Katima-dramas

Since I last blogged, a lot of things has happened. A lot of these things have to do with "dramatic" events that happened in the group (which is relatively rare because our group, compared to the other groups - Elliot Lake/Chicoutimi and Sault Ste. Marie/Jonquiere in our cluster - we have almost no drama), and what I am going to do is dedicate this one blog to the drama that has been happening in our house, as well as other groups (only because if you read what happened to them versus what happened to us, you would laugh at our "dramas"...

Just to get your attentions, I will tell you what I heard from other groups. Although I must admit I do not know the whole story, but whatever...
Jonquiere/Sault Ste. Marie - 2 guys (Thom and Rob) from their group got kicked out and sent home, because they were caught drinking in the park. I know this sounds like a relatively minor thing to get kicked out, but apparently both Rob and Thom had final warnings back in Sault. Ste Marie for getting pissed drunk at a Motley Crue concert and coming home and puking all over the PL's computer, plus other things. The drama part - it was Melissa (a girl who is in their group) that saw them and told the PL that they were drinking in the park. And this was not the first time that Melissa told on the participants to the PL. She was also the one that busted Jon and Katrina back in Sault Ste. Marie about their pot usage in the house. Now I am not going to comment whether Melissa did the right thing or not, but I absolutely would not want to live with someone like Melissa for 9 months just because she is obviously someone people can't trust. And I do not know why Melissa did not hesitate in telling the PL...if I were her, I would be afraid of backlash from the group, retaliation...and obviously I would not want to live in a house where everyone hates me. As well, I feel bad for Thom and Rob in a sense that they pretty much didn't see it coming (they were told last Sunday that they would be sent home on Tuesday/Wednesday...man if I was Melissa, I would not be able to handle the hostility from them during Monday/Tuesday).

Elliot Lake/Chicoutimi - This group is really like a reality TV series, in my opinion...pretty girls/boy-girl relationships/alcohol...their drama is rather complicated:
- Originally there were 11 people...4 guys and 7 girls (3 English, 4 French). Now they are down to 9 (perhaps there may be more leaving in the future)...
1) Niki (one of the guys) apparently was in a "love triangle" with Kelly and Marie Eve...although he and Kelly (who has a boyfriend back home) were much more serious and Marie Eve was apparently a "drunk-fling". One day he got a concussion due to something, got sent to the hospital and during his concession, he decided to go home because of his mom freaking out and stuff like that...apparently he is now trying to appeal to come back to the group, using the reason that "he was not thinking clearly during the concession and made a bad decision"...good luck buddy.
2) Travis (an angry looking skinhead with anger issues) had problems in the group and therefore became one of the scapegoats of the group (another guy, Devon, was another one)...he especially had problems with Kelly and eventually got sent home because of an incident with Kelly (no no he didn't hit her or verbally assault her, from what I heard, but Kelly feels threatened enough that she went and talked to her PL...and in fact it was Robbie who was buddies with Travis that totally bitched at her which caused her to talk to the PL). On the other hand, Travis in Elliot Lake had final warnings for attempting to burn his hand (no joke) and throwing Marie Pier (a girl he had relations with) into the snow, which ended up being hard concrete...you get the story
3) Girls and Drinking - apparently all 3 English girls (Bonnie Jean, Kelly, and Nina) had final warnings back in Elliot Lake with drinking (being drunk, underage drinking, etc.)...and there was an incident last Saturday when all 3 groups went to the Chicoutimi group to hang out (which I don't think I mentioned about...perhaps when I have time to write another blog) and Bonnie Jean/Kelly/Charles (yes the Charles in my group) were in the house drinking before they went to the bar. Now there is a rule in Katimavik that says we are not allowed to drink in the house, and lo and behold Valerie drinks from a cup the next morning and she tasted beer...more later.
4) Girls and Drinking II - the French girls also went to the bar that night and Tania (who was 17) decided to join them, as well as Maxime (17)...more later.
5) Convergence of both stories - the next day during their house meeting, Jonathan (Chicoutimi PL) brought up the story of Valerie finding beer in a cup...therefore Kelly and Bonnie Jean confessed that it was them, and they both got final warnings for that. Then Kelly said it wasn't fair that there were double standards with rules, and the French girls, thinking that Kelly was going to mention Charles in the conversation too, urged Kelly to spill the beans (despite Kelly saying that she will go directly to the person and talk to them)...little do the French girls know that Kelly was talking about the underage people going to the bar and so she spilled the beans about that. So now Tania got a CTI (commitment to improve) on underage drinking, and others (Maryz, etc.) either got final warning or CTI for drinking with a minor...and apparently they also brought up Maxime in the story, saying that she was underage and if she is not punished, then that would not be fair...

As you can tell, there is a pretty obvious division between the English girls and the French girls...
One more thing I would like to add - Charles if you are reading this, you are lucky that Kelly didn`t squeal on you...be a little more careful next time.

Now that you guys know about the other groups` drama, here`s what has been happening with us in regards to drama:
- Friday (volunteering): Charles/Maxime/Rebecca did the presentation (on Canada) for Wednesday/Thursday, and on Thursday night Maxime and Charles said they no longer want to do it and asked if others want to take their place...unfortunately, no one did so they did it again on Friday (Rebecca had no problems doing it again and again...). However Charles wanted to back out on Friday morning and Valerie kind of pressured him to stay, which probably made Charles dissatisfied, as well as Maxime.
- For our presentation on Canadian food, Charles and I decided to serve Nanaimo bars (which are really from Nanaimo, gasp!) and so we made enough to last us for 3 days. To "protect" the bars from being eaten, Charles taped a "DO NOT TOUCH" thing across the container, and therefore was pissed off (I can guarantee you that almost never happens with Charles) when he found out that a strip of the Nanaimo bars were gone and no one confessed to it. And this is the part I don`t really understand...he went to Valerie and started venting his anger on her. And really, it was me =P...ok in my defense when I first saw the Nanaimo bars, there was already a bite mark on it, and therefore I decided to cut enough so the bite mark would be gone, and gave it to Cynthia and Stephen. Little did I know there will be another bite mark, and I thought that was what Charles was referring to...
- Friday volunteering again: After lunch, majority of us were given the choice of a) staying behind to help with volunteering b) go home. Either way, someone has to stay, and someone gets to go. So Charles/Maxime pushed to go home, and brought along Rebecca because they believe they should go home after 3 days of hard work. This leads to 2 problems. 1) Small problem - one of our volunteering activities consist of leading fun activities/games for 30 to 60 minutes to 20 - 30 french kids, and guess who ended up leading it? The English kids (Stephen/Zach/Cynthia/me). Very interesting...
- Cheryl and Stephanie were judging the exhibitions all the way until 1:00 pm (even though all of the English kids minus Rebecca thought they left with Charles/Maxime/Rebecca), and when they finished and found out Valerie/Rebecca/Charles/Maxime left, Cheryl and Stephanie got mad that they weren't asked for this option (Cheryl in a bad mood is not a good thing)...and this kind of affected group morale during volunteering which the lady in charge of the volunteering program picked up (she told this to Valerie). Eventually Cheryl and Stephanie called Valerie and asked to be picked up, since there wasn't really anything to do anymore...tensions were everywhere, with Cheryl and Stephanie mad about that, plus that Charles and Maxime were "complaining" about their work too much, while Charles and Maxime were disatisfied with working too much through the presentations and no one really willing to help them.
So what does one do in this situation? Group meeting specificially on this situation...and eventually everything worked out.
- Cheryl and Cynthia: they were house-managers last week and there were tensions between them (this happened way before house managing week), and finally on Saturday afternoon (I wasn't there, but I heard enough) Cheryl snapped at Cynthia, feeling that Cynthia did not throw in her share of work and was always on the computer (apparently on Saturday Cynthia was on the house computer for 3+ hours, which annoyed everyone). I was not there to witness the event, but I can imagine Cheryl venting...ooooooohhhhhh...and Cynthia....aaaaahhhhh
- Maxime got a CTI/Final Warning because of underage drinking/going to a bar during the Chicoutimi weekend...actually a couple of weeks ago (Stephanie's birthday) Maxime/Charles/Stephanie/Rebecca were going out to the bar and as Maxime almost entered Le Crapaud, Valerie was walking down the street and saw Maxime....hahaha she walked Maxime home.
- Maxime again: on Saturday night, Maxime went to the Dooly's (a pool hall in town) with me/Stephen/Mike/Charles (which is a risk for her because of Valerie and her warning), so when Stephen wanted to leave at 10 pm ish, she snapped at him and put him and Cheryl together, saying that he just wants to be with Cheryl and that he changed...Stephen was just like "what the hell, this isn't any of your business" but eventually things settled down and Maxime bought (more like bribed) Stephen a drink to stay longer. If you can read between the lines things between Cheryl and Maxime aren't going great...
- Maxime III: Later on in the night, Maxime and Charles were just in the living room, chilling...I walked in, and Maxime was shaking incontrollably...Charles was laughing and so I think it was all a joke. After a shower I came downstairs, and Maxime was crying and not speaking, while Cheryl/Stephen/Charles were like "Maxime are you okay? What is happening?"...so apparently Maxime had a seizure, which scared everyone and we were all hesitant to tell Valerie because Maxime drank beforehand and we didn't want to get her in trouble (others may have other reasons also)...here's the drama/mystery
1) (From Cynthia) Apparently Stephen found a bottle of pills under Maxime's pillow while everyone transported Maxime back upstairs into the room and Stephen asked Maxime (who was already feeling better) what the pills are for, thinking it could help her. Apparently she immediately grabbed it from him and didn't say it...does she have something to hide?
2) When Stephanie and Cheryl decided to wake Valerie up (this happened around 1:00 pm), Charles immediately tried stopping them and said "no"...does he know something that no one else does?
Charles feel free to spill, although I doubt you will. That's cool.
- Probably the biggest thing of all: Mike...is now gone. We cannot believe it. After months of him constantly around and being himself, we would think his activities would kick him out for good...well he left on Sunday, but it is not because he was kicked out...it is quite a shock, actually, with what happened...
So on Friday afternoon, when we had our bitch-fest (oops group meeting on volunteering I mean), Valerie dropped the bomb: Mike has ADD (which was something we knew previously) and stopped taking medication that he has been taking since he was young (and is still supposed to) around the 2nd week into the program. No one knew about this until Valerie herself found out, so she made me take it again because according to his Katimavik file, he cannot do the program unless he is on medication. Because of that, Valerie was obliged to write a report on this and send it to the Katimavik medical team to help Mike. Medical team's decision - send Mike home, have his family doctor decide whether he is suitable for the program based on his conditions, and either come back into the group or not.
This is complete bullshit, in my opinion...how does that help Mike? And it is not something Mike can control, in fact it was pretty much dropped onto him like a surprise that came from nowhere...I feel very bad for Mike because that was probably the first time I have seen him very upset. Not even when he got a final warning was he this upset...
So Mike has a 50/50 chance of coming back...and we got our first (and hopefully only) hit with the group...down to 9 right now.

As well, this reminds me of a conversation I had with Cynthia and Robbie about scapegoats in human groups. Cynthia feels that once Mike is gone, Cynthia will be the new scapegoat in our group. I absolutely hope this is not going to happen, because if it does, what does it say about people in our group and human nature (by the way, that would totally be like "Lord of the Flies" if that happens, it just occurred to me)?

More "drama" in the future, I am sure...stay tuned. Oh no, don't yawn...we are pretty tame compared to the other groups eh?