i can’t tell you how many times i’ve heard a sentence ended with ‘eh?’ since i arrived here in québec. no moose on the loose or mountie sightings yet, but plenty of ‘eh?’-s! :)
this area of the province is absolutely picturesque. if i’d had a free moment in the past 24 hours to snap any photos, you can be sure i’d have uploaded them. but let me just tell you that there are very few other places in the world that have ever taken my breath away.
the landscape reminds me of the pacific northwest, and the québecois people are diverse (heck, i rode up here to maniwaki from the airport with french-speaking syrians while listening to christian music in arabic.) and kind. i adore the pastor and his sweet family, and my hosts have been taking incredible care of me. this morning, i traveled to the camp where the church‘s youth have stayed at for the past week and helped pack up their traveling kitchen trailer and other supplies. you can’t imagine how beautiful of a setting it was, nestled in a forest of white birches and in front of a massive lake.
tonight, a huge group from tennessee arrives in town to put on a sports camp at the high school for the area’s kiddos next week, and i’m thrilled to meet them and begin serving by their sides. a few days after they return home, another group from kansas will get here to do service evangelism projects, which i have the joy of also assisting with. please bathe these upcoming projects in prayer.
these are going to be an incredible five weeks.
p.s. here are a few fun things about québec that i’ve discovered in the last day:
- in the supermarkets, iced tea is sold in cartons – not gallon jugs like our dear old red diamond (a.k.a. liquid GOLD).
- the name for wal-mart’s semi-equivalent here: tiger geant (in english: giant tiger. ha!).
- despite the fact that they may drive a pick-up truck and are wearing a camo browning hat, these cowboys aren’t like the ones at home. they speak french, and it’s still just too strange to not hear a deep drawl when they speak instead.
- gas here is sold by the liter, rather than by a gallon. at $1 per liter, it comes to about $4.50 per gallon. holy crap.