Just been sent this phone pic from earlier in the week which was taken by another volunteer and thought I'd share it. I have now moved my attention out of the city to the Siksika Nation victims who were very short of volunteers.
Their reservation is located 100 miles east of Calgary so it is much more difficult for volunteers to get there which is probably why the numbers are down. The people there are great and I really enjoyed the past couple of days. I've got to say, my recent familiarity with manual labour has reminded me how unfamiliar it had become....or to put it another way, it's friday evening and I'm absolutely knackered. I'm going to keep going because it is really rewarding but it's certainly much more work than I've done in a long time!!
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I've been volunteering this week to help some of the thousands of people affected by the flooding in Calgary, the work is hard but dealing with the emotion is much harder. Some of these people have lost absolutely everything.
To see a tearful old man trying to scrape silt from a soaking wet photo of his deceased son is a memory I will hold for a very long time. The entire city has come together with an incredible response to the floods with local businesses donating tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools/equipment/food/drinks/torches/cleaning products/hand sanitizer/constant supplies of coffee/pizza, in fact absolutely everything you could think of to support the victims and volunteers. There are literally tens of thousands of volunteers too, it's heartwarming to see so many people pulling together. Little kids running around with bottles of water for everyone, housewives who have baked tons of food and just arrive randomly and give you sandwiches and cookies. One guy came wandering past the end of the driveway on one of the houses I worked on, he was dragging a crate full of iced beer, he had made the crate that morning, bought the beer and headed down the road to "buy us all a drink" . The city is incredibly well organised but still in a real mess with just days to go before the Calgary Stampede. (it has to go on really as it brings millions to the city) They have changed their slogan to 'Calgary Stampede, come hell or high water' and look like they might just pull it off. The scale of the flooding is unbelievable, it is a devastating thing but has also shown the real spirit of calgary and indeed the neighbouring towns and cities who have sent police/fire/rescue workers and volunteers too. It is both an awful and magnificent sight all at once and difficult for the senses to accept. After countless trips to the landfill site, the newness has worn off the truck and it's carrying a few 'scars' from the continuous loading and unloading but that seems such a small thing right now. The first guy I helped had lost everything after 7 feet of water covered his ground floor so we (and 8 others) spent the day removing everything, sorting what could be saved and removing what was lost permanently. A group of young guys arrived and worked so hard for so long anyone couldn't help but be impressed. I took a few shots for the memory but haven't bothered since.....it feels wrong. With Sarah needing to be in Vancouver on the 10th & 11th of June we decided to take a long weekend break out there. Because of time constraints Sarah would fly out there on Thursday night, but I set off by truck on Wednesday to take in some of the sights across the rockies on the 11 hour journey. I made a stop over in a small town called Hope where I hiked a couple of trails, one to overlook the town and the other along a beautiful canyon of tunnels and trestle bridges. I found out during my stay that this was the town in which the first Rambo movie was filmed.....seems I had better weather than them though. Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of my wanderings around Hope, BC by clicking here. After my two hikes I returned to the motel and showered and changed before continuing on to Vancouver Airport to collect Sarah as she arrived at 7pm. We headed directly to our hotel and dined in the hotel restaurant. The next morning we were up and around in good time to head out to Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver where we walked in the treetops for a few hours and dangled over a ravine (or so Sarah would say) It is a great park within the city boundary and well worth the visit. Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of our Capilano adventure by clicking here. After Capilano we drove the 'Sea to the Sky' highway north for a few hours stopping off at places along the way to see small towns, waterfalls, inlets, ferries and for Sarah to climb a tiny rock and call it a mountain. Click the small images below for larger ones and see the whole journey by clicking here. We had dinner in a pub in a small town along the coast before returning to the hotel for the evening. On Saturday morning we visited a stunning classical chinese garden just walking distance from the hotel and followed this with a visit to the tower to look out over the city. From here a small peek at Stanley Park was sufficient to convince us that we would need to spend a day there tomorrow. In the evening we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant downtown and then went to the movies to see the new Star Trek film. Click the small images below for larger ones and see the entire garden by clicking here. On Sunday morning there was no low cloud so the sun was out early without us waiting for it to burn off the clouds. We decided to head to the beach and where better than 'English Bay Beach' which is on the Southern end of the sea wall that surrounds Stanley Park. We walked from the hotel and picked up a few picnic supplies at Safeways en route. After the beach we made the long walk around Stanley Park via the sea wall (12km without a peep from Sarah about distance) Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of the Beach, Harbour & Stanley Park by clicking here. The remaining shots from Vancouver don't really fit into a category, they show the area around the Devonian Harbour Park and the North Shore waterfront. Click any of the smaller images for a photo gallery of the harbour shots. After Vancouver I took a long northern detour on the route home travelling via the Sea to the Sky highway again up to Whistler then inland to Port George where I spent the night. The next day I revisited Mt Robson where at last I got to see the summit without cloud on it before driving the Icefields Parkway to the Athabasca Glacier with beautiful blue skies overhead. I took the Kootney Plains highway to Abrahams Lake and then highway 22 South to return home, a fantastic 4000km road trip through the stunning Rocky Mountains. The slideshow below shows some of the sights along the way. We have had Mark,Hayley and Ethan over for two weeks and though it has flown by we have squeezed in some fantastic times once more. To see what we got up to, click here for the full description.
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AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
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