The call of nature

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

only after the last river has been poisoned,

only after the last fish has been caught,

only then you will find that money can not be eaten.

 

This quote is supposed to be a prophecy of the Cree,  a tribe of the First Nation of North America. In fact, it is a special version of this prophecy, created by environmentalists in the 1980's to match their point of view at that time and to back up their demands for changing man's treatment of mother earth. 

The original exists in several different versions and has been passed orally from generation to generation. One of it comes from an old Cree lady who talked about this prophecy and about the Rainbow Warriors who soon enough will appear on earth to rescue mankind from its own misery and sins: 

Warriors of the Rainbow

There was an old lady, from the "Cree" tribe, named "Eyes of Fire", who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans' or Yo-ne-gis' greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist. There would come a time when the "keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs" would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankind's� key to survival, they were the "Warriors of the Rainbow". There would come a day of awakening when all the peoples of all the tribes would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit.
The "Warriors of the Rainbow" would spread these messages and teach all peoples of the Earth or "Elohi". They would teach them how to live the "Way of the Great Spirit". They would tell them of how the world today has turned away from the Great Spirit and that is why our Earth is "Sick".
The "Warriors of the Rainbow" would show the peoples that this "Ancient Being" (the Great Spirit), is full of love and understanding, and teach them how to make the "Earth or Elohi" beautiful again. These Warriors would give the people principles or rules to follow to make their path right with the world. These principles would be those of the Ancient Tribes. The Warriors of the Rainbow would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding. They would teach of Harmony among people in all four comers of the Earth.
Like the Ancient Tribes, they would teach the peoples how to pray to the Great Spirit with love that flows like the beautiful mountain stream, and flows along the path to the ocean of life. Once again, they would be able to feel joy in solitude and in councils. They would be free of petty jealousies and love all mankind as their brothers, regardless of color, race or religion. They would feel happiness enter their hearts, and become as one with the entire human race. Their hearts would be pure and radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all mankind, Nature, and the Great Spirit. They would once again fill their minds, hearts, souls, and deeds with the purest of thoughts. They would seek the beauty of the Master of Life - the Great Spirit! They would find strength and beauty in prayer and the solitudes of life.
Their children would once again be able to run free and enjoy the treasures of Nature and Mother Earth. Free from the fears of toxins and destruction, wrought by the Yo-ne-gi and his practices of greed. The rivers would again run clear, the forests be abundant and beautiful, the animals and birds would be replenished. The powers of the plants and animals would again be respected and conservation of all that is beautiful would become a way of life.
The poor, sick and needy would be cared for by their brothers and sisters of the Earth. These practices would again become a part of their daily lives.
The leaders of the people would be chosen in the old way - not by their political party, or who could speak the loudest, boast the most, or by name calling or mud slinging, but by those whose actions spoke the loudest. Those who demonstrated their love, wisdom, and courage and those who showed that they could and did work for the good of all, would be chosen as the leaders or Chiefs. They would be chosen by their "quality" and not the amount of money they had obtained. Like the thoughtful and devoted "Ancient Chiefs", they would understand the people with love, and see that their young were educated with the love and wisdom of their surroundings. They would show them that miracles can be accomplished to heal this world of its ills, and restore it to health and beauty.
The tasks of these "Warriors of the Rainbow" are many and great. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong of heart. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning "Mother Earth" to beauty and plenty - once more.
The day will come, it is not far away. The day that we shall see how we owe our very existence to the people of all tribes that have maintained their culture and heritage. Those that have kept the rituals, stories, legends, and myths alive. It will be with this knowledge, the knowledge that they have preserved, that we shall once again return to "harmony" with Nature, Mother Earth, and mankind. It will be with this knowledge that we shall find our "Key to our Survival".
This is the story of the "Warriors of the Rainbow" and this is my reason for protecting the culture, heritage, and knowledge of my ancestors. I know that the day "Eyes of Fire" spoke of - will come! I want my children and grandchildren to be prepared to accept this task.The task of being one of the........"Warriors of the Rainbow".

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This version comes from Lelanie Stone, off her web site. Her contact information is:

Lelanie Stone
P.O. Box 1139
Salina, OK 74365
Email lstone@radware.net
Web site http://www.powersource.com/ebt/stone.html

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 source: http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/stone.html

At this point, I can surely read your mind: "What is he trying to say with all that?!"

Here's the answer: The modified version of this legend was one of the first things I have seen at Amble Inn, a BaB (bed and breakfast) in Revelstoke, BC, which is my first wwoofing place. It is imprinted on a picture, all black and white with an indigenous woman in the foreground and this particular phrase at the bottom. She is wrapped in a figured fabric and a feather in her pitch black hair. She stands on a rock facing the observer. It immediately drew my attention on it. In some way it perfectly fit my purpose of coming to the Rockies: to experience nature and the countryside in all its beauty!

Back to my journey: I successfully hitchhiked, against my expectations, from Vancouver to Revelstoke within one day. I started my trip at Rob's place early in the morning. The evening before, I had informed myself about possible and common places to hitch a ride. Almost all hitchhikers (there is a special website for Canada!) recommended the ramp to Highway 1 East in Surrey. 

On August 19, I jumped onto the Skytrain that took me all the way to Surrey Central Station. By the way: Surrey officially is a part of the Vancouver Metro District, but has expanded throughout the last decades to claim itself a city on its own with meanwhile more than 400,000 inhabitants. 

Because it's so huge, Surrey has more than one ramp to Highway 1. Which one to go to?! I decided to ask a bus driver and explained to him my current situation. 

He answered: "You wanna hitch a ride at the Highway? Don't take the first ramp from here! Not enough traffic. I'll take you to another one further away. Jump on!"

Well, that's what I did and he drove his regular route and finally pulled over near the ramp to let me get off. He really saved my day and is probably the reason to get me to Revelstoke that quickly. 

At the ramp itself (the place turned out to be perfect with lots of possibilities for cars to safely stop and pick me up), I took out my self-made (HAHAHA!) cardboard that says "Revelstoke - direction Calgary" on one side and "I don't stink!!!" on the back. I thought the latter should be useful in case no one picks me up and I might need some kind of funny entertainment program.
Anyway, I ended up in an SUV of this lady from Chiliwack, BC, who was on her way back to where she lives. The drive took around one hour and suddenly I found myself in the town of Chiliwack. Believe me, hitchhiking and this town are two things that don't match at all! I waited two hours to finally got picked up. And here is the problem: Basically, hitchhiking itself in Canada is not illegal as long as you stay off the highways. And even if you enter the highway and raise your thumb, this is not considered to be an illegal action. Right in the moment when a car pulls over and someone tries to pick you up, that's when the whole thing gets illegal. Don't find this a general rule or a law in Canada, for every province and sometimes every highway has its own restrictions or permissions.
However, at that point I felt like being stranded in the middle of nowhere. No car would try to stop and even my "I don't stink!!!"-sign didn't do a very good job. That was when Inder stopped to pick me up. You can not imagine my joy when he told me that he was on his way to Golden, BC which comes after Revelstoke and he could take me the whole way (nevertheless over 400 km ahead)!
We drove for five hours to get to Revelstoke (yes, that means 80km/h average, welcome to Canada's Highway speed limits!).Usually the road we followed is a scenic drive with nice views on the mountains and lakes. At that time huge forest fires in and around this area made it impossible to see more than a couple of hundred meters through this thick and hazy smoke.
I jumped off directly in front of Amble Inn, a nice Victorian house built around 1900 by a successful businessman and his wife who built all the several rooms in this house for the children they would like to have. Unfortunately, the story turned into a tragedy when they found out that the woman could not give birth to a child. Later on, they sold this house that did not fulfill their dreams and it changed the owner several more times till finally Stephanie, my current host, bought it.

My job at Amble Inn basically included two parts:
(1) the regular daily routine of serving breakfast for the guests in the early morning, cleaning the rooms after they left and cleaning the house itself

(2) special "projects" that can vary from day to day and in my case consisted of chopping wood for the fireplace, gardening work, cutting grass and the extraordinary project called "the jungle" (which means cutting down grass, bushes and small trees, plants that had decades of growing - you have no idea of how hard this job is, especially to pull out the roots!)

Fortunately, there were other wwoofers around who were great! Andrea and Antje, two girls from Germany (ha, I told you Germans are everywhere!), Jessa, one girl from Toronto, a Japanese girl called Yumi and the long-term wwoofer Rene from...yes, you got it: Germany!!! :D

Besides all these jobs, Stephanie made us feel like being part of her family!

She plays in a country rock band called "Sister Girl". Let me just tell you one word to describe these guys: AMAZING!!! I cannot stop listening to their music. But I better stop praising them, make up your own mind about the songs: http://www.sistergirlmusic.com/fr_home.cfm
One day, when work at Amble Inn was not as busy as usual, she took us to a small concert of them. We had a lot of fun and Sister Girl has been the best band that day!

The other day we went for a hike into the Rocky Mountains! I was so excited, since my only impression of the Rockies is the view from above when flying over them on the way from Germany. The landscape in Glacier National Park (not to be confused with the National Park in the U.S.!) is incredible and the hike was special - we thought that the regular trail was too boring for us, so we began bushwhacking, trying to get on the peak of the mountain. The hike took longer than we had expected it would be and finally, after several hours of walking through the bushes- we decided to discontinue the hike, especially because it started to snow!!!  Nevertheless, the view made it up for our failed mission.

Let me add that Stephanie's...um, let's call it "drive" to the trail has been adventurous, too.

The other hike we did was on top of Mount Revelstoke. And again, the view must have been amazing without all the smoke from the fires. Anyway, we could imagine the view on Revelstoke, situated in a valley along the big Columbia River, between the Monashee Mountains to the west and the Selkirk Mountains to the east. 

Music and hiking haven't been the only kind of entertainment I had. Stephanie once paid us some beer in a pub in Golden, we cooked delicious food every single day (I want to mention at this point that I have never had so much, so good and so healthy food as at that time!), we went to a lake one day for some sunbathing and swimming and made campfires as often as possible (Jessa makes the best marshmallows ever!!!).

Another funny and also weird experience I gained was the Zumba dance. For all of you who don't know what Zumba is, here a short explanation: http://www.zumba.com/us/about/.
The girls kind of forced me to join them and finally I bowed to the pressure of female persuasiveness! ;)
I have to admit that Zumba - regardless of its aerobic character - is a funny thing to do and a pretty sweaty activity all the more. Bex, our great coach from New Zealand - made it easy enough or us to get along with the combination of steps and moves.

At last I like to tell you one of the most exciting things that happened to us within my two weeks of wwoofing in Revelstoke: One day, in the middle of the night (around 2:30 am), Stephanie woke us up and asked: "Hey guys, wanna see a bear?!". First I thought of that as a bad joke. But before I could think of a possible revenge, she left the room again, followed by Andrea. So I decided to go with them and in deed: there was a black bear right in front of the house, trying to find something to eat in the neighbor's garbage, leaving a mess behind (hihi, even the youngest kids in Canada know that it's not a good idea to leave garbage in an open container!). Unfortunately, a bone was sticking out of the bear's leg! Poor guy...we called the wildlife care the next day, explaining what we have seen and a few days later a live trap has been built up to catch the bear probably in order to shoot it and relieve it from the pain.

These were my exciting, funny, adventurous, relaxing and busy two weeks of wwoofing in Revelstoke, BC. The next destination: the town of Golden, BC, right next to the Rocky Mountains. My first wwoofing host will be Brian and Anette, owner of the spiritual Quantum Leaps Lodge. I am so excited to go there. Let's see what awaits me... .