Les Scouts de St Georges

Even though I have been helping with Scouts since October, I haven't given them much air time on here.

I have told you all about the Autumn Camp when I sprained my ankle so now I am going to fill you in on what we have been up to this winter!

Apart from learning how to play American Football with Julian and a fantastic star jump block form Alex, we have been doing lots of singing, ice fishing and there was also the winter camp. Because I was in Gaspesie for the actual Winter Camp, I went along the weekend before to help prepare the tents and to see how it is possible to camp in -30 degrees.

Ice Fishing

On a wild wintery morning all the Scouts gathered at the Polyvalante St Georges to board the School bus which would take us to St-Théophile to do some ice fishing.

Here is the link to the place where we went: http://www.chaudiereappalaches.com/fr/voyage-quebec/la-beauce/saint-theophile/zec-jaro/peche/

I was somewhat concerned when I got on the bus and noticed the driver. He occasionally drives my bus to school and he sets up his ipad camera to show the road and he looks at that rather than at the road directly in front of him. Luckily he didn't do that this time.
 
Ever in high spirits, the Éclaireurs began the singing! The spectacle began with a rendition of "Un Pied Mariton" which describes the unfortunate appearance of someone called Madeleine.  If you are looking for something to whip out whilst camping, providing an evening of entertainment or dining with Royalty, this would be the one. There are also obligatory actions to accompany. Here's the link and you should definitely look up the lyrics!
I couldn't find a better version but here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cudRJggfPYQ

We Scouts also enjoy a song called "O Ursule". Another Classic! The way we like to do it is as if we are Troubadours. This one has no actions. Sorry to disappoint those of you who obviously had so much fun with the previous song. Probably more appropriate for a family picnic or a champagne reception. This was the first scout song I learnt and it is a love song dedicated to a woman. This one, rather than a clubbed foot, has ears like wings, a big nose and massive feet. Nonetheless, the singer's heart burns for her! This was sung originally by our own leader of one of the four Patrouilles, Audréanne, on Anna and my first time at Scouts around a bonfire and under the most stunning stars.
Another link so get practising folks! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImSNfLcp7QY
 
There was one song which is the Quebecois equivalent of "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves". This one should be reserved for Weddings and Baptisms I believe. I have the Scouts on finding me a link.

Ok, so no link but these are the words. To be chanted during High Mass. "Un oiseau sur une branche fesait pepi,la chanson n'est pas longue elle est fini, mais pour vous écherez on va la recommencer!"

After a bit of friendly competition between the Eclaireurs and the Louveteaux, we finally arrived at the lake. The holes had already been made on the completely frozen lake and the fishing rods were all in place. There were little sheds built on the ice which each housed a stove to keep people warm whilst out. Because I am over 18 I can't legally fish without a permit in Canada, but I had a sneaky go anyway and caught 3 fish with the help of Victoria. Alex was very quick to ask if I wanted to keep these fish because he only had 3 and he needed more to feed all of his family!

Alex is in the background!

We spent around three or four hours on the ice before going into a little cabin for lunch. This was when the snow storm hit. You could hardly see 3 paces in front of you but we all went back together, trying to hold each other up! Falling on ice becomes a regular occurrence whilst walking across frozen lakes and just Quebec in winter in general.
 
After lunch we swapped fishing spots with the other group which was not as fruitful a place as the latter. So, some went for a little walk and others played on a fallen tree which provided much entertainment for a few hours.

 

Catherine's balancing act!

When we had had enough of walking along logs we went inside and learnt how to gut a fish! It was revolting and I couldn't stomach it at first. But then I thought, if I am ever lost in the wilderness and have to eat fish, it would probably be a good idea to know what to do with it. I must admit that after this experience I considered turning vegetarian and the fish weren't properly dead when people were cutting them open and gutting them. The most disgusting part was when the instructor lay all of the organs out on the table and pointed to a beating heart and the rest of the organs! They use scissors to cut open the fish, commencing by inserting the scissors in the butt hole and chopping up the belly.(Excuse the term there!) Our hands were absolutely covered in blood by the end of the day and that famous quote from Lady Macbeth: "Out damn spot" was exactly what was going through my mind at the time.

After this we went back to St G on the bus with more singing and with Catherine and Victoria pretending to be handicapped. One of those moments where you aren't sure whether to laugh at how naturally it came to them or not to laugh out of respect!

Winter Camp

One Saturday afternoon we went to the Terrain de Scouts to set up camp for the following week. I am going to do this as a list as it is easier!

 
1) Using a shovel and 12 Scouts, measure out a square of about 14 feet. If you have Antoine, use his feet to measure!
2) With the snow, pile it up in the middle of the square and flatten out. Send Rosemary on top of the bank with raquettes to flatten the surface. This forms the bed on which people sleep.
3) Put up the tents on top of the banks. Use massive pieces of wood for tent pegs. Think fence posts!
4) Gather wood to put inside the tents.
5) Set up the poele (stove) in the front of the tent. This keeps people warm while they are sleeping outside in -30! Construct the chimney so it goes through the specifically created hole in the door of the tent.
6) Wait a week for the beds to freeze.
7) Put covers and furs on top of the beds and sleep!
 
During the camp constructing, Eric sat on a chair which sank into the snow, much to our amusement and I got to try raquettes (snow shoes)!! One thing off my Canada to do list!

It looks like Eric has an axe through him! I promise he didn't!

 

 

The week after we had to put all the tents away. Thanks to Dad insisting we had a Scout Tent during all those summers of camping, I actually knew how to put the tents away properly! Cheers Dad! The Winter tents didn't have poles like ours though. It was more like the fence posts again.


Me, Rosemary, Victoria, Hugo and Aelx

I learnt a fun way of turning a sheet (or tent canvas) upside down which involves everyone taking a corner and running under the canvas and swapping sides with the person opposite you.

Scuba Diving

 
Sounds cool? Well it was! Without the Scouts I don't think I would have done so many incredible things. Antoine's Mum knows some firemen who teach Scuba diving so she organised with them to do a session on scuba diving with us all. It was so much fun! We used the pool at the Cegep, which is the local college. One of the firemen that was teaching us was coincidentally at school the day before so we met then! It was so strange to see him pool side having just met the day before! We all got taught how to remove the water from our masks whilst underwater and then we all had a go at swimming with the air tanks. It was lovely to have the opportunity to do some swimming too!

Animateurs' Supper

Tire - Maple syrup served on snow which makes a kind of ice lolly!

 

All the helpers with scouts went to a Cabane a sucre for an annual dinner together. This is where they make maple syrup! The location was just outside St Georges and had stunning scenery! Catherine and I took a little walk along the river there and found a little bridge. Then we discovered a taxidermy room! Why do I only ever see dead moose?!



So much love for Victo and Eric's faces here!

We went into the main Cabane and we met the man who makes the syrup. In French it is "Syrop" and you aren't meant to pronounce the "p", so everyone found it funny that I still said "syrup"! Woops! The man gave Catherine and me a tour of where he makes the syrup and showed me all the machinery and the process of how to make it. You can make so many different products with syrup: syrup, butter, chocolate, lollies, sweeties and sugar. It just depends at what temperature that syrup is boiled at. Sandrine was there and made her own butter but stirring a type of syrup for about 30 minutes. We went outside and the man let me drink the Maple water which was being tapped from the tree! I was able to drink it straight out of the bucket! I had to remark that the water was so fresh tasting and there was the faintest taste of maple syrup. There is only a small portion of sugar in the water, so part of the process is evaporating the water and it takes a lot of trees to make one tin of syrup.

We then ate lots and lots of food which was prepared in the family's kitchen. Maple syrup was poured on EVERYTHING! Which is the way to do it apparently! We had syrup covered sausages, a crisps dip made from syrup, soup in which you were supposed to pour in syrup, eggs, maple smoked ham, potatoes, freshly made bread, baked beans (surprisingly not just British although theirs are slightly different) and then crepes for dessert! Suffice it to say, we were all stuffed by the end of the meal.

I had a bit of an embarrasing moment. "What did she do this time?" I hear you all asking. Well, I was presented with a book which I was supposed to write in, by the leader of the younger group of Scouts. So I looked at the entry above which said "Scouts, Merci beaucoup", so I thought this book was for the Scouts and I wrote a long and heartfelt message in said book. It turned out that the book was actually the guest book of the Cabane which now had a page's ramblings about all the fun I had ice fishing and scuba diving with them! After all the scout leaders had a good chuckle, we decided the best form of action was to cut out my entry. So now this lovely family has half a page cut out of their guest book! It's going to look like someone wrote something bad and they tore it out! How do I get myself into these situations?!

To burn the food off we all went outside at about 8pm and spent hours
 tobogganing and sliding down the snowy hills! It was amusing watching full grown men on a 5 year old's toboggan and trying to dodge trees whilst applying the "no breaks allowed" rule!

Survival kits
 
Three things that you should put in a survival kit are: matches, a knife and a flare.
We also learnt how to make the most out of the matches.
You take a very small watertight Tupperware firstly. Then you use a certain type of matches which will light by striking them across any surface. You wrap each match, apart from the head, with string and leave a long tail of string at the bottom. You can make as many as you can fit in. Then you dunk them in melted wax so you make a kind of candle. This makes the matches last longer. After this you make a candle bass. You take a long strip of cardboard and roll it up really tightly. You put it inside a metal tin (a peanut tin is what we used). Then you pour in wax which sets. Then you can put the matches inside and voila!

Moccasins

I arrived at Scouts last night (23/4/2013) to be presented with a pair of American Indian Moccasins that Catherine had spent 9 hours making last weekend. The Scouts had apparently said that they wanted to make them and what a brilliant idea! I tried on Catherine's and they were so comfy and well made. Eric had a pair too! They had bought an instruction set and they had templates for all different shoe sizes. You had to cut out the template and then using a metal spike and a hammer, put holes, where we will sew, in the paper template. I love how we take something so traditional and then put a modern twist on it to make it easier! Rather than using a tree or something to pierce the paper, the scouts used kitchen chopping boards! Then we took a pair of shoe insoles and drew the inside line of the template onto tracing paper and then copied this onto the insoles and cut them to size. We then drew around the templates on the suede and had to remember to mark where the sewing holes go. There are four sections: the sole of the shoe, the heal, the tongue and the fringe. Then we cut them out. Making these moccasins are our 5 week project. Mine are deep grey and Sandrine (a girl with exactly the same colour hair as me) wanted matching! Sweet!

Left: Elizabeth, Alice
Centre: Hugo
Right: Audréanne, Sandrine

This is such an awesome project and I am so excited to see the final product! The focus of the scouts is incredible! I have never heard them so quiet!

I am sure I will have more to add to this but that is all for now!
 
Bye for now xx