No day at the beach

Page 5

Spending more than three months in Mexico while the snow piles up back home probably sounds pretty good to most Canadians, but the eight people who will be chosen to take part in the Aboriginal Youth Leader Work Partner Program won't be on vacation.

"We make it very clear to the participants that they are not going to be traveling," said Leon Lajeunesse. "They are not even going to see places like Acapulco or Cancun. How can we go when some people in the community have never been to those places in their lives?"

Lajeunesse is one of two project supervisors from Canada World Youth traveling with the group to the small rural community of Amatlan, near Cuernevaca.

The beach holds no interest for 24-year-old participant Jennifer Chong anyway.

"I absolutely did not think it was going to be a holiday," said Chong, whose mother is a member of the Cold Lake First Nation. "I'm interested in the opportunity to experience Mexico the way the people actually live. I mean, we're not staying in a hotel."

In the course of his 10 years with Canada World Youth, Lajeunesse has been in Amatlan before and said its Indigenous population makes it the perfect host for this program.

"The people of Amatlan are super-excited, because of the Aboriginal focus. They see it as an exchange between Canadian Aboriginals and Mexican Aboriginals."

The program is a partnership between the Oteenow Employment and Training Society, the Metis Nation of Alberta, Canadian International Development Agency and Canada World Youth.

Participants must be First Nations residents of Edmonton or Alberta Metis who are non-settlement residents. They must also be between the ages of 20 and 25, out of school and unemployed.

After the selection is complete, the eight participants will receive an orientation and, because they are responsible for some costs, fundraising training.

Penny Laboucan of the Aboriginal Career Centre for Employment Strategies and Services (a division of Oteenow) is accepting applications from First Nations members. Kim Mueller, youth programs co-ordinator for the Metis Nation of Alberta, is handling applications from interested Metis.

As of mid-November, there were still spots open on the program.

Besides meeting all the official criteria for selection, participants must also have other qualities.

"The program is good for someone who is looking for an adventure, who is interested in adapting to a new community, learning a new language and who is open to new experiences," Lajeunesse said.

There will be no shortage of new experiences. The eight Albertans will live with host families in Amatlan, an agricultural community that Lajeunesse estimates has a population of under 500. Four days a week, participants will do volunteer work in the community's schools, clinic, library, or museum, and the fifth day will be spent discussing issues of community development.

This is the heart of the program that Lajeunesse said is designed to develop future leaders. "Participants will take skills back home and feel they have a responsibility and that they can affect change in their community." He added that these new skills and abilities will come in handy when participants return to Canada to look for work or continue their education.

Chong, who graduated from the University of Alberta with a physical education degree last year, is not sure what she is going to do when the program finishes.

"The beauty of it is that I'll have time to experience Mexico and I'll have more skills to put to use if I work or go back to school."

One of those skills will be the ability to speak a little Spanish. Participants will take some language classes before they leave Canada and will continue their studies in Mexico.

According to Lajeunesse, Chong (who cheerfully admits that she knows no Spanish) and other participants will learn the language out of necessity.

"Eventually you will have to tell the host family that you're hungry, so you will learn those words,"he said with a laugh.