I awoke to the stomping of the half-asleep Shads stumbling to morning tai chi on the hard wood floor of the Fogo community center. This was the second day of our field trip to Fogo Island.
Coruscating light shone through the windows as I moved from my sleeping bag to the door, tripping over many of the sleeping people in front of me. From the doorway, I could see most of the cove that acted as Fogo's foundation. In front and to the left of me, multicoloured houses dotted the low-lying, rocky hills. Docks stretched out towards the center of the cove where seaweed swept over the surface of the water. To the left, I could see the ocean that, with the sun's reflection, looked like liquid silver. In the distance, I could also see the plateau that was deemed one of the four corners of the Earth by the Flat-Earth Society.
After breakfast (complete with homemade Fogo jam), we took a hike to observe some of the indigenous wildlife, as well as many picturesque hillsides and cliff tops that would make an art aficionado gawk in awe. At the same time, our guide taught us about the local economy, the aboriginal population and more. After this, we were split up into four groups and sent off to various museums where we learned even more on these subjects.
Later, we were sworn in as honorary Newfoundlanders by performing a ritual. First, we had to prove that we could speak like Newfoundlanders; our group had to say "narn," when asked "arn?", while others had to say more complicated things that sounded like something along the lines of "nargy nargy nargy with." We then had to prove that we could eat like Newfoundlanders. One of these foods was hard bread; I got the extra-burnt, corner piece so mine was excessively tough. We then had to learn to drink like Newfoundlanders; upon hearing this proposition, I was somewhat frightened, but it turned out to be no more than a syrup-like concoction. For the final step of this ritual we had to kiss a cod. Many of the Shads were very reluctant to do this, but in the end, everyone complied. We are all honorary Newfies.
In the evening, everyone gathered into a circle where we displayed our musical talents. We listened to people play instruments like the bass clarinet and trumpet, listened to people sing, sung "I'm Yours" with the strumming of a ukulele, and were blown away by an educational, mildly-violent rap. It was astounding. Many people felt that this was one of the main highlights of the Shad Valley program. After all was sung and done, it was already 10:45. It was the end of another amazing day.
Ryan Koyanagi, Shad Valley Memorial 2012
