Every time I told someone I am thinking about going to Churchill, Manitoba for my vacation this year, I get a beat or two of dead silence accompanied by a blank stare, then realization dawns and a "oh, yea, Polar Bears" comment. This is sort of true, but mostly not. So, here is the history of how I ended up choosing a cold week on the Hudson Bay for my summer vacay.
It actually started years ago when I was thinking I should look into volunteer vacations. I Googled for advise on the subject and found a website (long since forgotten) that said volunteer vacations are not as altruistic as they seem. Usually they are for profit and not very helpful to the 'receiving' organization if the 'volunteer' is only there for a week or two. Really, they are putting up with you in order to get your payment, which they can use to do their real activities of saving children/animals/environment. The website suggested instead to research volunteer opportunities within my own country and to just donate money to international agencies.
So that is what I did. Oxfam Canada gets my money now. And I have always wanted to visit Northern Canada so I Googled volunteer opportunities in the North. I found the Churchill Northern Studies Centre who are staffed partly with volunteers.
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As you all know, Churchill is a major birding hotspot (what, you didn't know that!?)
(#7 on the top 50). And the CNSC has a Birding Learning Vacation (Spring's Wings, from now on to be referred to as Bird Camp). But, if I am there as a volunteer, I don't get to hang out with the Bird Camp nerds on their daytrips cause I will be in the kitchen making them lunch so they can eat sandwiches while they talk about all of the cool birds they saw that day. Unbearable! If I wanted to do my own bird watching while volunteering, I would have to rent a car (not cheap in Churchill - basically the same price as Bird Camp) and fit in jaunts between chopping veggies. So, altruism be damned, I decided that I would just pay to go to Bird Camp.
I invited my brother (another vacation birder) and my mom (a casual backyard birder) to come with me. Paul can't come but Mom, foolishly, agreed to join me. (I may not have fully disclosed the costs involved but in for a penny, in for a couple of thousand pounds). Time to book and organize - in the next post.
It actually started years ago when I was thinking I should look into volunteer vacations. I Googled for advise on the subject and found a website (long since forgotten) that said volunteer vacations are not as altruistic as they seem. Usually they are for profit and not very helpful to the 'receiving' organization if the 'volunteer' is only there for a week or two. Really, they are putting up with you in order to get your payment, which they can use to do their real activities of saving children/animals/environment. The website suggested instead to research volunteer opportunities within my own country and to just donate money to international agencies.
So that is what I did. Oxfam Canada gets my money now. And I have always wanted to visit Northern Canada so I Googled volunteer opportunities in the North. I found the Churchill Northern Studies Centre who are staffed partly with volunteers.
.
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| Churchill Northern Studies Centre - their new building |
This seemed ideal. Lots of kitchen/scut work but I would get to participate in the evening presentations and discussions and maybe even help with some research. Plus, super bonus, I could take the train from Winnipeg to Churchill, something I have always wanted to do (which I realized when I discovered it existed). So, I let that idea percolate for a couple of years. The Centre was in the process of building their new building when I first looked into it and it seemed to be in an upheaval. Plus the minimum commitment for volunteering is three weeks (plus travel time) so that would take up my whole year's vacation allotment. Then other trips came up for the next year or two and I couldn't convince Judy that she wanted to come with me. Even with free accommodations and food for volunteers, it is still expensive to get there. As Judy rightly noted, she could get to India for the same price as Churchill.
As you all know, Churchill is a major birding hotspot (what, you didn't know that!?)
(#7 on the top 50). And the CNSC has a Birding Learning Vacation (Spring's Wings, from now on to be referred to as Bird Camp). But, if I am there as a volunteer, I don't get to hang out with the Bird Camp nerds on their daytrips cause I will be in the kitchen making them lunch so they can eat sandwiches while they talk about all of the cool birds they saw that day. Unbearable! If I wanted to do my own bird watching while volunteering, I would have to rent a car (not cheap in Churchill - basically the same price as Bird Camp) and fit in jaunts between chopping veggies. So, altruism be damned, I decided that I would just pay to go to Bird Camp.
I invited my brother (another vacation birder) and my mom (a casual backyard birder) to come with me. Paul can't come but Mom, foolishly, agreed to join me. (I may not have fully disclosed the costs involved but in for a penny, in for a couple of thousand pounds). Time to book and organize - in the next post.
