Steve Day and Valentina Schettini - Special to The Chief
For Rodrigo Gallego and Annie Rosa, two Canada World Youth participants from Uruguay and Quebec, getting over their language barrier at their work placement has probably been harder for them than for the others.
Neither of them speaks English as a first language, and though they both speak it very well, it still proves to be a bit of a barrier at their work placement: Hilltop House For Seniors.
Both Gallego and Rosa have accents. Gallego sometimes has to stop to find the right word, but usually he does find it. What's difficult is the nature of their work: they are constantly interacting with residents and visitors, chatting about this and that, the past, the present, the future; they run games and activities, they garden, they pour tea, they work it all out in the end.
"You have to figure out what they're trying to say," Rosa said. "Sometimes it's hard. But its fun, I like it."
"We play," said Gallego.
According to their supervisor: "they're excellent." Cindy denDecker is an activity coordinator at Hilltop House. She said that at first the language barrier made things hard, but now that they're over it, "we look forward to their Mondays and Fridays."
"They can do things residents normally don't do, like painting and gardening," said another one of Hilltop House's activity coordinators, Judy Burns, "we thought it would give the residents satisfaction."
"You are not going to the party?" said Gallego, talking with Axel, a resident who was avoiding the commotion in the crowded room next door. "I think you used to like parties," he continued."I love when young people are around," said Axel, who did, in the end, go to the party.
"They're doing very well," said Betty Simpson, "[we've] just been chatting with them. Put something nice about me in the paper," Simpson added, "like 'she has lovely white hair.'"
At the beginning of September, when Gallego and Rosa are finishing up their work at Hilltop House, there will be a "Uruguayan party." Gallego, with Annie's help, will make food from Uruguay, talk about Uruguayan culture, and listen to Uruguayan music with the residents.
Gallego, Rosa and the rest of the World Youths took part in the Uts'am/Witness Program last weekend, where they learned about Squamish Nation culture though seeing and taking part in it first hand. The Canadians, Uruguayans, and a hundred other people camped in the Elaho Valley, which is a two-hour drive from Squamish, through a man-made dust storm, up a logging road. They played traditional Squamish gambling games, danced and dunked themselves repeatedly in the glacier-cold river.
The Witness Program has been running since 1996. Through it, the public are invited for group camping on the Squamish Nation's traditional land, and to bear witness to Squamish customs, ideas and culture.
On Saturday (July 23), participants witnessed the induction of a non-native, Drew Leathem, into the community. Leathem had been working with the Squamish Nation for eight years. He had worked with such dedication, members of the nation said, that they now saw him as a brother. Leathem received a new name, tsewatseltn, which means "resourceful man."
The following morning, the participants learned about Salish artwork, how it is made and what meanings are attached to different shapes and styles.
There are no more witness weekends happening this year, but for more info on the program, go to www.utsam-witness.ca.
Everyone's invited to our "Educational Activity Days," where Canada World Youth participants learn about Squamish. They are on Wednesdays, roughly from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Next week's topic is Art in Squamish. We usually meet at St. John's Anglican Church (behind Sea to Sky Hotel and near Extra Foods), but since this sometimes varies, email cwy_lisa@yahoo.ca for information on where to go.
