Tuesday, August 29th.
I was up super early to catch my flight to Edmonton. Barb dropped me off at the airport just after 5 am. The flight was easy and only 2 ½ hours, and an hour ahead. I was sitting right beside Paul who I met yesterday in Whitehorse, but I couldn’t talk to him because of laryngitis. Argh. I checked into my room at the Renaissance Airport Hotel. John and Bruce will meet me here tomorrow evening and we will have our briefing for the Arctic trip right here in the hotel. Ironic how things have worked out. The original gathering place for the Adventure Canada meet up was in Yellowknife. I have another Ghana participant friend who lives there. I contacted him and we were trying to set something up when the fires threatened the city, and he was evacuated. I feel terrible for him and his family, but he is safe and awaiting news of when he can return. Adventure Canada reorganized the charter flight to leave from Edmonton instead of Yellowknife. My team leader on the first Ghana Project Overseas trip lives in Edmonton. So, I contacted him, and he was happy meet me. He is still working and reorganized his schedule to free up the afternoon. He is setting up his program and the kids don’t show up until next week. He picked me up at the hotel at one and gave me a driving tour of the city. Then we stopped at one of his favourite coffee shops which is housed in a flower and plant shop. Then we went to his condo and had a chat before going for a long walk on a path through his neighbourhood in 30-degree sunshine. Then we went to a restaurant where he treated me to a delicious fish dinner. He ordered shrimp linguine which came without shrimp. When we pointed that out, they gave us both a free desert. Then he drove me back to the hotel at the airport so that I didn’t miss curfew (like I did a few times in Ghana). Sadly because of my throat I couldn’t really talk to him too much, but we managed to talk a lot about school and teaching and some traveling. He has taught for 46 years! He takes a few trips on school holidays every year and has been to many locations. He has also worked both days of the weekend for 13 years at a group home with 4 challenged adults. He loves to work with challenging students and this year is starting a new primary class of autistic children. He says autism is a growth industry and the Edmonton area has opened 35 new classes to accommodate them. We talked about many things, and he mentioned that he had met a navy seal who told him that ‘pain is weakness leaving the body’… Thanks for everything Lyle and I will remember that.
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