Barkerville!

At about 53 seconds in, you'll see the soul of the town strolling by.

Nostalgic videos aside, things are going surprisingly well. I'm noticing the difference from 6 classes last year to 5 this year, and it doesn't hurt that my classes are more practical (which is still quite a bit of work, but less paper writing). I've nearly finished everything - one paper to polish, one sermon that's about half done and a Hebrew exam. I have lots of time to study for that, so I'm not too worried.

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.

Father Reynard

Here I am as Father Reynard. I wear the hat when I go outside, and the surplice (the white bit) when I do services. The cassock is my everyday church wear. Interesting fact: the cassock is actually the decendant of the Roman toga - even after it passed out of ordinary use, priests continued to wear it. Mine has twelve buttons down the front- to signify the twelve apostles.

Setting the Church Ablaze

No, not literally. Almost though. See, St. Saviour's is heated mostly by a woodstove. There is electric heat, but not much of it. The first job of the morning, even before Morning Prayer is getting the fire lit. I'm becoming very grateful for all the years at the cabin- I have no problems lighting fires. So this morning I had the fire going, but it was pretty smokey. I opened the door and was poking around a little bit, when all of a sudden this earsplitting bell goes off. Turns out the church is wired with smoke detectors and fire alarms. Before I could even do anything the door opens, and two men rush in, asking what the problem is. I'm right by the park gate, so the maintainence people got there really quickly. They didn't seem too concerned about me setting off the alarm - quite a few of the buildings are heated by woodstoves, and I gather this is not an unusual occurance. They did tell me that my chimney was crooked (from the snow this winter) so not to add any wood to the fire, and not to light another until they fix it. So I had to spend a second day with only the paltry electric heat (and my boots are not insulated!). I spent most of the day standing over a register, and when even that was not enough, I went out visiting to find other, more heated buildings.

Wells

Well, I made the drive to Quesnel successfully, stayed over night with a very nice retired priest (who is the one who organized everything for me) and then yesterday I drove to Wells. This is a small town. Like, 2o0 people in the winter small (500 in the summer). No cell reception small. My apartment is not small - it's a good sized one bedroom, with a very nice kitchen. It's kind of run down, peeling paint and that sort of thing, but the people who are the managers are nice and helpful. When I got here there was no bed, but they had come and sorted that out by the early evening.

I went out to Barkerville yesterday. My church is really neat, and I can't wait to start holding services (I start on Monday). There is a little musuem attached, and they have cut away the inside of the walls, so that you can see that it is lined with newspaper for insulation. I had a good time reading all the old political cartoons. There's also an antique vaccum, which I don't understand.

Lots of snow on the ground here- more than a foot in some places, and it snowed yesterday and today. So no more complaining Mom, it's worse here!