From Montréal to Lac St-Jean, that’s a lot of kilometres! A little too far: While we chat away, the van is eating up the km. on Highway 20. Dring Dring Dring: “HELLO Laura-the-Moon, this is Well-Grounded-Marie-Michèle who informs you that you drove right through!” Have you ever turned to St-Eulalie? (…) The U-turn: “The Avril, on Bouvier, shouldn’t we have taken Robert-Bourassa?” (…) Pass go and claim $200 (or) How to drive around before arriving to the campground: “Turn left” doudoudou (Google Map sound when it changes route) “Turn right” doudoudou “Turn right on Gagné” doudoudou “Turn right” and … repeat! (…) I was wondering if after three laps on rue Gagné, we were really going to “win” something… Finally, we arrived safely on the second lap: camping des chutes, in Dolbeau. Pretty nice spot at the water’s edge. Everyone is instantly charmed. I do think we won!
Cloudy haze
8:00 a.m.: Arrival at the meeting point in the pouring rain, clouds will be the recurring theme today. Let’s admit that it is rather grey above our heads, but not in our chests, where we already feel the tiny sparkling orange flame.
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In the Parc des Laurentides, at one point, we are driving through a thick fog. “It’s as if we were driving straight into a cloud” observes Caroline, Tanya’s mother, all smiles. We feel her anchored in the present moment.
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Much later, around the fire, Marie-Michèle shares with us that she remembers the first call she made to families for the La Familia Aventura pilot project. It was a hazy invitation: «Hi, this is The Foundation, we’re going to do a project, we don’t know what it is yet, but we know we’re going to do it together, are willing to get on board?»
WHATTT?
And they obviously said “YES”, because 6 months later they are here, in flesh, ready for the expedition. It’s daring and even “nuts”, according to the words of the project manager and guide (who may have watched the French TV show Watatatow a little too often in her youth because it’s cool complètement capoté, j’dirais même trippant, écœurant! (Cool! completely nuts! I would even say fun! Amazing! ”). CONGRATULATIONS! WE’RE HERE, WE’RE DOING IT, TOGETHER!
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For my part, although we literally spent the day under the clouds or in the clouds and the project was born in a hazy context, I feel “on cloud No. 9.” How lucky we are to be together on an expedition. Yes, we won!
Disconnecting to better connect
After the kilometres (and detours), a great challenge awaits the participants from the first minutes at the camp: the guides take out the ‘yellow box’, which will act as a safe, and invite us to cut ties with our cell phones, our watches; everything is ‘off’ for the week, we seal the top. The concept is promising: we disconnect from technologies and even from the notion of calculated time to connect to ourselves, with others and the environment.
It reminds me of the three areas in which we, according to Laura, our social worker and guide, will navigate between comforts and discomforts, during the week: ourselves in relation to the group (our family, other families, and accompanying people), ourselves in relation to the outside environment (it’s no longer a secret: the weather forecast is hot and rainy) and ourselves in relation to the activities (featured this week: cycling and kayaking). We won’t be bored!
Technological cut is made: It doesn’t take long for things to get cracking around the camp, we are introduced to the equipment. There is a lot to learn: What are ‘water jugs’ and ‘Aqua-tabs’? How to create a Lazy Boy chair with our folded sleeping mats and how to set up the tents? For the tent, in any case, you must avoid slopes, if you don’t want to slip on the ground and sleep stuck to your mother (!). The set-up is a good challenge for a few novice campers in the group. Mutual aid and camaraderie are already emerging (respecting the one-meter distance, of course!) Stéphane, Tanya’s dad, an ex-scout, is particularly comfortable and helpful: a good asset for everyone. I take this opportunity to award ‘a special mention’ to Gabriel and his mother, Manon, who kept smiling from start to finish, although things were a little laborious. The trick: red with red, grey with grey. Already, tomorrow, everything will go more smoothly!
This camper task opened the group’s appetite. We feasted on homemade wong-tong soup as a starter (yes, you read that right, great gastronomy in the open air!) Topped with a just-well-seasoned-sweet-sauce-lettuce-vegetables grilled-on-flatbread burger, chips, and above all, wonderful picnic table conversations around the plaid tablecloth.
The evening ends by the light of the campfire. The lively flames dance and reflect on the faces of the participants, seating in a circle. To the melodious sound of locusts, the guides invite the group to remember the reasons that bring us all here together. We are invited to share our objectives and our fears. The guides put logs in the fire in the centre of the circle and help us, through these invitations to share, to put logs in the centre of our hearts and to feed our inner fire.
Tanya, Caroline, Stéphane, Émilie, Philippe, Caroline, Loryanne, Rose-Marie, Julie, Stéphane, Gabriel, Manon, Laura, Marie-Michèle, Keaven, Andréanne and Antoine: I am grateful for meeting you today. Can’t wait for the coming days!
Marie-Hélène Beaudry
Blogger and Opportunity-Seizing Photograph
In pictures
