I got the chance to shadow my first bureau speech and go out on the road with Scott Hammell. Scott is a Me to We speaker and his speech focuses on the ideas of fear and conquering fears. He opens it with a video of him skydiving blindfolded and handcuffed... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he's a magician! He then talks about fears (his biggest used to be heights) and how our fears in North America - heights, spiders, the dark - differ drastically from those around the world - malaria, not being able to feed your family, wild animals. He then uses this to discuss our Adopt a Village program. I have had the chance to see a few people speak, but I think that Scott has been my favorite by far. He has an incredible way of captivating kids and really keeping them engaged. After he spoke, their Me to We club came up and all the kids were asking him for his autograph. Then, this girl walks up to me and asks me for my autograph... I giggled and said, "You don't want my autograph, you want Scott's autograph", and she said "But you inspire people too, so we love you", and asked again. Suddenly I had a line of kids waiting for my autograph. It was truly uplifting to think that these kids truly look up to us at Free the Children and Me to We. It reminded me that regardless of any stress I come face to face with, those kids are the reason I am where I am, and that's all that matters.
The following weekend I had my first real Canadian experience... That's right folks, I went curling! My friend, Larissa, was going with some of her friends and invited me to come along, I figured why the heck not, right? Turns out, curling isn't so Canadian. Anyone I've spoken to has never curled in their life and no one really watches it. Canada -1; American stereotypes of Canada - 0. The sport itself is rather difficult (for real) and to be honest, somewhat boring. But overall, I was happy I tried it out because how many Americans can say they've curled? :)My last two weeks have been jampacked with practicing for We Day (this Thursday!), writing my speech, practicing my speech, delivering my first speech (!), and LOTS of crafting! I had my first speech yesterday and it went really well! The kids loved it, a few came up to me afterwards and told me how great it was, and even the educator told me I am a great storyteller, which made me feel much more confident. My speech is like any other outreach speech where I explain what FTC is, how it started, Craig and Iqbal's stories, and our Adopt a Village program. The unique part of my speech (as with each speaker's speech) is my personal story from Belize... when I told the story about the boy and the canoe, the kids fell silent and they were beyond attentive. Towards the end of my speech I talk about how difficult it can be to keep your peers engaged and I explain how when SJL first started and all the hoops we had to jump through at BSU. It's really nice to sit down and think about all we accomplished, and all that SJL continues to accomplish there.
Finally, the best part of my past few weeks? The crafting :) I have met a few friends up here that also enjoy making all sorts of stuff so I've been making cards galore and other crafts I can't yet post here. They've all come out pretty well and it's nice to have that feeling of home while I'm here. (Sidenote: Julie and I also put together my desk all by ourselves!!) I definitely miss everyone back home, but I am loving it here. The people are great, my job is phenomenal, and the culture is incredible. As for now...In Peace,
Bria
Interesting Canadian fact: College and University are completely different here. A College is a vocational school you attend after high school, and you receive a diploma in a specific trade (much like our vocational high schools), whereas University is for four-year programs like in the States.
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