A dozen students from the Hay River Reserve returned home in late May from an exchange trip to Ontario with stories they will be telling for years.
Among many other things, they went up the CN Tower, saw Niagara Falls, experienced the diverse cultures of Toronto, and visited the school that sent exchange students to the Hay River Reserve earlier this year – Central Peel Secondary School in Brampton, a city in the Great Toronto Area.
Sheena Yakinneah-Sabourin, a 14-year-old Grade 9 student at Chief Sunrise Education Centre, said the trip was fun.
She especially enjoyed going to Canada's Wonderland, a theme park north of Toronto.
Sheena had never before been to Toronto or Ontario.
"It was big," she said. "Too much traffic."
Sonia Sabourin, a 13-year-old Grade 8 student, found one thing particularly enjoyable.
"I liked their sales," she said. "I went shopping."
Sonia was also impressed by the size of Central Peel Secondary School, which has about 1,200 students.
"Ours is like an ant compared to theirs," she said.
Sonia said the biggest thing she learned on the trip is you have to be really careful in a big city.
"Because here you don't have to be careful," she said of the Hay River Reserve. "You can walk along the road and be OK, but there it's a lot different. You're not allowed to walk around past 8."
Biancha Smallgeese, an 11-year-old Grade 6 student, was the youngest person on the exchange trip.
She had fun, especially visiting the CN Tower, but she found Toronto to be big.
Biancha said some Ontario students asked about life in the North.
"They were saying, 'How is it over there?' and 'How far is it?' and 'Do you get more animals over there,'" she recalled.
Nathalie Diaz, a teacher at Chief Sunrise and also an organizer of the exchange, said the students from the Hay River Reserve easily blended into Central Peel Secondary School because it's so multicultural.
"It was amazing," she said. "The kids really bonded with the students from Brampton. They did before when they came up here, but I just saw that a lot of my students came out of their shells. Even like in their appearance. A lot of our students like to wear just black and hoodies, but once they got there they started buying shorts and colourful clothing, and it was really sweet. And they were holding hands with each other. They were hugging all the time."
Diaz said there were many highlights of the trip.
"I think when we were walking around downtown Toronto for a whole day and they got to check out the CN Tower, go to a Blue Jays game, and check out Chinatown," she said. "We actually showed up on the jumbotron (at the Blue Jays game). So they were on TV holding the NWT flag. So that was pretty cool."
Diaz also mentioned visiting Niagara Falls and riding in the famed Maid of the Mist tour boat close to the falls.
"That was so cool," she said.
The students even went camping.
The Hay River Reserve students – nine girls and three boys aged 11 to 19 – returned home on May 30 after a week in Ontario, along with three chaperones.
The exchange is called Sets'ani Be a Friend. Sets'ani means "friend" in the Slavey language.
The exchange took place with the support of an organization called Experiences Canada.