Canada Day

It was the first Canada Day that we've been in Canada for since 2005! so i felt we HAD to go to the fireworks despite them being at 10:30pm in the city (about 45 minute drive from where we live) and we being now readjusted to bedtime at 9. For those of you from southern/equatorial areas, these photos were taken after 8:30pm and you can see that it's still quite bright and sunny out. (that's why, obviously, the fireworks begin at such an insanely late hour of the night!)

Canada Day at Assiniboine Park, the fireworks at least, are always a bit of a zoo. The traffic is out of control, it's hard to find parking and the thought of leaving at midnight in a huge traffic jam is almost enough of a detterent to not go. But we braved these obstacles and i was very glad my mother came along with us to help with crowd control (aka. ensuring Judah was happy in the mayhem). Here we are at the entrance to the park after we'd stashed the van at CMU and walked 2 blocks already. This is the view from the Shaftesbury entrance to Assiniboine Park with the Pavilion in the background and the Cricket field to the left. I took this shot for the Clegg's benifit, to show that people in Winnipeg (probably mostly recent immigrants ;-) play cricket.


We felt a bit like tourists taking all these photos, but then again, i sort of feel like a tourist in my own province these days. After being away for so long things look new and beautiful. Below are the two of us and my little brother Geoff. Notice his Marc Ravolomanana shirt that he seems to always wear when he sees us. (My brother's fashion statements are no indication of our own political leanings!)"uncle geoff is so cute... because he's my best friend!" Judah, July2.

Here's me knitting a baby afgan. Always the life of the party i am. ;-) LOL.

These are (below) Judah's photographic endeavours of us all enjoying the Canada day party atmosphere while waiting the 2 hours until the fireworks started. We were altogether 7 people: My mom, geoff, me and judah, my cousin steve and his wife joanna, and my friend fiona.

I like this photo (above) because my mom and i look almost identical. :-D

I can confess that this event made my blood freeze for the most part. Although i was glad we went, i was so stressed out the whole time about losing my child or having someone take off with him. I've been having nightmares to that effect for a while already. I do believe Canada freaks me out now more than Madagascar (and even Kenya) does. It's part of my culture shock i guess, but Canada no longer feels comfortable and benign to me. It's full of threats and dangers at every turn, which is a pity. I do hope that as we continue to live here i'll grow re-accustomed to the way things are and be able to more wisely discern where there are legitimate potential dangers and where i should just chill out. It does go to show though, that we fear what we are unfamiliar with. For most of my family and friends Madagascar is the unknown and therefore fearful place to live. Right now Madagascar is looking pretty safe and secure to me ;-)