Here we are at the final “Postcards” post of 2019!! In fact this evening the first 2 Teams will be arriving back in Montreal after completing their final week in the Eastern Townships.
Of course here at “home base” Day Camps never ends and in the coming weeks there will be so much to do with individual Evaluation letters to write for all the Team Members and Feedback Forms to prepare for each host community. Before the Feedback forms can be sent out we also need to put together a flier with basic information about the Program we will be offering for 2020 and update both the Team and Community Application forms, as they are sent out with the evaluation packages.
At least all of that work is a bit less stressful than the daily “putting out of fires” that occurs while Day Camps are happening across the country 😊
Happily I have been able to complete the Chicken Awards in readiness for next Tuesday’s Evaluation Meeting and am already starting the grocery shopping for the dinner for 18 that will happen following the meeting.
It continues to be hot and sunny here and my garden is slowly shrivelling up before my eyes, which is quite discouraging. I don’t remember a summer when I didn’t mow the lawns for 3 weeks.
Over the past few days I have had a Bubble Tea visit with Jessica, Morning Coffee with Jill and Iced Latté with Jenna. It was great to spend some one on one time with all these dear friends. Jessica brought a big bag of red currants from the garden she tends as part of the Urban Agriculture project at Innovation Jeune. After laboriously picking them all off the stems I turned them into jam, which we plan to sample at lunchtime today. And yesterday I did a huge baking, partly in preparation for next week’s big dinner.
But this part of the post is getting out of hand, let’s dive into the Postcards-
Team1– Franc and Rachelle have spent their final week at CFB Gagetown New Brunswick and it has been a challenging week for the Team. After a long gruelling bus ride from the Gaspé Coast they arrived to find a Day Camp with no on site coordinator, very few local helpers and 30 VERY exuberant Campers!! This Base has never hosted one of our Camps before and so trying to handle everything, mostly on their own has been quite tough for a 2-peron Team! But they have remained positive and I do hope that the Campers have also had a super time. Tomorrow Team 1 will board a train in Moncton NB, which will arrive in Montreal on Monday morning, making them the last Team to reach home. 😊
Team 2&3– Donna, Geneviève, Miriam and KC are already home, having held a Friday Closing Gathering in Knowlton yesterday afternoon after which Geneviève’s Mum kindly drove them back to Montreal. They had a lovely week, running a 5-hour afternoon Program at Promised Church with over 20 Campers. Many thanks to Jennifer who took on this second Camp of the summer so that the Teams could serve a final week of ministry. 😊
Teams 4&5- Mikaela, Mariejoy, Kelvin & KC have spent their last week together in Swift Current Sask. Just a few minutes ago I had a text from Mikaela to say that they are now enroute for Regina where they will have an early lunch before boarding their plane home. They don’t get into Montreal until almost 10pm tonight (assuming the flight is not delayed 😊). It has been an interesting week for them as they adapted to half day/morning schedule, trying to squeeze as much of the Program as possible into a 4 hour timeframe. With close to 30 Campers it was great for them to work as a 4 person Team. Reports are that the Friday Closing Gathering was awesome too!
Team 6- Annie Miguel & Melina, spent an “out of the box” week on a small island at Camp Artaban. It was initially quite a struggle for them to discover how they could fit in but they eventually got into their groove and were able to share some aspects of our Program while also serving as staff for the Campers attending “Girls’ Camp”. They very much enjoyed the amazingly beautiful site. The Camp ended yesterday and the Team is currently with former billets in Vancouver; later today they will be catching their flight home to Montreal.
…and ( for the last time!)– That’s all the Teams 😊
Next week, along with other updates, I hope to include a description of the Team Evaluation Meeting taking place this coming Tuesday afternoon. But before wrapping up this post, let’s have a recipe…
Continuing with hot weather salad recipes, here is a good one for-
Tunisian Style Tuna
- 2 tins oil-packed tuna, drained
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas
- 2 miniature pickled lemons, thinly sliced
- and seeds discarded
- bunch of fresh mint, chopped
- 1 lettuce, leaf or romaine
- 8 large pitted green olives, quartered
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tsp. harissa paste
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- 2 Tbsps. red-wine vinegar
- 1 lemon, quartered
Mixed together the tuna, chickpeas, lemon slices, olives and mint. In a food processor blend together the garlic, tomato paste, coriander, harissa, olive oil and vinegar, until smooth. Stir into the chickpea mixture. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving platter and top with the chickpea mixture. Garnish with lemon quarters. Serve with a bowl of couscous. Serves 3-4