SOME language and French seems as good as anyother (and probably better than most since it IS an official language).

While we are not going to be paid for any of the work during to program, we don't have to pay for any neccesities either. All our travel, board and food is paid for by the program and we are given $3 a day to use at our own discretion and a $1000 bursary at the very end of the program. Some people decide to drop out of the program before it is finished for various reasons (homesickness, trouble with roommates, kicked out for behaviour etc.) and don't recieve the $1000. However, I VOW TO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE! Hopefully that statement will not come back to bite me in the butt later on. Though $21 a week does not seem like a lot of money, from reading other blogs by other participants it is obvious that it IS possible to stretch the money and remember $21 dollars a week can become $84 a month...which isn't a LOT but will have to do. I heard a rumour recently that said that they were increasing the amount to $4 a day which is $28 a week and $112 a month, or one roundtrip ticket from Toronto to Windsor on the ViaRail economy class trains. Well, I will probably bring a few hundred dollars of my own just in case it's needed(though I have been warned that any money I bring WILL be spent by the end of the program so I'm going to be keeping it low) but I'm going to try very hard to not spend more than is needed. The money I bring would be more for essentials like more warm clothes or t-shirts or a specific brand of toothpaste.

While we are provided with things like deodorant, toothpaste and 'lady products', they are all going to be generic brands so if there is a preferred brand it must be bought with our own money. Also, if we want any junk type food...that must also be bought with our own money. Unfortunetly, the healthy living part of the program does not budget in ice cream and chocolate or Mac and Cheese and other processed foods. We will be on a budget for our food and it will be interesting seeing how we cope with trying to feed 11 hungry people every night with veggies and pasta (meat is expensive and probably won't be served every day).

Also, there is a system to chores apparently. For 5 weeks you do your volunteer service and then the next week two people stay home and do all the house work including shopping, cleaning, and cooking. And you do your own laundry once a week. Also, on weekends we are allowed to arrange day trips or overnight trips to see more of the area we are living in and to explore the culture.

That is about all I can think about right now. I'll update as information comes in!

Now, I'm off to get ready for work.

Sara