Too Many Girl Guides

As part of the role of Father Reynard, I get to lead the cemetery tour for Barkerville. This is one of my favourite parts of the job, as I have always liked both cemeteries and history, and the tour combines the best of both. It also gets me out of the church for an hour in the afternoon, which can be nice. The job is great, but time can drag a little in the afternoon when the park isn't too busy. I'm getting better at going out on the street to talk to people and walk around. It took me a while at the beginning to figure out how much I'm allowed to be out, and how much I should be in, but then I realized that I'm my own boss, so I'll go out as much as I please. Also, it helps that I get sick of telling people the same thing about the church, so I go out until I'm ready to be helpful again.

On the cemetery tour yesterday, 50 girl guides and 10 leaders showed up. Yep. Fifty girls between 8 and 12. They weren't too bad, actually, and the leaders took the worst ones back early. The main trouble was that sixty people is just way too many on that tour- the paths are narrow, and everyone wants to crowd around to be in the front. The leaders complimented me on how well I projected my voice, which was nice to hear.

I tried fishing the other day with disastrous results. I went with a guy who works in Chinatown in Barkerville, who has the same days off as I do. He doesn't know how to fish either, but he has a licence, and borrowed a rod. Every time we tried casting we tangled the line, and spent ten minutes untangling it. Needless to say we didn't catch any fish. We did get to wander through the forest, and spend a couple hours by a lake, so it's not like it was a waste of time.

These pictures of me leading the cemetery tour, and one of the cemetery. The other is me with Mr. Mundell, who is the schoolteacher three days a week. The schoolhouse is right next to the church, so I see quite a bit of him when we are both out sweeping the steps. They were taken by Karin Lee, who is the granddaughter of a Chinese merchant in Barkerville, who was here around the turn of the 20th century. Nan, the guy I went fishing with, is playing her grandfather this summer. She is a documentary maker, and was in town taking pictures. She came along on one cemetery tour, and took pictures, but every time I started talking I got nervous seeing the camera clicking away, so I didn't smile much. All the pictures are Karin's, which she kindly sent me.