Black Earth

There is something to be said about working with your hands, about building. This has certainly been a large part of my experience here as a Smithereen. Having grown up as a city boy, I have never really been exposed to working with my hands; if you need something, you go buy it at the store or you get an expert to do it. Why would I bother to do it myself?

The past two days have been grounding. A month ago I didn't even know the meaning of that word in this context. I still don't know exaclty how to define it but if I had to try, I would say it's coming back to your senses. I have spent the whole day in Tom's giant gardening and that, to me, is grounding. It's backbreaking, my knees feel like they're going to fall off and I'm a red tomato, but I've never been happier.

Recently I watched a Nature of Things documentary about Cuba and its "Accidental Revolution" where, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, Cuba was left stranded. It had to immediately develop sustainable agricultural systems in order to survive. It was the commentary from one of the local farmers that gave farming a new perspective for me. He was talking about the perception of farmers in Cuba, where there is an annual increase as opposed to most Western countries. As he explained, it may be physically demanding but there is a rewarding element to farming and working off the land.

Oh, and one more thing... you get to eat the freshest and healthiest food which should definitely not be overlooked when many kids from all over the world, even in the Western world, are mal-nourished.

Salmon Swimming Upstream

Not too much to report in terms of crazy adventures. The Kispiox Music Festival definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of size and overall ambiance. There are some extremely talented musicians in the Northern Central Lower Mainland; they seem to call this region by so many different names that it gets quite confusing. There are three groups that are worth mentioning because they stood out:

Los Gringos Salvajes
Blue Island Trio
Cousin Harley

Also, there was an artist working on a piece near the main stage who happened to be there at 3 am when I finished my volunteering shift. He was using fingerpaint on a poly tarp (kind of a plastic) and anyone could try it out. It was an enlightening experience, especially with a group of 4 genius guitarists jamming right next to us. The piece was constantly changing but I put some more pictures on Flickr.

In other news, I will be focussing on writing about certain issues surrounding energy equity in the next few posts since I feel like the personal adventures are not as frequent now that I'm actually doing work. That said, I have many ideas floating in my head that I will need to get out. Whether they make their way here is another story.

While speaking to my mom on the phone today, I realized that I am already beginning to lose my French. This is when the idea came to me that I should also write in French to keep my mind from turning uni-lingual. For my English readers, I will try to translate but you may want to do so yourself if I'm too lazy.

To keep the random train of thought going full steam ahead, I thought I should mention that we made the greatest dinner EVER tonight. A generous woman I met last week offered to give all five interns some free salmon that she caught last year. That free salmon swam its way into a dish of linguine alfredo with caramelized onions, mushrooms, red peppers, fresh green onions and tomatoes. It was, in one word, divine (enough for me to want to take a picture). Now we just need a name for the dish so leave your suggestions in the Comments section.

Hope your mouth is watering.