Vernon

It was the weather that chased us away from Vernon when we left in 1998. Not as cold as northern Manitoba, to be sure, but often the Okanagan valley was clouded over and winter days were wishy washy, no brightness, the incredible darkness of being. It was also the time of morning sickness, clambering up icy driveways with bulging tummy, labour and childbirth. After a trial year working in Cape Town (1997), we decided to move to sunnier climes, back to South Africa en route to Australia. As it turned out, we settled back in East London and gave up the idea of Australia for 9 years.

Those last 4 months in Vernon in 1998 were quite something! Jeanne-Marie, pregnant with Chloe, was unwell – sinusitis needing draining. Gabi had her 18 month immunization and had a fairly prolonged seizure the following night; was paralysed on one side for a day. Michelle flew over to give us a hand. Two weeks later, was Gabi dragging the one leg when she walked? MRI and neurologist in Vancouver booked – 2 days before departure. All normal. The flight back to Kelowna was delayed by snow; would we get there in time for her flight back to SA? We managed to get there, the family said goodbye to Mark – he was to remain behind to pack up house, and sell practice. Jeanne-Marie had to get back while still allowed to fly in her advancing pregnancy.

Fast forward 9 years. The children are now 13, 11 and 9 years old and we’re on our way back to Vernon for a month, en route to Australia. We get off the plane in Vancouver, rent a car for the month, spend a night at the Vancouver Coast Plaza, and after Mark has an interview at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia to re-register his medical licence, we head off to Vernon. As we get closer and closer, memories of places, faces and names resurface. The first sign that things had changed was the hour long stop-start traffic hold-up to get over the bridge in Kelowna; both Kelowna and Vernon have grown tremendously. It was also the summer holidays, so there is a huge influx of people from other parts of Canada, particularly the neighbouring province, Alberta. The economy is booming – people with second houses, boats, caravans, motor homes are everywhere to be seen.

Vernon has not missed out on the boom. The huge departmental stores, previously only in Kelowna, are now in Vernon. Middleton mountain, where we stayed, previously had houses about a third of the way up the slope; now there are more than double the number of houses. There’s a large golf course and vineyards being developed on the side of the hill going towards Lake Okanagan – friends of Phil and Michelle’s from South Africa are working on it. Together with the influx, though, there are also the homeless and panhandlers. The Emergency Department of the hospital is a hive of activity, late into the night now. “Crackheads,” the one ER doc told Mark, “fill up the place at night.”

We stayed in the Murphy’s house for the first 12 days: they have a lovely house on Middleton mountain overlooking Lake Kalamalka. They were away so we had the run of the place. When they returned, we moved to another house a few blocks away – belonging to Michael Cooke, one of the paediatricians I was filling in for. We met him for a short while when we got into Vernon then he went off to get married, honeymoon and holiday for the rest of the month. He was also kind enough to lend us his car, so we had 2 vehicles for the month.

Mark started work with a bang – 7 calls in 10 days, and then only 3 in the remaining 20. Because we now get paid an on-call stipend (plus regular billings), he was quite keen to do lots of call; after all this month was to help pay for the trip over! Fortunately the jet-lag was not too bad for any of us, as we’d spent the previous week in Florida.

If the work didn’t keep us busy enough, the socialising surely did! We’d made many friends during our time in Vernon, and catching up with them after so many years was wonderful. It was very hot the first few weeks, and joining friends at the members-only Kalamalka Country Club on the lake’s edge in the evening was great.

The second weekend we took off, pointing the rental car in a southerly direction, for the 3 hour trip to Naramatta, just outside Penticton, to spend a weekend with the Paisley family in their condo on Apex Mountain. Dave organised bicycles, loaded all 11 of then on his trailer, and we all drove up the mountain. He and Sandy have 4 boys of similar ages to our 3 girls and we had a lovely day exploring the mountain on bikes.

One of the highlights of the trip was linking up again with Sayo who helped raise our older two girls while we lived in Canada. She has now been childminding for another family – 2 doctors with 4 children in Vernon. We saw a lot of her, she took the children out a few times, and joined us for a whitewater rafting expedition on Clearwater, about 3 hours north of Vernon, on one of the weekends. We wish we could take her with us to Australia!

The month passed by in a flash. The evenings were getting quite cool already by the time we left. Michael and his new wife, Joan, arrived back on the last Thursday of the month and we left soon afterwards. We spent 3 nights in Vancouver, meeting up with the Smiths for supper at the Spaghetti Factory. We cycled around Stanley Park, went to the Aquarium, poked our way around the Science Centre, went to the Imax theatre. Also had a wonderful evening catching up with Mark and Nat Rosengarten – friends from back in Thompson days!

It was wonderful to be back for the month, visiting with old friends. We do think, though, that we’ve made the right decision in moving to Australia.

Mountain Pine Beetle by Chloe

The pine forests in northern Canada are dieing – we can see it easily because the trees are turning red and then losing their leaves. The problem here is a little beetle about the size of a grain of rice: The mountain pine beetle. It creeps in under the bark of the pine tree and eventually kills it. The reason for this problem is that the winters have become too warm and the beetle doesn’t die off in the winter like it used to. If they don’t have a cold winter at the end of this year half of the forests will be dieing by the end of the next year. They kill the trees by putting blue stain fungus in the trees.

Whitewater rafting in Clearwater river by Gabi

Last week we went to Clearwater because we were going whitewater rafting. It took us 2 and a half hours and Sayo came with us. When we got there, we change into our bathing suit and had a bite to eat. We went inside and had to sign a form.

When we were ready, we got into the bus. It took us fifteen minutes to get to the place where we were going to stop. When we stopped, we took off our towels and put on our board shorts (if we had any) and went for a hike to see the Kettle (a nasty rapid). When we got back, we put on lifejackets and helmets.

After we were ready to go we helped to carry the boat down to the river. Then the guide told us to copy him, and he stepped into the water and went under water. So we all stepped into the water and got our body and head wet. It was freezing! Then we got into the boat.

When we were in the water we got into our places to sit. Jaime, Chloe and I were in the middle at the front, so we didn’t have to row. We went on some amazing rapids and some of our group jumped in and had a swim. They were purple from the cold when the got out.

We were at this place where mom, dad and a few people wanted to jump off this cliff. When mom jumped her helmet came off and we had to go fetch in downstream. When we were near the end we saw a bear swimming across the water in front of us. We got out and took our lifejackets and helmets off and got in the bus. We were all very cold.

When we were back at the lodge we had some pizza and hot drinks.

The Penticton Experience by Jaime

Last week-end, my family and I all went to Penticton to visit the Paisley Parents and their boys. We drove up their farm road and on the way, the boys revealed themselves, one by one.
“Look! There’s one!” exclaims Gabi
“There’s another one!” says Chloe
It turns out the Paisley parents have FOUR boys! They were all younger than me and Gabi, the oldest being ten. Anyway, we had supper and us girls got on with them boys like a house on fire. We then had to drive forty minutes, on a windy to get to their condo on the mountain. It was dark by then, so we couldn’t see any of the scenery on the way up.

The next morning everyone (except me) was up, bright and early. It was a perfect day! Their condo is situated right up in the mountains, in a beautiful pine forest. The boys (and Gabi) were busy outside, ramping anything that they could find. I decided I would join them. I went outside to the trailer, which had eleven bikes on it. I got my bike off the trailer and was about to get on, when it fell on me. I got five big scratches down my right leg. When everyone had come home, I told them I had been attacked by a cat. Gabi thought that it could have been a baby puma (never mind the fact that there are NO pumas living in Canada)! After that, all eleven of us went for a bike ride. It took us about 45 minutes to get up (it was mostly uphill, and we were all very unfit). At the top, we went up and explored some old abandoned mines. It was really dark and creepy so I chickened out. One by one everyone chickened out, except the fathers, who nearly went to the other end. We then cycled back, which took us only 5 minutes!

After lunch, we went on another cycle, but this one was more even. This ride had a lot of rocks jutting out of the edges, so six of the kids went ahead and ramped all the rocks. It was so cool. My mom even tried it! We went back to the car and I got off my bike. That’s when the second injury of the day happened. I cut myself, on my right leg this time, and had to get stitches! We went back down the mountain side to town, and Dave Paisley stitched me up. We then went back up the mountainside to the condo to tell everyone I had been attacked by a bear. They didn’t believe me this time.

The next day we drove back down to their house for lunch. When it was time to go, the boys tried to arrange a house for us here, so that we could move here instead of Australia. We then got in the car to go home. All in all, it was a very fun (and eventful) week-end.