Missive #2: Bachlorship 101

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!