Everything feels normal but not. We are in our home but none of our stuff is here (movers bring it back tomorrow). All restaurants and fast food places have limited menus because they are so short staffed. Everywhere is hiring the people who worked for minimum wage have not come back. The good dr cox has classes with only ten students registered. When we drive towards home on the west it almost looks fine except for the fire break carved into the ground. To the east trees are bare look like matchsticks. At Walmart the aisles with the most people are in bedding and bath. In our complex there are 8 houses gone but the shells are still there you see toys because they are under investigation and can't be touched. I almost threw up when I saw just how close it was to us. You can only see 1 off the 3 neighbourhoods that was destroyed. Shells of cars, ash. One row of mobile homes that survived and then just grey. The roads to these neighbourhoods are all blocked by RCMP check points, temporary border crossings that make you thankful you don't have to cross them. Everywhere is signs FortMacStrong and rah rah stuff and all I can think was I've been strong, been strong for all these weeks, can't I now just be tired and rest?
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This is not something that I usually post on this blog, but this is something that is happening/ I am doing, and it is very near and dear to my heart so I thought it’d be okay.
Okay. My name is Kae and my goal for this summer is to be uncomfortable.
So tomorrow, I’m going to be heading north into the “disaster zone” up in Fort McMurray to help with relief efforts.
There was this quote, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” that really spoke to me. And that’s what inspired my summer. I wanted to put myself WAY out there. As many people do, I have a daily routine. Wake up, go to work, study, eat. It’s very safe, very nice and very comfortable.
I wanted to be challenged.
So.
Right now, I work as an intern by day and a volunteer coordinator by night. And the organization that I work with supports evacuees from Fort McMurray- a town in northern Alberta (the province from which I am from) which was completely evacuated due to the giant wildfire. Over the last month, I’ve met and talked to so many different people and their stories have really had an impact on me. (I’m not sure what I’m allowed to share publicly on a post, but if you want to hear some stories, message me and you’ll never get me to stop talking.) I’ve been in the middle of this incident for a while now. A lot of my friends are engineers who do their co-op terms in the oilsands- luckily everyone got out and they’re carrying out their co-ops elsewhere. My uncle was one of the techs who went in to check on hospital equipment during the evac. It’s been a wild ride.
People have been allowed to return to Fort McMurray since June 1 but many people have chosen not to. It is ill advised for kids to return due to heavy metals and asbestos in the air from old burned down houses. The fire is still going but the rebuilding process has already begun.
And so. The volunteer coordinator up there is heading home and apparently I’m a replacement? Me? ??? There’s like ash sifting and debris removal and supply warehouse stuff to do. *sigh* I’m not a Certified Adult™️. But this is something that i have wanted to do since I heard about the fire so as much as I hate it, I’ll put on my Sort of Certified Adult Shoes™️ and do what I set out to do this summer. Be uncomfortable.
I will be firing up the ol’ queue for the week that I am away so that you are not completely without me. I don’t know the status of wifi there so I’m unsure if I’ll even be able to do any updates- aside from people I can text because I do have my phone on me, but I don’t have data so :< . I will be able to tweet some stuff because of Twitter SMS and if you tag me at asmolbear on there I should get notified? Don’t expect much from me though, Twitter SMS is terrible.Â
(Let’s be honest. This is sort of surreal and I am more than a little bit scared. Super excited! Sorta scared. Scarecited. Am I in over my head? Yeah. A little. A lottle. Yeah.)
So friends! All I ask of you is to keep the people of Fort Mac in your thoughts and prayers! (You can think of this smol bear too, I’m sure I’ll need it...ahahaha) Send some good vibes this way! (if they can put out the fire soon I’m sure my parents will be much more comfortable about me going. But apparently my uncomfortability thing does not exempt people around me :D)
300 South African firefighters break out into song and dance upon their arrival at Edmonton International Airport after flying in to help battle the Fort McMurray Fires.
Went and saw the new Jungle Book movie, despite it being a wicked good movie I couldn’t handle the fire scene. I was sitting in the movie theatre having a panic attack and uncontrollably sobbing. Fuck I hate how this fires fucked me up. I’m barely clinging on to the little bit of sanity I have left.
I miss talking to you. I just want to text you. I feel like you don’t even care though. Why would you?
Today at work we were asking people if they’d like to donate to help out Fort Mac and some people actually got extremely excited and said things like “yes please”, “yes I’d love to”, or “yes thanks for asking". And this just makes me so proud of my fellow Canadians
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my first thought when i wake up and the last thought before i go to sleep these last few days have been about Fort McMurray. i love how Canadians have come together to help support this town. every day there’s a new story about someone doing something amazing. from little kids running lemonade stands to raise money, to a bride getting a wedding dress donated to her, to the syrian refugees who are still trying to plant roots but are still giving all that they can to the families who lost everything in the fire, to the first responders who havent slept in over 80 hours trying to fight this fire. i love this country. and i know that there’s still a long way to go, but i just know that this town is going to be fine.Â
Well, some (relatively) good news regarding the Fort McMurray fire. About 80-90% (I’ve seen varying reports) of the city is undamaged by the fire, including basically everywhere I remember from my early childhood. Granted, I feel a bit selfish being happy that places important to me only on a sentimental level are safe, while people have actually lost their homes, pets, belongings and livelihoods, but I’m relieved that so much of the city has been saved. Especially since I’d seen many people wondering if Fort McMurray would even be standing *at all* after the fire. It’s good to know that the evacuees will at least have something to go back to.Â
