VIRUNGA

Normally I would never discuss films or things I see on television but things change, especially for this.

Last night we watched the Netflix documentary “Virunga”, which follows a group of incredible individuals who risk their lives to protect the last mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least that is what the basis of the story is, as well as the most gut wrenching, saddening and devastating part.

The film then grows into something much greater - if I had read the synopsis then there might have been a 0.01% chance I could have prepared myself for what was to come.

As we are all aware, though not as much as we like to think, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been in an almost continual flux of war, either from internal political issues or external. The catastrophic attacks on communities and the expanding rebel fighting groups have made for a very unstable country and can be accountable for over 5.4 million civilian deaths.

The M23 Rebellion is the latest group that has been fighting against the government in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003. This group, M23, is the one we see in Virunga and we are shown a driving force behind why they attack the National Park.

 

Virunga national park: 130 rangers have been killed in the last 20 years protecting the gorillas and other wild animals within the park. Photograph: Junior D. Kannah/AFP

A British oil company, SOCO International, were (and possibly still are) attempting to extract oil from Virunga National Park by any means possible. From bribing local security guards all the way up to the top Government Officials, from threatening locals who did not agree, to seemingly in talks with the M23 ‘Communication Leader’ in order for him to ‘calm the people down’.

What became apparent to me from watching the undercover footage shot by French investigative journalist, Mélanie Gouby, of her meeting with two SOCO employees/ contractors – one of which was a self-proclaimed mercenary - was that Virunga National Park is not just rich in oil but also abundant in iron ore and diamonds. Virunga National Park seems to be extremely plentiful in rare goods that the western world covets and therefore have little-to-no power to fight against such large corporations.

Just to make the situation even clearer for the viewer the mercenary, a somewhat evil man severely suffering from a backward conscious-compass, beautifully stated something along the lines of business is business and someone – SOCO International- was paying for the war. I will watch it again to find the exact quote, which will be much more poignant.

I love films like Blood Diamond and The Constant Gardener, and although they are based on truth and the horrific acts that are regularly happening in some African nations, you cannot help but feel a little disassociated as they have been ‘Hollywoodized’. The dramatic music, the actors you love and the somewhat happy ending all allow you to walk away at the end of the film and believe that all is well now.

Virunga does not give you such permission. It is calling on all those who watch it to act and to speak out for the rights of the communities who rely on the land and lake for farming and fishing and the wildlife.

I have honestly never felt so stunned and saddened by the way things are. It is not a worst-case scenario or the evil monster horror story, it is actually happening. Big corporations such as SOCO International have the power because they have the muscle and money to do so.

Upon looking into this I saw an article in The Guardian that explains: “Producers of the documentary Virunga, set in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) park which is home to many of the world’s remaining 800 mountain gorillas, will on Friday publish a list of all major British and international pension funds, companies and banks who back London-based Soco’s search for oil in some of the world’s most volatile regions. They include the Church of England investment fund, M&S, Aviva, Scottish Widows and several high street banks.”

I really hope The Guardian and  New York Times continue to keep readers up-to-date with the situation between SOCO and Virunga, and I too will continue to research what can be done.

 Emmanuel de Merode and Andre Bauma, caretaker of the gorillas in the park, attend the New York screening of Virunga. Photograph: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images

A Little Something

As always things come up and blogs get somewhat forgotten. Oooops.

You will be delighted to know that it has not been through laziness and lack of exploring.

In the past few months we have had an array of Craighead family here for weeks at a time. It was absolutely amazing and when my dear other-half gives me photographs I shall upload them (my phone unfortunately broke so I have no photos to share).
Their visits allowed Lew and I to be tourists once again and explore new areas near and far. We even drove to my birth town of Lethbridge in a single day - epic trip of 10 hours driving!

The latest, and for me the proudest, news is that I recently launched my very own Pilates website. Last year I embarked on a mini adventure to become a Pilates instructor and after several trips to London I became a fully qualified Body Control Pilates Instructor.

Gi Pilates has been in the works since my lovely sister took me screen printing to Rhubarb & Ginger Textiles and I created my little business logo. This lovely swirly logo has inspired me to keep going and see where this new road takes me and I could not be happier.

It may not be a lot to many people but on the first day of the website's launch I had over 250 unique visitors and it keeps on going! Happy days!!

Lew, as always, knew all along that this is what I loved doing and keeps offering new ideas to make it bigger and better... watch out as some of his suggestions have stuck!

Please feel free to look around my (mine, all mine!) website.

The original Gi Pilates logo            The new 'computerised' version

     

Scooby is legally Albertan!

The past week has been another learning curve where we discovered the difference between a BC car and a Albertan car – apparently a lot.

Within 90 days of arriving in Alberta a person must change their drivers license to an Alberta license by sacrificing their original one in a not-so-romantic ceremony, apply for a form to arrange a car inspection. Yes, you apply for the form to permit you to get your car checked. Then you get your car checked and if it passes you have 14 days to pay for an Alberta registration and ta-da!! You are now legally driving in Alberta.

Scooby of course passed with flying colours and survived this process while I made friends with the girls working in the Canmore Registry Office with my extensive visits!

You didn’t think I was out playing amongst the mountains the whole time did you?

Out and Aboot

I honestly don’t think Canadians say ‘aboot’. They have a lovely soft way of saying it and to me it sounds more like ‘abowt’. Anyway I digress!

We have been managing to explore a little more of the area on our weekends, whether it is from the comfort of our front door or jumping in Scooby and driving to Lake Louise.

On a random Sunday night we decided to jump in the car and drive to Lake Louise for sunset as we thought the light would be perfect over the water. The light was perfect however the water wasn’t water, it was still ice. We hadn’t realised that the lake would still be frozen in June. It was beautiful nonetheless. 

Slushy Lake Louise

The best part of this impromptu trip was the massive, spectacular, rambling, grizzly bear that we saw at the side of the road a mere 100m away. It was amazing!! They are huge and I honestly think I could sit on it and it wouldn’t notice. They are also ridiculously camouflage amongst the trees and bushes as Lewis could not see it until it wobbled a branch on a tree. Phenomenal Sunday evening!

We have also been taken by the perfect light and long days that we have been lucky to experience in ‘Monsoon June’.

Happy June all!

What you do for a good photograph

Bloomin’ Banking

Upon arriving in Canada we have quickly realised why there was no massive economic crash within the Canadian economy – the banks charge for everything. Simply to hold money for you costs anything upwards of $3 a month.

Furthermore, should you want to use your debit card (the piece of plastic that is created to make spending easier) to buy something as simple as food you can either pay an additional $1 per transaction or change your account to include a set number of transactions, but guess what? This rockets your monthly fees up too. I am paying the bank to keep, spend and receive my own money. Well played Canadian Banks, well played.

Coming from the UK this baffles me. The we-don’t-charge-you-UK, where the majority of bank accounts are free and you can go to any ATM with any bank and take your money out for free. How good you guys have it and you don’t realise.

Here, I feel like the little boy in Mary Poppins who just wants to keep his tuppence. Should it be so hard?

Image from brookschamber.ab.ca

Funnily enough this is not actually the main reason for this ramble. The cause in actual fact is related to cheques or ‘checks’ as they spell it here. Lewis receives his pay in the form of good old-fashioned cheques, which takes an astounding 4-5 business days to clear, causing significant grief in trying to survive particularly before I started working.

This past week has been exceptionally tough as we have been surviving on $35 and as of this moment I believe we have $3 between us, no milk and minimal food to eat today.

The delightful and very-friendly (the people are actually lovely at the branch)  Scotiabank has decided to hold his pay cheque for another day, just because they can. We put it in to the bank on Tuesday morning, a whole week ago, 7 days ago, and it will be EIGHT days by the time the money is released. That is if they choose to release it tomorrow.

(Please fill in at least a minutes worth of blasphemy here should you understand our plight)

I am in a rather bad mood and as of this afternoon, I am firing Scotiabank and their services and moving to a much more forward thinking bank. Sorry friendly bank workers, but your banking approach is a joke.

Who will it be? Toronto Dominion, CIBC, ATB, RBC, BMO?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5Peaks

I am unbelievably fortunate to work where I do. They are an amazing group of people and it is such a relaxed environment around the office.

As part of what we sell we get to work with so many great events and one of them is the 5Peaks challenge. These challenges take place all over Canada from BC to Quebec.

A couple of weekends ago I was setting up the BUFF® tent at Canmore Nordic Centre where I got to meet some crazily fit and enthusiastic people. It is definitely true what they say, people who exercise are unquestionably happier than most.

Anyway, I took some pretty pictures of the event and had a wonderful morning. Maybe next time I will join in with the race (avec bear spray!)

The Mobile Phone Hunt

The on-going saga of Lewis’ relationship with mobile phones has finally been put to rest… for now at least.

Long story short, he has been unable to get a phone contract due to his Social Insurance Number still not being activated. This has meant he has had to buy a pay-as-you-go phone that has since broken a pathetic 6 weeks after purchase. Virgin Mobile are refusing to do anything about it as it is more than a month since we purchased it from them which I think we can all agree is ridiculous. Why would we buy a phone for it only to work for four weeks? Answer: no-one would.

We have since decided to get a new phone for him with anyone but Virgin Mobile – plonkers that they are.

So off we trot to Calgary in search of the 41 megapixel camera phone – the Nokia Lumia 1020. If you are going to get a smart phone you might as well get the one with the best camera.

In Alberta, and I think Canada, it doesn’t matter what phone you get the tariff is the same across specific phone groups; Doro Phones ($25); Basic Phones ($55+); and Smartphones ($80+). So if you are going to get a Smartphone get the most expensive as it costs the same as the cheapest within the same category.

Two hours and a pizza later, we returned to the store to collect Lewis' beautiful bright yellow phone which had been all set up and ready for him to use. We expecting great things from you Rogers.

Jiminy Cricket

To the delight of Lewis the activity options in Canmore are endless. This is no word of an exaggeration and should you ever be bored in Canmore, well, there is no excuse really.

With seasonal hobbies to suit everyone from Nordic skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing and winter climbing to mountain biking, hiking, trail running and rock climbing to mention a mere few, your days, weeks and months are pretty jam packed with fresh air.

To this end Lewis decided to invest in a mountain bike for me, as going out whooping in the forest and trails alone is not ideal. The purchase was made on a Saturday morning and by noon I find myself in the middle of a single-track trail near the Canmore Nordic Ski Centre wondering how my body is going to take the beating.

I think it was beginners luck and going into the unknown that made it such a wonderful day. We were whizzing through the trees all the while whooping to alert any wildlife – there are three black bears and a grizzly that regularly visit the area and the thought of rolling into the back of them was not a valid alternative to using my breaks.

Bumping over tree roots, rolling along fallen trees and holding on for dear life while leaning as far back as possible when going down dusty sleep hills was only just the start of it. All the while Lewis is exclaiming “I cannot believe how good you are at this, you are doing so well!”

In actual fact what was going through my head went something like “I am going to die… TREE STUMP!… all I need now is a bear or a cougar to pounce on me and I am finished… TREE STUMP!!... why oh why are mountain bike seats harder than cement?... TREE STUMP!”

I also discovered that such thoughts mixed with serious concentration on the twists and turns of the trails reduces my vocabulary to a simple and surprising name: Jiminy Cricket.

Lewis: Look at you Watson! How are you feeling?

Me: Jiminy Cricket!

Lewis: What? What are you saying?

Me: Jiminy Cricket!

Lewis: Are you seeing crickets?! Amazing! Where?!

Me: Jiminy Cricket - Cricket!

To that end – I cannot wait to get back out and ride more trails.