Sense and Census

"Sense and Census" I realize that this sounds like the next big musical to hit broadway, critics will rave; "Sense and Census follows a 20 something girl through the ups and downs of census collecting in Rural Alberta. Dodging unleashed, untagged dogs, escaping from prairie mosquitos, and talking with residents - there's nothing this intern won't do." Okay, Okay, my broadway dreams could be far-fetched, however I must say my job as village census collector did not come without adventure.

I decided to tackle the census by breaking the village up into a few different sections. I had to ask residents three short questions and then ask them another question regarding how to achieve the future goal of getting paved roads in the village. At the beginning of this week I will have completed three days of census collecting and I believe one more evening route could mark the end of my collection days. This has been an interesting process. It gave me the opportunity to meet some new people, have some great conversation and as mentioned above get my good scare in for the day by dodging the odd dog that takes a run and jump at my clipboard. At first I wasn't sure why me doing a village specific census was necessary, and how it even made sense. However I learned that alot of funding for the village is provided by grant money and many of these grants are provided per capita so it is of critical importance that the village is accurate and up to date on it's  population count in order to receive all the funding required.

I have been sitting with a question now for a week or so, and this question is how does an intern know if the projects they are doing make sense for the purposes of not only this internship and our respective partners and bosses, but also for the municipalities we are working with. I have found myself now scanning documents, collecting census information and beginning to look at safety policies and wondered, "does this make sense  to be doing this task?" As I was holding this questions I came across a post by a fellow intern and I have to say Thank you now to this intern who addressed a similar topic in a blog post by discussing the needs municipalities have for more hands and bodies to do the work in a  municipality. It truly does take alot of work to make the village go round. The village Chief Administrative Officer, fellow admininstration personnel, public works employees, council members and countless volunteers work endlessly to ensure the proper and effective running of the village and by default alot of jobs get pushed to the wayside. There are certain tasks that may not always make sense for all intense purposes of this internship but the important thing is that they make sense for the communities we are working with.

I have learned a valuable lesson in my CSL experience at Augustana and this lesson is that an integral part of the learning experience occurs when there is an equal balance between giving and taking. Approaching my summer work with a sensitivity to this relationship of give and take between the community and myself ensures that the projects I am undertaking are contextually appropriate for the community I am apart of, as well as fitting into the parameters of the internship. This balance is not always easily struck, but approaching it with awareness makes it feel much more tangible.

On another note this week I had a lovely visit from fellow intern Odessa who brought her ideas and camera gear from Camrose to Hay Lakes and we got to shoot some footage of my intern experiences in Hay Lakes. Although much of this involves me working on my computer, she was able to catch me in census collecting action, and as a special treat we got one of the volunteer fire fighters to give us a look into the fire hall that serves the Hay Lakes fire district. I can guarantee Odessa will find a delightful way of making life as intern appeal to many of our senses. In fact, I may even contract her out to begin filming the first installment of "Trials and Tribulations of a Rural Capacity Intern: Census and Sense collecting."

I believe this is all for now, but with the summer now in full swing the blogs are really just beginning.