Lögberg-Heimskringla - 24.01.2003, Page 4

Lögberg-Heimskringla - 24.01.2003, Page 4
page 4 » Lögberg-Heimskringla « Friday, 24 January 2003 This column recognizes people oflcelandic descent who have made or are making a contribution to the IcelandicfNorth American community. Please let us know ifthere is someone you would like to see featured. Contact (204) 284-5686 or email us at logberg@mts.net Icelandic Canadian Brothers in Mauritius PHOTO COURTESY OF GILLES AND STEPHANE TAILLEFER Gilles Taillefer (left), Stephane Taillefer (right). Mauritius, the home of the extinct dodo bird, was a Portuguese, and successively a Dutch, then French, then English colony. It has been independent since 1968 and is a member of the British Commonwealth. English is the otlicial work language. French and Creole are spoken everywhere. Gilles and Stephane Taillefer Mauritius Here we are in the republic of Mauritius, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. If you had asked us a year ago, we would never have dreamed of this. Our parents are Jean-Marie and Lynne (Magnusson) Taillefer of St. Adolphe, MB. Our mater- nal grandparents Kristjana (Sigvaldason) Magnusson- Clark and the late Albert Magnusson of Surrey, BC grew up in the Icelandic communities of Arborg and Hnausa. Our late paternal grandparents were Edouard and Adelaide Taillefer of LaBroquerie, MB. How we, two half Icelandic- Canadian and half French- Canadian brothers, ended up on Mauritius is not all that compli- cated. We would encourage any other young people with open minds and spirits to contact us if they want to get information on how a wonderful experience like this is possible. We were sent as part of an exchange program with UNE- VOC Canada, a subcategory of UNESCO. UNEVOC is a stu- dent exchange program put in place by the United Nations. Sadly discontinued in the USA for security reasons, young Canadians can still take advan- tage of this great program. We are both computer pro- grammers and needed some good hands-on experience to include on our resumes to impress potential Canadian employers. We have designed and created a new web site for the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI) as well as software for their intranet, where employees can search the library database for certain publications. We then also wrote the code for a pro- gram that will keep track of the inventory of the MSIRI. The software can be used to perform many different types of queries about the company’s hardware, software and ofi&ce equipment. The software also allows users to maintain the database by adding, modifying and deleting equipment. So here we are in Mauritius for six months. We have discov- ered that your impression of a place changes drastically the longer you live somewhere. Yet we will speak of constants that have not changed since we have been here. The landscape here is beautiful, just amazing. The water is the purest colour of turquoise and so dense that you float without effort. When you get further out to sea, the water changes to indigo blue. The tropical flora with abundant fruit and intensely coloured flowers is a welcome change to snow and ice. Mango and litchi trees overloaded with fruit can be seen everywhere. Unfortunately the people here seem to throw garbage indiscriminately. In an effort to keep the island clean, authori- ties have placed billboards, advertisements and garbage receptacles every where, but you still see garbage on the streets and beaches. Some people are getting the message but it is not like Canada. The air pollution from vehicles here is quite stun- ning as well. It is a very popu- lated island after all and the vehicles have no standards for emissions. This year they will be introducing unleadéd gas so hopefully this will help. The best aspect of Mauritius we have kept for last and that is the truly good hearts and sincerity of the Mauritian people. The people here make this island really worth visit- ing. We have never felt so wel- come as in Mauritius. If you want to talk to just about any- one, they would love to chat with you. They will also go out of their way to help you or make sure you are having a good time. Mauritians are very happy people who have a posi- tive outlook on life. Making friends here is not a problem. They will invite you to their house and introduce you to the entire family and prepare a nice meal and ofifer you drinks. Many people have quaint little houses and not too much money, but can live comfortably and will prepare something extravagant when there are guests or during the holiday season. They also know how to have fun. Everyone in Mauritius dances and they all know the words to all the Sega and Sagai (local music) songs. A lot of the parties are done with family and they do the Full Faya (big party). We will leave a lot of friends in Mauritius but we will not for- get them because they were all very sincere and generous. GamlársRvöld Continued from page 1 One year Ásta left her home in a perfectly plain pair only to retum with a set more likened to giraffe or leopard print. I am now regret- ting opting for my sexy leather knee high boots in lieu of packing the fire retardant body sock. After dinner, Shawn left to spend New Year’s with Icelandic friends leaving three of us to ring in the New Year. Ásta and Derek proceeded to set off fireworks in the backyard, which I thought was terribly unsafe. Ásta’s dog Gretta agreed as we Both sought shelter behind the door. Gretta pointed out that neither of them was wearing their protective ‘as seen on TV’ eyewear. We only peeked out when we thought it might be safe again. The bonfires and fireworks’ displays officially got underway at around 8 pm in most areas of the city, but the closer it got, to midnight the more unoíficial dis- plays joined in. Gretta decided she would stay home, so Ásta, Derek and I secured the windows and made our way to the PearJ. The Pearl is a prime destina- tion on this night as it olfers an almost unobstmcted view of the entire city. By prime destination I mean we were caught in traffic. The Pearl has an unobstructed view if you don’t notice the thou- sands of people standing next to you setting off their own fire- crackers through their cham- pagne induced “protective eye- wear” (goggles) directly into the dry and brittle trees, grass, crowds of people, and parked cars. 1 had a somewhat obstruct- ed view because I am not used to being surrounded by fire and drunk people with explosives. I am also not conditioned to enjoy being hit in the head with bum- ing pieces of firecracker, but found myself mysteriously joy- ous when I noticed that some of the pieces were no longer on fire. The Icelandic people didn’t seem to mind any of this. Being a foreigner and know- ing the sky would look phenom- enal, 1 had brought along my trusty no-frills manual-wind camera. When I finally gave up on trying to feel safe in the bum- ing chaos around me and decided to look up, I was at a loss as to where to aim. I wanted so much to be able to take a picture of the entire sky at once. Whenever I saw an absolutely beautiful array of colour I fear I was too slow to catch it. When I get my film developed in June sometime I will probably have forgotten what these coíourful bJurs were supposed to be. Amid the cracks, snaps, and bangs, the screams of fire truck sirens, the screams of frightened foreigners, the car alarms, the chunks of buming fallout in my hair, I experienced something tmly magnificent. Although the sky had been alight for most of the evening, midnight brought something truly extraordinary. I imagine if the sun were to explode it would look just like this. Millions of bits of colour shooting out in all directions, lighting up the entire sky. And although it goes on for quite some time, when it is finished it leaves nothing but darkness. I have heard the following statistics but have been unable to confirm them. Apparently in 1999 (2000 New Year), China (most populous nation in the world and the inventors of fire- works) blew up 50 tonnes of fire- works, and in the same year, Iceland (nation of 281,000) blew up 160 tonnes. After this experi- ence I am almost embarrassed to think of the way I celebrate New Year’s at home. This is definite- ly something that I will be doing again and I recoinmend it to everyone. <m ih Rin* im mv .wwist m n wBtRr hht'k^h^n 4* nnt 4 nn wwHitt

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