Off to the Central Coast for a few days of joining in on a training workshop for some First Nations groups seeking fish culture learning opportunities.
It has been over a year in the planning and started with a phone call early last year….progressed when I was in Bella Coola last September and spent a couple of hours chatting with a woman from one of the oldest families in the valley…we were exploring how to bring people from other nations together at the hatchery for an in-person workshop.
Almost a year later and I am on my way up to throw my assistance in the ring.
Totally unprepared with respect to having my presentations ready. One is in disarray and the other is just a white slide with the word “Sockeye” on it. But I can pull that one out of my head in an evening and I have two evenings to do it.
The other is a challenge because I’ve been given a ridiculous amount of time to speak to something that simply does not need a ridiculous amount of time…and giving me airspace without enough direction is always a dangerous thing to do because I WILL fill the time with things I want people to know….and then rabbit holes appear… questions are asked….discussions start…and the next thing you know….the ridiculous amount of time has not been nearly enough.
It will be fun.
However.
The trip in was an annoyance.
When I got to the airport this morning I walked up to the check-in and all of a sudden a realization hit me.
I’d checked the weather last night. Knew rain was int he forecast. Packed a rain jacket and other necessities.
But I didn’t think about the fact that the flight might not actually go where I needed it to go until I was looking the woman in the eye at the counter. When I asked “I just realized something….Where am I going today?”
She looked at me surprised and I said “I mean…I know where I am headed, and where I will ultimately end up, but where is this plane taking me….Bella Coola? or Anahim Lake?“
She tapped away on the computer and looked puzzled…….then said…“Anahim Lake…and the computer says that you will have to find your own way to Bella Coola.”
My response was “Oh, but the bus will take us down into the Valley”
“No” she said “There is no bus today.”
Wait…what?
Apparently there is no bus driver today, and so despite purchasing a ticket for Bella Coola, I, and others, would be dropped in Anahim Lake and left to our own defences.
Well shit!
Quick text to two people at the hatchery…..relay the problem….Someone will come and get me.
I sit down in the airport and glance at my phone….a text from the FN woman organizing things? Am I still at the airport? Could I call her?
Another woman with the same problem at the same terminal, blond, also named Megan….could I find her? I told Megan #1 to let Megan#2 know to look for the redhead….I usually stand out in a crowd more than most.
I stand up and turn around at all the people in the small terminal….a woman is sitting immediately in front of me (behind where I was sitting). She glances up from her phone and says “Paige?”
Well that was easy.
I board the plane and someone is sitting in my seat, we shuffle around and his wife is sitting int he middle of the three seats at the back of the 19 seat plane, between two small children. She says “I’m really sorry….there may be some crying….” He says…”No, there WILL be some crying” .
No worries, I have my music.
They did not cry…one cocked out immediately and the other was fine.
In Anahim Lake we waited a short period before my ride showed up and we had a pleasant drive down into the valley….devoid of rain….absolutely no reason the plane could not have landed in Bella Coola.
On the upside, Megan #2 had never been to Bella Coola and the drive down The Hill and through the length of the valley was something she’d have otherwise not experienced.
1 comment
Great “read” Paige – thanks for that!