The Actual 300th Blog Post

Okay, so now it says that THIS one is the 300th blog post.

I spoke to the woman from the logbook today over Skype. She says that I'm the first participant that she'd spoken with, everyone else having been a supervisor. She said that she is also going to contact the other person who has been most active on the logbook since completing the program, other than me. This is because, of all the CWY groups, apparently, our logbook was the most successful. The logbooks had been a pilot project and she said that the goal was to introduce technology to participants of host communities, as it's become a topic that is continually becoming more associated with North American culture, and something that people in host communities see as something they would like to be exposed to during their time in Canada. She had another goal, but it slips my mind for the moment. Maybe something like enhancing awareness of the host community.

Anyway, I told her that the Malians may not have expressed interest in the logbook, but they had expressed interest in things like Facebook. I said that this is probably because Facebook is a community-based media, whereas the logbook is more individualistic. I said that one thing the Malians grappled with in Canada was something that they called "Canadian individualism", and I told her that it's possible that the success of our logbook may have been a positive result coming out of a negative quality of my group. I told her that the Canadians in my group had difficulty operating as a group, and with the communal quality of Karadie, but that they showed real competence and insight working individually or pairs. I said that the reason our blog may have flourished with the Canadians is because it's an individual-based media, and that's where they shined. Kind of a prelude to the difficulties they'd have adapting to a cultural-based society.

I told her that the Malians were all interested in experiencing different cultures, and that they would be interested in being exposed to other host communities in CWY, so if it could be formatted to better emphasize communication, rather than individual articles, and interlink the different communities, it might be more successful with participants from partner communities.

Technology-wise, I had a few quibbles with their method for publishing photos, and how they do the log-in.

She asked me a bunch of other stuff, like whether or not I thought it could be made a general assumption that there would be at least one Canadian with the technical skills to operate the logbook, and that there would be at least one participant from the partner community interested in learning about technology, but I won't go into detail. All in all, I thought it was a pretty successful little chat.

I caught an old friend from Katimavik on Skype after I finished talking with this CWY person. I spent about 45 minutes talking to her, just like I did with the logbook lady.

Unfortunately, the good feel of the day ends here. I got burned for the CWY job offer. I was mistaken in thinking that the interview was a sure thing. I had thought that because I had been sent the email specifically, as opposed to from a mailing list, and because they had stated the time and place that they would be interviewing, that I basically had my foot in the door, at least up to the interview point, but I was wrong. The person in charge replied to me, and he said that they got my application, but that they were only interviewing a few people. He said that they will have future openings, he encouraged me to continue applying, and said that he will keep me in mind for future openings in the Toronto area. He sent me a link to the CWY alumni network with positions associated to Canada World Youth, so that I can see when positions open up. It was a nice enough letter, but still a rejection.