Getting to know Canada: Gourmet Cookies, Beans and Book Launches

I've now been out in Canada for nine days. I've gotten over the three hour queue I had to stand in at immigration in order to get my work permit (Nb. there's no signal in the soulless immigration area so you can't tell anyone where you are, you basically vanish into immigration hyperspace or something). I've also stopped waking up at silly times of night unable to get back to sleep (silly jet-lag). In fact I feel very settled and at home here. So how do I even start to explain the past week. It's been a busy blur of new names, new smiling faces, new responsibilities, new chores, new routines, new meals, new experiences, new timezones, and now finally it is my weekend and I have time to sit and take stock of all that has happened.

I'm living on site with nine other interns, and four resident families:

My very cosy bed

Homely touches, a present from the UK

The intern accommodation

We wont all be working on the conservation project team, some of the other interns will be working on the sustainable agriculture and environmental education projects instead. I like it: we've all come here with different experiences to bring to the table and we have a lot to teach each other and a lot to learn. We spent much of this week in orientation sessions for our respective projects and learning about the day to day running of the centre. But even better than that we got the chance to learn about the projects that we wont be directly involved in. So now I understand more of what the other interns will be getting up to! During the evenings we've spent time exploring the local area, doing battle with the rats attempting to invade our house, getting to know each other better, and even venturing as far as Vancouver to support Leah Kostamo at her book launch (check out 'Planted: http://www.leahkostamo.com/planted/index.html, it's the eloquently expressed, inspiring, heart warming and hilarious tale of how A Rocha Canada was started).

It's been a beautiful week full of laughter and excitement mixed with homesickness for many of us, and we're all looking forward to the coming months, the challenges and triumphs that we will face together during our time here.

What happens when you give girls an industrial kitchen to play with, 120 cookies!

Harvesting beans during the sustainable agriculture orientation session

The hilarious 'food chain tag' during the environmental education orientation session

More 'food chain tag' hilarity

Exploring the surrounding area, White Rock at night

Pam explaining moon cakes and the Chinese Moon Festival to the other interns

Sampling the Moon Cakes

At Leah's book launch, check out her brilliant new book 'Planted'

So what is A Rocha anyway?

A Rocha was set up in 1982 by Peter and Miranda Harris who left behind the joys and challenges of Church ministry in Liverpool to set up a Christian Bird Observatory in Portugal. Since then it has blossomed into an international organisation which, inspired by God's love engages in scientific research, environmental education and community based conservation projects. I am working as a conservation intern at the BC centre of A Rocha Canada. The site used to be an upscale riding estate but it is now a hub for environmental education, sustainable agriculture work and conservation projects that seek to maintain and restore the biodiversity of the Little Cambpell River watershed,
change lives and inspire people to care more deeply for the natural world.

Up close and personal with part of God's beautiful and awe inspiring creation

Pretty cool huh? But what has living as a Christian got to do with conservation? I can't really do this topic justice in a brief blog, so I'll just make a few points. Firstly, as a Christian I acknowledge God as creator of the universe and the world. Whatever methods He chose to do that, whether in a single seven day stint, over billions of years through the fascinating system of evolution by natural selection, or any other combination thereof, all Christians agree that He is creator. This means that the plants and animals of the natural world are part of God's ongoing work of creation. Secondly, Genesis 1 indicates that God created man to 'rule over' creation.  As a result of these two points I feel that Christians living for God should not 'rule' in a way that involves irresponsible and destructive exploitative practices. Instead we should seek to reflect God's great and awesome love for all of the creation through a 'rule' characterised by love and thoughtful, mature and selfless responsibility. This responsible 'rule' would benefit individual plants and animal species, and aid the function of natural ecosystems. This in turn would aid humanity, who despite their best efforts depend almost entirely upon healthy ecosystems for their survival, a point that is particularly important for us to grasp if we are to help the most vulnerable, struggling and impoverished of nations and people.

I'm not trying to say only Christians should care about conservation or that we should all go live in communes, but there is a lot to be done, I'm glad God's called me to this and I hope to be able to help people understand that there's a little we can all do to become better stewards of this planet, whether that's recycling, eating free-range chicken or taking part in a study to maintain the biodiversity of the amazon rainforest. Everybody is unique and therefore everybody has unique talents, passions and callings. Variety is, as they say, the spice of life.

international Christian organization which, inspired by God’s love, engages in scientific research, environmental education and community-based conservation projects. - See more at: http://www.arocha.org/int-en/who.html#sthash.UMd1v7WJ.dpuf

A catch up for myself (and everyone else not inside my head)!

Welcome to my blog! I hope it will last and that I'll persevere with it.

I graduated from the University of Cambridge in June having studied Zoological Natural Sciences with a mostly conservation science based slant to my choices. Not long after this I enjoyed a brief jaunt to Bulgaria. There I helped the Balkani Wildlife Society with some wolf conservation work on an exchange from the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. This mostly involved washing and analysing a lot of wild wolf scats (really interesting); getting stuck in the middle of a heatwave and water shortage (fairly interesting); and getting sick (not at all interesting). But it also involved meeting a lot of the local wildlife, some lovely captive wolves and a rescued ex-circus bear, many of whom feature in the below pictures.

I returned from Bulgaria to the blissfully frigid UK part way through August. It was a weird time, with some friends getting married, others returning to Cambridge for at least another year of either work or study, or at least starting definite jobs/ PhDs somewhere in the country. I was left feeling somewhat disconnected and uncertain about my future and incredibly envious of anyone doing grown up and stable things like renting a house. One of the reasons I so coveted this stability was that I was shortly to depart to the great unknown land of Surrey, BC (Canada!!) to undertake an unpaid conservation internship with a Christian organisation called A Rocha. Following my illness, homesickness and desperate desire for stability this seemed like an extremely unwise idea. But as Tolkien pointed out 'Not all those who wander are lost'. A Rocha is Portuguese for 'The Rock'. God is my rock. He is my strength when I am weak, tired and frightened. My stability for when I feel like the world I know and love is falling apart. I can depend on Him completely. So I decided to grit my teeth and take the plunge. I have been out here for a week now and this blog will seek to document my adventures as I journey along with God into unknown waters.

Scat Analysis

Bayto and Vulcho the Balkani Wildlife Society's resident wolves

Medo the Bear

Medo waiting for us to feed him melons

A moth with lovely feathery antennae

Yet another moth

A beautiful beatle

Tiny Tortoise

Where I was living: Vlahi, Bulgaira

A view of the Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria