Over and out....

It has been good to spend time with the Kostamo family and the A Rocha team in Canada this week. The pace for me has changed from one just of holiday to beginning to get back into operational mode with time with the team here and with Markku in particular - comparing notes and learning from each other.

So today was a full day with Markku in Vancouver - leaving at 6 and getting back at 5 - meeting with other business leaders for a bible study, time with the chair of the board and one other board member, time with a web company, and lunch with a major supporter....whilst Jean caught up with herself at the house.

The evening gave us chance to catch up with much of the rest of the team at the A Rocha centre over a meal. So we just have a final visit to the coast in the morning tomorrow and then I meet with Markku and his leadership team in the afternoon before we fly back in the evening.

Thanks to all our readers for journeying with us and we look forward to seeing many of you soon. It has been a great trip for us and one we will remember for a long time to come.

Reifel Bird Reserve

A wander along the west coast to the south of Vancouver today to look at the birdlife of the area. Spring was just beginning to burst out here with trees beginning to come into leaf and birds on the move. There was a flock of around 2000 Snow Geese in one of the fields and a good mix of ducks and herons including this Night Heron and Wood Duck.

There were also a number of squirrels about including this Black Squirrel - it is apparently another race of the Grey Squirrel and was introduced to British Columbia as well with the same impact as in the UK of reducing the population of the native squirrel.

In the evening the A Rocha team assembled for a potluck supper and I spoke to them about the work of A Rocha UK.

Southpoint

We went to church with the Kostamos to their local church in Southpoint. It is a 'church plant' on a local housing estate which meets in a primary school and has grown over six years into a congregation of around 50. It was a significant day as the pastor who founded the congregation is leaving to have a period out of church ministry with one of the congregation stepping in as interim leader and it was largely a farewell and thankyou service with the regional minister there plus those from nearby churches who had helped start things.

They were having a bring and share lunch in the home of a nearby church member and it coincided with the Canada/US hockey game so folks bolted down their lunch and about 30 crowded into the TV room to watch the game. Fortunately Canada won 3-2 in extra time!

As we drove off afterwards horns were blaring and people waving flags and cheering. 'We are not usually like this said'.

It was the best weather of the trip and the mountains were finally emerging from the cloud so we went down to the beach at White Rock for the afternoon and to walk along the shore. The sun was setting over the islands in one direction and lighting the snow on Mount Baker in the other. Lovely.

Winter Olympics

We were awoken this morning by a cacophony of noise from the pond below our window and a closer inspection revealed three Canada Geese rather than two - however after a brief flurry the intruding male was chased away by the local one and the pair flew up onto the tree stump in front of the window before returning to the pool.

When we booked to fly back from Vancouver we had some difficulty finding a flight back and both we and the travel agent were puzzled. However what we subsequently realised was that the Winter Olympics were on! Getting to an event at short notice would have been difficult but we travelled into Vancouver for the day to 'feel the experience'. With the events being in diverse locations the Olympic torch had been set up on the Waterfront and parts of the city had been closed off for pedestrians only. The Canadian TV 'anchors' for the time were located on a trailer in the middle of this area and as we passed the Canadians had won yet another Gold Medal to add to there considerable haul - to much applause and cheers from the crowd who all burst into the National Anthem. Apparently there was significant oppposition to the games before they began but that has receded in the light of the success of the event. The streets were therefore packed with enthusiastic Canadians with slogans of 'Go Canada Go' everywhere - even on the buses....
We found time too to walk around the local park and found this raccoon foraging away...

Th

A Rocha Canada

We arrived in the darkness yesterday evening and we awoke this morning to realise that we were looking over a lovely river valley with a pond with - yes - Canada Geese in ...as well as Hooded Mergansers and a local Red tailed Hawk. Markku Kostamo who is the Director of A Rocha Canada and his wife Leah had kindly offered to have us stay in their place as the A Rocha centre was full and so we are staying about 4 miles down the road in a house which has been gifted to A Rocha Canada together with the associated land and they are just setting the plans for the future for the site which has real potential.

This is likely to mean moving from the existing site which it is hoped will be sold to sympathetic purchasers - during the course of the year. We had lunch there and wandered around the grounds which have been managed very carefully as a mix of wilderness, farming (including this Highland cow..), and vegetable plots. We were hugely impressed by what they have done.

In the evening it was the semi final of the Olympic Ice Hockey so the whole team came round to the Kostamo's for tea and to watch the game - in what in the end was a close match Canada scraped through 3-2 so folks are building up to the US game on Sunday...

Farewell Fiji

We finished our time in Fiji with a meal at the Wicked Walu - a fish restaurant on a peninsula out into the sea with a view of the setting sun - beautiful.

And a final walk along the beach the next morning. We found some creatures which look like long sticks but in fact are some sort of sea slug which can concertina themselves in and out and double their length - some small antennae on the front seem to steer them - and some beach toads !

And then a long day - we worked out the day would be 45 hours long as we have crossed the dateline and we are currently in Los Angeles and the plane to Vancouver is about to go.

Fiji thoughts

The men in Fiji all wear a skirt as part of their normal dress and so schoolchildren whether boys or girls all go to school in a skirt like this one worn by one of the doormen at the hotel. The Fiji name for it is a sulu. Formal dress is the sulu , with jacket and tie.

They also often wear a flower behind one of their ears, behind the right ear means single or available and behind the left ear means taken....

A lazy day around the hotel and on the beach today before we travel again tomorrow afternoon, a little breezy so not quite such good snorkelling as earlier in the week but still a good variety of shapes and sizes of fish about. We shared our lunch table with this mynah bird which seemed very interested in the contents of our plates - but stayed at a safe distance.

Fiji has been a pleasant surprise and having taken total pot-luck on a hotel we have been delighted with it - good facilities but with the ability to get out and about as well. It turns out incidentally that Fiji does have a High Commissioner after all - Mac Maclachlan - no prizes for guessing his country of origin! He says on his website that he is committed to encouraging democracy - so being kicked out of the Commonwealth is obviously a complex process....