last weekend, and boy was it a GREAT one!

hey all,

it's been a whirlwind weekend, and yet i can say that it's been a restful one. let me share...

Friday
after work, a bunch of us got together at Sundance Lake in the Southwest of Calgary. get this...we needed special permission to gain access to this lake, and apparently this is a common thing in Calgary. most of the lakes in the city are actually man-made...and so those who live in the neighbourhood are part of the community that are able to use it and subsequently, pay for it to be maintained. one of the perks is that you can also have your friends use it. so, after a long day of work, we all trekked it out to Sundance Lake, and enjoyed a wonderful evening on the "lake". we played volleyball, "duct tape football" (the guys are duct tape and they play against the girls who don't have duct tape - i found this a little discriminatory...but played along nonetheless) and then jumped into the refreshing lake of water after a HOT day. as the lake closes at 10pm, we then all headed to Dan's house for a camp fire. this is another common thing that i find in Calgary...quite a few people just have fire pits in their backyards! so, we lit it, ate some smores, sang some songs, prayed, and enjoyed each others' company. it was a great time of fellowship, and i was truly blessed and encouraged to spend time with such great people. it's moments like these that will make me miss my time in Calgary. like my experience in Toronto...the city itself is not that impressive, but instead it's the people.

[guys in duct tape: Dan, Brendan, Mike, Rick, Brandon]

[Courtney and I at Sundance Lake...pretty eh? kinda weird that houses are so close...]

[catching a football in the lake]

[Sundance Lake]

[campfire at Dan's place: Curtis, Lee, Rick, Mike]

[Curtis..and me looking weird with a guitar!]

Saturday
Courtney, Mel and i had been looking forward to this day for a very long time...it was the Calgary Folk Festival. with our day passes in hand, along with camping chairs, LOTS of water, snacks, blankets etc...we headed to Prince's Island Park and were asked "where are you from?!" apparently we looked like tourists with our stuff that we were carrying, but we were just fine with that...as the chairs and blanket came in handy for the rest of the trip. once in, we found a place to "set up camp" and laid our stuff down amidst the myriad of blankets, coolers, and chairs. we then wandered aimlessly checking out random booths that sold jewelry, scarves, henna tattoos, percussion instruments (i bought another drum!), EVERYTHING...and of course the various music tents, and cd tents, and FOOD tents...it was such a chill day. we were there from about 2:30-12am. what a glorious day. the final show was Great Big Sea, who many had waited for. our friends Mike and Josh listened to the concert across the river from us...literally maybe 30 feet away from us...what separated us was a daypass and a few feet of river... good times.

[me and my dumbeck!]

[more dumbeck!]

[Mel, me, and our muscles...]

[Mel, me, Courtney at Prince's Island Park, Calgary Folk Festival 2007]

[seat of lawn chairs, coolers, and the like]

[Mel and I are the Elbow River, steps away from our seat at the mainstage]

[ahem, more colourful chairs, it's endless!]

Sunday
thinking it wasn't possible to have 3 great days in a row, i was wronged when i got to church and was not only challenged by the sermon, but almost felt almost "commissioned" to head back to Vancouver. they were sharing a slideshow of the youth group's recent missions trip to Vancouver, and it showed so many sights of Vancouver, the downtown eastside, and even Harbour Centre, one of SFU's campuses. i missed home watching that slideshow, and yet the dichotomy of missing Calgary too hung in my heart. got some tasty groceries from the Calgary Farmer's Market, and their famous strawberry waffles, napped, then enjoyed a lovely evening with Mike and Josh. they invited Courtney, Mel and myself over for Arabic tea. having grown up in West Africa (Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso), Josh shared a traditional Arabic tea tradition....i was fascinated! there are 3 brews of the tea that is brewed over hot coals. the first brew of the tea represents the "bitterness of life" - this was experienced thru the actual first bitter brew of the tea. then, the 2nd brew represents the "bitter sweet reality of friendship" which was felt thru the sweetness of the tea, followed by the then bitter after taste. finally, the 3rd brew represented "the sweetness of love" as the bitterness had worn away, and it was a light sweet flavour. it was an intimate time of sharing our stories, encouraging one another, and embracing this tradition. i loved every bit of it...it reminded me a lot of the Brazilian tradition of drinking yerba maté. mmm, i love tea.

[Mike, Courtney, Mel at Mike and Josh's...they have a firepit in their backyard!]

[get the charcoal ready]

[fill the pot with tea, and water]

[poke around a bit and make a "bed" of coal for the teapot]

[brew.....brew....and brew some more]

[pour from one cup to another about 5 times incorporating air and cooling down the tea slightly]

[bottoms up! think sweet thick tasty tea! MMMMMMMMMM!]

today was my last day of work...now THAT was bittersweet. said goodbye to some colleagues, and then goodbye to some guests at our Monday Night Fellowship...i will miss this bunch. no tears shed....yet.

much love,
dL