Harambee Day 5 - Wednesday

DAY 5 – WEDNESDAY

The weather has been up and down. We began with hot, followed by a couple cloudy days, and now we are steaming hot. It is wonderful!

Today was the same as everyday: BUSY!! I am run off my feet. We stay up late the night before, wake up and hit the floor running.Cassidy gives the kids breakfast while I run to the Parent's Meeting. You wouldn't believe how many things there always are to run over in the mornings. I then come running from there to pick up children and deliver them to classes. Many of the classes overlap, so I have to figure out ways to cover babysitting with the four young ones, while I go to my Attachment Therapy classes.

The boys have had oodles and oodles of freetime, so they are not losing out. But I have to tell you I am getting my exercise! And there can't be a nicer way to do it! Running from activity to activity.

Cassidy took part in the World Cup Event as part of the African team.


Then all all the boys and girls did their workshops for Marimba (music), Drumming with Fana, West African Dance, and Hip Hop.

Today was the first time I headed to the beach. I had thought it was farther away, so we hadn't made time for it in our busy first few days. I am so glad we did this day! I had a teen attachment class today and I passed on it so that I could keep the kids at the beach. That was a sacrifice because I CANNOT believe what I have taken from the parenting class for teens!! Parenting classes are a topic for a separate post. That was powerful!


At the end of the day we hurried home to shower up because tonight was MUM'S NIGHT OUT!!! YEAH! I was a little concerned about leaving all six kids alone, but I knew Cassidy was capable. I let Austin have the run of the campground while I was out, and I knew I would be back by 9:30, so Cassidy could go to his Capture the Flag with the youth on the beach. And so off I went!

Austin in a Tree With Friends

It was wonderful. I ended up in a car with a bunch of ladies I did not know. Friendships were formed and it was a great way to make new connections! What I love about camp is that it is not a bunch of 20 year old mums and dads. This camp is *extremely* diverse. There are all kinds of families, and all kinds of sizes of families, how they are built families, and all kinds of ages from young in their early 30's to up to their 50's. And what I love is that my children have learned about all kinds of families and made new friends from all walks of life. And when you consider that there are 60 families here, you should be amazed to see that I have not heard children fighting *anywhere, anyhow*. New friends have been made and old connections have been rekindled.


After I came home, Austin had fun taking off with his friend’s and watching a movie on a friend’s laptop. They have set up a small movie cinema in front of one of the cabins. And then after Cassidy came home I went across to the fire that they have set up on the South Side. It is great fun. We all sit around and gab, while the little ones sleep nearby. The chips and drinks are passed around and it is a nice finish to each day.



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Harambee - Day 3 - Monday

The day began with the parents meeting. Following this our children ages 2-7 had a drumming workshop with a wonderful West African man named Fana Soro. They spent 45 minutes learning some wonderful drumming, singing, and rhythm. It was amazing how they listened and learned and were able to follow his music and then repeat it after him.

Being Taught to Be HAPPY While Drumming

After this was done we headed to the gum for a West African Dance Workshop with the Miyanda girls. These girls are amazing! Their group was birthed from a class about seven years ago. Fana, the drum teacher, is also the leader of the Miyanda girls. Two of his daughters are in this class. Apparently, they did so well that this group has now made many appearances. They are heading to Scotland for a tour sometime this year. All our children, except for Cassidy participated in this class.


Our days are incredibly full and I am run off my feet. I could choose to do nothing, but that is not for me! I have an opportunity here for my children to break into different age brackets and have the chance to learn African dancing, drumming, and music. Why would I not jump for that?


Each day there are two attachment therapy sessions. Since I have kids in both age groups I end up in therapy for three hours a day! But oh, it is so worth it!!! I have parented for many years, but this is parenting that I have never heard before. And I can see it is just what makes the best sense.

I had heard that there was a lot of problems with biological kids not being properly attached to their parents, and it was due to the fact that society is not supportive of attachment: daycare, working parents, extra curricular activities, Nintendo, cell phones, chat rooms, MSN – all things that detract from an attachment with their parents and siblings.

When I attended this seminar it really showed exactly how it works and how it affects our own family, even though we do not do: daycare, working parent (s), too many extra curricular activities, very, very minor Nintendo, no cell phones, no chat rooms, and no MSA. And yet, there are many things that we do do that do not foster attachment. And we are just your typical family! Talk about enlightening!

While I have those sessions going on the Austi had his Marimba workshop. This is where they learn to play on these monster sized xylophones. They make beautiful music! The instructors would go around and teach each boy or girl their part and they would then be practicing as the teachers taught the next student.


As soon as this was over, Cassidy entered the classroom for his Marimba workshop. The classes are divided for 2-7 year olds, and then 8-12 year olds, and finally 13-18 years old. There is even a Parents only Marimba and I heard them play after one practice – un.be.liev.able! I should have taken the class and next year I think I will – when I have a husband here to see that my children get to each of their classes! It is pretty busy when you are the only one here and have children running in different directions all day, plus you are trying to get in three hours of therapy for yourself! Lol

Right after the Marimba classes Austin went on to a hip hop class. The neat thing is at the end of the week all of this work will pay off when they do a production.


In the middle of the day we were told there was an emergency parents meeting. I wondered if it was something bad, but was told it was something exciting. We all came wondering what on earth it could be. Then they told us the teens needed to be there, so we got our teenagers to join us.

And then they sprang the surprise on us. One of the coordinators had heard that Rihanna (sp) was going to be performing in Penticton, while we were at Harambee. People spoke to people and a few people made some big efforts, and they put out the request to Rihanna's people about the possibility of her donating tickets for our kids to be able to see her in concert.

At 11:00 am there was information that there might be a possibility. And then surprise of surprise, at about 12:00 noon that day there was a call from Rihanna’s people: they had 224 tickets for the Harambee group! Not only did they have tickets, they were floor tickets – tickets worth $168 plus tax each! Very generous!

One of Rihanna's People

For those that don’t know, Rihanna is a singer. My family do not know her because we don’t listen to much mainstream music. When I had heard that they might get tickets I knew I would have a decision to make. Do we go or not?

Well, when the meeting came together and the announcement was made and one of Rihanna’s ‘people’ showed up with the tickets, it was pretty exciting. And it was easy to get caught up in the hype.

We made the decision to go.

And then, a friend said, “You might like to check out the Utube videos of her concert and listen to what she sings." So I did. I had Cassidy and Austin watch and they made the decision on their own not to go.

Now, people may think they were coerced. But no. They have been raised to treat girls with respect and to view modesty as important. What they saw in her dress and the way she behaved on the stage did not make them comfortable.

And yes! It was a bit hard for my 11 year old to know that his friends were going, but then blessing of blessings, it turned out that both Cassidy and Austin’s friends weren’t allowed to go. We were not the only family that turned down the tickets (For us: about $1400 worth of seats). Other people who were not comfortable with their children going also stayed home.

But they ones that went said they had a marvelous time, and many said it opened up good discussions with their children. I am sure it did. As an ex-teenager myself (grin), it wasn’t easy to toss up the idea of the show that the concert turned out to be. But I knew that if I opened that door to that kind of music, I was opening the door to bringing it into the house.

Also, really every family is different, and everyone has to make their own choice. If my children were in the mainstream schools, my decision might well have been to go to the concert and use it as a teaching tool.

Each day is so full that I barely have time to sit down. Now I could make this a holiday of rest and relaxation with books, beach and deck chair, but really, why? I can do that anytime. This is the time to fill up with all these remarkable classes and experiences! And I am not doing that much really. It is just that I have children in all the age brackets and I do not want them to miss out on their opportunities!
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Harambee - Arrival Day - Saturday

We woke up bright and early at Kal Tire to the sound of the mechanics having their morning coffee. The boys peeped out the windows and saw our van being worked on.


About an hour later, the manager of Kal Tire came to our trailer to let us know that my van was fine. He explained that the steep hill, combined with my braking a lot and then the slightly warped rotors had caused the van to vibrate when I braked. He said it would probably happen again even if he changed the rotors. I decided to leave things as they were since the brakes had been fine, since we had come off the big hill. I will be going home an alternate route though! One with less steep hills!! It took a long time for my legs to stop trembling the night before from all that stress!

After this we headed off to Naramata. The drive was beautiful and I couldn’t believe all the vineyards and orchards!


When we arrived at camp the first thing I did was make the mistake of pulling into a road where I wasn’t supposed to be. Thankfully, a very kind husband (the kind I was planning on borrowing in the first place! (grin)) came and helped me drive the trailer to our spot, and then he and another kind husband (grin) parked our trailer.


We ended up with a very nice spot right on the creek complete with power and water! We are very fortunate. When I was at home my batteries were not charging very well. I remember thinking I would not stress about it. God would work it out. Well, I was not supposed to have power and water! So when I arrived and found out that we could hook up to the outlet across the street, I was not surprised! Saved again!

The campsite is set up with 42 trailers and 13 tents, plus there 12 cabins. My numbers might be slightly off, but that is about it. It turned out that there were three new families this year, and Corrie and I were two of them! What an amazing blessing, as it is very rare for new families to be added, since there are so many returning families that want to get in. It is next to impossible, apparently, to get off the waiting list!!

The children helped me set up the site, and then we had to get ourselves figured out with rules and regulations: where they could go; could they go alone or with a buddy? When to be home etc. They then spent the rest of the evening riding their bikes and finding new friends, while those that have been here before rekindled old friendships.

It was another late evening when we all hit the hay.

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Here We Are at Harambee 2010 !!!!!

I never expected to be able to blog from here. I was not aware there was internet access, then last night a girl told me that she had found a hot spot over by the gym. So here I am!

So coming to you LIVE FROM HARAMBEE 2010!

Day 1 Harambee:

I left home a little later than planned this morning. We were on the road by 9:00 am.


It was a bit nerve racking, at the beginning. I knew I needed my Tim Horton's Decaf Mocha Heavy on the Hot Chocolate to calm my nerves as I began my Maiden Voyage. My plan was to drive directly to Naramata with no side trips, since I had no clue how to get myself out of a backing up situation. So I versed Cassidy on what he was to buy me, gave him my Tim Card, and dropped him off on the highway in front of my coffee shop. The plan was for me to drive around the block once and pick him up on the return. It didn't work that way. Of course! When does anything happen simply?

I came around and he wasn't there, so I went around again. Then I decided to park on the side of the highway with my blinkers on. Soon enough I saw him coming with my delicious morning coffee. But when he arrived it looked like he had been attacked by the coffee! Seriously! The whipping cream was all over the lid, and streaming down the side and all over his hand. There was no way this coffee was going to calm my nerves. I would be trying to not get it everywhere. I asked him what happened? He told me the server had given him the coffee and the lid. She had not put the lid on. No kidding! It was way too tall for the cup and perhaps she didn't want to get covered in whipped cream? He being on the shy side, didn't want to say anything, so he did his best to get the lid on (her job) and in doing so had covered himself with whipped cream. I asked him to please go back and get a clean cup. He arrived back and the next girl had given him a clean lid.... Oh well. It still tasted good. Sticky, but good.

I had told the children that I needed them to be absolutely silent. I was really quite nervous. They are wonderful, amazing little travellers, and so I knew I would not have a problem. Sure enough, by 10:30 they were all sound asleep! I had played some relaxing children's songs, and one by one they had dropped off to rest time.


I was still nervous and paying very close attention to my driving. Every so often I would peel my fingers out of the grooves I had created on the steering wheel. (grin) We always pray before we travel and I truly believe in doing so! God is so good. I have a long list of issues where we were taken care of while driving. This last week is an example of that. I was driving home from town the night before I was to leave on a road trip to Mehaber and I heard a noise under my van. A few minutes later something came flying out from under it. We picked up the part, drove home, called Kal Tire (my favourite mechanics!) the next morning and asked them if they could fix it cause I was leaving the following day for Mehaber. They couldn't get the part until the following day, and so I would be late for my last camp. But wonderful service that they provide, they scrambled to get the part and had it fixed that same day, which meant I could leave on time. But you see, the point is, the problem came to light *before* my trip! It would have been a very expensive fix if we had kept on driving. As it was it was $500!

During my driving I just 'happened' to be looking out the window at the very moment something white and large went flying down the road. I was pretty certain I had not driven over something on the road, which meant it must have come from me. Thankfully, within a mile or so there was a rest stop. I pulled in there with the intent of turning around and going back for it - forgetting I was a trailer!

There were two cars there and I decided to run over and ask them if they knew if there was a rest stop to turn around in back in the direction I had come. We ended up talking and one of the men offered to drive me back to the plastic. In doing so I found out he was a 'city cop from Edmonton, as he called himself, and he said he liked to help people. He and his buddy, who was with his family, also, were ex-military buddies. I told him about my two boys and he was interested to hear. They were celebrating on holiday because in that very week he had had one child graduate college, one graduate highschool, and one get married! They were on a road trip to visit family. Well, I say they were angels in disguise! I found the vent and did not put it back on my van, thanked the families and then headed on my way.



I had been given advice to go this route as the other route took the Coquihalla and was considered a very fast freeway, and since I was new to driving, I decided to take the slower route. I had a wonderful drive. It was stressfree and I was feeling pretty good. The roads became quite countrylike, and there was a river on one side. Sometimes the roads were narrow and there were cliffs on the side, but overall, I figured I could handle it.



Then I suddenly came out of Merritt and entered the Coquihalla Connector. I had no clue about this road! It was a four lane road.I liked the four lanes, but I did not like the constant up and down climbs. The hills weren’t that steep, but they were constant. I was doing fine with it all, and I knew I had about 120 km to drive on it. Then the rain began. Seriously! I didn’t’ want to drive in rain my first time. Then it began to hail!

An Ominous Sky!

I got on this down hill road and it had a 6% grade. That would have been fine if the hill had stopped. But it didn’t stop. It kept on going. I had to totally think about how to slow down the trailer and the van, cause I didn’t want the trailer pushing me down this hill. So I kept trying to bring myself to about 60 km or even 50 on this steep slope. Then my van started vibrating whenever I put on the van brakes. The steering wheel would go nuts. I had to ease off the brakes, and use the manual slider for the trailer brakes. If I used no brakes and just coasted or used the gas, I was fine. So I knew it was probably my van. It was incredibly freaky. It was like driving with no brakes!

This ‘hill’ was over 20 km long without a brake. I passed a runaway lane and ignored it. By the time I passed my third one I was seriously considering taking it. I *had* to take a break from this constant running down hill.

Thankfully, right after this I came to an information booth and the road leveled out and I pulled in there. My legs were just shaking and they kept shaking for the next half hour! That was the Ride From Hell! The girl told me where Kal Tire was and I planned to see them. Some guys at the information booth thought it could have been my brakes were worn. Who knows! I headed down, got to Kal Tire and by then I was hearing a grinding noise where my van attached to the trailer. Ey Yi Yi!! Gone was my carefree, I can drive anywhere feeling!

At Kal Tire I poured out my story and asked if they could help me. They said they were all booked up today. I asked them if they could help me phone around and see if someone else could help me. They said yes. I told them I was going to the Adoption Camp for our Ethiopian girls and it was so important. Then I simply prayed silently: Please God!

Then after the guy left the room he came back in, and said, “What time is your camp tomorrow?” I answered him, and then he said, “I can let you spend the night in my parking lot, and then I can fix your van tomorrow morning at 8:00am.”

Oh the stress lifted off my shoulders! I had somewhere to stay safely, and they would look at my van the next day. Another guy came outside and helped us unhook the van from the trailer, and then very kindly backed up the trailer into a spot for the night. What gallant treatment! That is why I love Kal Tire!


I then loaded the kids back in the van and headed out to see if we could go to the movies, since we had our evening free. After I had gotten off that big hill my van started to act normal again, so I am not sure if my rotors are warped as Kal Tire suggested, or if they were getting too hot, as someone else suggested, or WHAT? But after this, I drove around all evening and I never had a braking problem again.

So then I headed to the movie cinema and saw there were basically two choices for movies: Toy Story 3D or another one I forget the name too. I didn’t really want to spend so much money on the 3D movie and I would have loved a movie *I* would also enjoy, so I ran into the movies and asked the guy about the alternate movie. I still couldn’t figure if it would be appropriate, so I figured I would use my computer and go online to www.pluggedinonline.com my *favourite* movie site. You can find out exactly what negative or positive content it has without spoiling the movie.

I see the manager and quickly give him a run down and ask if I can link up to his internet. He is run off his feet with franticness (short staffed?), but tells me to come into this room. Well, one minute later there I am, wishing Cassidy had my camera to get a picture for my blog. I am in the box office of the movie house using the managers computer, while he is beside me taking cash from movie patrons. What a hoot! I got the information I needed: The Last Airbender – was not appropriate; we would see Toy Story 3D instead.

Now, I needed to feed my children before I had to be back at the cinema in 45 minutes! Thankfully! I had seen a Little Caesars $5 medium pizza sign, when I drove into town. I dashed in that direction, parked, ran in, asked for two medium pizzas, and was ready to dash out, when the server did a very kind thing!

He reached into the warmer and grabbed a bag of cheese buns, added them to my pile, and told me, “You look like you have had a hard day. I’m going to give you this for free.” How incredibly kind!


My children could not believe I could run into a pizza store, and be back in the van in about 3 minutes flat *with pizzas in hand*. I told them – this is the big city! It was a hot pizza ready to go deal.

We dashed back to the cinemas had our dinner, packed our pockets with licorice, and then headed in to watch our movie. Well, as we sat there we heard French voices behind us. I explained to Raine that daddy’s family speaks French, also. She had never heard French before. I told her again. You are in the big city.


When our movie was done for the night, we grabbed a water bottle, headed to the gas station, filled it up, and then headed ‘home’ to Kal Tire for the night. We had a fair bit of work to do to make the inside inhabitable, since we had beach inflatables shoved in there, plus a bike, cooler, and many odds and ends.


In the end, the children all ended up in jammies, in bed, while Cassidy, my helper, jacked up the trailer and got it settled for the night.

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