adventures in Newmarket

I spent the weekend in Hamilton helping Carrie and her roommate organize their apartment and decide which knives they need and how many strings of Christmas lights they needed to properly illuminate the balcony. For the first time in my life, I went into Canadian Tire. I was confused when they talked about Canadian Tire as the place to find great kitchen knives. From the name of the store, "Canadian Tire," one would think that the store was full of tires and car parts and car related things. Nope. I mean, those things are in there, but it is full of loads of things, like knives, grills, Christmas lights, decorations, hardware, etc. Really, the name "Canadian Tire" is a misnomer and incredibly misleading. However, it was super fun to help them shop for their apartment. It's always way easier to help other people make decisions for their living space than it is to make decisions for your own. We ended the weekend with a lovely walk on the Hamilton waterfront. It was so beautiful and green and the night got to the perfect temperature of cool. There was even a rink for roller skating and a DJ. We didn't partake, but that just means that I'll have to come back at some point!

Then it was time for me to move on to the next stop on this crazy tour. Carrie and I drove to Ikea to meet Delo, the Inclusion Coordinator for OPC. We met her and two of her three sons for lunch, and then I returned with them to Newmarket. I have had the joy of living life with this family for nearly a week. I put my hammock up in the backyard yesterday and the three boys and I loved swinging and hiding in the folds of the fabric. I've had wonderful talks with Delo as I look ahead to leaving for Rwanda on Monday (AHHHHHHH!). Today, the youngest and I were hanging out while the others were at the dentist, and we played on the trampoline and laughed so hard. A series of simple, beautiful moments.

The best part of being with a camp family for an extra week is that I am still Rogue. The three boys know my real name, but they are way more familiar with and accustomed to calling me Rogue. It is wonderful. There is this huge culture at camp of being one person for the summer and then returning to regular life and being someone entirely different. As much as I love the fact that all the staff have camp names, I think it adds to that mentality that you are one person at camp with one name and another at home with another name. Being here and having these three little lives and this family still call me Rogue is a little reminder. "Hey, you are the same person now as you were this summer. We didn't forget who you are and neither should you."