I joined the Grade 5 classes on Friday and we went cross country skiing at Nickel Plate Nordic Centre (about a 1 hour drive from Penticton, just past Apex Mountain Resort). It was a cloudy day but not too cold. Nickel Plate is high above the Okanagan Valley, and it was a real winter wonderland with lots and lots of freshly fallen snow. Skiing through the woods was such a thrill and it felt like I had left the world far, far behind. What a wonderful escape…

On February 16 at Penticton Secondary School, Atsuko taught her Japanese cooking class to 7 adults. She taught them how to prepare such delicious delicacies as: rolled sushi, miso soup, sunomono salad, chicken karage (nuggets), and tempura. The class was a big hit and the students had a lot of fun and left very, very full!

We had a fun but busy Christmas and the New Year is shaping up to be an exciting time for us as well.

Environment Canada delivered an apology last month. In the fall they predicted a bitter cold winter for western Canada but they were dead wrong. Once again, it has been a very mild winter here in Penticton. This week I was riding my bicycle around the neighbourhood and enjoying the bright blue skies overhead. I sure hope the weather stays mild; we are really looking forward to spring and many more blue skies.

As you know, Atsuko and I work for The Salvation Army and the Christmas season is the most hectic time of the year. The Christmas hamper drive went very well in 2011. The Salvation Army managed to provide Christmas hampers (boxes of food to make up a delicious Christmas dinner) for around 850 families (not individuals, families). They also supplied food & toys for 300 children within those families including 30 infants. I brought Angela & Matthew to help fill the boxes, and it was an excellent experience for them. Christmas has changed a lot over the years, but at its core is still the importance of giving especially to those less fortunate. I watched while Angela & Matthew spent the day working hard and filling those food boxes (we helped out filling hundreds of small bags with carrots) and I could not help noticing how much it affected them, in particular, when they realized many of those food boxes would go to families with young children just like themselves. With age comes cynicism, but despite all the Christmas commercialism I still get the Christmas spirit from putting together those hampers knowing that in some small way I am making a difference on Christmas day to so many people in the Okanagan Valley.

Atsuko is doing well these days. She is now working full-time at The Salvation Army Thrift Store (yeah!), and she is also involved with the Penticton-Ikeda Sister City Society and teaching her Japanese cooking classes through Okanagan College. Last night Atsuko taught 7 adults to prepare such delicious delicacies as: rolled sushi, miso soup, sunomono salad, chicken karage (nuggets), and tempura. The class was a big hit and the students had a lot of fun and left very, very full!

The kids are doing well too. Angela is actively involved in life at KVR Middle School and is finding the French Immersion Program a real challenge. She is gradually doing more baby-sitting for our neighbours and hopes this will lead to more job contacts. Matthew is having fun at school and is a dedicated football (sorry, soccer) player. We signed him up for the spring program and also for a special training program. The Penticton Pinnacles Football Club are working hard to make Penticton a serious  soccer club in Canada. The new director is from Holland, and Penticton now has connections to both the Vancouver Whitecaps and SBV Excelsior (a Rotterdam professional club).

We had a pleasant surprise at the end of January. The Consul-General of Japan for Vancouver came to Penticton to meet with the sister city representatives from Oliver, Summerland, & Penticton as well as the local politicians from the south Okanagan. It was a chance for the Japanese diplomats to get to know the sister city people (34 out of the 70 Japan-Canada sister cities are in BC) and to thank everyone for their donations to the Japan Disaster Relief Fund last year.

Atsuko & I had a great time meeting everyone and we also had the chance to announce the Penticton-Ikeda Sister City’s upcoming trip to Japan.  We are organizing a trip to Japan from September 28 to October 12 visiting Kyoto, Ikeda, & Tokyo. At present, there are 8 Penticton Secondary students & 2 chaperones in the group and we hope to attract 20 or more people for the trip. Here is some information about the fall visit:

http://pentictonikeda.org/2012visit.htm

Here are links to photos about our life in Penticton as well – enjoy!
Christmas Hampers
http://canadianspiritservices.com/blog-e/photos/photos-2011/dec-2011-hampers/

January & February Photos
http://canadianspiritservices.com/blog-e/photos/photos-2012-index/

Take good care and please stay in touch!
The Patrick Family

On January 24, Atsuko & I went to a dinner reception hosted by the Consulate General of Japan for Vancouver at the Penticton Lakeside Resort. We had a wonderful time and met a lot of very interesting people. We sat at the same table as the Mayor of Oliver, the Mayor of Summerland, the Deputy Mayor of Penticton (Penticton’s Mayor was sick with the flu), and the Consul-General of Japan.

The Japanese diplomats were in town promoting the sister city relationships and also thanking everyone for their support and assistance during the March 2011 earthquake. We found out there are 70 Canada-Japan sister cities and 34 of them are in BC alone. Atsuko told them about our sister city relationship and our interest in promoting Japanese culture in the Okanagan. They seemed very interested in what we are doing and offered their support.

Atsuko & I thought the reception was an excellent opportunity for the sister cities and the Consulate General for Japan to get to know one another, and to exchange ideas on how to maintain and continue these very important friendships.

Photo, Left to Right:

Mayor of Oliver, Ron Hovanes

Deputy Mayor of Penticton, Andrew Jakubeit

Mr. Hideki Ito, Consul General of Japan

Mayor of Summerland, Janice Perrino

Me

Mr. Tetsuya Isono, Consul for Cultural Affairs

Atsuko

A kind friend gave us a couple of tickets to see the Vees play on Friday, January 20. The Vees were on fire but the Westside Warriors gave them a run for their money. I took a lot of goalie shots as the action was around the goal crease most of the time. The Warriors goalie was amazing and managed to stop 45 shots – Vees won 4-0. Fast, furious, with the players racing from end to end. The Vees have won something like 24 games in a row and are now the best Junior A team in Canada.

Atsuko and I were invited to the farewell banquet for the Ikeda students at the Penticton Lakeside Resort on Tuesday, January 10. The food was excellent (as usual) but the entertainment was simply outstanding! The Penticton Secondary students organized a singing performance, a multi-media production, a jazz dance performance, and a jazz music performance. I could not believe their musical and artistic talent – amazing! The Ikeda students also put on a terrific show with a dance number and a karate demonstration which was first-rate. I think back to when I was in high school and how “talent-less” I was and how terrified I would have been to go up in front of a room of people to perform. I was very impressed; very, very impressed!

Atsuko and I joined the Ikeda, Japan students, the Penticton Secondary students, and the teachers and chaperones for a day of sightseeing on Saturday, January 7. We went to Munson Mt, the Japanese Gardens, City Hall, SS Sicamous, Salty’s for lunch, and finally the Library Museum. Atsuko acted as translator at City Hall with Mayor Dan Ashton and also translated the tour of the SS Sicamous. It was a very busy day for her but she did a terrific job translating for everyone. The students had a chance to see some of the highlights of Penticton and they were fascinated by the sights and the city’s history. It was especially interesting for them to hear a Japanese view of life in Penticton, and it gave them the opportunity to ask Atsuko a lot of questions about life in Canada.

The Penticton Secondary students will be making a trip to Ikeda, Japan in October 2012 and then it will be the Ikeda students’ turn to host. This student exchange is an invaluable experience for the students to learn about life in Japan & Canada and to create bonds of friendship across the Pacific. With the advent of Facebook & Twitter it is becoming easier and easier for such exchanges to turn into long-term friendships. I am sure the Penticton students are really looking forward to experiencing life in Japan this fall!

The sweat lodge is run by someone we met in Penticton and he is a sweat lodge keeper and has been operating the lodge for many years. The sweat lodge was an incredible experience, one that will stay with me forever. There were 5 of us in the lodge and we did the sweat for about 3 hours or so (I totally lost track of time during the sweat).

When we arrived a fire was going and the rocks inside the fire were nice and hot. One of the participants picked up the rocks with a pitch fork and then someone else would hit the rocks with a branch to knock off the dust and dirt before the rock was placed inside a pit in the sweat lodge. The hot rock pit is located on the left side of the sweat lodge which represents your heart (located on the left side of your body).

We crawled inside the lodge and sat in a semi-circle. At first the sweat lodge keeper put smudge (herbs such as sage or sweetgrass) on the hot rocks to purify the air. The smell was wonderful and so natural, and is apparently very healthy. It was pitch black (and I mean pitch black!) inside the tent which was very strange at first. The atmosphere inside the lodge represents a return to the womb and when someone emerges from the sweat lodge it means they are re-born like a child. In the lodge all I could hear was the sound of the sweat lodge keeper’s voice as he talked about Aboriginal history, culture and spiritual beliefs. It was by far the most spiritual experience I’ve had in my life.

We went through 4 rounds in the sweat lodge. The first round we
honoured Mother Earth and all the spirits in nature. During this round 2 of us said prayers to The Creator and did our “confessional” which was a time to thank the sweat lodge keeper and The Creator and pay respect to Mother Earth. It was also a time to talk about anything in your life that is bothering you or anything you want to get off your chest. “What is said in the sweat lodge stays in the sweat lodge,” as the sweat lodge keeper told us and and we found ourselves talking about many things. I opened up and talked about some very personal things about our family. Everyone listened and everyone grunted in support of my story (“ho,ho,” they kept saying).

After the first round we crawled outside of the sweat lodge and poured warm water over our bodies. The water was filled with different natural herbs and medicines, again to purify ourselves. The sweat lodge was right beside a small river too. One person sat down in the river to cool himself off and I tried to follow him in but only got up to my waist. The river was running very fast and it was so cold!! My legs went numb immediately but it felt fantastic to pour the ice cold water all over my body. I managed to squat down a bit in the river but couldn’t bring myself to do a complete dunking! Sweat lodges are held all year round and I cannot imagine what one must be like in the middle of winter!

During the second round we honoured all sisters because woman are important in Aboriginal culture since they bring life into the world. The third round focussed on our ancestors, and the last round centred on ourselves. During these rounds we prayed silently and also out loud, and I found myself drifting far, far away to another place and another time. My friend and I were beginners so the sweat lodge keeper was very careful not to heat up the sweat lodge too much. We were told if for any reason we felt uncomfortable we were free to leave the sweat lodge for a break. Before leaving the sweat lodge it is protocol to say “all my relations” and this is also said after you say your prayer out loud.

First Nations people have been doing sweat lodges since the beginning of time and I felt so very honoured to be a part of it. I also discovered it is natural for Aboriginal people to share everything and they had absolutely no reservations about me participating in the sweat. However, being white, I was an outsider looking into their culture but at the same time I was openly accepted and the sweat lodge keeper taught me the correct protocol and happily told me everything about the sweat lodge and native spiritual beliefs. I cannot wait to go again and bring others to this very special and sacred event.

This week I read an interesting article on mixed couples in Canada (white married to visible minority or visible minority to visible minority) and found some very revealing figures. I was not surprised by Vancouver being the leading city with the highest proportion of mixed couples but I am surprised by Calgary being number 3. However, my nephew who lives in Calgary has commented on the large immigrant population in Calgary (25% of Calgarians are visible minorities).  I still tend to think of Calgary in terms of the white cowboy on horseback but that image belongs in the 1980s (when I lived in Alberta) and certainly not today.

Another big surprise was discovering there are 1,230 Japanese living in Kelowna (a 1 hour drive north of Penticton). Sure, Kelowna has a much larger population compared to Penticton (Kelowna has 160,000 residents and Penticton has 33,000) but I assumed most of the Japanese in BC live in the lower mainland. How many are in Penticton? There must be less than 20!
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo53f-eng.htm

Here are some interesting facts I found in the article:

-more than 340,000 Canadian children are growing up in mixed-race families
- 5% of children in 2 parent families live in mixed-race households
-between 2001 and 2006 the number of mixed unions grew by 33%
-mixed unions are most common among Canadians 25-34 years old (6.8%)
-BC has the largest proportion of mixed unions (6.4%) followed by Ontario (4.6%) and then Alberta (4.2%)
-Vancouver has the largest share of mixed unions (8.5%) followed by Toronto (7.1%) and then Calgary (6.1%)
-Japanese had the highest proportion of marrying outside their visible minority group (75%) followed by Latin Americans (47%), Blacks (41%), Filipinos (33%)

Sources:
“Number of mixed-race couples on the rise in Canada: Stats Can” http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Number+mixed+race+couples+rise+Canada+StatsCan/2928592/story.html
and
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00599/21N_Mixed_unions_599481a.pdf

Her first class was held at Penticton Secondary School with 12 students in attendance and she was so nervous! However, once she got going she began to relax and had a great time. The students had a lot of fun too! Atsuko taught them to make makizushi (rolled sushi), miso soup, gomae salad, and then topped it off with tempura. Everyone loved the sushi, of course, but they also enjoyed making and eating the miso soup, gomae salad, and tempura. The tempura recipe is from Atsuko’s mom and unlike some tempura the batter is made without eggs and is very, very light and crispy – yummy!

The Japanese tea ceremony and culture class at Okanagan College in Penticton and was a success too. Again, Atsuko was very nervous going into to it but once she got going everything fell into place and she did an excellent job. She started off with a slide show of the tea ceremony and then got the students to do the ceremony and taste the matcha and Japanese sweets. March 3 was Japanese Doll Festival Day so we brought a couple of dolls and she talked about the festival and its origins. She then moved on to talking about the Japanese kimono and the geisha culture (one of her friends is a former geisha), and then she concluded with an origami demonstration.tsuko came across as very professional and the students just loved her and were full of questions!