The auction at the Community Hall

Today we walked down to the community center where there was a fundraiser to help a woman pay her medical bills. The lunch was $7.00 place for barbequed ribs, chow mien and fried rice. It started at 12 and when we got there about 12:30 the ribs were all gone. I guess you should come early rather than later in Alert Bay. The chow mien and rice were good, though, so was the jello with whipped cream for dessert.

The rest of the fundraiser was an auction. The raffle tickets were a dollar each and to bid on an item, you held your ticket up. A couple of women collected all the tickets and put them together and had somebody draw the winning ticket.  There were all ages of people there, although, there weren't many teenagers. Ian noticed that nobody was on a cell phone talking or checking email or anything.

We got a smoked salmon and grease. You’re supposed to dip the smoked salmon into the grease and pop it into your mouth. The grease is a traditional winter food for the Namgis. They harvest candle fish from the river, put it in a pit to "age", then boil it to extract the oil. It's actually very nutritious like other fish oils. It tasted terrible to me. Ian claimed to like it. Ian had to carry the fish all the way home held out in front of him like a waiter. He attracted a lot of attention.

This little girl was a big winner. She won the handmade lamp, a bag, one of the smoked salmon and three months free at the Feeling Better Gym.

This is a link to the film I made at the community center: The Auction

Our salmon was cooked like this. Around a fire on cedar stakes. (Not my photo.)

We looked at the bulletin board at the ShopRite and noted all the upcoming events in town. We’re looking forward to Children’s Culture day at the big house on Tuesday. I think it’s kind of an end of school performance by the kids. The princess pageant is coming up and then there’s the big all-island-all-native soccer tournament in its 55th year. That should really be good! There's not a lack of things to keep you busy.