The Flow

We are now into "real Camas." What I mean by that is now we steadily getting in groups of youth from central Glasgow (and a couple from central Edinburgh). This means that things are getting a tad interesting around here! (It also means that I can understand about 40% of things that are said to me -even after asking people to repeat things at least once- and then afterwards if I still don't understand and just resort to either the "smile and nod" or the "guess what was said and say a vague response that hopefully makes at least a bit of sense." These methods work about 50% of the time- or so I think- I'm basing these statistics on the reaction I get to my chosen response. If I don't get a blank stare I count that as a win. So basically verbal communication is a bit of a struggle a large majority of the time.)

I must say that my vocabulary is expanding. (Not only with words like "courgettes" or "jumper" - which by the way sound stupid when said in a Canadian accent- but also with other sorts of words that I'm not going to repeat on here. Partially because I can barely understand the words enough to know how to pronounce them let alone spell them and partially because they are a tad "colourful.")

Despite the challenges that come with these groups, it is fantastic. Nothing like a little dose of crazy to keep life exciting!

Speaking of words and such I'd like to share this poem that was written about Camas. It's a gooder. Gives you a taste of what its like to be here. 

The Flow

It's the way you've survived over and again

It's the way you float up, through your pain

Still smiling, under water, your soft beluga grin,

Opening your arms, to let the raven fly in.

It's the way you try to shower yourself, in full

It's the answer to the deeper pull

It's walking through the bog cotton

In the evening light, last night

The friends in front of us, vanished like the snow,

Hand  in hand with the flow

- Debbie Hal

PS: you know the sunset photo above here? It was taken on Canada day night; I thought I'd be missing some fireworks and good times, but this was a pretty darn good alternative. I was content.