See, as a teenager, I lived in a small remote lil' town in northern Alberta, where most of the people in the town were ethnic Mennonites. Most were quite conservative, but nonetheless amazing people. I loved living there. When I was in grade 11, a friend of mine, Helen and her family, moved away to live on a colony in Bolivia. And that was the last I saw of her.
I had heard a number of years later that she married a fellow, but who, no one seemed to remember the name.
So when we moved here in 2008, I decided I would try and locate her. Hmmm.....there are 50,000 colony Mennonites on 63 colonies and all I had was her maiden name and maybe her husband's name? I put the word out last year to the Centro Menno staff that if a Helen ______ came in that they should call me at the other office and I'd come over and see if it was the Helen I knew. Months passed and I sort of thought it was a needle in a haystack. Her name was pretty common and really, it's like trying to find John Smith in New York.
But one day I got a call and lo! and behold, it was Helen. We were so happy to see each other and couldn't believe that we re-connected. After a bit of a conversation, she told me that I just had to come to her home and visit her and her family.
And that's just what we did. Oh, we had a great time with them. Jake and Helen are such hospitable folks and their 5 children were just great. Our kids had a blast going to help with chores at 6 a.m. for milking and collecting eggs. They got to ride the quad and have horseback rides. Joel was happy as a lark helping with the construction of their new house, and the highlight for Kezia was helping make donuts and werenicki.
We enjoyed our 4 relaxing days with them out in the country, visiting other folk and going for rides among the rice fields. Definitely it'll be a visit that we'll do again soon.
2 comments:
OK, so some of those pictures need more explanation. Is that a snake?! Is it alive? Also, they have a quad? Does that mean they aren't quite as strict as the Mennonites at the colony we visited?
Yes, it's was a huge snake, almost dead, that was driven over minutes before we came along. It was still pulsing!
They aren't ultra conservative colony Mennonites so they have electricity, a vehicle, a quad etc. No, not as conservative as the ones you visited.
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