There are some things in life that can just brighten your day no matter what mood you're in. I experience one of those things today. During set-up this morning, a group of special needs girls walked through the gym in front of my soundboard table to go do their daily physio class. At first, I didn't think too much of it .. until one of the girls with down syndrome looked at me, waved and smiled. I said hi to her and asked her what her name was. She couldn't really pronounce it properly but her EA told me her name was Natalie. When I said "Hi Natalie, it's nice to meet you", she opened her arms and threw them around my neck. She was so excited that I had taken a minute out of my day to know her by name. A few minutes later, she entered the room again, this time accompanied by the rest of her class and they took a seat on the bench beside me. Natalie came over again and hugged me, sparking the interest of a few of the other girls. I walked over and asked the other girls their names, receiving a few more hugs as I did so. One girl named Manami caught my eye. She was wearing braces on both of her knees, one on her wrist, and she was sitting in a wheelchair. I sat down beside her and we bonded over the colour pink being our favourite colour. I think she's my new best friend. It was hard to pry myself away from her to go do the show, but she sat at the back and watched. Over lunch I sat with her and Natalie again and even though they both couldn't speak, I had a really good time with them! It made me so happy to just spend time with them and see the smiles on their faces!
When we left the school, we headed to the local grocery store to buy snacks for our bus ride, and on the counter as we're paying we saw a glass jar with a picture of Manami on the side of it. It read: Please help Manami - We are trying to raise money to send Manami overseas in order to have stem cell treatment. I couldn't believe my eyes. This was the girl I had just met, the girl who made my day and here was an opportunity for me to give back to her! I dropped a few bills in the jar and wrote a note that I put in along with it. I was amazed that there were so little donations in the jar and I started brainstorming ways I could help them out. Maybe start a facebook group to raise funds for her and send them to her? I really feel compelled to do something ... This girl was amazing. She had so many things to complain about in life and yet the smile never faded off her face ... That's how I want to live. :)

I'm going to try to get ahold of her educational assistant and ask if there's any way I could fundraise some money for her. If anyone feels compelled to donate, feel free to contact me by email!
ckburmaster@hotmail.ca

Little ol' Weyburn

This weekend we had the opportunity to have four whole days off in a small southern town in Saskatchewan called Weyburn, where one of our team leaders lives. I've probably said this before, but I feel I should mention it again : SSM is NOT a small town ... we've been deceived our whole lives living there thinking we were stuck in a tiny little city, but let me tell you, I haven't seen small towns until this tour. Weyburn has a population of about 10,000 people and they're biggest hit: wheat fields and oil rigs! Oh wait... They do have a McDonald's AND a Walmart! ... you know you're a big shot when ;)
The first day we were here, we spent the whole day laying around doing nothing! Because we are SOOOO generous, the girls and I had given up our beds for the guys the night before, so we spent the first night making a fort around our air mattresses so we would have a private place to sleep as well. It's a good thing we gave the guys the bedroom because even though us girls slept until about 11:30am, the boys slept in even longer! I think we needed it haha. The second day was much more eventful! We took team pictures outside in the snow around the old barn in our billet's yard, then took a trip to Walmart (so exciting!!!). Afterward, some of us went over to an intern's house who we met at the last school we were at and went horseback riding! It was cold, but fun! When we returned to our billet's house, she had a lovely turkey dinner waiting for us with stuffing and all! It was delicious! After dinner, our billet had hockey tickets for us so we got to go watch the Red Wings play! .... Okay, maybe I should be more specific ... The Weyburn Red Wings ... BUT they won the game in a shoot out, and we caught two pucks, so we're convinced we're good luck :)
Who said small towns couldn't be exciting ?!?!?!?
Today we're spending the day packing Christmas shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child at our billet's house!
Overall, it has been a very relaxing and exciting long weekend!
Tomorow we're Manitoba bound!

Time to Turn Around =(

Well out of this whole tour so far, there's one thing I've learned for sure: the west coast is the BEST coast :)
Snow covered mountains, glacier rivers, ocean views, canyons, small town souvenir shops, and wild ten minute long blizzards are all so exciting to me!
So far, my favorite town we've visited all tour has been Jasper, Alberta. I love the small town feel and being surrounded by mountains that are covered with snow! It just makes me want to go skiing so badly! We had the weekend off there and we got to go shopping down town and i can honestly say that I've probably been in every single souvenir shop in that whole entire town! I mean, somebody's gotta support the local businesses during the winter time! We had dinner at a cute little pub downtown where everyone knew everyone and they welcomed us back each night with a smile. I think I can safely say that I would be totally fine living there someday! One day while walking down the street, we literally watched as the town became enveloped in a snow storm from all directions. We saw this white whispy cloud coming towards us and finally realized it was snow ... two seconds before the snow flakes landed on our heads! It was crazy! And within ten minutes, it had stopped and the sun had come back out again! It's amazing how different the weather can be sometimes.
Now, we're on our way back to Ontario and we've made it to Saskatchewan now. It's cool because we're getting to stay with some of the same families who billeted us on our way here and it's awesome to see them again ! It's kind of depressing to go from gorgeous mountains to flat open land ... but that's the beauty of Canada!
I don't know what the weather is like where you're at while reading this, but I've heard that back home in SSM it's been about 15 degrees and sunny .... Wellllll it's been sunny here ... and about -12 degrees and snowy! There's more and more snow the further east we go! It's not like a usual Ontario first snow fall where it snows just enough to cover the ground and then melts by the afternoon.... right now there's probably about three inches of snow on the ground ... and that's just been sitting here since the first snow fall on Friday night! Personally, I have no problem with the weather since i'm a northern girl and love to ski, however I seem to be one of the very few on the team who is the least bit excited about the white fluffy snow outside and the chance to wear a hat and mits! I hope the rest realize we live in Canada, not Mexico :P
All is good here! a few minor bus issues, but nothing that coudn't be solved by a few jumper cables and some intelligent young men!
Getting excited to be back home in a few weeks!

Family Time

While in Vancouver area, I also got to meet up with some family members who I barely ever get to see, due to the fact that they live half was across the country! I got to have dinner with them a few times, and have a family game night. This was a major highlight for me from the trip so far! I'm so glad I got to tour the West Coast, even if I've never been to the East before!

A Solo Adventure

Two weekends ago, my team and I had four days off in Vancouver and everyone kind of split to go do their own thing. Some went to a concert, some went camping, and I ventured off to Vancouver island on the ferry all by myself (I'm a big girl now haha) to go visit one long-lost best friend named Hannah at an awesome Bible Camp. Who would have thought that during both of our first years away from home, we'd be meeting up 3,648km away from home! I got a chance to meet a lot of her fellow students and spend some quality time with my life-long best friend :) It's awesome how things work out!