Day 5

Well another late night for yours truly, didn’t realize what time it was when I finished, but man I slept well. But I was able to talk to Julie and the kids so this perked me up a little bit to keep me energized.

Today, Day 5, is our celebration day. I would compare to Canada Day in Canada, a lot of festivities and quite a lot of partying. Don’t get nervous folks I can assure you that the kids were not allowed out after supper and will all be in bed in about 20 minutes.

The morning began with a radio interview with a local Dutch radio station that featured Sarah and Brendan and really did a wonderful job talking about the meaning of all of this from a Canadian perspective as well. From there it was onto CBC Island Morning with Karen Mair and Emily and Patrick once again did a great job of speaking about the meaning of what they are experiencing...yeah they are getting “it” but I don’t really think there ever was a doubt!!

This morning we are representing the youth of Canada at the annual Liberation Day Peace Symposium. We have been selected because of my background in global issues and I suspected it would be very “dry” but at least something they could say they did. Unfortunately, their “participation” at this point will be limited to listening...difference in wording but they are fine with it!

The topic was about international freedom and the fight that continues around the world to maintain the freedoms that we so readily enjoy in our country. The kids will get a chance to listen to 3 different speakers but because of time issues they will not be able to stay and ask questions, although at this point I can guarantee that Brendan is the only that would dare ask anything in this type of situation. Lisa and Mark I apologize if he returns home a little different, different in the fact that after 5 days I think he is finally figuring out my sarcasm...he has heard enough of it for sure...haha!!!

The first speaker was a female Iranian news reporter who was speaking about the connections of what is going on today in Iran in comparison to what took place in Europe under Hitler and the Nazi movement. Only 2 minutes into the speech and I know they are hearing something very powerful as she compared the current Iranian leader of the Taliban, Ahmaddinejad to Hitler. I always thought the name Hitler seemed very eerie in Canada, well I can tell you that when you are amongst a group of people who were directly affected by a monster like that, the word sounds even worse in Europe.

The second speaker was a tad bit more “dry” (literal translation boring...) but he is a high ranking official in the European Union that deals directly with crisis intervention (Kosovo, Balkans, etc). Also present are the Queen’s High Commissioner and the third and final speaker, the head Dutch General in charge of the Afghan mission. The major general began his talked and continued to talk in high reverence of Canadians. My chest is sticking out now, as it should when you are this proud to be a Canadian in a foreign country. Loving it for sure!!

He furthered his discussion by talking about how we too often take our freedoms for granted until they are challenged, it took a major general in the Dutch army to back the majority of my messages in my Global Issues class..wonder if he would be interested in being a guest speaker??? Following the 3^rd speaker we are now off to lunch at the central location for the Liberation day parades.

Lunch became another interesting adventure as we were eating emergency rations provided to the troops currently serving in Afghanistan. The choice was either ravioli or curry chicken in a tin. There was a catch, the tin and food cook by themselves when you press a button on the bottom of the packaging. When the button is pressed a chemical reaction is begun in a separate compartment at the bottom of the tin and within 5 -7 minutes the meal is boiling hot!!! Loved it!!! SO much I ate 3, both Barb and Sarah Gillis’. I have spent a lot of time with Barb and especially Sarah because she rarely eats her meals...the meals in general have been really good but we are with teenagers you know. We have yet to get chicken fingers and fries so there is usually plenty for me to eat at any time. They don’t believe how much this body can put away...haha just ask my staff!!!

During the whole time we have been here, Brendan and the boys have been complete infatuated with the large number of battle re-enactments that are going on. The girls could care less because the horses are “poopin’ everywhere” and the artillery shells are “scaring the living .........out of them”. The whole afternoon seemed to revolve around poop in their minds for some reason, which strangely enough is a word Brendan is incapable of saying(too too funny!). Sounds kinda weird but he is going to say it before he leaves Europe...Ironically enough the day finishes with another instance involving a horse and its droppings so one might say we had a sh**** day!!!

Enough about that. These kids really enjoy the celebrity lifestyle. They all have spent the day mingling with the Dutch people and giving them everything Canadian(mini flags, pins, cards, etc) that they have. I can’t believe how much stuff people brought with them and how much the Dutch want anything with a flag on it. After a couple of hours we needed to get into position for the parade, because of another miscommunication or at the least misinterpretation of emails, not all of the kids get to walk in the parade. In all honesty both groups of kids had great experiences. The ones positioned on the parade route got to see everyone and especially the vets, who wanted to shake hands with all of the kids, while the ones in the parade with or flag got to be cheered on for an hour by at least 100,000 people...pretty darn cool. I will try to upload some pics after I finish writing.

The parade began with the releasing of flock of doves and then a fly over by some WWII planes which included a very fast moving spitfire!! As Rachel, Patrick, Brooke, Chloe, Shannon and I moved along the parade route. By the way I hope you have noticed I have been trying to use different kids for different parts of the tour, Emily and Pat have been the only repeats(interview + march) because they were willing to wait in line for two hours and walk for another hour, somehow that just didn’t appeal to some!!!

Let me tell you, I have been a part of a parade before(insert Lobster Carnival here) and have even been front and center(haha) on a float with my kids who won the National Award for History research a couple of years ago on the Legion float. But I have never been made feel the entire parade was about us and us alone. Although each school had 5/6 kids and with 58 schools represented(you do the math I am tired and bad with numbers to boot!), each footstep we took people wanted to shake our hands and continued to clap and say thank you, sing O Canada, etc. WOW!!! I had the easy job of passing out pins and such to little kids, teenagers, young adults, middle aged adults and seniors alike, they all wanted something Canadian and they couldn’t get enough. In fact at one point I went over to a group of little kids, 5 little blonde(they are all blonde it seems) kids. I reached into my pocket and shook their hands and proceeded to give them a pin. 1,2,3,4......uh oh I am all out of pins and I am only 15 minutes into the damn parade and the kids are now ahead of me so I can’t go back. So this poor cute little 4 year old boy looked pretty sad and I looked like a big Canadian jerk!!! Well, the next look was priceless, as I reached into my bag the other group of 5 years were looking intently at their pins I grabbed a large Canadian flag and wrapped it around him. The look was truly priceless, both from him and the others kids who got stuck with only a chintzy pin!!!

We continued on for another hour and moved passed seated vets and some guy from the Dutch Royal Family, sorry I didn’t get his name and I was scared to go near him with a pin because I might get tazered(sp?) or something, but nonetheless he looked pretty royal. Everyone continued to cheer and shake our hands, the kids were having a blast and I wished they all could have participated. (IN the end the kids who were along the watching route said they had a blast so I am not sure who had a better time...good problem to have!)

The crowds seemed to get larger and larger the closer we got to the end and by the time we finished the number going around had grown to be about 120,000 people. Yeah that’s right!!! We have about 135,000 people on the island and we were just cheered on by almost the entire province of PEI. Funny side to that story, we wanted to order pizza for supper and the front desk said that there were really no pizza shops in town like Domino’s and such, only available in restaurants. I said to him that I found that very strange, he replied not really because it was a tiny town of almost 40,000 with 120,000 in it today!

In the end I think each of your kids had another “once in a lifetime” experience today. Supper was another one of these as we had to wander through a lot of “celebratory” people who have been enjoying their day to say the least. The kids thought it was pretty interesting to see, there is one rock concert rumbling our rooms on one side of the hotel. The other side, Marilyn’s side is being serenaded to sleep with death metal on the other side and I can hear some rap off in the distance as well....gotta head to bed because the Bruins will be on soon so another late night!!!!

I will leave you with one last story. As we approached the end of the parade I asked Shannon to pick out a family for me....so she choose a family of four with two blonde boys about 8 and 10 years of age, roughly a little older than my Mya and Max. So as they held out their hands to shake mine, instead of giving them a maple leaf pin I surprised them as I pulled another flag out of my bag and wrapped it around them both. Both of their parents were extremely happy and grateful for the gift. Truth be known, I am more grateful than they are right now because I was able to experience what being a Canadian is really about! It doesn’t get much better than this and each of the kids were able to learn more about that today. Imagine learning more today about being Canadian thousands of miles from home, more than they have learned probably every day they have lived within our borders...fun stuff!!!! Cheer for the Bruins all and thanks for your time and patience in reading what my wife says is my usual wordy self!!! Must be why she loves me so much, either that or my handyman abilities around the house!!! Good night!!!

Off to Amsterdam and the Jewish remembrance tomorrow...and shopping for the girls!!!

Here we go Bruins Here we go....I can hear you cheering Jeff Brant!!!!