our travels we are often fortunate in being in
the right place at the right time. Such was the case while we
were staying in Brandon, Manitoba. We had gone to a Ukrainian
restaurant across the street from our campground and saw a poster
for "The Gathering of Nations." Well, of course this
fascinated us and we found a brochure explaining it. We learned
that the "Gathering of Nations", formerly known as the
Festival of Nations, is a gathering of the many different
nationalities who have settled in the area of South Central
Manitoba.People descended upon this area from all parts of the world as explorers, fur traders, pioneers and settlers and later as immigrants and refugees. The earlier inhabitants
settled
alongside the many tribes of the First Nations already occupying
much of the vast plains and woodland in Manitoba. These
individuals had visions of adventure, wealth, freedom and peace.These people brought their customs, culture, music and talents, all of which has been inter-woven into an extraordinary Serape encompassing all of the land known as Canada.
Canada is home where they work at living together in harmony with friends and neighbors as they strive to build a stronger nation for future generations. It's a time to remember - a time to celebrate - a time to unite!
After
learning all of this how could we resist the lure to find out
more. So on July 15 we took a leisurely drive to Swan Lake,
Manitoba, to attend "The Gathering." As we looked
around we found that they had set up several pavilions. There
was: the British Heritage Pavilion, the Belgian Pavilion, the
French Pavilion, the Dutch Pavilion, the First Nation Pavilion
and the Ukranian-Slavic Pavilion. In order to enter the grounds
you were required to pay a small entrance fee and were then given
a schedule of entertainment for the day. One of our most
difficult decisions of the day was deciding where to go first.
However, after looking at the entertainment schedule we found out
that there were some Irish dancers due to dance soon, followed
shortly by Pipers. Well, Bob and I both love "the
pipes" so off we went. As we entered the British Heritage
Pavilion we found they had set up tables around the outside of
the room showing pictures and wares from England, Scotland,
Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, and South
Africa. Also included in each pavilion 
were samples of food from those countries. Gee,
another day of adventurous eating. Darn, what a tough job, but
somebody's got to do it, eh? While we were waiting for the Irish
Dancers to appear we sampled a strange egg dish, called Scotch
Eggs. It was a hardboiled egg surrounded by a sausage mixture.
Delicious! Then the dancers appeared. They did a couple of Irish
Dances that looked like some that might have been done hundreds
of years ago in Ireland. I swear you could almost smell the sea
and peat in the air. After they were finished, and while we were
waiting for the pipers to make their 
appearance, we wandered outside to the Heavy
Scotch Games. Well, for those of you who have never seen them,
they are incredible. I have never been witness before to grown
men and WOMEN, throwing telephone poles for competition. The
women had their own competition as they only threw small phone
poles (about 60 lbs). Fortunately we started talking to a couple
near us (Judy Cameron and John Ingram) who seemed to know how the
competition was conducted. As it turned out, his son was one of
the competitors. The men pick up the caber (the phone pole), run
a distance with it, and then pitch it. The idea is, it lands on
one end, flips over and then it has to fall as close to straight
out from him as possible.
And you've got to remember this, guys, it was
all done while wearing a kilt. It was incredible just to watch
them pick it up, let alone throw it. After that event that had
one where the competitors were required to take a pitchfork,
spear a very heavy bag that looked like an extremely large bag of
grain and pitch it over a cross bar. As we conversed with Judy
and John we happened to mention that the t-shirts they were
selling were advertising Bob's favorite beverage, Scotch. We
watched the competition for a while longer and were starting back
to the building when John came over carrying something in his
hands. Turned out he wanted us to have a reminder of our visit
and had purchased a t-shirt for Bob with "Famous
Grouse" on it. Bob thanked him for his gift and we went on
our way to listen to a couple of pipers in the building. 
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