Katimavik Hamilton

Some interesting things have been happening all across the counrty in the past month. Alumni and people who have been affected by the program are all coming together in hopes of bringing back this vital program for Canadian youth.

Here are some linnks to some interetsing articles and such. In particular, it’s interesting to see the one where it shows you the specific organizations that are being directly affetced by the program cuts.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/07/22/katimavik-alumni-rally-to-save-program.html

https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=213219350228255218494.0004c23202e611dec78fe&msa=0&ll=46.679594%2C-88.681641&spn=45.972943%2C122.695313

Miss you Hamilton. Keep it real.

-Kristen

Hey Readers!

Yeah, we’re still here. Katimavik may be over.But alas! the Katima-Blog lives on!!

This is the gang on June 19th. Just after our Katima-Graduation ceremony. Holy crow does it EVER feel good to have those shirts! WE DID IT GUYS!

I have a lot more pictures to post. Once I sort through them all… Keep checking back guys!

OH

Once again. A big thank you to everyone who was associated with our group in Hamilton. We really enjoyed out time there. We learned a lot. So to the people of Hamilton!. THANK YOU!!

Peace out for now.

-Kristen

Hello Blog readers.  Feel free to come to the event posted above. You are all invites and any guests You may have that have been associated with Katimavik at some point in time as well. Disregard the ‘RSVP by June 5th’

Just let us know somehow that you are coming!

Mercy buckets.

-Kristen

bonjour je vous annonce que moi et sam nous avons briser un record … nous avons fait une semmaine complette de repas divain et le plus impretionnant est que cettait entieremment de l’improvisation donc lundi nous avons fait des brochaite de boeuf a la sauce soya ail et miel , mardi nous avon fait les crêpe de mon défun grand père .mercredi nou avon fait des steak de saumon a la sause  au citron et au onion ail et miel .jeudi nous avons fait u ne sauce bechammele liquide et une sauce roser nous l’avons servi avec des pâte et aujourd’hui nous alon leur servire des montey cristo sucès assurer . aucun besoin de vous dire que moi et sam somme extrememnt heureux

Hello Katima Friends.

Kristen here. Keeping you posted on all things Katimavik. See that fine looking group of Katima-victims?

Thats us. Amqui/Hamilton 22179.

How cute are we?! Yeah. We know. 🙂 This photo was taken last week when we went to visit Dundurn Castle. Really great place with a lot of great history. Beautiful to boot. And the lady who kindly took this picture for us? Katimavik Alumni. We are ALWAYS running in to Alumni. It’s insane, but good. We really enjoy meeting Alumni because we get to swap stories.

Another thing we are always involved in are the Hamilton Victory Gardens. These gardens have become very important to us as we helped build them and tend them. some of us had nevre worked in a garden like that before, so it has been an amazing experience.

Pops is SUPER STOAKED about our work in the Victory Gardens.

Pierre is equally as stoaked, you just can’t see it because of the sunglasses.

However by far the best activity we did in the last little while has to be The Amazing Race. It was Saturday June seccond from 9:00 AM to aboutttt 7:45. PM. Such a long day and yet so worth it. Sam, Nicole and I planned it as the Information Committee. We were oooo worried that something would go wrong. Not one thing did. Nothing. AT all. So that made us breathe a little easier. We had it all timed out so that we knew what part of the city each group should be in, how long they should be there for that specific task, and what time they should be moving on to the next task. This meant CONSTANT communication between the 3 of us. I have never sent so many text messages in rapid sucession in my entire life.

Thank you unlimited texting.

Some of the tasks they had to complete challenged their minds. Their physical abilities. Their communication and teamwork skills. Others they had to think out side of the box in order to find their answer. And others, you just had to do the specific task fast enough. It WAS a race after all. You’ve got to believe that if we had them going straight out alllll day from 9- 7:45 they had to be tired.  But they kept going and you could tell they had fun.

Here is an example of one of the tasks they had to complete.

“Roadblock: the first parks were used for Deer hunting- land set aside for the upper class to hunt game. In Hamilton’s BAYFRONT PARK, one of your team members will be blindfolded- GUIDE this person through the obstacle course without touching them to recieve your next clue.”

“Roadblock: The art of sweing is said to be 20,000 years old. Iron sewing needles were even found in tombs dating back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-200 AD). At the NEEDLEWORK Sewing Studio you will be practising this ancient craft. One member of your team must PROPERLY EMBROIDER THE PATTERN shown. Once you have finished SHOW AN EMPLOYEE and you will recieve your next clue.” “The library of Alexandria in Egypt is the largest of the ancient world.In the largest library in Hamilton, find a book about the LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA, TAKE A PICTURE AND SHOW IT TO KRISTEN, who is at the main entrance to Jackson Square.”

We had them running ALL over the city. A lot of the activities were actually in the same place, but we mixed them up to make them have to be smart about travelling to and from the activities.

Their final task was to climb the ‘Tallest outdoor staircase in Hamilton” Anyone who has lived in our house would know that this means that they had to climb every single one of the 500 stairs in the Wentworth stairs staircase. Ouch. They were pretty tired when they got to us waiting at the top. 

Our winners were the Green Team! Jenna and HD 🙂 Congrats guys.

Second place. Team Orange! Pops and Pierre!

 And in Third place, The Blue Team! Cameron, Sarali, and Je!

And that was that. A lot of hard work and planning, and it paid off. We had fun doing the behind the scenes work, and I’m sure everyone else had fun participating..

Later on Blog people.

-Kristen

J’ ai été vraiment chanceux d’avoir la famille Elliott comme famille d’accueil pendant une semaine et demie. Cela m’a permis de vivre dans une immersion complète qui m’a énormément aidé pour ce qui est de la langue et de la connaissance de la culture de cette ville qui a beaucoup à offrir. D’abord, leurs fils, Jake, est venu me chercher dans leur van le leudi 4 mars. Cette journée-là, ils m’attendaient avec un bon souper sur la table prêt à être mangé. Nous avons fait connaissance et par la suite nous sommes allés faire un tour en auto dans la ville de Dundas, place où ils habitent, afin de que je puisse connaître un peut le quartier et les environs. Le lundemain on est allé au farmers market  un peu dans le but de voir les personnes qui vivent à l’ancienne, c’est-à-dire, sans aucun type de technologie. on est allé également à la ville de Kitchner  pour voir la soeur de Jake et aussi on est allé à St Jacobs.Le dimanche a été un peu plus détendu. Je suis allé avec Roger Elliott à la salle de musculation pour faire un peu d’exercice. Je le remercie beaucoup étant donné qu’il m’a payé une semaine à la salle d’entraînement.

Ensuite, nous n’avons pas eu la chance de sortir nulle part en tant  tel parce qu’ils arrivaient et ils étaient fatiqués et moi aussi d’ailleurs. Donc, les soirés ont été des soirées de détente. Le vendredi de la dernière semaine fut formidable puisque Jake et moi sommes allés dans un centre commercial et après nous sommes allé voir la première du film The Evangers en 3D, c’était fantastique! Le samedi fut une  journée spéciale , car nous sommes allés à Toronto pour visiter la tour CN et le Royal Ontario Museum ainsi que pour prendre un bon repas dans un restaurant. Finalement, nous sommes allé à Kitchner encore une fois le dimache pour diner avec leur fille et pour célébrer la journée des mères. Je remercie de tout mon coeur cette famille qui a été très aimable et gentille envers-moi. Je sais que j’omets certains choses juste parce que cela prendrais une éternité à les raconter et c’est certain que J’en oublie d’autres, mais c’est qui est certain c’est que j’ai vraiment adoré l’expérience. Merci Katimavik et ma famille d’hébergement!

Cordialement,

Hector Daniel Sosa.