Canada’s New Student Service Grant Has an Equity Problem

In follow up to my post about WE Charity from a few weeks ago, I published this piece in my school’s student paper: The Xaverian Weekly. I thought I would share it here as well.

On Thursday, June 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG), which provides students with up to $5,000 for volunteering in programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The multi-million dollar contract to administer the grant was initially awarded to WE Charity, a Canadian organization that claims to empower youth to make a difference, but the contract has since been rescinded in response to public criticism. Looking deeper, there are also a number of equity concerns within the structure of the grant itself.

Even though they are no longer engaged with the CSSG program, the fact that the government awarded WE Charity the contract to begin within warrants concern. The obvious ties between the Trudeau family and WE were immediately criticized by the media, given that there has been little information provided on how the decision to allocate the contract was made. This past week, a number of current and former WE staff have also come forward with allegations of racism, homophobia, and censorship against the organization and its leadership. Former WE employee Santai Kimakeke alleges that he is currently separated from his family and unable to travel from Kenya as a result of false accusations pitted against him by Marc Kielburger (one of the organization’s founders). Kimakeke has also accused Marc Keilburger of psychological abuse and misuse of power, and has further detailed fraudulent and criminal practices, misappropriation, money laundering, and tax evasion committed by the organization on his blog, “Odd Truths About We Charity.” Amanda Maitland and Talitha Toles are two other former staff members who have spoken out, detailing the organization’s racist tendencies. 

For those familiar with the organization, these recent allegations shouldn’t come as a surprise. Jaren Kerr, a reporter for Canadaland, has investigated ethical issues within the organization since 2018, with findings including the use of child labour in their supply chain, a toxic work environment, bullying from senior leadership, high burnout rates, false advertising, and a lack of professional boundaries. Even earlier, in 2015, WE came under fire after footage of We Day and criticism of WE trips to Ecuador was scrubbed from CBC’s “Volunteers Unleashed” —a documentary centering on the harms of voluntourism—just before its air date. The footage that did make it into the film, according to the interviewee featured, was heavily altered to direct criticism away from the organization. 

Looking to the grant itself, its valuation and structure have also raised a number of pay equity concerns. The grant provides students with $1,000 for every 100 hours volunteered, up to $5,000. Broken down to an hourly wage, that comes to $10 an hour—well below the minimum wage across Canada. Coupled with CESB, students could potentially earn $22 an hour if they are able to complete the full 500 hours of volunteer work—but the likelihood of that happening seems slim. 500 hours is an extremely high expectation (equivalent to the number of hours they’d work over the course of 3 months at a regular 9 to 5 job). For students who are also caring for family, pitching in at home, taking courses online, or actively looking for work, 500 hours would prove next to impossible. 

The way the grant is structured adds to its inequity as well, in that it has the potential to leave huge amounts of labour unrecognized. Because the grant is broken into sections of 100 hours, if a student volunteers 199 hours, they’ll only be paid for the first hundred. Unless a student is completely certain they’ll be able to complete the hours in sections of 100, they could finish the four months with a lot of uncompensated work. 

The initial CESB announcement was already concerning for many, given that it was a hefty $750 less than CERB’s $2,000—appearing to value students less than the working population. Now with the announcement of the CSSG, the pair suggests that the government only values the wellbeing and security of students if they are able to benefit from their labour. CESB hardly provides enough for students looking to pay for rent and food, let alone tuition, so many will have no choice but to sign up for the CSSG. Funnelling students into a semi-accessible four-month volunteer program through which they will be underpaid, and that appears to take the place of efforts to create student jobs, is exploitative at best, and takes advantage of students who are struggling financially. 

Can we really call it “volunteer” labour if students need the extra money in order to survive? 

It is also important to recognize who is eligible for the program. International students, students over 30, and students who have received CERB at any point—which is quite a large portion of students—are ineligible. Those students are not immune to the costs of living in Canada, and some (international students) pay far higher fees for tuition while at school, likely increasing their need for such a program. Evidently, then, the grant isn’t meant to support all students.

The CSSG as a program is deeply flawed. Taking the implementation of the program out of the hands of WE Charity is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t solve the issues that come with the grant itself. Whether the grant proves to be successful for the young people who apply remains in question, but the outlook, considering the issues presented above, isn’t good.

What Happened to Camp Magic? Thoughts on WE Charity from an FTC Alumni

On Thursday, June 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG), which provides students with up to $5,000 for volunteering in programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the announcement, the grant itself, as well as Trudeau’s decision to hand the multi-million dollar program over to WE Charity, has come into question. 

This past week, a number of current and former WE staff have also come forward with allegations of racism, homophobia, censorship, and more against the organization and its leadership. Former WE employee Santai Kimakeke, who is currently separated from his family and unable to travel from Kenya as a result of false accusations made against him by Marc Kielburger (one of the organization’s founders), details his experiences on his blog, “Odd Truths About We Charity.” He accuses Marc Keilburger of psychological abuse and misuse of power, and the organization of fraudulent and criminal practices, misappropriation, money laundering, and tax evasion. Amanda Maitland and Talitha Toles are two other former staff members who have spoken out, detailing the organization’s racist tendencies, and whose stories are being supported by fellow former colleagues and current staff on social media. 

For those familiar with the organization, these recent allegations shouldn’t come as a surprise. Jaren Kerr, a reporter for Canadaland, has investigated ethical issues within the organization since 2018, with findings including the use of child labour in their supply chain, a toxic work environment, bullying from senior leadership, high burnout rates, and unjust pay. Even earlier, in 2015, WE came under fire after footage of We Day and criticism of WE trips to Ecuador was scrubbed from CBC’s “Volunteers Unleashed” —a documentary centering on the harms of voluntourism—just before its air date. The footage that did make it into the film, according to the interviewee featured, was heavily altered to direct criticism away from the organization.

As someone who used to be heavily involved in WE programming, I’ve had a lot to think about this week. In this post, I’m going to share some of those thoughts, in hopes that they might prove useful to others trying to decide process the ever increasing number of stories, allegations, and petitions.

Over the course of six years, I participated in WE programming in both elementary and high school, and attended five different camps and leadership training programs put on by the organization. I also attended and volunteered at four We Day events in Montreal and Ottawa. Throughout my involvement, and in the years since, I have witnessed significant shifts within their goals and priorities—notably, from youth centred to profit driven.

I first started to get involved with WE Charity, then called Free the Children (FTC), when I was in grade seven. My elementary school had a group we called “Character Crew” that frequently engaged in Me to We and FTC campaigns, alongside other volunteer initiatives, and that would send a group of students to our local We Day every year. Together we organized food drives, took a vow of silence, hosted a coffee house, and fundraised for charities— “earning our way” to what was (and I believe still is), marketed as a celebration of our actions. Character Crew was my introduction to social justice type work, and I absolutely loved it. Our group didn’t exclusively take part in WE campaigns, but We Day was a big incentive in getting people involved. 

Attending my first We Day in 2013, I was absolutely in awe of youth speakers like Molly Burke who were sharing their stories. What I don’t remember is being overwhelmed by sponsors or corporate speeches, which isn’t something I can say about the last event I attended in 2017: WE’s “We Are Canada” celebration on Parliament Hill. What I do recall from that event are the big-name musicians, celebrity endorsements, and a blatant acceptance of Canada’s colonial history. Sure, it was an exciting concert—but for those of us who attended earlier We Days, that wasn’t what we wanted it to be. Over the years, WE’s focus on young people has been in a state of steady decline, and the progression of We Day is particularly demonstrative of that. 

Looking back at my other experiences with WE, this decline is evident there as well. 

Me to We’s Take Action Camp (TAC) in Bethany Hills, Ontario was the first sleep-away camp I attended, and much like my first We Day, I fell in love. TAC was a magical place for so many people, and I won’t hesitate in saying that my experience at camp changed my life. TAC was where I first met people my age who felt like me—who cared about the world, and who were more inclined towards organizing for justice than organizing a soccer game. It was where I overcame my fear of public speaking; where I discovered spoken word poetry, and wrote my first poem; where I realized that social justice was actually something I could dedicate my life to and met people working in fields I was interested in. I attended camp in Bethany for three years, and each time, I had a wonderful experience. None were as great as the first, but I chalked it up to my getting older, and the novelty of sleep-away camp having worn off. 

Fast forward a few years and I found myself in beautiful Windsong, Arizona for Advanced Leadership Training (ALT) at Me to We’s Peace and Leadership Centre. Looking back, this was when I had my first real doubts about the organization. I arrived in Arizona in August 2016, shortly after Free The Children announced it was changing its name to WE Charity. I was there with friends and facilitators I’d known for years through other programming—some of whom I’d met during my first ever week at Take Action Camp—and we were all wary about the change, and what it meant. In letting go of Free the Children, would the stories get lost? What would happen to the twelve twelve-year-olds who set up shop in Marc and Craig’s garage? We had our doubts, after watching We Days and camps become progressively more commercial and impersonal. As one of our facilitators put it, we were in one of the last remaining “real” FTC programs—a tiny sliver of the organization’s original intentions left standing, quite literally, in the middle of the desert. The experience I had in Windsong was amazing, and I learned so much about social issues and local, grassroots organizing—but those doubts hovered over our heads the entire trip. 

WE Charity sold the Windsong property the following year. 

In conversations I had with WE staff in Windsong, and in conversations since, they spoke about being pushed to work through burnout, insufficient equity training for staff, censorship of speakers and facilitators, and about losing trust in the organization and its leadership. Many of them have taken to social media this week to share those stories, and to call for action from WE Charity. Talking to fellow campers, they echoed my thoughts about the organization’s increased commercialization—lamenting about how impersonal communicating with the organization had become, and how they no longer feel that youth empowerment, social justice, or community are being centred in the work. A number of my friends who travelled on service trips with WE in those later years of involvement remember feeling like something wasn’t “right” about the work they were doing abroad.

I am currently a fourth year student at St. Francis Xavier University (a school WE  introduced me to in 2015 through the X-Leads program), studying development. When I first started the program three years ago, despite doubts, I was still proud of my involvement with WE, but I had to learn very quickly to separate myself from anything related to the organization. I was greeted by a very critical view of WE by faculty of the program, which at the time was very different from how I understood the organization. The fact that WE was so disrespected within the international development community shocked me then; it doesn’t now. 

I wonder if perhaps the organization was always more corporate and corrupt than I envisioned, or if it really has taken a dramatic turn downhill. Speaking to my parents about this article, they brought up the slew of emails they received from WE after my first We Day trying to sell them trips and solicit donations, and described my past infatuation with WE as having “drank the kool-aid” of the “cult of Kielburger” that Kerr describes in their Canadaland piece. So, maybe I was simply naive enough to buy what WE was selling. I definitely did have positive experiences with WE, but I now choose to credit those experiences to the wonderful and caring people I was lucky enough to interact with (the vast majority of whom have since left the organization), and not the organization itself. Many of those people have been speaking out and sharing their stories on social media this week have echoed this thought as well, reiterating that it was always the people that made WE special, and that the good that came out of WE programming is still 100% valid. 

If anything in this post has resonated with you, I encourage you to find ways to support those speaking out, and call on WE Charity to do better. I’ve compiled some links below to help get you started, which I will add to as the story evolves:

• Sign the petition to redeploy funding: https://www.change.org/p/non-profits-we-have-a-912-million-dollar-problem-redeploy-funding-to-where-it-s-needed-most
• Sign the petition calling for anti-racist action: http://chng.it/PkmfDRcpw6 
• Read and share Sentai Kimakeke’s story: https://www.oddtruthsaboutwe.org/post/introduction 

A Trip to Deepest Darkest Peru

Well, not exactly – but could I really pass up the opportunity for an interesting title?

Last month, I lived in a peasant community in the Peruvian highlands! The trip was part of my summer job – completing fieldwork with an anthropology professor from my university. For those of you who have been patiently waiting for photos of this trip, I can finally share some! However, you’ll have to excuse the lack of my usual long-winded, day-by-day accounts. Because this was a research trip, I’ve been sworn to secrecy about a lot of the details; however, I’ve added some shorter descriptions in the photo captions:)

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Why #MeToo is EXACTLY what we need

Everyone needs a friend the can write angry letters with at 2AM – and hey, sometimes those letters get published! Check it out: click here!

Advice for Grads

This year, the teachers at my school shared their advice for graduating students in a video shown at grad breakfast. It was all amazing advice, and applicable to everyone – not just grads. I encourage everyone to take a look! Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7W5Wuon3NY

The Borderlands; Beautiful but Broken

Lush, sprawling green hills, bountiful fruit trees, and a sunrise to contest all others is not what comes to the minds of most when thinking about the state of Arizona, but I promise I’m not making it up! I recently returned from a nine day leadership program in Windsong, Arizona, where this description lives true. Needless to say, I was shocked to step out of the van to so much green! The mountains from the photograph are known as “the sky islands”, which I think suits their sudden presence so beautifully, and the landscape you see above is also referred to as “The Borderlands” – serving as a meeting place for two countries, two mountain ranges, and two deserts – and though it is beautiful, there is much that is broken there as well; I’ll expand on that later.

Enjoying the views on day one!

Staying on a working permaculture ranch, I had every opportunity to experience the diversity that Arizona has to offer (which included hanging out with the ranch’s resident wolves, Anubis and Felice!), soak in the wonderful Windsong sunshine, and enjoy the sweet taste of homemade prickly-pear syrup (which is delicious, by the way!). Of course, we also had the chance to learn about, and then try our hand at permaculture in practice! What is permaculture, you ask? It is a series of sustainable design principles meant for living on this planet, and that benefits both parties: us and the earth.

We had two opportunities to really dive into permaculture, first of all on the property where we were staying, building ‘tubs’ for planting. Being desert, the ground in Arizona is very dry, and so doesn’t absorb water quickly – the tubs we helped dig will act as barriers between the water and the nearby hills, keeping it from draining away, and allowing it to sink into the ground. This saves so much water, as it means that no one will need to water the plants planted there – at least not as frequently!

Our second big experience with permaculture came with a visit to Deep Dirt Farm Institute, a project with a pretty inspiring story behind it! After 19 years of a successful real-estate career in California, Kate, the farm’s owner and visionary, realized that the life she was living wasn’t good for her health – it was quite literally making her sick – and so she decided to do something drastic; she moved to a plot of land in the middle of the Arizona desert and began to build a farm, out of garbage. At Deep Dirt, one man’s trash really is another woman’s treasure! Using satellite dishes, old metal siding, and pipes, her and her husband (a welder by trade), have created a sustainable home and farm, which is also absolutely beautiful! At Kate’s farm, we had the chance to get our hands dirty building a water catchment system in the dry river bed.

What we built!

The whole gang + Kate

We also spent a great amount of time during our stay learning about the social justice issues that face the area’s population, and this is where we start to get into the broken more so than the beautiful. It’s taken me a full week to sit down and write this blog, and that is mainly because my brain is still processing everything that I witnessed and learned during my time in Windsong. So, I’ve finally decided to start here:

The Nogales, Arizona – Nogales, Mexico border.

The Nogales, Mexico – Nogales, Arizona border. This is what America calls a “fence”, which in my mind is quite the inaccurate choice of word.

This is what I call a wall.

Since 1918, the city of Nogales has been divided in two – split straight down the center by American border patrol. Families, friends; sorted by mere chance onto either side. This was no security measure, just pure discrimination. Supposedly to keep out Mexican terrorists, the wall serves to keep families apart instead. To prove the absurdity, the only two recorded terrorist attacks committed by immigrants to the United States were committed by Canadians, and I don’t see walls ‘protecting’ our shared borders.

Standing where Jose Antonia, 16, was shot and killed by border patrol.

Standing at the border wall, purple stickers were scattered across the metal bars. We soon learned that the stickers were a call for justice, calling for action on the case of Jose Antonio, a 16 year old boy who was shot and killed by border patrol in 2012 – shot ten times, 8 in the back – for attempting to visit his brother over the wall. The case has yet to be brought to trial.

 

Speaking with border patrol later in the week it was clear again that their mentality towards the wall and its purpose differed drastically from ours – the agent strongly reinforcing the idea that it was a fence, not a wall, and that racial profiling and discrimination weren’t present in border work, something we witnessed first hand as being entirely false.

Contributing to the great divide between two countries is NAFTA, having created a partnership benefiting all parties save Mexico. As a result of unfair division of resources and power, many on the Mexican side of the border live on less than $3 a day, earned working in factories exploiting cheap labour. Earned working in factories that produce so much of what we consume on a daily basis. The conditions are so terrible that many choose to seek out a new life, chasing the ever elusive American Dream across the border – only to be shot, arrested, or turned away; and that’s only if they survive the grueling heat of the desert during their travels there.

Only two in five survive the journey.

On the migrant trail

As part of our social justice training, my group had the chance to hike an active migrant trail out of Patagonia Lake State Park. Most migrants would walk for days, we walked for two hours. Most migrants would be wearing heels, dress shoes, suits, and dresses in hopes of finding a job upon their arrival – we wore running shoes and hiking gear. Most migrants wouldn’t risk carrying more than 500ml of water with them for their entire journey – we carried liters for a fraction. We so obviously had an easier path – and yet we, with our many, many advantages, still struggled. The migrants that walk the trail every night are driven by the hope of a better life. Many carry photos of the families they are leaving behind, hoping to one day earn enough money to be reunited on the other side of the border. The journey is dangerous, and though their odds aren’t great – they face it anyways. When we reached the point in our hike where it was time to turn back, we stopped to reflect on the question “what do you carry with you?”, “what drives you, on your journey to achieve social justice?”.

 

Later in the week, we arrived at the city courthouse to witness something called Project Streamline. As its name suggests, the project’s goal is to streamline the process of putting illegal immigrants through the court system. Sitting at the back of the courtroom, we watched as 34 immigrants were asked two questions each: “yes” or “no” to confirm their name, age, and place of residency, and then “yes” or “no” to whether they agreed with statement of “guilty”. With eight immigrants called up at a time – two per microphone -the entire process took thirty minutes.

All of us sitting at the back were shocked at how dissociated and inhumane the process was – not even allowing the immigrants to say their names or the word “guilty” out loud. Not to mention the fact that each of the immigrants was shackled, despite no indication of violent tendencies. When speaking with the judge after the trial, I asked for clarification on the reason behind the shackles, and had to push for further explanation after the judge’s initial one word response. Finally, I was told that no, none of the immigrants had shown any tendencies towards violence – the court just wouldn’t pay for the two marshals per prisoner it would require to allow them to be unshackled. Coming to America in search of the American dream: safety, security, and financial stability, and greeted with shackles, a criminal record, and deportation – without even being granted the dignity of speaking their own name in court.

It’s absurd how much meaning we’ve managed to give to borders, when ultimately they are a concept of human imagination, and for the most part hold no physical presence. I ask you to consider, what would a world without borders look like? We were, after all, at one point in time, one country, and one people. And as a wise man named Pastal said to me during my time in Arizona, “we don’t cross the border[s], the border crossed us”.

Where there is struggle, there is also strength, and the communities of Tucson and Patagonia have it in droves. We had the chance to visit a few different projects exemplifying this strength, one of which was Mexicayotl – a charter school that, in the words of Chris Tse is “giving the finger to the system”, and doing quite a good job of it! In Arizona, despite its obvious proximity to the border, it is illegal for schools to teach in both English and Spanish. However, Balty, the founder of Mexicayotl, found a loophole – being a charter school, the school is allowed to teach its students bilingually. The school also teaches about the area’s native history surrounding the Mashika tribes, who colonized North America well before Christopher Columbus, but who are ignored in American textbooks. The students answer to a conch shell instead of a bell, and take part in traditional Mashika dance – they are also the only American school to have a traditional headdress on display in their hallway.

During our visit to the school, Balty introduced us to the framework of leadership as it is taught in their school: conócete, conóceme, relaciónate, trabaja. Or, in English: know yourself, know others, inter-relate, work together – a framework that we came back to frequently throughout our leadership training, and that makes an appearance in the school’s mission: “learning because of who we are, in two languages, to become critical thinkers, within a process of learning through application, resulting in the full spectrum of “interculturalism”.

Another group doing some amazing social justice work is the Nogales Mercado Farmer’s Market – a group of locals who came together to solve a problem in their community: access to good, fresh, nutritious food. Built around a set of train tracks, tons and tons of fresh produce crosses through Nogales on its way from Mexico everyday, headed for larger production centers across Arizona – but never stopping in Nogales. Seeing this, this group of locals rallied local farmers and artisans to create a beautiful farmers market in the city’s center!

At the market!

This blog, though by far the longest I have ever written, does not even begin to touch on all that the borderlands has to offer, or all that they have taught me. I have left a piece of my heart in Windsong, and a piece of Windsong will always remain in my heart.

I hope that in reading this you have learned something, and that you will take away a greater knowledge of the issues that are affecting North America and the world – maybe something here will even inspire you to further your research, or take action.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for my next adventure!

Ireland – The Final Stretch

It seems like just yesterday I was boarding the flight to Ireland, and already we’ve reached the very last day! The last few days have been jam-packed with exams, presentations, last minute shopping trips, and tours – hence my lack of blogging – and I can now say that I’m officially finished with grade twelve English!

Last night was our final banquet – held on the water at the National Yacht Club. We all got dressed up for dinner and a slideshow of photos from throughout the trip (mainly taken by me). And of course, a waterfront photo shoot was not to be passed up! Today, we went into town for breakfast to escape the cafeteria food, and had pancakes and hot chocolate at a cute little french bistro. This afternoon, a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, with a beautiful view from the Galaxy Bar at the end!

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It will be a sad farewell to this beautiful country at the airport tomorrow – but I hope to come back and explore even more of it in the future!

And I guess that’s all for now, folks – thanks for reading my blog, and following me on this journey. Be sure to stay tuned for more adventures to come later this summer!

Ireland Days 22 & 23

Hiking in the gorgeous Wicklow mountains yesterday, followed by a visit to West Beach for swimming – yes, I did write swimming. It was very cold, but the water was super clear and if you stayed in long enough (we did), your legs went numb, and it was actually quite pleasant!

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Today was a free day to explore downtown Dublin. We visited Trinity College, where both Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett studied, and also where the famous Book of Kells can be found. Then we had lunch a cute little restaurant called Alfie’s, and hit up some art galleries and souvenir shops on the way home. Perks of Dublin public transpo: free wifi on board!

Ireland Days 20 & 21

Yesterday we had a full day of classes, half poetry and half drama – where we got a twenty minute crash course on “The Wake”, the play we would be seeing that evening. The play was… interesting, to say the least. The Abbey theater where it was staged was beautiful, however I must say I didn’t appreciate the use of actual cigarettes on stage – we were in the second last row of seats and you could still smell it, which wasn’t helped by the lack of AC! I won’t go into more detail than that, I don’t want to spoil the play, but if you’d like to read it feel free!

Today we visited “Dublinia” – Dublin’s viking museum, and Christ Church, which is yet another gorgeous Irish Cathedral. We popped by Trinity College after as well, where Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and many other notable authors either taught or went to school.

Ireland Days 18 & 19

Yesterday was the only full day of classes we’ll have for this unit, which ends tomorrow. After class, which was once again held outside, we all piled onto a city bus (double decker!) – of course this was after we got turned down by a different bus driver who claimed we wouldn’t all fit on his empty bus… Once downtown, we had a tour of the Jeannie Johnson famine ship – a replica of a ship that took refugees of the potato famine to both Canada and the United States. The ship took over 2,500 passengers across the Atlantic, and the reason they’ve chosen to tell the story of this ship over so many others is that it had a record of zero deaths for the entirety of its time at sea. This was very uncommon at the time, as many boat owners would oversell tickets and take no precaution for the safety or health of the passengers. The guide told us that these refugees actually had it worse than those who traveled on earlier slave ships, because a slave was only valuable if they arrived alive – these passengers paid in advance.

The reason that the Jeannie Johnson was so different is that she had a good man behind her – one who genuinely wanted his passengers to survive the journey and so implemented some little things that made all the difference. These included having a doctor on board, allowing passengers on deck for fresh air, ensuring clean water was available, and not overselling tickets. As far as is know, the Jeannie Johnson is the only ship of its kind not to have a death record, because no other captain took the precautions the her’s did.

After the boat tour, all 82 of us managed to squeeze into the Thunder Cafe for dinner before attending a performance of Riverdance, which was absolutely wonderful! The singing and dancing was so entertaining and so well done – if you have the chance to see it, do it!

Today after breakfast we departed for another bus tour, this time to Tarra hill, then Newgrange – both older architectural sites. Tarra was a burial tomb, as well as a celebration grounds where the new king would be chosen. Legend has it that if a man sat on a particular cylindrical shaped rock and it let out three loud bellows, he was fit to be king. Apparently none of us will be kings anytime soon. Newgrange was also possibly a tomb, but they aren’t entirely sure. They do know, however, that it is older than the pyramids. The people who built it relied on the sun as their calendar, and built the tomb/building so that every year on the winter solstice the sun would shine through a window and light it up completely – the rest of the year it’s dark! To see it on the solstice, people have to put their name in a draw, and only 30 people are chosen each year.

There was also a small farm in Newgrange, where we walked for lunch. We also had time to visit the animals there, which meant holding some very cute ducklings and of course petting all the puppies, kittens, cows, and rabbits!

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