By Anne-Marie Woods

Though I am now considered a Torontonian, Nova Scotia is still a huge part of my life. Many people don’t realize that there is a Caribbean influence in Nova Scotia – the Jamaican Maroons settled there in 1796. My family moved there from Trinidad in the 1970’s, and I am so glad that I grew up in Nova Scotia for quite a few reasons. I love the sense of community there and how everyone speaks and says hello. In my 11 years of living in Toronto I have always gone back there to do work in the schools or for community-based organizations.

Most recently I was hired by the Council on African Canadian Education (CACE) and the Africentric Learning Institute (ALI) to facilitate three workshops as part of their Excellence Without Excuse Provincial Youth Conference. So I was thrilled to GPS my way to Nova Scotia.

Staring out of my window on the plane , I was excited about the conference but also glad that I had two days to myself before the work started. I headed to Cambridge Suites my hotel of choice. As always I was greeted by the warm and friendly front desk staff. I booked a junior suite but was upgraded to a one-bedroom suite with an amazing view of the Halifax Harbour. I love Cambridge Suites because its centrally located, they have a complimentary breakfast, and all the rooms have a fridge and microwave, which is great when you are on the road for business.

I called my dear friend Mrs. Phillips once I was settled to say hello and she invited me to dinner that night. I love the fact that in Nova Scotia invitations are spontaneous and that meeting people doesn’t take an entire year of planning or trying to coordinate your schedules. Now of course I couldn’t go to see Mrs. Phillips empty handed, so I set out to go to my favourite little gift shop Sweet Jane’s Doyle Street. (Also close to the hotel).

When I stood outside the hotel, I nearly screamed out loud when I saw Bud the Spud. Bud the Spud has been a landmark on Spring Garden Road since 1977 and they have some of the best french fries you will ever taste. Even just stepping outside of the hotel I saw several people that I knew and I stopped to have conversations. I finally made it to Sweet Jane’s to buy a small gift for Mrs. Phillips. I would describe Sweet Jane’s as a cross between the It Store and an old-fashioned gift and candy shop.

 

After leaving the gift shop, I headed over to Public Gardens at the corner of Spring Garden Road and South Park Street - a National Historic Site in Halifax since 1874. In September 2003, Hurricane Juan hit and destroyed many of the trees and the plants in the gardens. They were rebuilt and opened again on July 1^st, 2004.

I was walking through the gardens past a big tour group and some gigantic geese. A wave of emotion came over me that I could not explain. I saw two workers in the gardens and I asked them about the impact of the hurricane on the gardens. “In a strange way the hurricane was a good thing, because it brought public interest back to the gardens,” one of the workers told me. The gardens are truly beautiful and I admittedly have not been to them for over 25 years.

 

 

After the gardens, I went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner, and whew what a spread! A nice Jamaican feast with rice and peas and fried plantain and homemade ginger beer! Good friends, good food, and a full tummy, nothing like it!

 

It was great having time to relax before the work started, but then I was off to Dartmouth to facilitate my workshops for the youth conference.

Over 140 students from various communities in Nova Scotia attended. Students Nzingha Millar and Debi Ogunrinde presented a debate on the Todd Larkins documentary The N Word. Their debating skills blew me away! I learned that Debi was just named Team Captain for the national debate team. She recently returned from placing first individually and as part of the winning team at McGill University High School Debating Championships, and she will also be going to the Worlds Schools Debating Championships in South Africa in January 2012.

 

That sense of community that I love was alive and well at the conference: from the opening Libation ceremony to hearing the keynote speaker Shauntay Grant, an award-winning writer, musician, spoken word artist, youth worker and broadcast journalist.

Though I was hired to teach workshops I was also inspired and empowered by the people surrounding me. All of these people were either youth I taught when I lived in Nova Scotia or colleagues of mine that I knew for well over 20 years. It is nice to have solid relationships that are work based and friendship based for so many years.

There were many teachers and other key community people in attendance like El Jones spoken activist and a teacher at the Transition Year Program at the Nova Scotia Community College. Even Toronto’s own Afua Cooper was there as she is now the James R. Johnston Chair at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Andrea Noylander the Languages Department Head was there as a scribe and chaperone; everyone played a key role, but it was like a family reunion.

Hellafactz, a local rapper, rocked his song “I’m so Scotian” during the formal dinner and on the final day Delvina Bernard Executive Director of the CACE took the microphone and her Harambee tribute rang through my ears and into my heart. “HARAMBEE HARAMBEE HARAMBEEEEEEEEE” she yelled into the microphone explaining to the youth that this Swahili word meant let’s pull together. That is the feeling that I had during my short trip to Nova Scotia: that I was in a place with a true sense of community where everyone pulled together.

 

I went to Nova Scotia to fulfill a contract but I left there with so much more, and no matter how many times I go back to work or visit friends and family I always feel a renewal of my spirit.

 

More Nova Scotia in pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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