May 15-21, 2023

May 21, 2023

On Saturday Kemi Odewale Opabiyi was baptized by Solomon. The Sisters have been teaching her for a few weeks. Kemi is a lovely woman from Nigeria. With all the baptisms of African people who have immigrated to Canada, we kind of feel like we're serving in Africa again!

Sister Thompson, Kemi, Sister Hughes

Spring is beautiful in Montréal. We discovered a new family in the park yesterday.

Seven fluffy little ducklings

This guy was posing by the bridge on Saturday

I don't know birds very well - some kind of crane or similar looking to a heron? Whatever it is, we've never seen one here before.

Remember the giant red shoe from a couple weeks ago? I found the bag to go with the shoes.

In case you forgot, here's the shoe again

My sister and brother-in-law have been here visiting with us this week. We have had a great time touring together. They are getting to see Montréal and we are visiting the sites for the last time, probably! We rode the hop-on, hop-off bus Wednesday and Thursday. My favorite view point in the city is called Belvedere Kondiaronk. It is on Mount Royal and offers fantastic views of downtown Montréal.

John, me, Barbara, Dennis

Me and my sister!

Leonard Cohen is a native of Montréal. There is a huge mural on the side of a building downtown. We took a picture of it from the viewpoint.

B & D enjoying their first taste of smoked meat. It was a winner!

There is a giant steel ring/circle downtown that is suspending above the staircase to the Esplanade Place Ville Marie (Montréal). It symbolizes the strong connection between Montréal, its citizens and visitors. It perfectly frames Mount Royal in the distance. We had fun posing at the ring.

The 30-meter (98.45 feet) ring

Bad selfie

One of our guides was a wealth of information that none of the others shared with us. We learned how Montréal got its name. It is derived from Mount Royal or Monte Royale, the name given by Jacques Cartier in 1535. In 1556, an Italian geographer put Monte Real on his map to indicate the location of Mount Royal. Monte Real became Montréal.

We have seen this flag many time but didn't realize it was the Montréal city flag. It has five symbols to recognize the city's founding peoples: the white pine for the indigenous presence; the fleur-de-lis for the French; the rose for the English; the thistle for the Scottish; and the clover for the Irish.

We knew this was the Quebec provincial flag but not much about it. The white cross on a blue field recalls an ancient French military banner. The four fleurs-de-lis are symbolic of France.

Saint Joseph Oratory (old photo)

We visited Saint Joseph Oratory on Thursday. Some of the construction is further along than in the above picture, but the front entrance is still blocked. We rode the shuttle to the top. They have added a big sculpture on the viewing plaza since we were last there.

"Angels Unaware"

Opposite side of the sculpture

Information from the plaque: 'This monumental sculpture refers to the duty of hospitality and solidarity of every human being, evoking an evangelical precept from the New Testament: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Letter to the Hebrews 13:21). The artist depicts children, women and men of different origins and times, piled up on a boat (this can be distinguished by the clothes, hairstyles and accessories), while the wings of an angel appear in the middle of the group.'

The artist behind the work is Timothy P Schmalz, an Ottawa artist. Many of his pieces depict the sacred, describing his work as being visual prayers.

At the bottom of the steps

Friday Barbara and Dennis went with us to the food bank. They were put to work distributing food to the clients. Unfortunately, we were separated by several windows so didn't get to work "together" but they survived the experience. It was good of them to come with us.

After the food bank, we strolled through Chinatown. Chinatown here isn't very large so doesn't take long to see it all. We sampled some Dragon's Beard Candy.

Dragon's Beard candy dates back to the Han Dynasty in China. Legend has it that an Imperial Court chef entertained the Emperor by showcasing the process of making the candy. This involved stretching a dough made of rice flour and sugar into small, thin strands. These strands resembled a dragon's beard and were sticky enough to literally stick to your face. Hence, the candy was named Dragon's Beard Candy. The taste was different but I quite liked it. It had a filling of peanuts, white sesame seed and maybe coconut.

Posing by the lions at the gate into Chinatown

We put Barbara and Dennis on a tour bus Saturday morning to go explore Quebec City. While they were gone, we did Bishops Storehouse, visited Sister Smith in the nursing home, attended Kemi's baptism and the ward activity in the evening.

The ward activity was an international night. There were eleven countries/cultures represented. Many of the families dressed in their native costumes and we enjoyed food from their countries. Much of the food was waaaaaay to spicy for my taste but we found lots of good things to eat.