AquA
COMFOR T FOOD Marcia
Jansen's popular column inside
Gulf Islands
lIvInG
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 VolUmE 15, IssUE 1
TRAVELLERS Islanders make their marks around the world
BID IT UP!
Pender Island School Auction runs through February
RhEn'S PoETRy
Winter sparkles on Barb Levy's nature page
A r t s | v e n t u r e s | f o o d | t r Av e L | c o m m u n i t y
Page 2 – aQua – January/February 2020
Ready to fly
T
he timing of a Dec. 30 Don Pittis column on the CBC News website couldn't have been better for me. Pittis was writing about Marc Jaccard’s new book called The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success, which posits that embracing lifestyle choices like not eating meat or eschewing airplane travel won’t do much to reduce climate change impacts in the short term. Instead, people must identify and support “climate-sincere politicians” who will “transform regional and national level rules about carbon,” according to Pittis. Published the day after I had booked airline tickets for a trip to Australia, my fretting about being a carbonemitting pig was somewhat eased after reading that piece. I already had my defence figured out, though. I haven’t been on an airplane since 2013 (the same year my late husband Michael and I bought a Prius) and have not travelled off the continent in 40 years, since Michael had a serious phobia about long plane trips. I have been saving my carbon credits, so to speak. And, most im-
AQuA
ChLOE SJuBERG PhOTO
Editor’s Message
GuLF ISLANDS
LIvING
This issue published Jan. 8, 2020 Publisher: Amber Ogilvie Editor: Gail Sjuberg
portantly, I am going to visit my beloved step-daughter Sylvia and her family. So no guilt, please. Completely coincidently, this issue of Aqua has a travel theme, with most of the stories about islanders who do interesting things in other parts of the world. Acclaimed ceramic artist Denys James combines art education and travel experiences. Retired lawyer Ralph Keefer has worked with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Tyson Harris has established a wellness retreat in Nicaragua, along with making other contributions to the local community there. Our Q&A person Jill Willmott promotes the Lesotho Solar Cooker Project and has visited that country as a volunteer. Marcia Jansen’s Comfort Food column is always about a Salt Spring Islander from another part of the world, of course, and this time it’s Morocco. And finally, Aqua’s own stalwart Cherie Thiessen shares what she has gleaned from her years of travelling. It is not a coincidence, however, that we chose a travelthemed Aqua for this time of year. I hope you enjoy the rest of the winter months, whether you are hunkered down at home or in a sunnier spot abroad. — Gail Sjuberg
Art Director & Production: Lorraine Sullivan Advertising: Shirley Command, Eli Wick Aqua Writers: Cherie Thiessen, Elizabeth Nolan, Marc Kitteringham, David Dossor, Gail Sjuberg, Marcia Jansen Aqua Photographers: Elizabeth Nolan, Cherie Thiessen, David Dossor, Marcia Jansen Cover photo of Denys James in Morocco courtesy Discovery Art Travel Vacations Aqua is published by Driftwood Publishing Ltd., 328 Lower Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2V3 Phone: 250-537-9933 / Email: news@driftwoodgimedia.com Websites: www.driftwoodgimedia.com; www.gulfislandstourism.com; www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com Publications Mail Reg. #08149 PRINTED IN CANADA
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View the Historical Display in the family residence January/February 2020 – AQUA – Page 3
Coming up!
30
contents JAN/FEB
TANTALIZERS! PAGE 6
COVER STORY
Artist and teacher Denys James helps people dive deeply with art travel adventures, PAGE 7
TRAVEL
Aqua writer Cherie Thiessen reflects on years of travelling, PAGE 12 Tyson Harris' vision unfolds at Costa Dulce in Nicaragua, PAGE 30
NATURE
Otters and frosty mornings enchant, PAGE 18
ISLANDERS
NEXT ISSuE ON SALE MARCH 4 Gulf Islands creations in art and food in focus, plus history, nature, books and more.
AquA GuLF ISLANDS
Page 4 – aQua – January/February 2020
LIvING
Ralph Keefer: from courts to refugee work, music and historical writing, PAGE 22
COMMUNITY
Helping kids and snagging treasures at the Pender Island School Auction, PAGE 26
COMFORT FOOD Halim Ouhammou shares his love of Morocco,
PAGE 36
Q&A
Jill Willmott and the Lesotho Solar Cooker Project, PAGE 38
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2020
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• Sea STar eSTaTe Farm and Vineyard on pender iSland received a high honour in December by making the Wines of Canada’s Best Wineries to Visit in 2020 list. “The dramatic winery building designed by WalTer FranCl is a great venue, as is the adjacent garden patio and spacious lawn, both of which are licensed picnic areas. The vineyard views are amazing. Numerous events are held at the winery and wines always sell out!” The Wines of Canada list includes 19 B.C. venues from among 56 nationwide. B.C. has 280 licensed grape wine wineries and 370
Page 6 – AQUA – January/February 2020
licensed wineries, among the more than 800 licensed wineries across Canada.
• arTSpring’S fundraising raffle Paul Burke's Estuary 2014 installation. Burke is one of the for 2020 is an artists participating in Against the Current: Orca + Salmon. exclusive eco getaway. Launching on Jan. 10 and with a draw date of May 5, the first prize is two nights for two at the Sonora Resort in the Discovery Islands, including flights, luxury accommodation, gourmet dining, spa services, guided salmon fishing and much more. The second prize is two tickets to all ArtSpring Presents 2020-2021 performances and $200 for a House Piccolo meal. Only 500 tickets will be sold.
sea star winery Photo
• The SalT Spring arTS CounCil continues to roll out innovative programming by presenting an exhibit and related activities from Feb. 14 to 24 called Against the Current: Orca + Salmon. Events that will help deepen people’s understanding of the orca and its Chinook salmon food source include artist/biologist talks, workshops and participatory art engagement. Contributing artists include Briony Penn, Paul Burke, Anna Gustafson, Tracy Harrison, Quentin Harris, Andrea Palframan and Natasha Van Netten, among others. SSAC program manager Jane MacKenzie says, “A big component of the exhibit is the participation of all elementary and middle school age youth in the creation of a salmon wall piece, as an offering to the salmon.” Opening night features a documentary film called To the Orca, With Love by Natalie Lucier.
Jen maclellan Photo
Tantalizers
Sea Star winery's promotional photo.
• Three more concerts are on the bill in the galiano ConCerT SoCieTy’S season at the South Galiano Community Hall. The Bergmann Piano Duo performs Feb. 8, the Fringe Percussion group with guest Paolo Bortolussi on March 7 and the Koerner Piano Trio on April 4. The Bergmann and Koerner concerts are at 7:30 p.m. and the Fringe Percussion show is at 2 p.m.
g n i n o i t a c Va
Cover Story
with the
Arts
sALt spring’s denys JAmes LeAds clay-inspired travel Story by ELIZABETH NOLAN
Photos courtesy Discovery Art Travel Vacations, except as noted
p
eople wIth an Interest In clay and ceraMIcs will find that many places around the world afford invaluable lessons on the topic. Travel can provide an embodied experience of Scenes what it means to be around natural buildfrom the fall ing materials and associated art forms 2019 Discovery Art as part of daily life, and show how history Travel Vacations tour of imbues present-day practices. Morocco that included the Putting together a trip that reaches just the cities of Rabat, Meknes, Fez right people, locations and educational comand Marrakesh, the hilltop ponents can be more challenging, however. village of D'Har, exploration of That’s where Salt Spring’s Denys James comes traditional Berber pottery in. He’s been bringing travellers on specialized and other cultural experiences. arts and culture trips for 25 years. A studio artist and ceramics teacher who has led workshops in many parts of the world, James is also the founder of Discovery Art Travel vacations. Taking around a dozen people with him on international trips timed to the spring and fall, James leads excursions that explore the rich creative output of the past as well as the ceramic production happening now. As someone whose art has been influenced by the traditions of places like Turkey, Sicily and India, James shares an opportunity for others to enrich their lives in the same way. January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 7
ELIzABETh NOLAN PhOTO ELIzABETh NOLAN PhOTOS
Above: Denys James in his Welbury Bay studio on Salt Spring. At left and below: Ceramic pieces by James. Next page: Moroccan villager makes huge vessel from clay extracted and made from the earth nearby.
Page 8 – aQua – January/February 2020
“The idea that’s kind of propelled this whole thing forward is that I could introduce people that have had a limited exposure to the world and to clay and to art-making to get out of the classroom, get out of the studio, and go somewhere and have their eyes opened,” James says. “To watch people’s eyes pop open — that’s the excitement for me, being originally a teacher. I get inspired, so I take them somewhere where maybe they’ll get inspired too.” The roots of Discovery Art Travel vacations started when James was teaching three-dimensional design at the victoria College of Art. The school had a six-week break between semesters, which allowed him to do different things during that period. In 1994, he was asked by the Institute of Allende (an English-language arts school that catered mainly to foreigners) in San Miguel, Mexico to teach a course in ceramics during his break period. He recalls the school had a nice studio but had a strange, sporadic enrollment policy. “Anybody could show up and want to start some work,” he says. “I’d be ready to fire with some people that had been there for two weeks and all of a sudden a bunch of people would show up and want to get started when we were right in the middle of it. It was very badly organized.” After his first time teaching in San Miguel, James decided to bring his own group down, renting a studio where he could teach clay. The students could take other courses at the institute if they preferred. The idea was “they could respond to how they felt about that environment and how they were influenced by the people, the architecture and the colours. It would come into their work,” James explains. By that point James had been teaching in art schools for years, and found he was limited in resources that could show how clay was used in other parts of the world. “I was always trying to find slides and bring in other influences, so this was perfect for me because I could take people to where those other exciting ancient, and maybe interesting contemporary things, were going on,” James says. “So they came down and we all took Spanish and stayed in the guest house and that’s how it all kind of started. Eventually I spread it out. I started doing it in Oaxaca and then I moved it to Turkey. I kept finding countries where I was inspired.” James describes the influence of other cultures on his own artistic path as being kind of a collage of different senses that leak into his work. He is known for producing both hand-built vessel forms and more complex sculptural pieces that can involve architectural, figurative and narrative elements. (He was recognized with an honourable mention for one of his painting-on-clay portraits at the second biennial Salt Spring Island Ceramic Awards in 2018.) Indirectly, James is affected by the elemental simplicity of products like the pinch pots made by many cultures, a practice he returns to regularly. He is attracted to steps in ruins, the openings and passageways in ancient walls. He likes to set the human figure in relation to the architecture, “perhaps suggesting a story or leading the viewer to wonder what the story might be, or if there is one or not.” The arch — found in older architecture styles in many places around the world — and people in the environment of the arch has been a theme of his work for years. The way that nature takes over in ancient places like Cambodia’s Angkor Wat is another strong influence, with remnants of human faces sculpted in stone
still glimpsed amidst vines and trees. Seeing how artists have interpreted the human face and captured emotion in past times is equally of interest. “It’s intriguing, all that stuff to me. And then of course there’s all the museums we visit in these places, so I’m strongly influenced by all the art I see,” he says. James has led trips to Mediterranean destinations such as Italy, Greece and Turkey, and South East Asia locales, including Thailand, Burma, Laos and Bali. Currently he is more focused on the Andalusia region of Spain, and Morocco, where the most recent trip took place in November 2019. James has been tracing the Moorish influence on architecture and art, an interest that started with the Spanish colonial buildings and tiles he first saw in Mexico. Discovery Art Travel vacations tours typically include all the major points of interest a traveller would want to see, but also include smaller galleries, potters’ studios and villages where people are working in ceram-
ics. The Morocco trip has been going nearly every year for the past 10 years. It usually includes an afternoon working with clay in Fez in a traditional studio where the participants can either try to do traditional mosaic work or painting on clay inspired by Islamic designs. But although participation in studio work is still available on some of the tours, it’s no longer the main focus. “It’s hard to find a group of people that wants to work together in a studio in another country,” James explains. “Most people would rather work when they get home, and they’d rather travel more and see more in the country.” One of the points that can be particularly meaningful is the demonstrations of how the Moroccan villagers make things out of clay, and get their clay in the first place. “It’s all very simple and another world, compared to what people are used to,” James observes. “We’re used to getting clay out of plastic bags. There they hack it out of the ground,
COVERI NG THE ISLANDS
to wAtch peopLe’s eyes pop open — thAt’s the excItement for me, BeIng orIgInALLy A teAcher. denys James
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Page 10 – aQua – January/February 2020
Travel
travel Lessons WhAt Writer cherie thiessen hAs LeArned WhiLe ‘on Assignment’ Around the gLoBe Story by CHERIE THIESSEN
Photos courtesy Cherie Thiessen and David Dossor
Page 12 – aQua – January/February 2020
T
HINK “TRAvEL” AND WHAT COMES TO MIND? Relaxation, perhaps; treats; new sights, sounds and places; a break from the usual; a chance to try new foods and experiences; to possibly fulfill a dream. Probably going back to school isn’t one of the first things that comes to mind, unless you lucked out with trips abroad while in high school. Learning, however, is often a solitary process that sneaks up on you even without you realizing it. until you do. Whether on bikes, elephants, horses or camels; whether by train, freighter, canal boat, sailboat, plane or ferry, every trip I have taken has been an adventure and a learning experience. Here are some of the lessons that have found me out and remained in my head due to my lifelong passion for travel and my good fortune in being able to live those travelling dreams.
preJudIces get put In theIr pLAce
Cherie Thiessen checks out some Australian outback history. Previous page: Thiessen and David Dossor at a Melbourne, Australia food fest.
It is commonly said that much prejudice stems from ignorance. If so, what better way to dispel it than in studying it at its roots? When my partner and I lived and worked in China many years ago, for example, train travel was difficult and crowded, and rarely were seats or berths available in the small town of Linfen, halfway between Xian and Beijing. When boarding for an overnight trip to Beijing, not surprisingly we couldn’t find space. A peasant woman got up from her berth and gave it up to my mother. The berth would have been difficult to get; she would have paid dearly for it, and she probably only travelled away from her village a few times in her life. And yet, she gave it away with no expectation of anything in return. It was a lesson I never forgot: kindness and generosity can exist everywhere.
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I also began to slowly understand why so often recently arrived Chinese in Canada would crowd me. In a populous country there is no such concept of “personal space.” Everyone is often jammed into someone else; it has nothing to do with rudeness or hostility. I also used to consider Mandarin a strident, jarring language, but when I returned from China, having mastered a small amount of the language myself in the year we were there, I loved those dipping tones and the memories they evoked. When you “put yourself out there” without a safety net, you do as Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire did: You depend on the kindness of strangers. And often that kindness is forthcoming.
eVerythIng Is now When I leave my secure routine and step out into an unknown place, I feel like my life is a blank sheet of paper on which I can write whatever I want. The old routines fall away and everything is freshly experienced for the first time. All of my senses are twitching and exploring and everything is concentrated because I know I may not be here again. I don’t say to people I meet and enjoy: “We must get together soon.” I say, “Let’s meet up tonight.” I don’t say: “We should make plans to visit that museum.” I say, “Let’s go.”
Page 14 – aQua – January/February 2020
Nothing gets put off. Every moment is immediate and lived. When teaching in Japan I enjoyed vibrant and intense times with some of my colleagues. When it was time to leave, there was sadness, of course, but I would not have wanted to miss knowing those people and stashing away those memories of our times together.
seeds of wIsdom cAn Be pLAnted And germInAte Wisdom is a reward that sometimes surreptitiously sneaks up in awesome and myriad ways. Along with that blank sheet of paper comes an emptier mind, one more receptive to what’s present. Stepping off the treadmill of work, home and children, I find myself, like Robert Frost, often choosing the road not taken and finding meaning in places and things that I would normally miss. What do I mean? It’s more of a spiritual thing, a slowing down to absorb what’s around me, both concrete and abstract. Standing in the ruins of St. Benet’s Abbey in the Norfolk Broads, for example, I feel the edifice straining to tell me things and I linger while the twilight sun dips into one of the empty windows. What? What is it? No, I don’t get there, but in the process of opening myself up, of just absorbing, I feel I’m closer to the great mystery, and I want to keep that process alive.
At left: The writer's friends Pat Crossley and Gerry McKeating on a Stratford-upon-Avon canal voyage during a trip to England. Below: Dossor photographs the Trulli of Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Puglia region of Italy. Trulli are traditional residences of the area with conical stone roofs.
reLAtIonshIps Are enhAnced There’s no question in my mind that our travelling and working abroad has strengthened and embellished the relationship I have with my lifelong partner, David Dossor. Together we have faced hardships, overcome obstacles, been awed by incredible sights, hiked into deserts and over mountains, slept in everything from tiny tents in deluges and even snowstorms on Mount Rainier to castles in Scotland, from a derelict, halfcompleted structure on a Greek Island to a freezing cement room shared with a dozen spitting men in Tibet at the top of the world’s highest road pass, the 5,230-metre Tanggula Pass. These memories get re-lived and re-shared. We know each other in a way couples often do not as our bonds have been tested in so many new and different ways, compared to many couples whose life pattern has been uniformly consistent. There has been so much need for flexibility in our roles with each other and with the world. So much to talk about, to re-live and to savour. We can sit in a 25-foot sailboat or a vW van for months on end and feel blessed to have shelter, a bed and a two-burner element.
It’s the Best kInd of hIstory And Art Lessons Living in the past and experiencing it as it is still lived in many countries is surely one of the best ways to acquire knowledge of our history. In Romania we slept in our van beside the road while carts drawn by horses rolled up the hill close by where I imagined Count Dracula had once drained the blood of locals and may still be slurping. In the food stores I was amazed and excited to see that there was no throwaway packaging. I walked in one entrance and then slowly picked up the food items I wanted, or
thought looked interesting. They were all in the same containers! I walked along the tiny aisle and then down the next, picking up items in glass. I paid for my purchases, put them in my bag, and noticed that behind a nearby window a woman was counting up all of the containers brought back by a consumer and then paying her in coins for them. That was the ultimate in recycling all those years ago. Gazing at Turner and Constable in the National Gallery in London I honed a much keener appreciation of art and fell in love with the Dadaists. There is nothing that can compare to actually being there, where battles were fought, where artists created their masterpieces, where castles, walls and edifices were erected. Being able to engage all of the senses with history is the ultimate way to learn. Standing in the Darwin Cemetery in East Falkland Island where so many Argentinian soldiers were killed in the 1982 war between England and Argentina, I felt a great sadness and a strong need to learn more about this small, scantly populated island and why those young men were willing to die for it. January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 15
“BeIng ABLe to engAge ALL of the senses wIth hIstory Is the uLtImAte wAy to LeArn.” cherie thiessen I wish that a sixth reason could be to write that travel keeps you young. Alas — no. Now in my mid70s, I know the time when I will be putting away my travel writing and my backpack and camera cannot be that far off, but I also know that it has kept me more conscious of living every moment fully, aware of the necessity to “pay it forward,” needful of being less judgmental and more tolerant, and more grateful for every day that I can pull the anchor up from the stern of our sailboat, push up the roof on our vW camper, put the packs on the back of my bike, and plan for our next trip.
Dossor learns about geography in the Blue Mountains of Australia.
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Nature
rhen's poetry poetic imAges of sALt spring isLAnd pOeM & pHOtOs By BarB levy
WINTER PLAY Wispy clouds of tiny droplets float over the pond, MIChAEL LEVy PhOTO
touching the frosty fields as they’re caressed by the sun.
Barb Levy, AKA Rhen, is a poet, musician and photographer who has lived on Salt Spring for 17 years. Rhen's Poetry matches the seasons in each issue of Aqua. For more images by Barb Levy and to connect with her about her work, visit www.facebook.com/ saltspringbarbrhenpoetry/
And with their meandering, your mind begins opening, slipping effortlessly — like the leopard seal slips into his liquid home — into a dreamscape where puddles become ice rinks adorned with swirling patterns from your figure skates and crystalline flakes turn into angels and igloos while the River Otters — with their playful smiles — watch you from their islet in the Bay.
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Islanders
on a mIssIon
Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. Below: Ralph Keefer with young Rohingya refugees in 2018.
Work With rohingyA refugees Among rALph keefer’s cALLings Story by DAVID DOSSOR Photos courtesy Ralph Keefer, except as noted
for nearly a Month, ralph Keefer had not showed up for our thrIce weeKly tennIs battles on pender’s MaGIc laKe courts. then one sunny morning he appeared again, preparing to serve as if he had never left. “hey, ralph. what have you been up to?” “oh, I’ve been off island.” “really? where have you been?” “oh, I’ve been to bangladesh.” “really? what did you go there for?”
Page 22 – aQua – January/February 2020
“to interview rohingya refugees.” “really!” how could we have not known that one of our tennis buddies had left on such a humanitarian mission? The reason is simple. He never told us. And why not? Well, because Keefer is modest and humble. He is not unlike many of my retired island friends. Past achievements often remain undisclosed until they are brought to light by some chance remark. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Curious about Keefer’s mission, and how it was that Keefer became involved with the Rohingya refugee crisis, I visited his home that he shares with his artist and musician partner Sue Hetherington. There, sipping tea in his spacious front room that looks out aerie-like over Haro Strait and Swanson Channel, things unfold and I get more than I bargained for. For almost 30 years, Keefer worked as a Crown prosecutor in vancouver and in 2016 moved to Pender Island, retiring completely from criminal law. In the early 1990s he had worked for a while doing refugee claim work representing Chinese clients who had fled China in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989. He was well qualified for such a job, since he had also worked as a lawyer in Hong Kong and Taiwan for almost four years. Shortly after his move to Pender with Hetherington, he was approached by a Princeton colRohingya girls in a United Nations refugee camp where Keefer conducted interviews. league who was doing work for the united States Department of State and the united Nations in the area of human rights abuses. Keefer was invited to join a team of prosecutors local integration or resettlement to a third country. “Every morning we would leave our hotel and it was a 45-minute trip who had been assembled to interview Rohingya refugees in the refugee camps of Eastern Bangladesh and to analyze their accounts. He trav- to the camp. On arrival we had access to the only flush toilet in the elled there in March 2018 and together with 17 other investigators from whole area. We would then, using a GPS as a guide, choose a particular 11 countries, conducted 1,024 interviews in 34 different refugee camps. area for each investigator. Statistically, we had to knock on every third Those camps housed almost a million people, half of them children, and door on the left. The people were very welcoming, inviting us into their were set up by the united Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, bamboo and tarpaulin homes that had no furniture and dirt floors, no whose mandate is to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities electricity, no running water. A few had a 12-volt battery hooked up for and stateless people and to assist them in their voluntary repatriation, a light. Sometimes I wished the kids were not present to hear the stories,
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but often they were. They seemed to take it all in. Most kids, there were about 300,000 of them under 12, just played outside with joyous abandon.” The stories the team heard of what the Rohingya had suffered at the hands of the Myanmar military were shocking in the extreme. “In 30 years of prosecutions, I thought I had seen it all,” explains Keefer. “This was so shocking, so horrific. It was the worst thing I’d ever heard in terms of cruelty and barbarity. As a fellow investigator said, ‘It was a level of violence so savage, it reminded me of accounts of the Rape of Nanjing and of the film Apocalypse Now.'” The inquiry report was released in September 2018 and its findings were similar to those of an independent uN report that followed shortly after. Keefer is positive that the mission will make a difference. “Both reports were very useful in causing the u.S. to adopt resolutions condemning the genocide and now attempts are being made by the international community to bring the f****rs to justice.“ As a diversion, steering away from the Bangladesh events, perhaps because they are still raw, Keefer hands me a book called Grounded in Eire. I see on the dust cover that he is the
author. what was most amazing, was that the prison“Speaking of internment camps, have you ers were frequently allowed on parole, as long seen this?” he asks. as they returned by 2 a.m., and with the stipuAnd now I am taken to another war; this lation that there should be no escaping. They time to a fascinating story of World War II that, were only allowed to escape once they were had it not been for Keefer’s publication, would back behind the barbed wire of their fenced have faded into history or at least be hidden camp. Keefer, on a leave of absence from the away in archives. It is really a testament to his father, R.G.C. “Bobby” Keefer, who found him- Crown, travelled to Ireland to do research for self interned in Eire in October 1941. A former his book, which was published in 2001, having McGill football star, he had joined the RAF and worked on it over a period of seven years. It was piloting a Wellington bomber with a crew is well written, humourous and detailed with of five back to the u.K. after a bombing raid impressive research. He certainly brings histoin Germany. His plane was hit by flak, lost its ry very much to life and it is no surprise that radio navigation capability and was forced to it has been optioned five times for a movie, fly on dead reckoning. Lost and running out of with the latest interest being by an Irish, Engfuel, the crew, four Brits and two Canadians, all lish and German consortium hoping to raise parachuting for the first time, found themselves money for a mini series. But the Rohingya experience is still hauntin Eire. They were rounded up by the Irish authorities and interned for violating Eire’s air- ing. This time I am led into another of Keefspace. Eire, under the leadership of Éamon de er’s worlds, his music making. Hanging up on a shaded wall in his sunvalera, had agreed on a stance of neutrality, so the country was unwilling to send airmen back filled front room are banjos, violins and many guitars. I ask him about his music. to fight for one side or the other. Alaska The internvoyages early 20s: banjo, guitar ment camp housing allied airmen was situated on board “I played a lot in myRoundtrip bands until I had kids, right next to a camp housing German airmen. and played in bluegrass Victoria X Jul 30,30 X Q022B 11 nights 2020 Queen and then didn’t play for about years. I have It may seem amusing that soldiers on both sidesElizabeth. of the war often played soccer together, but always enjoyed songwriting.” Glacier Bay Hubbard ®
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Give us your tired, give us your poor. Give us your wounded, with pain that comes no more. Abide the huddled masses along your teeming shore. Keep the lantern bright beside the golden door . . . . Just a month before our interview, however, the Bangladesh authorities banned the use of cell phones in the camps for “security” reasons. Music is very much part of Keefer’s life. His heroic father was grounded, but his son’s music grounds him in a different sense. And it was music that drew him to Pender some three years ago. “I had visited here and stayed at a friend’s house and was impressed by the vibe of the place, the natural beauty, the spirit of volunteerism. It was very impressive. The music scene is fabulous here and affordable.” Strange he did not mention the tennis scene. And that time on the tennis courts that spawned this inquiry? Well, Keefer, momentarily distracted from his serve, winds up again and let’s fly. It’s an ace. What a player!
DAVID DOSSOR PhOTO
With that he disappears and reappears with a CD. “Here, you can have this,” he says. “This is my new CD. We are having a CD release concert celebration at Gather [in Hope Bay].” There Ralph will be joined by a number of multi-talented local musicians. I wondered if he wrote a song about his dad. “Yes, I have one song on my album, but mostly they are stupid songs that only appeal to me. I don’t really take myself seriously as a songwriter. I just do it for the enjoyment.” I think Keefer is somewhat self-deprecating in his assessment. The final song of his album is entitled Song for Rafiq. It was written when he was in Bangladesh. At the end of an interview with a young father of five, the father showed Keefer a cell phone that had been delivered to him via parcel to one of the makeshift markets in what is now the largest refugee camp in the world. The irony spawned the song. The final poignant refrain is sung by the harmonious Pender Island Youth Choir. The words are a reworking of the Statue of Liberty’s message, welcoming refugees:
Keefer at home on Pender with his guitar.
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Community
generosIty . . . Pender Island School Auction items are perused at Talisman Books & Gallery at last year's event.
feBruAry is siLent Auction month on pender isLAnd Story by GAIL SJUBERG
Photo courtesy Darcie Whittingham
Page 26 – aQua – January/February 2020
F
kids
ebruary is a special month on Pender Island. That’s when the entire community comes together for a major fundraiser: the Pender Island School Auction held at Talisman Books & Gallery in the Driftwood Centre. From Feb. 1 to 27 this year, more than 200 silent auction items gathered by auction committee members from the school’s Parents Advisory Council will be displayed at the store. The auction closes at 2 p.m. sharp on Feb. 27. Items range from artwork to gift certificates from local businesses, to food and beverage baskets, toys, travel-related items, marine services and so much more. “People are very generous, because it’s for the kids,” explains committee member Darcie Whittingham.
The fundraiser began as part of the PAC’s annual winter carnival, until Talisman came on board to donate their space in 2015, initiated by parent Jennifer MacGillivray. Rita Boyte is the parent in charge of the auction. “This is a huge job and many hours are spent following up and organizing all the volunteers involved,” says Whittingham. Request letters for donations are issued on Pender Island and in Sidney and victoria. PAC members pick up the donations and store them until the auction is set up, and gift cards and certificates are copied with the copies mounted for display. Gifts and items get put in baskets and prepped for the auction. “On set-up day, we haul tables, shelves, tablecloths and display items to the bookstore,” says Whittingham. “They get numbered and an auction sheet gets displayed. This takes at least a full day and usually a few extra days of little tweaks. During the auction, we take turns going and straightening things and making sure the space looks nice and tidy.” The fact that the auction goes on for almost a month is one of the secrets to its success. “All month long there is an excitement about the auction. The items are displayed for such a long time that people come back and check on their bids. It’s fun and the cause is such a great one that people are generous with their bids.”
Whittingham says she repeatedly hears how fantastic the event is. “I feel like it connects our school with community. There are many community members that don’t have kids in the school, so this is a fun way to support them and be involved.” Each year the group has exceeded its fundraising goal, consistently bringing in more than $15,000. “We are over the moon with this amount,” says Whittingham. Funds raised go to literary sets, field trips, computers, science supplies, a bike rodeo, lunch programs and anything else the school doesn’t have funds for. The PAC votes monthly on spending requests. Whittingham says PAC members are extremely grateful for how community members and business owners have embraced the event. “We have always been grateful for the support of our community, starting with a bookstore that donates the space for us. Words don’t seem like enough to thank Talisman for the space and our loving community for donations and bids,” she says. The volunteers involved are also “amazing people,” she adds. “They are parents of kids in the school, they have full-time jobs and are involved with our wonderful community.” For information on how to donate, contact Whittingham at 250-857-2256 or darcie.whittingham@icloud.com.
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Getaways
endless surfIng
the rise of regenerAtive tourism in nicArAguA story by Marc KitterinGHaM Photos courtesy Costa Dulce
WHEN HE WAS 22, TYSON HARRIS WENT ON A SuRF TRIP.
He and a few buddies got in their car and drove down to Nicaragua. Their destination was a small town on the Pacific coast in the southern half of the country called San Juan del Sur. Harris fell in love with the village and the way of life, and by chance was overheard talking about his trip by a local realtor, who offered him a job. “I had no intention of really staying, but I met some really good people in San Juan Del Sur and had a really enjoyable time in the country,” he says. Things were going well for a while for Harris. He worked as a real estate agent in San Juan del Sur and purchased a parcel of oceanfront land nearby. A development boom started as the country recovered from years of strife and real estate speculation was on the rise. Harris worked with American colleagues to turn his oceanfront land into something special. “There was this real estate boom and things were happening very fast,” he says. “We were kind of going with the flow. There wasn’t much premeditating on how the development should look and how to have a positive impact on the environment and the people around me, which unfortunately I think is the case in a lot of places.” Things changed in 2008. While an economic collapse is often seen as a major detriment to Page 30 – aQua – January/February 2020
Costa Dulce guests practise yoga on the beach. Previous page: Surfing a big wave at San Juan del Sur.
coastal
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anyone, especially to a small village in a nation just recovering from a decadeslong civil war, the crisis turned out to be a turning point for Harris and his project. That period of instability forced him to reconsider the choices he’d made about his life in Nicaragua. After marrying a Nicaraguan woman and beginning a family in the village, Harris got a first-hand look at the real challenges that people were facing in the area. He decided to do something about it. That surfing trip was not Harris’ first visit to the country. When he was six years old, he travelled from his home on Galiano Island to Nicaragua to be in a documentary film that his father George Harris was filming. Islanders may recognize George’s name as one of the founders of the Ometepe-Gulf Islands Friendship Association sister island partnership that brought Ometepe coffee to Salt Spring.
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admin@talismanbooks.ca www.talismanbooks.ca January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 31
At left: Tyson Harris, who hails from Galiano Island, with Costa Dulce staff. Next page, from top: Paddle boarding is another recreational option through the resort; yoga in the forest.
“I had always been involved in charity work, since my dad was an activist and activism was kind of in my childhood, but it was all fairly superficial and I didn’t fully understand the local reality and challenges that people were facing,” he says. “I kind of shifted my energy and efforts to more community building and I had a moment of realization that the collective well-being and the health of the environment around me was as important as anything in terms of what would bring me fulfillment and contentment,” he explains. The result of all this is the Costa Dulce Wellness Playground. The centre acts as both a wellness retreat focusing on yoga, surfing and sustainability, and as a community hub and source of employment for local people.
winter
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Page 32 – aQua – January/February 2020
artisan breads fresh baked goods island famous cinnamon buns espressos . smoothies minutes from the ferry terminal 44 MADRONA DRIVE 250-539-2004 wendycoburn@telus.net
“It was more about the team that was doing it and the co-op environment, rather than trying to look at it as a personal business venture,” Harris says. “Through that, there was all these positive things. When you really focus on community development, it is really incredible the impact and what can happen.” Staying at Costa Dulce is a combination retreat getaway and sustainability immersion. While with the current climate crisis it can be hard to justify the long flights to warmer climes, Costa Dulce has developed a carbon offsetting program at their Collado nature reserve to help mitigate the impact of international tourism. That makes up part of an idea they call regenerative tourism, which is to have tourism actually have a net positive impact on the area, rather than a strictly extractive impact.
Costa Dulce hires local people who get the chance to gain experience in one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. Harris and his staff focus on keeping the local economy thriving, and not simply reaching out to professionals in the cities to come and run the resort. Over the years, Harris and Costa Dulce have been able to acquire more community lands and to develop them into assets for the people who live there. They have opened a school, a nature preserve and an affordable housing development that all benefit the local residents, instead of those who are trying to take advantage of a fertile market. Another part of the regenerative tourism program is a sea turtle nursery. Sea turtle eggs have long been an economic driver in the area. They are used in high-end restaurants and exported internationally. Harris set up the nursery as a way to promote the diverse sea life and to bring more money to the area through tourism January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 33
“when you reALLy focus on communIty deVeLopment, It Is reALLy IncredIBLe the ImpAct And whAt cAn hAppen.” tyson harris
Above: Sea turtle from nursery. At right: Surfers head out to the ocean. Next page: Resort guest explores the shoreline.
rather than through the egg trade. He explains that through community involvement and local excitement, the nursery has proven to be worth more than the egg market ever was. “I didn’t feel that it was my place to tell the villagers who already had challenges with resources and feeding their families that they couldn’t do that. What we were able to do is raise funds to create a rewards program where we give rewards for each nest and preserve them, and then we release the baby turtles,” he adds. Regenerative tourism does not stop with the environment but extends to the local population. Costa Dulce has invested in an
education project, drinking water sustainability work and a local food sustainability program. Costa Dulce has not escaped hardships. Recent opposition to the Nicaraguan government has led to what Harris calls a “heavy-handed response” and a slough of bad press. With a negative image of the country, fewer people were making the trek to stay in the resort. The community saw that as a chance to focus more on agriculture, and on building local resilience and a food system not unlike that underway in the Gulf Islands now. Climate change has also been taking its toll on the small village.
* Susan de Stein Susan de Stein* MBA, Realtor ® MBA, Realtor ® E susandestein@shaw.ca
susandestein@shaw.ca 250.537.7943 250.537.7943 BestOfSaltSpringRealEstate.com W BestOfSaltSpringRealEstate.com *Personal Real Estate Corp. *Personal Real Estate Corp. E C C W
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In October 2017, a storm that would become Hurricane Nate inflicted heavy damage on San Juan del Sur, resulting in damaged and destroyed homes as well as some casualties in the village. Again, Costa Dulce stepped up to provide relief, building homes for those who were impacted by the storm. Harris now spends most of his time in Nicaragua, with a few months of the year spent in the Gulf Islands. His office overlooks the beach, and he does his work to the sound of the calm waves crashing on the soft sand. He found a place he loves and has worked hard to help it thrive
ecologically, economically and socially. “I was always reluctant to really publicize it to people I knew. With the challenges I faced, I was self conscious of what I was doing. Over the past three or four years it has really formalized and we have a 100 per cent satisfaction rate of people who come,” he says. While he is a busy man with all of his ventures, he still finds time to do what he came down there to do. In some ways, he found a lot more than just some waves: he found a community, a home and a purpose. In other ways, his surf trip just never ended.
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Comfort Food
Slow Creations WONDERS OF MOROCCAN COOKING SHARED you’d be surprised by how many different nationalities live on salt spring Island. and each one of them has their own comfort food. STORy & PhOTOS By MARCIA JANSEN
Marcia Jansen is a Dutch journalist and writer who has lived on Salt Spring since 2012. www.ssicomfortfood.com
h
alim Ouhammou was born in Morocco, went to university in Germany and is now a teacher on Salt Spring Island. He visits his home country in North Africa every other year. “I go there to see my mother and to repair my soul,” he says. “I slow down. We eat together, drink tea together and I spend sacred moments in the company of my family.” This past summer Halim took his wife Yvonne, who comes from the Philippines, and his eight-year-old son Gian on a trip to the northern part of Morocco. “Morocco, especially the north, is beautiful. The markets, with an abundance of fresh vegetables, fruits and seafood, are unbelievable, as is the landscape and the wonderful people. My wife fell in love with northern Morocco. She wants to retire there, but only time will tell,” says the 49-year-old Halim. He goes on to explain: “Though things are slowly changing, there is still a deep injustice in the system in Morocco. I grew up in a small place close to the moun-
Page 36 – aQua – January/February 2020
The Ouhammou family: Yvonne, Halim and Gian.
tains as part of a Berber tribe, the Indigenous people in North Africa. My father sold his piece of land and took us to a place close to Meknes, a city located 70 kilometres east of the capital Rabat. My father moved to seek better opportunities and give his family a chance to survive in a fast-changing world.” His parents managed to put all three of their kids through university. Halim studied English literature in Rabat and Kénitra, which is situated on the coast. “I lived at home until I was 27 and, having lived under the wings of very loving parents, it was somewhat challenging to be by myself when I left,” he says with a smile. “Although I come from a modern family and my sister went to university as well, my mother did everything for us. She is a great cook and sometimes I helped her in the kitchen, but I never actually learned to cook.” When he was 28, Halim moved to Kiel, Germany to study German, romance languages and philosophy and stayed there until 2004. “I could have stayed in Europe, but the road was calling. I wanted to travel and see the world. North America appealed to me in many ways because of its beauty
“I could hAvE stAyEd IN EuropE, But thE roAd wAs cAllINg. I wANtEd to trAvEl ANd sEE thE world." and its majestic landscapes. There is so much to explore and uncover in this continent. So when I got my permanent residency in Canada, I took a leap of faith. My only regret is that I started my PhD in Germany and I didn’t complete it.” Halim landed in vancouver in 2004 and worked for Citizenship and Immigration Canada for four years. He helped convention refugees with their paperwork so they could start a new life in Canada. “I worked closely with people from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia and Africa and I heard some heart-wrenching stories. It was one of the most rewarding jobs I have had, but it was also very emotional. So after four years, I decided to leave, looking for new prospects and new challenges.” Since 2011 he has taught French and social studies at Gulf Islands Secondary School. “I love my students, and I tell them regularly,” he says. “I’ve learned to love like a mom. It is unconditional and I don’t need anything in return, although I hope that it motivates them to do their best in school. Teaching is my calling. Education needs to engage the minds and educate the hearts. I believe deeply and firmly in the transformative power of education.” Halim visited Salt Spring for the first time in 2007 and fell in love with the place. “I love the landscape and the people are open-minded. Salt Spring Island is a beautiful place and has a wonderful community. You can be whoever you want to be here and that’s what I like most. The first five years I commuted between Salt Spring and vancouver, but for three years we have called Salt Spring home.” Although Halim enjoys eating good food, he spends time in the kitchen more as a helper. His wife, who works as a nurse at Greenwoods, made a traditional Moroccan dish for this occasion: Moroccan fish ball tagine. It is prepared in a tagine, a cone-shaped cooking pot made of ceramic or clay, which is used to slow cook stews of vegetables, lamb, chicken or fish. “I can peel vegetables, clean the dishes and cook basic things, but my wife has learned over the years to experiment with different cuisines. We cook Moroccan food occasionally as one way of meditating. It takes time, patience, but above all a love to cook and appreciate the time spent cooking and creating. Yvonne travelled to Morocco for the first time this summer, but we never cooked as my family found joy in preparing different dishes for her. Guests have a very special place in our culture. I hope next time we will create learning opportunities and learn the mysteries and the wonders of the Moroccan cuisine.”
Moroccan Fish Ball Tagine IngredIents for the fIsh Balls: 500 grams minced/ ground sardines or salmon 5 cloves garlic (minced) 1 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. hot chili pepper (optional) 1 tsp. cumin ¼ c. chopped coriander and parsley Mix ingredients together in a bowl and form balls.
IngredIents for the sauce: 3 large tomatoes ½ tsp. black pepper (chopped) 2 Tbsp. tomato paste 3 cloves garlic (minced) ¼ c. coriander and 1 tsp. paprika parsley 1 tsp. cumin Combine in a different 1 tsp. salt bowl. Cut up one onion. Layer in the tagine: chopped onion, half of the tomato sauce, fish balls and the rest of the sauce. Slow cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice over it and cook for another 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley (optional). If you don’t have a tagine, a Dutch oven or a slow cooker works as well.
January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 37
Q&A
solar cooking JILL WILLMOTT IS A HuGE FAN OF THE LESOTHO SOLAR COOKER PROJECT, SuPPORTED BY THE SALT SPRING RAGING GRANNIES. Jill Willmott, above, and at right helping Lesotho villagers learn how to use a sunstove.
Q. hoW long hAVE you liVED on SAlT SPring iSlAnD AnD WhAT broughT you hErE? My late husband, Dick, and I moved here in August 1999, so I’ve now been here 20 plus years. We had met and married at uBC in 1961, and after finishing our degrees and preparing to leave for England we said to each other something like “B.C. is a beautiful place; we should come back here sometime!” Then after living at least two years in each of London, Montreal, Lusaka (Zambia) and Kingston, Ont. (for 30 years while Dick was teaching at queen’s university), we realized that all four of our parents were gone and thus not needing us, all three of our children had left home and moved to B.C., and previously-very-active Dick had arthritis in both hips, which made it impossible for us to ski or snowshoe. It seemed to be the right time to return to B.C. Q. WhErE DiD you liVE PrEViouSly AnD WhAT WAS your CArEEr PATh? A. When I finished high school I wanted to be a nuclear physicist. After attending Warsaw university for my first year I transferred to uBC and entered second year only to learn that my lab instructor, a graduate student from India, would not answer any of my questions because he thought “Women should be at home raising children!” I finished the year but then dropped out of physics. After two years of working at joe jobs I returned to uBC and did a BA and an MA in anthropology. While we were in London I worked in two different museums. When we returned to London during Dick’s first sabbatical, I found and took a course in hand bookbinding, and made and repaired books for the next 25 years. Q. hoW DiD you bECoME A MEMbEr oF ThE SAlT SPring ChAPTEr oF ThE rAging grAnniES AnD hoW DiD ThE grAnniES CoME To EMbrACE ThE lESoTho SolAr CookEr ProJECT? A. I was a founding member of the Kingston Raging Granny group. Once settled on Salt Spring I went to my first local meeting dressed in my Kingston Granny garb, i.e. a colourful nightgown with a stand-up collar, and a fake cameo brooch. Later, in 2005, the Salt Spring Raging Grannies were contacted by documentary film-maker Judy Jackson, who showed us some of her pictures from Africa and suggested our group twin with Lesotho grandmothers who were looking after their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren. After mulling it over, we said “yes,” and were put in touch with Gatineau-based Carol Pritchard, who is the instigator and manager of the project. Page 38 – aQua – January/February 2020
Q. WhAT APPEAlS To you AbouT ThiS ProJECT? A. Many things: 1. The real benefactors of this project are, of course, the children who have been orphaned by AIDS. 2. Carol and all her “western” assistants pay their own expenses, which means that all donations go to the project, not its administrators. 3. The project is small enough for Carol to know everything that goes on, and she sends detailed reports to everybody who has supported it. 4. Each grandparent that gets a stove has been shown how to use and care for it, and she or he really treasures it and finds new uses for it. Q. TEll uS AbouT your ExPEriEnCE oF ViSiTing lESoTho in 2016. A. Our whole family went to Zambia for two years when Dick was asked in 1973 to help set up the university math department in that newly independent country. In 2015 I got thinking about our stay there and really wanted to go to sub-Saharan Africa again without being a tourist, so I asked Carol if I could be her North American assistant. She didn’t immediately say “yes” because of my age (78), but no one else volunteered so I went and was essentially her shadow. We got along very well and although she couldn’t tell me in advance exactly what I would be doing, it soon became clear that she needed a second person to go wherever she went: to mind the truck filled with sunstoves while she went into the border customs office; to pass out sunstove brochures when police officers challenged our intended mission, making many of them want a stove too; to help buy and carry the pots and foodstuffs for the onsite cooker demonstrations; to share the daily set-up and take-down for the workshops; and to help Carol make the many decisions that were needed every day. Q. WhAT oThEr PlACES hAVE you TrAVEllED To AnD ESPECiAlly EnJoyED? A. I spent my teenage years in Czechoslovakia and Poland just after the war, and despite living amidst the ruins of Warsaw experienced not only the rebuilding of that city but also the promised start of a new egalitarian society; it felt wonderful! 2. Dick, although Caucasian, was born and brought up in China, so we made two super trips back to his old haunts in Szechuan. 3. On our way home from Africa we detoured to New Zealand to visit Dick’s brother and family, and did a very interesting South Island tour with them. 4. I have a Japanese daughter-in-law, so last May I went to Japan to learn more about her country and honour her family. It was quite interesting!
January/February 2020 – aQua – Page 39
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