First of all the i have to acknowledge my community and family for pretty much sending me there(supporting our canoe family and giving me money for my trip and prayers ect.) It was an amazing experience it was definitely a good pay off for all the hard work it took to get there.
The trip it self was krazy. It took a bus drive from Penticton to vancouver, a flight from van to Glasgow( a city in Scotland), a city bus from the airport to the bus station, a bus from Glasgow to inverness, a ferry, and another bus to Kirkwall. That took over 24 hours and we were all krazy tired. When we got to Kirkwall which was the main little city we were in we had a small get together with our host families. The host families were that we stayed with for the rest of our journey. My host parents were Jim and Barbara McVean in the small city of Stromness(about 20 minutes away from Kirkwall). They were soo nice and open with Sassy, Ryan and Myself. It was pretty much rez rules at there house, eat when your hungry and all that good stuff. So through out our stay we visited through 9 different islands in the Orkney Islands. We paddled about half the time we were there so that was great. I swear the water was thinner or something because it felt easier to paddle i think it was the salt, but the water was also rough and there were some pretty decent sized swells. Oh and i got to skip the Spirit Dancer, its soo much harder to skip than our Canoe. We met so many nice people, we got stared at a lot but its understandable cause were a bunch of loud native kids JK... Everyone pretty much welcomed us with open arms and the group really represented the Okanagan Nation in a good way. We sang for the people there and in return we got to hear bag pipes bands and fiddles/violins and some songs from the local people. It made improvements in our group also, it brought us closer. We had some rough patches but we pulled through and learned from it. It also made most of us realize the importance our community is for us. When we had the first phone conference, we all cried especially when we herd the songs. We all felt comfortable there, but there is truly no place like home. It was definitely a worth wile experience and i really want to go back and see the places we couldn't see. Oh and I have to mention the food, it is really good( like the ice cream, cheese, pretty much all the products of a cow cause they have enough of them and more organic). Even Haggis is decent.
It's nice to feel the heat and the okanagan sun... I think my tan went away a little bit from over there LOL
By Jolene Michel
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