Anthony’s Blog February 20, 2015

Carnival: History of Vancouver
On Tuesday morning, families and friends joined us for this year’s Carnival which was titled ‘History of Vancouver.’ After the introductions by Ruth T. and Ruth O. we started our carnival in Circle Hall which was transformed into a Longhouse that was decorated with native art. Wendy, a special guest from the Squamish First Nations entertained and taught us native dancing, singing and music playing. She told us about Chief Capilano who discovered Vancouver, Brockton Point and Siwash Rock. Then she talked about Chief Jimmie Jimmie and the Two Sister Lions.

 

We left the Longhouse to visit Chinatown (Sewing Room). There we saw Chinese decorations, food, flute played by Ruth T. and a large dragon. Then we were able to pick up a fortune cookie with chopsticks and read what our fortune holds.
Our next stop was a Japanese Bath House. We sang Japanese songs and then Takashi told us how the Japanese people take their bath.
Then a large red Chinese Dragon took us across 19th Street to a Swedish logging camp (in front of Cascadia). Ruth T. and Jason taught us the loggers’ alphabet song. Some of the companions pretended to be logs that were rolled into the ocean (road). The Skuse family were instructed to cut down a large tree but due to mechanical failure they were not successful.
After that we went to Robson Street(on the mosaic) where Gundula told everybody in German and in English what Robson Street was like 50 years ago when the street had bakers, dressmakers and shoemakers. Then she introduced two modern German girls, Laura and Helena who owned a Juice Bar. The girls taught everybody a German song about fruit and then everybody joined in and danced and sang along.

In the afternoon, we returned to Circle Hall and there we were visited by none other than the famous Gassy Jack who paddled in his canoe with his dog. He told us about his long journey and then we helped him build a saloon and pretended to drink whisky.
After that Monique told us the story of Joe Portugese Silvey, also known as Portugese Joe. In the 1850s, Joe worked on a whaling ship in the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco. When the Gold Rush came to British Columbia Joe decided to travel to Vancouver to pan for gold. Years later, the gold rush was all over. Joe met Chief Capilano, when he was travelling through Victoria to go back to San Francisco. Chief Capilano introduced him to his granddaughter Khaltinaht and they got married. Soon they had a daughter who became the very first European descendent in Vancouver. Today because Joe Silvey was the first of European descent that had children in Vancouver, more than five thousand native people are now named Joe Silvey . There is also a statue of him in Stanley Park. During Monique’s story of Joe Portugese Silvey, Aiden played the character of Joe and Hanieh played both Joe’s first and second wife. They also re-enacted Joe’s marriage by singing native songs, eating blueberries and dried salmon. At the end of our carnival, Ruth T. thanked everyone for all their work.
On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, we broke into our painting, reading ,writing, clay, singing, swimming and walking groups.
In our Thursday morning college, Ruth T. talked to us about the new moon and full moon and also about the sun eclipse. After that, Brigitte told us about Chinese New Year. She told us that the Chinese New Year customs go on for fifteen days. She also taught us how to say Happy New Year in her language, which is ‘nian kuai le.’ She drew on the board, pictures of this year’s animal which is the sheep or the goat.
After that two coworkers who are in the training course came up and shared their experiences with animals. Monique talked to us about the heron, then Barbara read a poem about spiders and told us about her experience in Africa with a large tarantula.
After a short break, Lorna’s bell choir practiced their songs.