+Dawn+at+the+Ranch+IV.jpg)
July 30, 2009
Hello everyone!
Bill and Maureen having left for China, I have been looking after the house alone for the past month. This has been my first experience of living alone for any period of time and, school being done and all, it hasn’t been as difficult as anticipated. Thanks to the experience that Maureen gave me earlier, cooking has become an enjoyable necessity. I spent the first week of July coaching archery to a summer camp of handicapped children with Helena at the range. One day consisted of three classes between 10 am and 3 pm, totaling to about sixty kids! Despite the many hours spent searching for arrows lost in the shoulder-high jungle of thistles which have sprung up on the berm, I can’t complain: I’m helping the archery club, the kids and their organizations, and Helena who - having been an archery coach for around 30 years with world champions and universities - has given me a great deal of education. I’m also gaining important teaching experience myself doing something I love to do out in beautiful weather…. oh yeah, and getting paid!
On Canada Day I decided that I needed a bit of exercise, so I walked from Bill and Maureen’s place in Esquimalt around the harbour to Fisherman’s Wharf to visit some friends, then continued down Dallas Road to Beacon Hill Park where I listened to a jazz band performing. After the major concerts in front of the Legislature (including the World music group Pacifica), I watched the show of fireworks over the harbour. Walking back along Government Street, I ran into the ever-popular marimba busking-band and joined the throng of dancers who had made the street impassable. Eventually prying myself away from the joyful music and enthusiastic revelers, I walked back to Esquimalt and crashed into bed at half past midnight.
I must admit, however, that there are times when anyone can feel down, especially when there are several planets in retrograde. I was feeling somewhat touchy and resentful for a period, fed up by the greed and corruption of modern Western society and the lack of good Classical music on the CBC. When I begin to feel this way, there is but one fool-proof therapy: to submerge myself in history. To this end I went to the Royal BC Museum where an exhibit of some of the world’s most amazing artifacts from the British Museum was being displayed. I spent a total of about eight and a half hours over three days in the exhibit, marveling over the sarcophagi of Egyptian pharaohs, an ancient Corinthian helm, a collection of the Lewis chessmen, a fully articulated steel model of a Japanese dragon, and many hundreds of equally breath-taking artifacts from around the world and throughout history. Staring into the eyes of a bust of Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, I recalled one of his sayings: “Very little is needed to have a happy life.” How true, Marcus!
I organized a fun-shoot at the Victoria Bowmen to help raise funds for Canada World Youth. Thanks to a great turn out of friends, including club members, SCA friends, and a teacher from SIDES, we had a great time shooting balloons, model animals and targets, and raised $130 in the process! The Friday music get-togethers were less well-attended, but Barry on guitar and keyboard and I on the violin and guitar had a great time fooling around with Celtic fiddle tunes, Gospel improvisations, pop songs, and a continuing list of unpredictable music. Between these events, many book sales (which raised about $1300), and kind donations from friends, family, my archery club, and the Lion’s Club of Esquimalt, I have reached my fundraising goal of $2500! Unfortunately I must close the Carlisle Avenue Bindery, so I can’t take any more book orders until after my exchange.
I’ve had many trips to the doctor’s, dentist’s, pharmacist’s, and optometrist’s offices for pre-trip check-ups, booster vaccinations, prescriptions, and my first filling in one of my adult teeth. I also finally got around to applying for my learner’s driver’s license, which I passed easily save the eye exam. As anticipated, my distance vision was not sufficient to drive, so I’ll have to get a new pair of glasses.
Mimi ninasoma Kiswahili! Yes, I am studying Swahili, Tanzania’s national language. I may not yet be able to string together a very impressive sentence, but I’m attempting to build a basic foundation which I can work up from once I get into the program. I should also set about oiling my very rusty French, as I will be expected to use it during the Canadian half of my exchange. Peter, our very kind, charitable, and community-oriented neighbor, got me into volunteering with the Rainbow Kitchen and Garden at St. Savior’s Anglican Church, a place where hundreds of homeless and low-income people can come to eat. I provided live music and helped with clean-up – it is quite enjoyable, and it is worth it for the thanks and the quantities of food that I am sent home with! In the free time that I have, I’ve been reading “The Expedition of Cyrus”, a thrilling 2400 year-old eye-witness account of the most amazing adventure story ever written. It is by Xenophon of Athens, an orator, philosopher, student of Socrates, and general of an army of Greek mercenaries that had to literally fight its way out of the center of the vast and hostile Persian Empire. A must-read if you are a fan of real-life adventure stories, or are just a history geek like me! I have also just finished listened to an audio-book of Virgil’s “Aenied” and Homer’s “Iliad”, and started listening to “Medea” by Euripides, reading parts of the Gnostic Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls, “North of South: An African Journey” by Shiva Niapaul, and a book of the complete works of Michel de Montaigne, the first essayist, who wrote during the French Renaissance. I enjoyed a performance of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”, set in the 1920’s, on the grounds of Camosun College. On July 25th my fencing instructor and his girlfriend and I drove to an SCA event at Camp Bernard for the testing of a gallant candidate. The candidate was tested in many of the things that make up the Society for Creative Anachronism, of which we saw dancing, armor inspection, fencing, archery, and battle commanding. It was especially fun to have a rapier-oriented event, rather than heavy fighting, to give us fencers a chance to try some really fun and creative battle scenarios. Following that I went to the Luminara lantern festival, in which the element’s light-show far out-shone our feeble lantern art: the sunset dyed the overcast sky a luminous peach while lightening flashed behind a vertical rainbow, sending incredibly long peals of thunder rolling across the heavens.
That’s the news for this month! Bill and Maureen return today. Next week I will be catching the ferry to Pender Harbour and to meet and travel across Canada by road with Mom, Dad and Harry: a trip which I shall tell you of in my next Missive! Remember that if you’ve lost or missed any of my Missives, you can find them – along with many other letters, stories, and essays – archived on my blog, bradleyclements.blogspot.com.
Hope you’re all having a great summer, and I hope to continue to hear from you!
Your friend,
Bradley Clements
CWY Volunteer
Victoria, BC
Sponsored by the Lion’s Club of Esquimalt, the Victoria Bowmen Association, and his many beloved friends and family!
July 30, 2009
July 4, 2009
Missive #1: Graduation and beyond!
Monday, June 28th, 2009
Hello everyone!
As you have probably heard, I have recently been accepted for a Canada World Youth (CWY) exchange between Ontario and Tanzania. The program will consist of full-time environmental volunteer work with a group of 18 youth and two adult supervisors - half from Tanzania, half from all across Canada. I will be paired with a Tanzanian counterpart with whom I’ll be living, and together we’ll be staying with a host family in a community in both Peterborough, Ontario, and in a village in Tanzania. My preparations are already underway, including sorting out travel documents, studying Swahili (the primary language of my exchange country), and engaging in an intensive campaign to raise $2500 for CWY. So far I have been blown away by the friendship, generosity and enthusiasm that so many of my friends and family have offered, and with their much appreciated help I have already come to about 70% of my goal within less than one month! I have raised a great deal of funds selling hand-made books, so Bill and Maureen’s suite where I am staying has been converted into a bindery of sorts. Many tireless hours have been spent stooped over stacks of paper to be cut, folded, pierced, sewn, covered, wrapped, and pressed. What I had been expecting to be the hard part, though – selling the books – hasn’t actually been so bad. Already this has been and immensely educational experience which will be especially valuable if I ever end up doing anything like this as a business.
So, many of you have been wondering how and why I came to be involved in Canada World Youth. I’ve been wondering that a bit myself, but I’ll explain to the best of my discernment. My interest in international volunteer aid organizations was first sparked in the South Pacific where I saw volunteers with such organizations as the Peace Corps working, especially in Vanuatu. Having been disgusted by many of the examples of - often pointless, sometimes harmful - “aid”, I was pleased to see that there were organizations which actually intermingled with the local society and worked for them and in accordance with them. Upon returning to Canada I went looking for a similar Canadian organization in which I might be able to participate, and I didn’t have to look far! My family’s one-time acquaintances, now good friends, Bill and Maureen have a son named Dylan who was away in Kenya on a CWY exchange when we returned from our trip. His experience seemed a good one, and he introduced CWY to me. After my family moved to Ottawa for Mom’s work, I began staying with Bill and Maureen. Last Fall we acted as host family to a pair of CWY participants, Melissa and Yulia, in a Victoria/Ukraine volunteer exchange, so I gained some experience of life in the CWY. Finding what I had seen to be important and meaningful, I applied for the program. However, it didn’t remain at the fore of my plans and was washed away by school and prospects of college/university. Thus I was surprised one morning to check my e-mail and find that I had been accepted. I hummed and hawed over it for a couple of days, then decided to accept and haven’t looked back since!
Apart from my preparation work for Canada World Youth, I am also just finishing my grade 12 schooling through SIDES (the South Island Distance Education School) with whom I have been studying since we returned from our trip in 2005. I’ve also been playing in the last of the school year’s Strings program, which I attend at Esquimalt High School. At the Strings Finale concert I was given a commemorative music folder. Grumpa and Nana attended our “Bach to the Beach” picnic/concert at Willows Beach, and I had the opportunity to visit with them and George Wood while they were in town. Allison (my girlfriend) invited me to the Esq. High grad dinner and dance at the Empress Hotel, so I got the experience of a genuine graduation celebration despite being home-schooled! We sat at a table with two of Allison’s friends and their boyfriends, one of whom had been my best friend in grade 3 and who I had not seen in ten years, or had contact with for at least seven… Weird synchronicities are everywhere!
My own graduation ceremony was on the 24th, and although my parents could not make it I was by no means alone: my Gran, Uncle John, Aunty Mary, Carter, Allison, Bill and Maureen all came, some of my closest family and friends. Despite a bit of adventure getting to the ceremony, involving my mixing up of the names of Cadboro and Cordova Bay, it was a great experience to see some of the amazing, diverse students who were graduating through SIDES. The teachers and everyone at SIDES deserve my deepest thanks for guiding me cheerfully, thoughtfully, and wisely through the quagmires of high school, for allowing me the ability to catch up for much lost school time during my travels, and for giving me an option outside of the physical school system. You are all amazing!
As for the rest of the family, they’re doing well in Ottawa. Harry’s enjoying scouts and baseball, and has a website called http://kiwibirds.webs.com/. Dad has his studio in working order and is creating art once again, which can be seen on his new blog http://clementsgallery.blogspot.com/. Mom is working in Citizenship Case Management in Ottawa, and has been on a work exchange to Trinidad. She has been offered another to Siri Lanka, but she has had to turn it down because the three of them will be traveling here to BC in August. Uncle John was in Vancouver General Hospital for surgery on his fractured neck, which went much better than anticipated. He is recovering rapidly and we are thankful for the many prayers that he has received! Silent Sound (yes, I still regard her as part of the family, even though she now has a new owner) is off for a new media-covered adventure over the Northwest Passage this summer, captained by her new owner Cameron Dueck. Their voyage can be traced on Cameron’s website, http://www.openpassageexpedition.com/index.html, where you can find information, live tracking, pictures, the latest up-dates of the expedition, and more.
So that’s the news up to now! Bill and Maureen left for China this morning where they will be traveling and visiting with Dylan who is there studying Mandarin at Shanghai University. I’ll be staying here in Victoria looking after the house and continuing with my fundraising and other preparations for my trip. There will be a funshoot at the Victoria Bowmen archery range on July 11th from 10:30 am till noon, by donation ($5 - $15 suggested) in support of CWY and my exchange. Everyone is welcome regardless of age, membership, and skill. There will be coaches to introduce you to the sport if you are new to it. Also, on each Friday in July, from 2 – 3:30 pm, I will be hosting a fun music session at Bill and Maureen’s place for the young and young at heart. All are welcome, regardless of age and experience (young children should be supervised) with a donation of $5 or more which shall go towards CWY. If you’re in the Victoria area and are interested in either of these events, just let me know and I’ll get you the details.
I will be trying to keep you in the loop with Missives such as this one roughly every month. I will also be posting these Missives, as well as photos and other updates on my blog, http://bradleyclements.blogspot.com/. My e-mail address is svsilentsound[at]gmail[dot]com, and my mailing address (until the end of August) is 1225, Carlisle Ave., Victoria, B.C., V9A 5C7. I’d love to hear from you! Also, I am still working to raise the $750 remaining before the end of July, so please let me know if you would care to contribute to CWY. I am gratefully accepting donations: a tax-receipt and a personal postcard from Tanzania will be sent to everyone who contributes $20 or more. The books are still on sale, between $10 and $35 – they make great gifts, journals, sketch-books, note-books, etc. Thanks for your support!
Your friend,
Bradley Clements
CWY Ontario/Tanzania Volunteer
Victoria, Canada
Hello everyone!
As you have probably heard, I have recently been accepted for a Canada World Youth (CWY) exchange between Ontario and Tanzania. The program will consist of full-time environmental volunteer work with a group of 18 youth and two adult supervisors - half from Tanzania, half from all across Canada. I will be paired with a Tanzanian counterpart with whom I’ll be living, and together we’ll be staying with a host family in a community in both Peterborough, Ontario, and in a village in Tanzania. My preparations are already underway, including sorting out travel documents, studying Swahili (the primary language of my exchange country), and engaging in an intensive campaign to raise $2500 for CWY. So far I have been blown away by the friendship, generosity and enthusiasm that so many of my friends and family have offered, and with their much appreciated help I have already come to about 70% of my goal within less than one month! I have raised a great deal of funds selling hand-made books, so Bill and Maureen’s suite where I am staying has been converted into a bindery of sorts. Many tireless hours have been spent stooped over stacks of paper to be cut, folded, pierced, sewn, covered, wrapped, and pressed. What I had been expecting to be the hard part, though – selling the books – hasn’t actually been so bad. Already this has been and immensely educational experience which will be especially valuable if I ever end up doing anything like this as a business.
So, many of you have been wondering how and why I came to be involved in Canada World Youth. I’ve been wondering that a bit myself, but I’ll explain to the best of my discernment. My interest in international volunteer aid organizations was first sparked in the South Pacific where I saw volunteers with such organizations as the Peace Corps working, especially in Vanuatu. Having been disgusted by many of the examples of - often pointless, sometimes harmful - “aid”, I was pleased to see that there were organizations which actually intermingled with the local society and worked for them and in accordance with them. Upon returning to Canada I went looking for a similar Canadian organization in which I might be able to participate, and I didn’t have to look far! My family’s one-time acquaintances, now good friends, Bill and Maureen have a son named Dylan who was away in Kenya on a CWY exchange when we returned from our trip. His experience seemed a good one, and he introduced CWY to me. After my family moved to Ottawa for Mom’s work, I began staying with Bill and Maureen. Last Fall we acted as host family to a pair of CWY participants, Melissa and Yulia, in a Victoria/Ukraine volunteer exchange, so I gained some experience of life in the CWY. Finding what I had seen to be important and meaningful, I applied for the program. However, it didn’t remain at the fore of my plans and was washed away by school and prospects of college/university. Thus I was surprised one morning to check my e-mail and find that I had been accepted. I hummed and hawed over it for a couple of days, then decided to accept and haven’t looked back since!
Apart from my preparation work for Canada World Youth, I am also just finishing my grade 12 schooling through SIDES (the South Island Distance Education School) with whom I have been studying since we returned from our trip in 2005. I’ve also been playing in the last of the school year’s Strings program, which I attend at Esquimalt High School. At the Strings Finale concert I was given a commemorative music folder. Grumpa and Nana attended our “Bach to the Beach” picnic/concert at Willows Beach, and I had the opportunity to visit with them and George Wood while they were in town. Allison (my girlfriend) invited me to the Esq. High grad dinner and dance at the Empress Hotel, so I got the experience of a genuine graduation celebration despite being home-schooled! We sat at a table with two of Allison’s friends and their boyfriends, one of whom had been my best friend in grade 3 and who I had not seen in ten years, or had contact with for at least seven… Weird synchronicities are everywhere!
My own graduation ceremony was on the 24th, and although my parents could not make it I was by no means alone: my Gran, Uncle John, Aunty Mary, Carter, Allison, Bill and Maureen all came, some of my closest family and friends. Despite a bit of adventure getting to the ceremony, involving my mixing up of the names of Cadboro and Cordova Bay, it was a great experience to see some of the amazing, diverse students who were graduating through SIDES. The teachers and everyone at SIDES deserve my deepest thanks for guiding me cheerfully, thoughtfully, and wisely through the quagmires of high school, for allowing me the ability to catch up for much lost school time during my travels, and for giving me an option outside of the physical school system. You are all amazing!
As for the rest of the family, they’re doing well in Ottawa. Harry’s enjoying scouts and baseball, and has a website called http://kiwibirds.webs.com/. Dad has his studio in working order and is creating art once again, which can be seen on his new blog http://clementsgallery.blogspot.com/. Mom is working in Citizenship Case Management in Ottawa, and has been on a work exchange to Trinidad. She has been offered another to Siri Lanka, but she has had to turn it down because the three of them will be traveling here to BC in August. Uncle John was in Vancouver General Hospital for surgery on his fractured neck, which went much better than anticipated. He is recovering rapidly and we are thankful for the many prayers that he has received! Silent Sound (yes, I still regard her as part of the family, even though she now has a new owner) is off for a new media-covered adventure over the Northwest Passage this summer, captained by her new owner Cameron Dueck. Their voyage can be traced on Cameron’s website, http://www.openpassageexpedition.com/index.html, where you can find information, live tracking, pictures, the latest up-dates of the expedition, and more.
So that’s the news up to now! Bill and Maureen left for China this morning where they will be traveling and visiting with Dylan who is there studying Mandarin at Shanghai University. I’ll be staying here in Victoria looking after the house and continuing with my fundraising and other preparations for my trip. There will be a funshoot at the Victoria Bowmen archery range on July 11th from 10:30 am till noon, by donation ($5 - $15 suggested) in support of CWY and my exchange. Everyone is welcome regardless of age, membership, and skill. There will be coaches to introduce you to the sport if you are new to it. Also, on each Friday in July, from 2 – 3:30 pm, I will be hosting a fun music session at Bill and Maureen’s place for the young and young at heart. All are welcome, regardless of age and experience (young children should be supervised) with a donation of $5 or more which shall go towards CWY. If you’re in the Victoria area and are interested in either of these events, just let me know and I’ll get you the details.
I will be trying to keep you in the loop with Missives such as this one roughly every month. I will also be posting these Missives, as well as photos and other updates on my blog, http://bradleyclements.blogspot.com/. My e-mail address is svsilentsound[at]gmail[dot]com, and my mailing address (until the end of August) is 1225, Carlisle Ave., Victoria, B.C., V9A 5C7. I’d love to hear from you! Also, I am still working to raise the $750 remaining before the end of July, so please let me know if you would care to contribute to CWY. I am gratefully accepting donations: a tax-receipt and a personal postcard from Tanzania will be sent to everyone who contributes $20 or more. The books are still on sale, between $10 and $35 – they make great gifts, journals, sketch-books, note-books, etc. Thanks for your support!
Your friend,
Bradley Clements
CWY Ontario/Tanzania Volunteer
Victoria, Canada
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