Tutoring Calculus in Bhekulwandle [Seed of Hope]

Carl hooked me up at Seed of Hope with one of their after school programs led by a great guy name Musa. Musa leads tutorials and discipleship programs with jr and sr high students living in an impoverished area between holiday town Amanzimtoti and Durban township Illovo.

The students who showed up were told to bring questions and questions they did bring. The junior high students worked on multiplying fractions and I showed them how to break numbers down to their factors. Four grade 12 boys arrived with curve sketching questions from their calculus class - a unit I am in the middle of teaching to my class back in Calgary.





One of the challenges that I could see the students are faced with attempting to complete rather complex math operations and tasks without very clear understanding of the roots of these operations. Fortunately, the boys are very diligent and bright, but I fear a lack of access to a willing teacher hampers their ongoing understanding.





Very fun to help out, but I'm not fooling myself into thinking that they will be impacted long term by this. I do hope they were able to get through the week with a little less stress.

Big Bird Snack

Just enjoying a little ostrich jerkey - product of South Africa - to supplement my lunch today in Bhekulwandle.

Ingredients: raw ostrich meat, spices (salt, irradiated spices: nutmeg, black pepper, cloves), sugar, yeast extract, preservative: potassium sorbate, vinegar (with caramel colorant).

3 continents in 24 hours

Amber drops me off at Calgary airport with some kisses.

I am tagged for chemical testing before entering security (gotta be the goatee).

No chemicals have made contact with me.

Eat home made donuts Amber packed in my laptop bag.

Read about what I can learn from the poor.

At the gate I overhear a conversation between an Arab father and a KLM agent as to why his 1 week old son can not fly - no documentation - the wife is in tears, so is the 6 yr old son.

On the plane, an amazing story in Calgary Herald about 2 people surviving a winter plane crash for over 40 days in Yukon 50 years ago.

Drink, yes, a free Heineken please. I can do this.

Chat with my seat mate, Margot, a middle aged French teacher from Saskatchewan who lives in Turkey with her Turkish husband - she has political views.

Another drink with your meal sir? Yes please.

My visit to the loo lets me see a bit more of the 8 seat wide plane. At the front of both economy sections there are little beds for babies. Brilliant.

I get a high score on the inflight Tetris game.

Blaise's card is opened over the Atlantic.

I watch a Dutch movie about some mechanics who train for a marathon (De Marathon) and then The Bourne Legacy.

Not sleepy, so I don't sleep, but I develop a headache after eating breakfast at what is 11 pm for me.

The view of the ocean waves and the transport freighters as we approach the Netherlands are awesome.

My connection in Amsterdam involves waiting in 3 lines: get a boarding pass, go through security, and finally board the plane. 

I am barely awake. I crumple into my window seat (on the wing), cover myself with the blanket and try to sleep for the next 5 hours.

I skip the first inflight meal because of nausea.

I get intermittent naps in and feel refreshed enough to chat with the London couple next to me who are visiting family in their native South Africa.

We chat amicably about community development and education.

I saw the Sahara from 10 km in the air. Barely.

I read some more from my book.

Spend some time praying behind my sleep mask.

I crack open the chocolate treats from Amber.

Wreck-It Ralph entertains me.

Acadia's card is opened over Chad. The flight map shows that we have flown over Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, The DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe before entering South African airspace.

Amazing lightning storms as we descend into Johannesburg.

Customs is quick and easy. Yes, I am here on holiday.

OR Tambo airport is dead. Internet ain't free, but nice to read kind wishes from folks on facebook.

I find a corner with seats where I can park myself for 7 hours until my flight to Durban and I blog.

New Years Eve 2012 Beer Tasting

Now becoming a tradition, the Robiroost hosted a beer tasting as a New Years Eve party. It has been and is such an event that there seems to always be a contingent of attendees who don't even like/drink beer. Happy to have them there.

Everyone attending came from our Dragonfly Cohousing circle except a contingency from Regina who was passing through bring with them some delightful drink from Bushwakker brewery and debates about workers unions.

The sampling came from those sampling and what a delicious review. The evening's top four of twelve are as follows:

• Trois Pistoles (Unibroue)
• Maximus IPA (Lagunitas)
• Innis & Gunn Spiced Rum Finish - (Innis & Gunn)
• Chimay Tripel (Bières de Chimay)

Then we had a 4-way tie. The middle ones were:

• Blackberry Mead (Bushwakker)
• Winter Beard Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout (Lakes of Muskoka)
• BNL Imperial Chocolate Stout (Flying Monkeys)
• Chico IPA (Bushwakker)

The lowest scoring, though by no means bad brews:

• XXXXX Stout (Pike)
• Trephination Double IPA (Bushwakker)
• Attilla the Honey (Mt. Begbie)
• Apricot Summer Weizen (Okanagan Spring)

A great time, hopefully to be replicated annually. Happy New Year!

Dragonfly Cohousing Project Update

I attended my first cohousing meeting October 8, 2009, about a year after this project was initiated. Amber and I became equity members on October 14, 2010. So much has happened since (land purchase, development permit), but in the last few months:

• building documents are being drafted with a building permit application going in in the next week or so
• 33 of the 36 units are sold
• our group of equity members have put together just over $4 million

My role in all of this has been in the membership/marketing team. I led an online media campaign on Facebook and Twitter for the month of February including remaking the website on WordPress and producing a video (and another that I just haven't felt too pressured to finish). I got to see the relevance of online advertising and creating a content calendar. I also got to see that it is quite easy.

We hope to have a mighty machines on the ground in early May with a move-in date approximately 12 months later.

King's Creek Ridge, Kananaskis

To celebrate turning 40, our friend Jana invited friends to do a hike off "40" in Kananaskis. Anne's suggestion to hike King's Creek Ridge won out and Wow! What a terrific hike!!

Almost everyone on the hike was from Dragonfly. We enjoyed a luxurious lunch at the summit complete with wine, cake, and chocolates. More and larger photos here.

A Grizzly Bear in our Campsite

This past summer, our family started camping again. Our second outing was on the eve of the August long weekend in the southern part of Jasper National Park. Knowing that camping spots were limited we were happy to take claim a walk-in space at the Jonas Creek Campground heading north on Highway 93. We set up our tent, explored and spent a quiet evening and night on the rise among the pines.

The next morning, after packing up our breakfast stuff, we drove up the highway to see the Sunwapta Waterfalls. We spent the morning walking down river to the lower falls and then back again to the louder, more impressive upper falls. Then we headed back to Jonas Creek for lunch and quiet time.

We parked our car at the bottom of the hill and began the 3 minute walk up the hill when another camper came running towards us telling us there was a grizzly up there. It was Friday and we could see that even in the couple hours we had been gone, the campground had filled up with just 2 vacancies at the bottom of the hill where all the RVs and trailers were. Speaking with a few other campers, we decided that we should lay claim to a more populated site for the time being - and have lunch while we waited for a park ranger to show up.

Amber prepared lunch at a picnic table beneath a towering pine with a squirrel hurling pinecones at her. I walked to the tent sites with 3 other people, one of whom blew a whistle ever 5 seconds, another armed with an ax, and a couple of us with bear spray. A couple wanted to retrieve their camping stuff and so did I. We could see the bear had stirred up a site where food hadn't been properly packed up (dirty frying pans etc.). We checked out the site the couple was just setting up when the bear had come around with a man behind it yelling bear. They had abruptly abandoned their tent and retreated to the lower area. Then we meandered cautiously to our campsite.



While our tent was untouched, our dining area was in shambles. The brute had dragged our table cloth onto the ground along with all of our dishes, stove and washing basin. He had bitten into and therefore ruined our 6 gallon collapsable water jug. Most revealing however was the blood on our table cloth. This bear was injured and was looking for food where bears typically avoid at all costs.



The group of us collapsed our tent, loaded everything onto the tent and we dragged it to the bottom of the hill to our new campsite. We arrived just as the rangers did. They interviewed a few of us and then went up the hill to look for the bear, rifles in hand.

We ate our lunch looking over our shoulders. About 30 minutes later the rangers came down the hill with the announcement that they were going to have to close the campground because they were unable to locate the bear and it was too risky to have people camping in the area. Almost immediately after making the announcement the bear appeared - it had been tracking the rangers. We were ordered into our vehicles and the rangers spent about 15 minutes trying to coax the bear back up the hill where they could destroy the bear out of site of us campers. We watched the fearless grizzly bear roar and even approach the rangers before he was slowly coaxed up the hill. We heard three gunshots.

The rangers were in a hurry to get the dead beast into the back of their pickup to avoid being mobbed by the campers. After they backed the truck up to the base of the hill - where our car had been parked initially - they half dragged, half rolled the carcass down and then into the back of the truck while a couple campers clapped for them. The ranger spoke to the gathered crowd about why they had to shoot the bear. It appeared that the bear had suffered an injury from a vehicle and was not able to travel quickly enough to satisfy its caloric needs and so it was going for easy food at our campsite.



We returned to our campsite to discover that the bear had been killed in the trees beside our site. I snooped and discovered this blood soaked footprint.

Beer Tasting Nov '12

Zaakistan reader and commenter Danny B, husband of the prolific blogging sensation Aimee at Simple Bites and Under the High Chair (how's that for a qualifier Danny?), happened to be in Calgary for a conference and as I had promised months before, I organized a social event around tasting kindly beer. Amber, Jae, Anne, Heather, Patrick and later Jasen rounded out the table, each of us providing 2 beer to try.

Danny brought a couple beer from a local brewer in Québec - beer we can not yet access in Alberta. It basically won the evening. This was my order of preference:

1. Ale Écossaise (Brasseurs Illimités)
2. Green Reaper Fresh Hop IPA (Phillips Brewing Company)
3. Delirium Tremens (Brouwerij Huyghe)
4. India Pale Américaine (Brasseurs Illimités)
5. Father John's Winter Ale (Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Company)
6. Saison D'Etre Farmhouse Ale (Alley Kat Brewing Company)
7. Mr Sno'balls (Harviestoun Brewery Ltd.)
8. Hobgoblin (Wychwood Brewery Company Ltd)
9. American Dream (Mikkeller)
10. Bloed, Zweet & Tranen (Brouwerij De Molen)
11. St-Ambroise Framboise (McAuslan Brewing)
12. Begbie Cream Ale (Mt. Begbie Brewing Co.)
13. Ginger Beer (Granville Island Brewery)

a very good friend to have

Tamer is a very good friend to have. I knew him briefly in Montreal and was pleased to discover that he  and his family now lived local to us in Calgary. One of the things he has invited our family to has been lamb roastings.

As he is from Egypt, one way of celebrating his culture and sharing it is through food. Roasted lamb requires the right tools and so after discovering that purchasing a charcoal spit cost the same as renting one three times, he went ahead and got properly equipped.

The feast in September was well attended and very well enjoyed. One of the talking points were the seared lamb testicles (below). I tried some and if I could have gotten beyond the idea and beyond the texture, I'm sure they were very tasty.



Tamer is a very good friend to have.

A Visit to the Howe Sound Brewpub

Not realizing that the Howe Sound Inn and Brewing Company was in Squamish, I've actually missed sampling at the source several times before last summer. But, then I was informed...

I visited the brewpub with my wife and sister on the first night of our visit to the painfully scenic town of Squamish. I got sampler which gave me seven 3-oz glasses of their award winning brews that were on tap.

• 4-Way Fruit Ale - Simply a fantastic summer beer; fresh and fruity. Tasted several times following this.
• Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale - Not a particularly outstanding beer, but it's not my favourite style either. 
• King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen - I was really blown away by this one due to its powerful banana notes and yet it didn't turn the flavour into something too sweet or sticky. Bought a couple litres a couple days later.
• Devil's Elbow India Pale Ale - One of two Howe Sound beers I had had before hand. This is a nicely crafted IPA kindly flavours, but slightly unbalanced aftertaste. Quite enjoyable. 
• Baldwin & Cooper Best Bitter - I don't remember what this tasted like. Will have to retry.
• Rail Ale Nut Brown - Very tasty dark beer, but seemed a little thin.
• Diamond Head Oatmeal Stout - Oh so yummy. A pint of this will keep you warm at night.

This is Howe Sound from the top of The Stawamus Chief.



Brad and I took a tour of the brewery a couple days later. Their first stage tanks (part of which is seen below) were being replaced the next day.

A King's Fold Retreat

Amber surprised me back in November with a quick getaway to King's Fold Retreat and Renewal Centre northwest of Cochrane (and nw of Calgary too for that matter). The two of us drove out after supper on a Friday evening up a snowy Forestry Trunk Highway (40) leaving our children with our housemates. We were greeted by our hosts, settled into our room, and then planted ourselves in the glory of their library in front of a wood burning fireplace. Oh the quiet.



We breakfasted with the half dozen other guests/hosts the next morning and then lunched with the same and some new guests later that day. We again delved into the book collections - myself into Bible commentaries on the book of Acts. The glistening outdoors drew us too however and we strolled down to the river with the centre's dog leading the way. The ice covered only a portion of the river and a fresh snow made the foothills clean. Cloud cover prevented us from seeing the Rockies, but there was enough beauty for one day.





Certain renewal. Inevitable realigning of priorities. Magnificent reminder of God's ever presence.

Motion Picture Soundtrack

Last night I watched the film The Impossible starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts about a family who is ripped apart by the 2004 tsunami. I didn't cry once. I cried several times. The film is emotionally driven as loneliness, loss, empathy, and shared humanity feature in every scene. A welling soundtrack accompanies all of those scenes so that I could anticipate a reunion or deep anxiety along with the character - my heart racing with theirs.

Two weeks ago I watched another celebrated film called Amour from Austrian director Michael Haneke (one of my favourites). The film portrays the care an elderly husband shows his now disabled wife and her response to being disabled - a very complex film with extraordinary characters. No where in the film is a soundtrack used added. There is some live and recorded music, but only music that the characters can hear as well. Because of the absence of a manipulating soundtrack, I share the quiet, loneliness, despair, and heartbrokenness of the characters in their space, in their time (it's also a very slowly paced movie).

So, which is better? To have a soundtrack or not? Would Schindler's List have been as powerful without John Williams compositions or Itzhak Perlman's haunting violin solos? The wisdom of a director and producer to know when a scene can be enhanced by music is more intuitive than formulaic and I do enjoy when that wisdom runs deep.

Downsizing by 51%

We are giving up hour 1200 square foot (plus 600 sq ft unfinished basement) townhouse. In fact we've already given it up in that we are renting it out. Our family of 4 is renting half of another house with another family of 4 who has the other half of the house - worthy of another post. Within the next 18 months (Lord willing), our family of 4 will move into a 762 square foot flat in the brand new Dragonfly Cohousing complex Crescent Heights, Calgary. We will also have access to 90 cubic feet of storage space (10 sq ft of floor space).

The new space is officially a two bedroom unit, but a 6' X12' storage room has a window and door, so it can serve beautifully as our son's bedroom. To create storage and study spaces, all of us will be sleeping in loft beds with our clothes hanging underneath them and shelves making up the raised bed frame. Amber and I will have our office space in our bedroom. Since Acadia will have the most space per capita in her bedroom, she will have to accommodate the most storage in her bedroom (probably in her closet).

But, since Amber and I have been amassing stuff since we were old enough to understand the concept of private property, we face the issue of ridding ourselves of stuff. Even with clever shelving (like a 7' high book shelf that sits above couches and the dining area) and innovative space saving, we would be in a tremendously cluttered space if we didn't eliminate as much useless stuff as possible.

So, we have already begun to trim the fat.

1. We no longer have a guest bed (there will be some available in the common house). 
2. We have 2 living room chairs for sale on kijiji as our couch, loveseat, and ottoman will be sufficient. 
3. I brought my 500 CDs to the used CD shop where they gave me $450 of in-store credit (I turned down the $150 cash) for 150 CDs. I've already picked up 40 DVDs with the credit. The rest of the CDs went to Good Will.
4. Before our move in July, I brought 2 boxes of books to a used book store (and then Good Will). After the move, I went through my library again and shed another 4 boxes. I think I'm down to 6 boxes of books now.
5. Amber and I have 5 boxes combined of university stuff, newspaper clippings, cards, letters, and other personal effects that we plan to digitize over the next couple winters.
6. Four boxes of photographs and photo albums are on the chopping block too - all to be digitized and then tossed.
7. The kids have gotten rid of countless boxes of toys they no longer play with.

Here is a list of the following excuses I could use not to downsize:

• I already have it, why
• throw it away (landfill abuse)?
• sell it (below cost)?
• digitize it (hours I could spend volunteering)?
• I already have the space, why pay more to have less space closer to downtown and in a community?

I guess that's it. The positive reasons to downsize:

• We would be more focused on quality and purpose, not quantity when purchasing stuff.
• More people in smaller space forces interaction.
• Less space 
• to clean
• to heat
• to light
• to accumulate junk
• Theoretically less driving, more transit use since we live downtown (true for everyone else in my family, not me).
• Having less stuff will force us to depend on others (others who have downsized will depend on us) and share more resources

Crimson Lake: On Broken Trees and Galavanting Youth

In mid-July our family went camping at Crimson Lake Provincial Park. I invited Blaise to join me on a morning hike around the lake, a 10 km walk with zero elevation change. He was eager and I let him carry the compass and I carried the snacks, water, extra clothes, bug repellent, sun screen, and camera.



We did not know that a massive wind storm had passed over this region only 3 days previous knocking down hundreds of trees. It seems all the trees that were knocked over fell over the path causing major obstructions. Blaise and I ambled up and over and under and around the massive fresh log jams. The fir trees were the most difficult, but also the least frequent.





The obstacle course added a couple hours to our trek, but they also presented some of the most interesting features to our journey. The lake was lovely and brightly reflected the sky, when we were beside it (only 10% of the trip). Dragonflies and damselflies hummed across our path. The path was devoid of other travellers. A light breeze blew threw the new leaves above us.

But the most striking thing was the wine red colour of the exposed wood underneath the broken bark of the collapsed trees. It made the tree seem more human with its flesh exposed. Their smooth surface was still moist and the leaves on the branches were still living. The trees seemed to be begging to be straightened out, have splints fastened and salve applied to the wounds.



The other noteworthy part of the trip was Blaise, my son recently turned seven years old. The fact that he talked almost non-stop for five hours is not unremarkable. The fact that he walked the entire 10 kms without complaining impressed me - especially since we were delayed so much by the windfall.

When Blaise turns 13 (or 14 or 15, we'll see what works), I want to be hiking the Appalachian Trail with him: his rite of passage into manhood. I have little doubt that he will rise to the expectation and I am certain that at the end of the 6 month trail he will have achieved manhood.



My little man.

700 Posts

Blogging has slowed down a bit, but I'm still here. The last hundred posts were dominated by my tour of churches, my local church involvement, cohousing, marathon training, boardgaming, beer tastings, political musings, travel and of course my family.

Thanks for reading!!

Scaling Down

The media response following the XL Foods in Brooks, AB shutdown over the last couple months has been a dominated by concerns to make food safer: more regulation, more measures to safeguard the quality of the meat. What is remarkable is the silence regarding the state of food production in Canada and the alarming trend of centralized food processing. This trend is evident in nearly all types of food. I will use XL Foods as an example.

XL Foods was processing about one third of the beef in Canada. Beef from all over western Canada was being processed by workers who had no stake in the company owned by Nilsson Bros. which suggests the care they take in processing is probably directly proportional to the care which their employers take of them. It also means that if a rancher wants to sell their cattle, they have fewer and fewer options of buyers.

Of course the visible goals of centralized food processing is to offer lower prices to consumers and to present standardized quality to the marketplace. Below the surface however is the desire for economic dominance and a strong competitive arm in a global market. Over time, mammoth food producers have absorbed small producers. With the incredible volume of meat that one packaging plant can export, they can easily undercut any small time producer. This is basic capitalism. Who are we to argue with allowing one group to push out another group, especially if it will cost us less for that particular product?

The problem is that it is not a one-dimensional issue, the dimension being economic. The environmental impact of massive feedlots and waste from large scale processing can’t be easily ignored. Drive through Brooks on a hot summer day. What about turning the vast majority of a population into employees rather than small business owners? Is it a benefit economically to quell any possible incentive for someone to open a butcher shop and employ half a dozen local people who may or may not be shareholders in a small business?

In regards to food safety, the multinational corporate mantra has been “if we’re bigger, we can afford better safety standards.” This has brought a wave of standards that can only apply to large meat plants. A small operation would not be able to afford the types of equipment needed to implement the new regulations. This implies that a small butcher shop would carve up your roast with dirty knives in back alleys riddled with drug needles and rusting cans. However, small businesses have a far greater interest in safety standards for a number of reasons. They know their clientele. They simply wouldn’t want to be the cause of a serious illness like an e-coli infection. Another factor is economic. If a small processing plant gets a reputation for not being safe, it wouldn’t be able to survive. In addition, the regulators would shut you down anyway. What about the cost of the product? With a greater number of meat processors purchasing from ranchers and then selling to consumers, you have the natural laws of competition keeping prices fair for both producers and consumers. These motivations do not apply to the large corporate producer.

What about the food itself? When a kilogram of ground beef arrives at SuperStore or Safeway from XL Foods, it can contain meat from hundreds of different beasts. If one of them was sick or if the feces wasn’t washed off of it well enough, then any kilogram of ground beef with that particular animal’s contaminated meat is also contaminated. This multiplies the risk to highly unreasonable levels and spreads it across a vast and unnecessary geographical area. Let’s assume just one large piece of beef was contaminated in the e-coli outbreak that crippled XL Foods this fall, despite their unprecedented 21st century safety features. The meat from this one source of contamination caused illness from Newfoundland to British Columbia and could have also brought infection to the United States if their food inspectors had not stopped it. 1800 products were recalled. And by products, I do not mean items. This represents thousands upon thousands of items pulled from shelves, many of which were statistically safe, but had to be discarded anyway. This is a massive waste of food.

How does a local community move away from massive, unwieldy and crippling structures like the XL Foods Meat Processing Plant? Or the growing number of discount megastores? Or the governmental pressures to globalize local markets by opening up trade with international producers and consumers? Or culture’s taste for exotic foods and electronics? Or regulations making it difficult for smaller operations to function? Are we too far gone? Have we yielded completely to the comforts and convenience of for-profit banks, chain stores, and processed food?

My hope is that the symptoms of these monstrous systems surface sooner rather than later. People will awaken to reclaim their local economies, to revive the good of the local trades and skills, to diversify the local food production, and to remedy the broken relationships we have with our neighbours. In the mean time, I choose to gradually wean myself off of the comfortable and convenient and begin participating in my local economy.

If this resonates with you, pick up Wendell Berry’s collection of essays: Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community. It is a magnificent book.

I Can't Not Check

I swore off American politics when Bush won his second term in Nov, 2004. This distaste was compounded by my reading Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival. Despite my earnest efforts to ignore the Nov, 2008 election, I was drawn in by Barak Obama's charisma and the promise of a new era of U.S. foreign policy. Now, I'm stuck checking the polls on the Huff Post and watching Colbert Report and Daily Show to get my election fix.

I'm a political junkie. This is further evidenced by my willingness to listen to CBC Radio 1's program The House.