Springtime in Alberta

March 22, 2012March 22, 2012 / edebock / 15 Comments

I’m suffering from severe envy. The day before yesterday was, of course, officially the first day of spring. Over the past few days, I’ve read several blogs celebrating the joys of the season each one complete with gorgeous pictures of flowers and trees in bloom.

Though I’ve never been to the Netherlands, I immediately think of tulips when I think of that country so it was no surprise to me when many of Malou’s colourful blooms were of that variety. She’s the writer of Going Dutch and a fabulous photographer. Caroline writes From a Tuscan Villa but her beautiful pictures of plum trees and magnolias in bloom reminded me of springtime in Japan. Even Maggie in Ontario has been posting gorgeous pictures of spring flowers on her blog, Living Life in Glorious Colour.

Why am I so jealous? Well, see for yourself. Here’s springtime in Alberta… our second snowstorm this week!

Very little colour here! This isn’t unusual for March in Alberta but is it any wonder that I’m dreaming of flowers and envying those who are already enjoying them?

Unlike the dry, powdery snow of winter, this time of year brings wet, sloppy snow heavy with much needed moisture. After a winter with very little snow, the farmers are happy to see it but I’d much rather it came as rain. Bring on those April showers please! And with them, a few flowers would be nice!

A question to wrestle with

March 19, 2012March 19, 2012 / edebock / 6 Comments

In thousands of homes across Canada, tiny Gideon Bibles gather dust on shelves or are hidden away in boxes and drawers. Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing free copies of the Bible in over 94 languages and 194 countries of the world. Gideon Bibles can be found in hotel rooms, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons around the world. In addition, they are given to members of the military of various countries and in some places they are distributed to college and university students, health care workers, fire fighters, and police officers.

In 1946, Canadian Gideons began presenting New Testaments to all grade 5 students in Canada whose parents consented. The little Bibles that the children receive also include the Old Testament Hebrew books of Psalms and Proverbs. Why have so many people kept these little testaments? What is it about them that has caused people who never read the Bible or attend church to keep theirs and to still have it decades after they’ve grown up? Is it because it was received as a free gift, is it simply because it’s a souvenir of childhood or do they somehow sense that there is power in the Word of God? Like so many others, I still have mine. I received it on April 10, 1963. Even during my most rebellious years when I turned my back on God and the church, I kept my little maroon Bible.

In recent years, the practice of distributing Gideon Bibles in schools has stirred up quite a tempest with critics saying that it isn’t appropriate for public schools in a multicultural society to distribute religious material. At this point, the decision whether or not to allow the practice to continue has been left up to individual school boards. Yesterday, two representatives of the nearest Gideons chapter visited our church to share about their ministry and to update us on what’s happening in our jurisdiction. For the first time since 1946, the Gideons have not been allowed to hand out Bibles in our schools this year and a final decision regarding the future is in the hands of the superintendent of schools. We were urged to pray that they be allowed to resume distribution and to write letters to the superintendent urging him to decide in their favour. Many, including my husband, are praying to that end but I’m not ready to jump on that bandwagon without considering all the implications. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that it is useful for teaching, correcting and equipping us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17) but I’ve been wrestling with whether or not it should be distributed in our schools.

When I posed the question on Facebook yesterday, one acquaintance responded that the practice should be allowed to continue because it’s been a long-standing tradition in our schools. For me, that’s not good enough. Just because we’ve always done something isn’t enough reason to continue doing it. As a teacher, I welcomed the Gideons into my classroom and witnessed first hand the excitement of the children as they received their Bibles but I also know that the door that allowed the Gideons in was also open to every other religious organization. Just because they haven’t taken advantage of that opportunity yet doesn’t mean that they won’t. It may not be politically correct to say so, but I don’t want the Koran or the Hindu, Bahai or Wiccan sacred texts being distributed in our schools.

Canada was built on Christian principles but the cultural and religious fabric of our nation has changed. We’ve opened our hearts and our borders to the world but in our haste to embrace tolerance, we’ve allowed changes that we might not have anticipated. We have polygamous marriages and honour killings now. I know they’re not endorsed by law but we ought not to close our eyes and pretend that they aren’t here. Muslim girls can wear the hijab in Canadian schools and the right of a young Sikh student to wear his kirpan, the ceremonial dagger of his faith, at school went to the Supreme Court of Canada. After years of wrangling, in March of 2006 the court ruled 8-0 that a total ban of the kirpan in schools violated the Charter of Rights because it would infringe on the Charter’s guarantee of religious freedom. So, is it really a stretch to think that other religions might want to introduce their writings to our students? I don’t think so.

On the other hand, the latest figures from Statistics Canada show that 77% of the population still claims to be Christian. These numbers are down significantly from 1951 when 96% of Canadians identified themselves as either Catholic or Protestant but 77% is still a clear majority and ours is still a democratic country. Perhaps we shouldn’t be allowing the other 23% to silence us.

What do you think?

The job jar

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012 / edebock / 4 Comments

I’ve taken on the daunting task of cleaning and reorganizing our basement storage room this week. It doesn’t happen very often and when it does, I’m always reminded how abundantly blessed we are. There are so many families in this world who live in less space than that 180 square foot storage room and who, even in their wildest dreams, couldn’t imagine owning enough stuff to fill it!

While I was down there this evening sorting through everything from gift wrap to sleeping bags and luggage, I was thinking that it was time to write another blog post and wondering what it should be about. Suddenly, there it was… the job jar! Why in the world had I ever kept that thing? Obviously, it must have been so that I could blog about it! My kids are definitely going to roll their eyes when they see this one!

The job jar came into existence in 1992. That spring, Matthew was 12, Melaina 8 and Nathan 7. Though being a mom was always my first priority, I’d been back in the classroom teaching approximately half time for the three years since Nathan had entered kindergarten. As plans were being made for the following school year, I was offered a significant increase in teaching time. If I accepted, I’d be working almost full time. When I thought about all the lesson planning, marking and reporting that would be involved, I wasn’t sure how I’d balance that with the demands of a busy family. Richard and I talked it over, decided that I should accept the position and then called a family meeting.

Family meetings weren’t part of our normal routine so the kids knew that something big was up. We gave them a choice. Since I wasn’t going to have time to do everything that I’d been doing around the house, we could either spend some of the extra money that I’d be earning to hire a housekeeper or we could all chip in and do the housework together, save the money and spend it on a trip to Disneyland the following summer. The vote was unanimous; Disneyland, of course!

We decided that we’d clean house every Saturday morning. The next question was how to divide the labour to ensure that everything got done reasonably well and that no one got stuck doing the same mundane tasks week after week. The job jar was Nathan’s idea. Even at seven, he was a creative thinker and a problem solver. Put the jobs you want us to do in a jar, he suggested, and we’ll do whichever ones we pull out.

That’s exactly what we did. Since there were five of us, ten jobs went into the jar; five easier ones and five more challenging ones. Every Saturday morning, everyone pulled one from each category out of the jar and got to work. The only rule was that the chores had to be completed by noon. Of course there were times when we had to make exceptions because someone had hockey or another activity that morning.

For the system to work, Richard and I also had to be willing to adjust our standards. We didn’t put up with sloppy work but obviously we couldn’t expect a 7 or 8 year old to do the same job we might do. If the bathroom didn’t get cleaned quite as thoroughly when it was a child’s turn, that was okay. The next time one of us might pull that job. An added benefit was the fact that all three of our children learned how to keep house at an early age!

So what were the jobs that went into the old Mason jar? The easier jobs included

Dust the livingroom
Clean the small bathroom (actually a half bathroom)
Tidy the basement playroom and empty the garbage cans
Wipe the walls in the porch, kitchen, livingroom, hall and bathrooms (just fingerprints and scuff marks)
Wash the breakfast dishes

The more difficult tasks were

Vacuum the livingroom, hall and bedrooms
Clean the main bathroom
Tidy the porch and sweep the kitchen, porch and stairs
Wash the kitchen floor, the porch and the stairs
Sweep and wash the bathroom floors

Things went smoothly and there were very few complaints until one point when we all began to notice that Melaina, an early riser, was doing the same jobs every Saturday. At first, we were proud of her for getting up and getting starting on her chores while the rest of us were still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes but we weren’t quite so happy when we realized that she was going through the job jar and picking out the chores she liked best! All in all, though, the venture was a huge success.

The summer of 1993 became much more than just a trip to Disneyland. We started by driving out to Vancouver for my brother’s wedding on the 3rd of July. Following that, a six week road trip with the tent trailer in tow took us down the Pacific coast all the way to San Diego where we made a day trip across the Mexican border to Tijuana, then across the desert to Pheonix, Arizona, north to the Grand Canyon, and eventually all the way back to Alberta. In addition to Disneyland, we toured Universal Studios and the San Diego zoo, walked the streets of Hollywood and the beaches of the Oregon Coast, hiked the red rock canyons of Utah and experienced so much more!

And what happened to the job jar when the journey was done? By that time, it had become such a part of our family routine that regardless of how many hours I taught it continued in use until the kids left home! Only then did it find it’s way to the storage room shelf!

Cross Canada tractor trek

March 10, 2012 / edebock / 1 Comment

photo credit

The source of information for western Canadian farmers for the past 89 years has been the weekly farm paper, The Western Producer. Every now and then, our farmer friend, Louis, passes his copy of the paper on to us when he finishes with it. Often there’s a specific article that he wants us to read, usually related to some topic that has come up when we’ve been working for him. Occasionally, however, he simply tells me “I think there’s something in this one that you’ll enjoy.” He knows me well and he’s usually right. Most of the time, I can figure out which article he’s referring to but this time I’m not quite sure. The latest issue has several possibilities but if he thought that the one entitled Immigrant farmer takes long way to farm would catch my fancy, he was absolutely right! It might be the gypsy in me but the story of Eduard Bomers has definitely captivated me.

Several years ago, Bomers, a Dutch dairy farmer, decided that he wanted to leave that profession and try his hand at grain farming. Dairy farming is a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year commitment. He wanted more out of life than that and so began the transition. He put his dairy farm in the Netherlands up for sale and set his sights on buying land on the Canadian prairie. He visited Alberta in 2008 then spent last year working on a Saskatchewan grain farm to gain experience. Last month, he took possession of his new farm near Sheho in southeastern Saskatchewan.

A century ago, western Canada was populated by European farmers looking for new beginnings. What makes this one any different? The adventure of a lifetime, that’s what!

Last month Bomers returned to his home at Eesveen in the Netherlands, packed his household belongings into a trailer, hitched it to his Fendt 936 tractor and set off for the port city of Antwerp, Belgium a long day’s journey away. There the tractor and trailer were loaded onto a ship destined for Halifax, Nova Scotia. After some delay, the ship docked in Halifax the day before yesterday. In the meantime, Eduard had flown back to Saskatchewan and driven his pick-up truck over 4000 km to Halifax picking up his friend, Jakob, on the way.

Early yesterday afternoon, the tractor and trailer were released from customs and an amazing cross Canada trek began! Yes, while Jakob drives the pick-up back to Saskatchewan, Eduard will make the trip behind the wheel of his Fendt tractor! What an audacious undertaking! Some might think he’s crazy but I think the world needs a few more people like Eduard Bomers! Why not join me as I follow the Boer on Toer here!

Women are persons too!

March 8, 2012 / edebock / 9 Comments

Today is International Women’s Day, a day to reflect on the plight of women worldwide. Women’s rights have come a long way since the first International Women’s Day in 1911 but we still have a very long way to go. Here are just a few random statistics:

one in ten women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the victim of rape, many of them more than once
women in Saudi Arabia are not permitted to drive
in Afghanistan a woman is 200 times more likely to die during childbirth than from warfare
women perform 66% of the world’s work but only receive 11% of its income
66% of the world’s illiterate adults are women
women own only 1% of the world’s land
20 to 50% of married women worldwide experience some degree of domestic violence
every year an estimated 2 million girls are subjected to genital mutilation

In spite of the fact that Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, stated publicly yesterday that “Men are fundamental and women are secondary” that country is not considered the worst place in the world to be a woman. Apparently that honour goes to Yemen where women are not only the property of men, unable to leave the house without the permission of a male relative and vulnerable to arbitrary arrest on the street even once they have that permission, but are also likely to be illiterate, to be married before they reach puberty, and to die in childbirth.

In comparison, we have it easy here in Canada. So easy, in fact, that we have a hard time imagining what life is like for our sisters in other parts of the world. On the other hand, when my grandmother was a young woman, married and raising two children, she was not, according to Canadian law, a person! It wasn’t until October 18, 1929 due to the persistence of five Alberta women — Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards — that women were legally declared persons in this country and given the right to vote.

How have we done since that time? Not as well as we might like to think. Canada ranks 40th in the world for female political representatives, better than both the US and the UK but tied with Iraq and far below many other nations including both Cuba and Afghanistan!

Recognizing that rural women play a key role in both developed and developing countries, the United Nations chose Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty as the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. Women make up 43% of the agricultural workforce worldwide. Estimates reveal that if they had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30%, lifting 100 to 150 million people out of hunger. Lack of adequate education and health care, gender inequality and limited access to credit are some of the challenges that face rural women in many parts of the world today. What can we do to change that?

Given the right resources, women are powerful agents for change. Research shows that when a woman is able to contribute to her family’s income, she uses the majority of her earnings to build a better future for herself and her children. I choose to make a difference though contributing to Kiva loans. I loan specifically to women, many of them rural women. For example, my most recent loan was made to Lucia, a cattle breeder in Nicaragua, who borrowed money to purchase two oxen which she will use to till the soil and plant grain.

What will you do?

Nellie Mcclung, Irene Parlby and I - Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada

Emily Murphy and I

Henrietta Muir Edwards and Louise McKinney

The worst and the best

March 6, 2012March 6, 2012 / edebock / 6 Comments

I’ve experienced the worst and the best of Alberta winter in less than 24 hours!

😦 The Worst

Winter travel in this part of the world is always unpredictable and yes, whether we like it or not, March is still winter here in Alberta! This year we’ve had so little snow that we haven’t had to worry about the roads the way we usually do but last night made up for that.

Richard had a medical appointment in Edmonton yesterday. The drive up to the city in the morning was uneventful and after his appointment, we spent the afternoon shopping at West Edmonton Mall. We were totally oblivious to what was happening outside. It wasn’t until we left the mall to meet Nathan for supper that we realized that the weather had become, to use Nathan’s word, stinky!

The trip home, which would normally take two hours, took over three and it was white knuckles all the way! I’m so glad that Richard was driving, not me. I don’t think he ever went more than 70 km/hour (for my American friend’s, that’s about 44 miles/hour) and much of the time we were going slower than that. The highway was a sheet of ice and for the last 50 km we were also driving through blowing snow. I’m amazed that we didn’t see any vehicles in the ditch along the way. I guess everyone else was being just as careful as we were. When we finally made it home, the driveway was full of drifts but we were never happier to be here!

🙂 The Best

Back in November when I blogged about the things I like best about winter, one of the things I mentioned was cross country skiing. This year, because of the lack of snow, my skis hadn’t been out of the shed all season. It was beginning to look like it they weren’t going to make it out at all but the snow kept falling after we went to bed last night and when I woke up this morning I knew that this was the day! I wasn’t sure how my still recovering toe would feel about being stuffed into a ski boot and put to work but it didn’t complain at all! That bodes well for hiking when spring finally comes.

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved being the first one to leave my footprints on fresh fallen snow. Imagine my delight at having an entire golf course of new snow laid out before me this afternoon! With the bright sun shining overhead as I set out to break a trail, the snow sparkled before me like a million diamonds. The temperature was just a few degrees below zero (celsius); cold enough to keep the snow crisp and dry but very comfortable for skiing. I’d love to get out on my skis a few more times before the snow melts away but if I don’t, at least I’ve had this one perfect afternoon!

Before

and after!

Nate’s date

March 3, 2012 / edebock / 2 Comments

Tonight will be our final performance of The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon but unless something very unusual happens, last night’s will be the most memorable one for me. That’s because of who was in the audience.

Because this is small town theatre, we always know many of the people who come to watch but for Richard and I, rarely are they family. Last night was different. Our youngest son drove home from the city, two hours each way, to see us onstage. That would be memorable in itself but it was who he chose to take as his date that made the evening special.

For several summers back when he was still in school, Nate did mowing and other yard work for one of our local seniors. Mary would always have a cold can of pop waiting for him when he finished working and they would sit and chat. Out of that grew an unusual friendship that has stood the test of time. Now well into her nineties and still living alone in her own home, Mary always asks about “her boy” when she sees me. Though Nathan doesn’t get home very often any more, when he does he usually stops by to see her and once in awhile he phones her just to chat. Imagine her delight when he got in touch to see if she’d be his date for last night’s dinner theatre! Like any good date would, he took flowers when he went to pick her up and when I stopped by their table after the performance, she was glowing!

Can you blame me for being a proud mom?

Costa Rica postscript

March 1, 2012 / edebock / 4 Comments

Can it possibly be over a month since we returned from Costa Rica? Granted, even with its extra day, February was the shortest month of the year but still, where did it go?

Back in November when we booked our vacation, I noticed an optional $10 per person “help fix our school” charge on the invoice. Considering the amount that we were spending for a fairly luxurious holiday, that seemed little enough to give back to the people of our host country so I paid the amount in full. I couldn’t help wondering about that school though. I emailed our travel agent and asked her if it was located in or near one of the communities that we’d be visiting and if so, whether it would be possible or appropriate for us to take some school supplies with us that we could donate.

“It is absolutely possible and appropriate — and so refreshing, you’d be surprised by the number of people who complain about that $10 and don’t want to donate even that,” she told us. She went on to tell us that the school is located just a few minutes off the main road in La Fortuna and that if we wanted, someone from the tour company that would be providing our zipline and waterfall tours would take us there. We decided that that would be a good idea since we don’t speak Spanish and might have a difficult time explaining why we were there if we went on our own.

We always travel light. In fact, we didn’t even take the full allowable amount of baggage when we flew to Japan to teach for a year. Taking an extra backpack on this trip would be no problem at all. I found a bright red almost new one at our local thrift store. I think it cost me a dollar!

Then began the fun of filling it. I didn’t keep track of how much we spent but most of our purchases were made at bargain stores like Dollarama so it really wasn’t a lot. First we bought the basics: pens, pencils, rulers, erasers, pencil crayons and glue sticks. Schools always need paper so in went a package of plain white photocopier paper and a couple of packages of multi-coloured construction paper. There was still space so we started to think of some of the fun things that teachers and children might use. A big bag of colourful balloons didn’t take up much room. Neither did a couple of packages of brightly coloured pipe cleaners. Little nooks and crannies were filled with packages of paper clips, elastic bands and post it notes. Last but not least, in went a small foam ball painted to look like a world globe. I even checked to make sure that Costa Rica and Canada were both clearly marked!

The red backpack flew as one of our carry-ons and travelled around the country with us until we reached La Fortuna. That’s when we learned that we wouldn’t be able to visit the school after all! We had arrived at vacation time. The children wouldn’t be back in school until late February but Ericka from Sunset Tours met us at our hotel, took custody of the backpack and promised to deliver it for us. Today an email arrived with these pictures!

Education is valued in Costa Rica and the literacy rate is high but like much of the infrastructure, the school system has been in a slow and steady state of decay for decades. Poverty isn’t as rampant as it is in many parts of the world but the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening for years. Tourism has become one of the country’s major sources of income and we were more than happy to be able to share with the school children of La Fortuna just a bit of what we’ve been blessed with.

Photos by Ericka Chavarria

We did it!

February 26, 2012 / edebock / 2 Comments

It may not be Awesomeday, but what an awesome weekend it’s been! Our first three performances of The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon went pretty much without a hitch and the audiences loved it.

It’s always a privilege to work with such a creative, talented and fun group of people! Flagstaff Players is a diverse group made up of school teachers, students, tradespeople, young moms, and even old retired folks like us! We also have two men of the cloth and you’d never guess what roles they’re playing. The local United Church minister, a long time member of the club, was cast as Old Cloutie, better known as the devil himself, while the new associate pastor over at the Nazarene Church plays the role of Judas Iscariot!

Perhaps it’s the teacher in me but one of the things that I enjoy most about being involved in the whole process of putting together a play is watching someone who’s never done this before blossom. We have one such gentleman in this year’s cast. He was hesitant at first, willing to give this acting thing a try but not at all sure that he could do it well. He learned his lines, listened carefully to the director’s advice and as time went by his character began to come to life. As our first audience filled the hall on Friday evening, I know that he was very nervous but when he felt the rush that an actor gets when an audience responds, he was hooked! Watching him come off-stage with newfound confidence in his step and a smile plastered across his face has been such a joy!

One of the things I enjoyed about teaching school in a small community was watching my students grow up and become involved in the life of the community. This weekend I had the privilege of sharing the stage with several of them. In fact, at one point this afternoon, Richard and I looked around the make up room and realized that between us, we’d taught everyone in the room at that moment! Sometimes the hardest part is convincing them that Mrs. DeBock was my teacher name and that they no longer have to call me that!

There's those rubber chickens again!

Some of our productions involve young children. Here’s the littlest member of this year’s cast. She only makes a brief appearance onstage but this is just the beginning. Who knows what roles she might play in the future? Apparently one of our child actors, an adorable six-year-old, was heard to say “I love being in a play” as he drifted off to sleep after opening night!

It takes many people working behind the scenes to put something like this together and in a small town amateur group like ours, people often fill many different roles. Actors can often be found working on set construction, sewing costumes or setting up tables and chairs for the dinner theatre performances. One of our cast members is a talented photographer who took head shots of all of us for the playbill. Here are the photos she took of Richard and I.

Photography by Natalee

After the adrenalin rushes of a very successful weekend, we all need a good night’s sleep and a couple of days off. We’ll gather again on Wednesday evening for one more rehearsal to keep things fresh in our minds and then finish up with two more performances next weekend.

Backstage glimpses

February 23, 2012 / edebock / Leave a comment

There hasn’t been much time for blogging this week. An hour and a half of physiotherapy every day has resulted in a knee that doesn’t crack or pop anymore which is wonderful but it’s community theatre that has really cut into my time. We’ve rehearsed every night this week and tonight is the first time we’ve been home before 10:00. Why so busy? Because tomorrow night is opening night!

The play is W.O. Mitchell’s The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon and Richard plays Wullie himself, a role that has him onstage almost the entire time. I, on the other hand, have a very small role so I spend a lot of time backstage.

Theatre looks very different from the back side so I thought I’d share a few glimpses of my backstage world with you tonight.