GCA Stop 5: Pokeshaw

We mentioned in our earlier post that we are staying in the village of Pokeshaw.  This has come about because all of the rooms available in Carquet are taken for the festival.  We were extremely fortunate, actually, that one of the bed and breakfasts we phoned has ‘overflow’ arrangements with a friend.  As a result, we have been staying the basement suite of this individual and having a lovely time. (We’re spending a lot of time in the front room hoping to see whales jump in the bay, but so far we haven’t succeeded)

Last night, our hostess prepared us an evening meal (including an appetizer of local snails, meat seasoned in an herb called Acadian Summer Savoury, and strawberry sauce made from the berries in the garden).  It was a really special opportunity to get to know her and the area better.  

We’ve really come to the conclusion that this area is rugged and beautiful, but also quite harsh.  For example, numerous people have said to Rachel when she mentions that she is originally from Calgary that they have a son, husband, aunt, etc. living in the city or in Alberta.  We’ve discovered that most of these individuals are local people who don’t have work because of the cut backs in mines or fishing and are therefore going out to work the oil fields near Edmonton.  So many local men are there that our hostess joked they should have a ‘grass widows’ club (referring to the Irish women who used to be ‘widowed’ by the fact their men were attending to flocks in far away pastures all summer long).  Perhaps they should be called Sand Widows, as it is the tar sands that are taking their men.

Beautiful, green and grassy in summer, this place is transformed to a windblown wilderness in winter time.  Temperatures are often around -35 Celsius (around -22 Fahrenheit) and there is so much wind that the snow that falls is blown away.  The bay that gives us such great views freezes and people snowmobile on it.  The people who live here have a challenging life!

GCA Stop 5: Acadia

Bonjour from Caraquet, Nouveau Brunswick. We are currently in the French speaking heartland of Acadia in this province and August 15 is an international day of celebration for Acadians. As a result, we are not actually staying in Caraquet, we are in the near by village of Pokeshaw.

What is Acadia you ask? Well, treaties’ have been written on this (for an accessible synopsis see wikipedia’s article), but the thumbnail is that back in 1604 France approved settlements in the new world in what is modern day Canada (yes, the settlement of Canada came before that of Jamestown in the USA). With the promise of good fishing, land to farm that wasn’t terribly tied down to the feudal system and new adventures, a significant number of people took up the King’s offer to go to the new world. These initial settlers were prosperous in this new land (Acadia often translates to something like fruitful land), unfortunately, they soon found themselves in the middle of a turf war between France and England.

For the most part, Acadians chose to stay neutral in the clashes between France and England. They continued to farm, fish, and prosper while their homes would technically change allegiances numerous times. This became a problem, however, at the end of the 7 years war in the 1700’s. England won (see Quebec entry) and did not trust the Acadians to support their new regime. As a result, the English expelled most of the Acadians from what is now Nova Scotia. Some were sent back to France, many were sent to Louisiana (becoming Cajuns) and further still ended up in northern New Brunswick. (Some also just stayed where they were, going up river and hiding inland from the British for a period—the British did not have many troops and therefore could not do purges of the entire area they now controlled). Caraquet is the centre of the Acadian community in Northern New Brunswick.

The Prime Minister and about 20,000 people will be in Carquet tomorrow celebrating the feast day of the Acadian’s patron saint. It is apparently an absolutely crazy bash and we’ve been warned by a few people that it would not be a particularly good idea to take a baby into the middle of it all. As a result, we’ve skipped lead up activities for the celebration and headed instead to the Historical Acadian Village, (which is what we came to the area to see anyway). Listed by Lonely Planet as the #1 historical site to see in Atlantic Canada, the village is a series of historical buildings and re-enactors talking about Acadian life from 1770 to the 1930s. It was really interesting to learn about music, fishing, bread making, etc. and the traditional meal we ate at lunch time was tasty and filling.

Incidentally, we know we have a slightly skewed view on this due the fact that we are here during the celebrations, but there seem to be few people groups in the world more proud of their identity. Many people are wearing Acadian flag hats, t-shirts and the like; for miles around, houses are flying Acadian flags (the French tri-colour with a gold star in the corner, representing the patron saint of the Acadians); one home even has a patriotic vignette depicted in mannequins on their front lawn. There is plenty of evidence, however, that this is not exclusively for the festival. For example, some houses in the area are painted to look like the flag and local visitor’s centre pipes Acadian music through outdoor speakers as you drive past.

GCA Stop 4: Au Nid D’Aigle

We have now been ‘homeless’ for 2 weeks and there are another 5-6 weeks to go until we are settled in our own place again. In the midst of the myriad of accommodations we are experiencing in this period (from sleeping on the floor of our empty apartment to the 4* Chateau Fronternac), we experienced a real gem last night.

This B&B (translated the B&B at the Eagle’s Nest) is tucked away with the Maliseet reservation on one side and private acreage going down to the St. John’s River on the other. (If you swam the river you’d be in Maine). Manicured paths on the grounds lead to a giant chess board, benches in leafy corners and a bbq pit by the river. Great attention and care have been given to the various rooms in the house. Ours was a beautifully decorated queen sized bedroom, with a playpen for Charlotte to sleep in. Add to this an excellent hostest, home made date bars and beverages on arrival and the excellent breakfast (complete this morning with a selection of local cheese and buckwheat pancakes done the Madawaskan way to accompany the main course of bacon and eggs) and it was a fantastic stay.

GCA Stop 4: The Republic of Madawaska

Greetings from the Republic of Madawaska.  Yes, that’s right, technically today we are not in Canada or the USA.  We are in a small Brayon community (i.e. Acadians, or French speaking, protestant) that technically isn’t in either country.  Living on both sides of the St John’s River, the residents of Madawaska (which means land of porcupine incidentally) were not impressed when the community was arbitrarily divided in half during a war in 1842 (the USA took the territory south of the river to become part of the state of Maine).  Not entirely agreeing with the policies of Canada either, the little community on the New Brunswick side became its own country (for a detailed description see Will Ferguson’s humorous chapter on Madawaska in Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw).  Now nestled between Maine, and the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, the capitol, Edmundston, is the heart of the republic. The mayor of the town is also President of the Republic, presiding over official functions and duties. 

Now the republic doesn’t issue passports, so residents are actually Canadian citizens (or Maliseet First Nation Treaty Card Holders) and federal services still definitely exist (we shipped a box through Canada Post this morning).  Citizens speak French first, but English is widely spoken as well.  There is an extension campus of New Brunswick’s University of Mocton in the republic and 7 of that good Canadian staple, Tim Horton’s Donuts, in the capitol.  (But no Starbucks, ergo no internet connection) 

Car Blogging

Probably a few of you are wondering how it is we are getting this blogging done, and why it is we suddenly post so many entries at once.  The answer to the latter point is simply that we put posts up whenever we have good access to the internet, which is far from a daily occurrence. 

We are able to get the blogging done thanks to Brian’s ken as a programmer.  About 2 days into the trip, he headed over to Canadian Tire and picked up a cigarette lighter adapter for the lap top.  As a result, we spend many hours in the car with Brian driving and Rachel typing  : )

Car Baby

As we wander along the roads of eastern Canada, we are spending a tremendous time in the car.  As some of you will know from our time in San Diego earlier this summer, Charlotte and cars do not get along very well.  Therefore, a few of you are probably wondering how we are coping. 

There seem to be three crucial things to preserving our sanity.  1) We try only to do significant driving every other day to give all of us a break.  2) Rachel spends a lot of time in the back seat, singing nursery rhymes, making faces, and preparing bottles on the fly.  3) We rely on toys to help out.  In this category, we must say a HUGE THANK YOU for two very important toys.  To Lucy, Anna Christina, and Jemima who gave us ‘Mr. Monster’, we are very grateful as Charlotte will spend copious amounts of time just staring into his yellow and black eyes.  And to Naveed  who gave us Georgie the musical puppy, we are extremely thankful.  It is the only thing other than mum or dad Charlotte will fall asleep to.  We spend a lot of time listening to him play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Of course, then there are those times when the baby just cries and we have to put up with it.  We normally try to stop these before mum is head-in-hands in despair, but we don’t always manage : s

Francaphone Canada:random musings from Rachel

I’m starting to get it now, in a way I could never understand in Western Canada—what dual languages are about in this country.  The first eye opener was the reality that thanks to the Acadian tradition, the French influence in Canada is not just in Quebec (although Quebec territorially—as we’ll experience on our drive next week–is a huge amount of Canada on its own).  New Brunswick is officially bilingual throughout the province as is the ‘Capitol Region’ of Ottawa (slightly like the District of Colombia in the USA), a portion of the population of PEI have French as their first language and as the presence of St Pierre and Miquelon (islands belonging to France) off the coast of Newfoundland indicate, French influence is prevalent there also.

Canada, in addition to being part of the English Commonwealth is also a member of the French Francaphonie.

 

For a good potion of Eastern Canada, the dual language road signs and cereal boxes are neither a ‘quirk’ or ‘inconvenience’ as they are often viewed in the west, they represent the reality of everyday life.

 Where the balance of all French, all English, or dual identities fits in the government and running of Canada, however, will always be a difficult.  As we have been in Ottawa, the Prime Minister is reshuffling his cabinet. One of the main reasons speculated for this was that the current Minister of Defence needs to be reassigned, not because he is poor at defence, but because his French was not up to the task of sufficiently defending Canada’s presence in the war in Afghanistan.

   

The Memory Keepers

What is it about the evening hours, a cup of tea and women gathered together?  Here I stumble into that familiar pattern again.  Sitting, getting the baby off to sleep, my grandmother and start the story telling process.  Exchanging memories of people and places long past or changed in the present.  Talking about those life experiences that have indelibly marked us.  Through it all a picture emerges: family tree, a sense place, identity.  Concepts and words only, but so much more.  Crucial stories and memories that define us, conveyed in the twilight, in the dreaming time. 

GCA Stop 2: Ottawa

After extensive good-byes and a fairly arduous car trip with Charlotte, we arrived in the capitol Thursday night. One of the first things we noticed was how modern everything appeared to be in contrast to many of the turn of the century buildings in Toronto. Another obvious difference is that everything is in French and English (good practice for next week)! We quickly discovered that, due to the proximity of Gatineau Quebec (literally across the river from Ottawa), means that not only are there both languages because of the capitol, people do really live in both French and English here.

We’re staying at the Rideau Inn, which is proving to be a great blend of a bed and breakfast and hostel. The house is an old Edwardian with wooden floors, crown moldings and about 10 guest rooms. Breakfast is provided in the morning, but you serve yourself (cereal, freezer waffles, fruit, etc.) You are also given free use of the kitchen for the preparation of some basic meals and there is access to a fridge. Across the street there is a children’s playground and basket ball courts and around the corner there are a significant number of restaurants and shops (with lots of people dinning al fresco well into the evening). It is proving to be a great location, with only the drawbacks of a shared washroom (we only had 1 person to share with) and creaky stairs.

Already, we are appreciating as we did in Toronto, the prevalence of local shops and restaurants. Some of the more interesting spots just down the street from the Rideau Inn there is a local gelato place (very good judging by the line out the door at 9:30pm), a diner, and a ‘fruit and cheese’ speciality corner store. The corner store was our pick for supper tonight and the selection was amazing. Frozen pasta dishes sent over from a local Italian restaurant to baked goods from a near by bakery were some of the highlights amongst everyday items and the promised cheese and fruit. We took this opportunity to sample locally baked raisin almond bread (slightly like fruit cake with marzipan in it) and two Canadian cheeses. One of these was Oka a signature cheese from Oka, Quebec, which Rachel had wanted to try since being made aware of it at Granville Island Market in Vancouver earlier in the summer. The second was an Ontario cheese done in the style of Danish Blue. It was an interesting evening of tastes!

GCA Stop 1:Good-bye Toronto

We’ve had 4 wonderful days in Toronto. Although we did not do a tremendous amount of ‘touristy’ stuff, we had an excellent time reconnecting with family. While Brian met a lot of this side of the family for the first time, Rachel caught up with people she’s not seen in over a decade (including a 16 year-old, competitive sailor, cousin who was 3 when Rachel last saw her at the yacht club). Charlotte had a great time cuddling with aunts, uncles and cousins in many different places, including a unique and special evening visit to her Great Aunt Sandy at her office in Sunnybrook Hospital

By far the most precious moments on this trip were those spent with Onnie in her apartment. After 24 years in the building, Onnie is moving in September to a retirement home (yes, at 90 this spry lady is still living on her own). This means that any future visits will not be in the apartment, 15 stories up in the sky over North York. As a result, those late night moments when Onnie would hold Charlotte singing ‘Sing a Song of 6 Pence’ or smiling and talking baby talk; the copious breakfasts of every seasonal fruit imaginable and Fruit Loops; and the stories that flowed, prompted by the many pieces of memorabilia around the apartment won’t be repeated. We had a very blessed time. Even the apartment balcony, which has been closed for repair for 8 months was opened on our last day. (A wonderful thing for Onnie—who really wanted to sit with Charlotte out in the area that for decades has been a flower, vegetable and humming bird paradise—and a special event for Rachel who used to sleep outside on the balcony when she came to visit Onnie’s as a teenager). This time also helped us understand a biblical passage that had never really been significant before. The moment where Ruth places her first child with Boaz on Naomi’s lap and Naomi is declared blessed because God has given her a child once more was never so clearly understandable as watching Onnie hold her first great-grandchild.