Newfoundland Reflections on the ship heading west

Diane and I are now on a car ferry from Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland to Sydney, Nova Scotia. It's a 6 hour ride on a huge ship, the day is very foggy, and there is a folk singer named Joe Fahey, singing Newfie folk songs. So-its a great time to reflect on this remarkable island that we have just spent the last 6 days visiting.

Some thoughts:

    - The island's history is a mixture of English and Irish heritage. It didn't become a part of Canada until 1949.

    - It is integrally bound to Labrador, and the Canadian province is actually called "Newfoundland and Labrador."

    - It is an island that has had its share of internal turmoil, that has reflected the turmoil that has existed   between Protestant England and Catholic Ireland since the middle ages. Yet the island has come together to be highly unified and independent. Even Canada has struggled with this island's independence.

    - When Newfoundland and Labrador made the decision to consolidate with Canada in 1949, Canada had to agree to provide education, postal services, roads, and electricity to everyone on the islands. However, there were very small fishing villages in small coves all along its coasts. This quickly proved to be too costly for the Canada federal government to support. Therefore in the 1960s the government made a very controversial decision to move the people from the smallest villages on the coasts to the small offshore islands.

     This was a really controversial decision and even today (50 years later) it is the subject of folk songs which protest this national governmental decision.  It shows how independent these people are.

Joe

Another newfie custom tied to their musical heritage is an instrument called the ugly stick.  The ugly stick is created by taking a pole and adding a mop on top and a rubber boot on the bottom and attaching different household items to the pole that will make noise when the stick is "played."

When we started to do some research for our trip, we studied the geography of Canada.  Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories.  As Joe analyzed the Canadian map, he was intrigued by a territory called Nunavut.  He was intrigued by this northern area and even suggested we go there!  We didn't get there, but we did see a license plate from there!

Joe was also interested in taking a ferry to Labrador and then driving to Quebec from there.  We checked it out and found out doing so meant traveling miles and miles on a gravel road.  Neither of us were quite up for all of that bumping and we didn't think our car was either!

About half way through the ferry ride, the fog lifted and the clouds moved on and sun and blue sky appeared.  It was almost like a miracle and God was personally sharing the sunshine with us  I hadn't realized how much I had missed being bathed in sunlight.  Newfoundland was wonderful, but it certainly was wet and grey.  The weather forecast for the next few days does not call for rain, so we looking forward to experiencing this delight!

Diane