Life on the reserve

Hello my beautiful people,

The holidays could not come fast enough, everyone is feeling burn out and ready to head home. Tsay Keh Dene is a beautiful place in terms of landscape, and having the weather constantly change the atmosphere. It also has a lot of challenges, both for the locals and the visiting staff. As a visiting staff, I feel privileged to be flown in and flown out. I feel privileged that I can leave, visit other places, travel, and experience different ways of being.

As an introvert, hearing the words "remote", "isolated", "quiet", these words when I was in Victoria were attractive to me. I thought to myself "no problem, I love quiet places and being isolated". Well, let me tell you that as an introvert being constantly isolated and no social life- it’s actually tough. Even the most introverted person starts to miss their social circle - I did not see that one coming my way. You might want to say: “but you do have a social life. You have your coworkers; you have parties, you have events…” While this is true to some degree; I am also constantly living AND working with the same people literally 24h/7. You don’t get a break from each other. Get togethers are nice nonetheless but it is definitely not the same as when I hang out with my friends back in Victoria. Friends in Victoria know me so it is different.

It is quite difficult to describe what it is like living on a reserve unless you have experienced it yourself. I will write about my whole experience living up here in detail at the end of June.

Teachers and staff working in remote areas and/or in First Nation reserves are exempt from the Provincial Health order in BC and are allowed to travel. We are lucky that we all get to go home or at least off reserve. I am in Kingston, Ontario for 3 weeks with my brother and his family. I feel lucky to be able to do this during these Covid times. We shall see if I can fly out Jan 3rd 2021 as I have to be symptom free. It is a challenge not to get a runny nose when the kids get sick. Fingers crossed that I stay healthy and symptom free. So far, it is December 27th and I am healthy! I am taking vitamins every day, which I think does help.

So far, it has been really nice being with family and away. I finally got the chance to meet my nephew Raphael. Playing with the kids has been a lot of fun and rejuvenating. I still have a week left to recharge my batteries.

I wish you all Happy Holidays!

(PS: Photo Credit to: Emily my coworker. The brighter ones are from her).