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Sunday, October 5th
Ahhhhh... precious sleep! I awake this morning to the soft sounds of zippers quietly opening - Otesha is now awake... OH NO!!! WE HAVE SLEPT IN!!! No worries today though, for we have (drum role please) A DAY OFF!!! Some of us head out today to explore the small town of St. George - not really too much to see, although there are miles of dirt bike trails off into the wilderness that some of the more adventurous Oteshaites can't help but explore today - even on road bikes! Some of us head out for a late breakfast, others enjoy brain numbing entertainment (not to mention a little Colin Farrell!) - All of us take time to enjoy our last day off. (Except the local Cadets, who unexpectedly take over the gym!)

Monday, October 6th
This morning moves a little faster than yesterday, and we spend the morning brainstorming future of Otesha ideas... WILD! We are also giving a presentation at the St. Georges high school today! After a brief meeting over a fire drill and a few peanut butter and jam sandwiches in the parking lot, we decide a few last minute changes need to be made to our presentation. In hopes to make our presentation more identifiable to our audience, Anita, Kristin and Logan come up with entirely new personal stories about their background and how they have come to feel that they can make a difference. The presentation even had aspects of a boom chicka boom, and the whole Otesha team singing imagine as the sound for that song on our final slideshow wasn't working. Despite the fact that we thought the presentation went well on our end, we left feeling as if we hadn't touched as many students as we had wanted to. However, later that afternoon, the principal joins in our presentation debrief- he was impressed - Very impressed, he shared with us some of his past experiences and told us that he was only realizing now at 50 what we are now sharing with youth - that one person really can make a difference. That one of the community members, Mary Bennett, arranged for us some delicious home made blueberry muffins, live accordion music played by her husband, and dancing! We couldn't have felt more welcomed into this community!

Tuesday, October 7th
Dreams of Blueberry pancakes fill my mind and I awake to a dream come true! Fresh home made blueberry pancakes made for the entire Otesha team, with blueberry compote! Mmmmmmm!!! Special little pins and key chains were given to us as well! We left early for our next set of presentations, it was a beautiful, although quite a cold ride into Stephenville Crossing (Anita rode too!!!). Most of the team stays in Stephenville Crossing for presentations and workshops to the elementary school. This school is certainly taken by storm. Otesha visited almost every classroom, and we soon became celebrities, being followed everywhere we went to give autographs to the students! This amazing set of kids were also part of an action plan workshop to help develop an environmental club at their school. We were totally blown away by their fabulous ideas. Another group of Oteshaites headed back to St. Georges high school to take part in an action plan workshop there - one of the most successful action plans to develop yet! We were all incredibly happy to see that these kids had shown up for the workshop and it rid our doubts of the failures of the presentation made at St.Georges the day before. The workshop culminated HUGE ideas, overflowing energy and inspiration as these youth decided that they were going to build a Community Centre!!! We are all in awe of these amazing kids and the endeavour they are taking on to better their community.

Wednesday, October 8th
I am awoken by strange music; small pitter patters of rain hit the pavement of the school parking lot. This doesn't discourage us today though, because today is our last ride as Otesha, our last ride since that day in Vancouver on May 5th when the Otesha team first rode together, starting a long journey, taking the first steps towards completing this dream that we know as Otesha. It was a cold and wet ride -we are all suited up in retro rain gear, garbage bags and whatever other trendy solutions we can find to stay warm and dry! We don't look like professional bike riders... although we did bike ALL THE WAY ACROSS CANADA!!! We may not be professional bike riders, but we are the most inspired, motivated, positive, friendly, outgoing, hopeful and driven group of kick ass youth there is! It makes me feel like singing, "shiny happy people"! Look at what we have accomplished together as a team! We ride in close clumps and it is beautiful not only in completing our last kilometres together, but also the mountains covered with beautiful trees changing colour with the season surrounding us - I think they forgot Corner Brook when they were choosing the natural wonders of the world; it is the most beautiful place in that I have ever seen with my own eyes. I am in awe of nature and Otesha. As we close in on the "Welcome to Corner Brook sign", we all stop and wait for each member of the team to arrive. Dancing to keep warm and celebrate we pile under the sign for some victory photos and hugs. The final five kilometres into town we ride as a pack, critical mass style, the car behind, music blaring, bells ringing, and Otesha singing! As we final pull into the school parking lot, kids are still finding their way to their school buses and watching us very curiously. We jump off our bikes, and start dancing, group hugging, tears coming down some of our cheeks... I can't help but think of all the generous people we have had the opportunity to meet who have helped to get us this far... The many homes we have slept in, the meals people have made us, the events people have planned, the donations people have provided, and the encouragement and inspiration that helped us pedal each and every one of these 8,866 km. Thank you Canada : ) An amazing journey completed, it hardly feels real... The students watching definitely start thinking that Otesha is crazy... and I suppose we are. One of them asks us what we have accomplished and we tell him that we just finished biking across Canada. He gives us this doubtful look and says, "Yeah right, what did you really do?" Ha! Ha! Ha!

When we finally calm down enough to enter the school we are presented with warm staggered showers, a dry place to sleep and pizza!!! It is agreed that we need to go out and celebrate! Some of us are so excited to be here in Corner Brook that we dance most of the night away!

Thursday, October 9th
7:00am wake up... This really hurts, as each one of us is reaching that point of exhaustion as the end becomes near... But we never turn down an opportunity to change the world! We get breakfast as lunch generously donated to us that day by the Canada College, all arranged by the amazing Kathy, one of the teachers at Herdman Collegiate. We have a huge brainstorming session that morning about the future; Simon and Steve's future bike tour, Kristin's magazine to empower young women, Mel's plans to work with the Youth Action Team in Ships Harbour and the future of Jess and Joss's baby - Otesha that is! That afternoon, one of the best Wacky world presentations yet takes place at St. Gerard's Elementary School. Scuba Simon premiers as the hilarious fair trade alien, Kristin is the narcoleptic alien from planet reduce (possibly because she didn't sleep last night). Dinner has generously been donated again! A beautiful affirmation circle for Mel is completed before we do a final run through of our last presentation as team Otesha 2003. We are so excited about tomorrow's festivities and we go CrAzY Oteshifying for our final presentation tomorrow - October 10th!!! Lockers are Oteshified, water fountains, doors, walls, mirrors, toilets, windows - words of inspiration are wherever you turn! Simon is so excited; he runs right into a closed door and not only breaks his glasses, but his face too! He's ok after a few stitches though!

Friday, October 10th
I open my eyes to strings filled with hundreds of post cards encircling the Herdman Collegiate cafeteria (468 in fact) - LIVING SIMPLY DAY IS FINALLY HERE! This is the day that we have been talking about for months, at every single presentation since the team left Vancouver almost six months ago. We are in Corner Brook Newfoundland and it is October 10th - TODAY is Living simply day! Today we will perform our final and 253rd presentation as Otesha. Modified once again we try in our presentation to get across how monumental this presentation is to us. However it ends in just one short hour, and barely is there a moment to breath before a stream of workshops begin, and interviews are given to the many members of the media who came to our event. We move into our fair trade workshop, cradle-to-cradle, and ad-busting, all running smoother than Elly in a headwind. We are even on the CBC news! The day finishes with Jess and Joss giving the final workshop to an amazing English class with many students who had seen multiple workshops throughout the day. However this workshop was all new, thrown together on the drop of a dime, it came from the heart, and was all about dreams... A full circle if I do say so myself. Quickly we run out to the parking lot to begin our Living Simply Day activities... something we have been preparing for the last week. Not as many students take part in our sustainability joy ride as originally hoped, although this does not stop us from culture jamming and Otesha-slamming Corner Brook! We proudly wear brightly coloured signs on our backs, as we bike and walk to hand out used plastic bags at grocery stores, chalking words of inspiration and hope on pavement all over the city, promoting Tupperware!!! Dropping peanut butter jars in toilets, Oteshifying photocopiers, car windshields, affirming bikers and pedestrians for not adding to climate change. We are affirming libraries and their readers for sharing books and thus saving thousands of trees each and every year. We are promoting fair trade coffee and chocolate to grocery stores and restaurants, reminding coffee drinkers to bring their reusable mugs. We are inspiring people to be the change that they want to see in the world! We are hopeful hooligans and we are unstoppable! After the critical mass we head to Memorial University where we enjoy our last Otesha dinner of chick-peas, old vegetables, moldy burnt cheese bread, and left over donations. All of us too exhausted to even think about making something to eat. We affirm the final member of our team, Andrea, and giggles and stories are shared all around. We finish off the evening with an unforgettable slideshow, watching our journey right from the beginning, all the moments shared, biking all the way across Canada, up and until today. Wow... Simon and Mel gathered the team together in a circle to tell us, what in a way we all knew already, that they are completely in love and plan on spending the rest of their lives together. No wedding yet, and no the Otesha baby does not have a due date, simply a declaration of their commitment to one another. Congratulations guys!

Otesha has forever changed us all, it is an experience I will never forget - ever. We all fall asleep for our last night together as Otesha on that seminar room floor.

Saturday, October 10th
Its hard saying good bye to so many people you've lived so closely with for so long all at once. And as each member of the team leaves, the curdled soy milk invades Zinga's trunk for the last time this journey as the final car enima is completed. Taking one last look at Corner Brook, and never looking at Canada quite the same as I did before, I think back to everything I have seen, experienced, learned, absorbed, felt, wanted, loved, become and aspired to be during this life changing experience. I think of all the rides, all the moments (and utensils) shared, ice cream devoured, youth we have inspired. I think of all the places we have been, the many flat tires, road side picnics, affirmation circles, loosing count of the days since I'd last showered, swimming adventures, the smell of compost that Zinga absorbed over the months, all of the group hugs we shared, peanut butter sandwiches consumed, wet, dirty, stinky clothes (and Oteshaites), level three dance parties, excitement over food. I think of the 250 presentations, the 27 action plans, the autographs I've signed (!), the postcards I have read, the youth who have told me that they now feel that they can change the world. I can't count the smiles, the laughs, and the countless moments that Otesha has given me. It makes me want to wiggle like I've never wiggled before. I don't know what's next for any of us, but I don't believe we have seen the last of each other, or the last of our hopeful hooliganism! As there are many adventures, level three dance parties, and still some apathy and cynicism left in our generation that we are planning to eradicate! As we go their separate ways, we will never forget these past months of life, we will forever cherish as Otesha. All of us have found that there truly is a reason to dream, that the world we want to see is possible, and the we have the power to make it happen. And as we leave to scatter across the country we smile as we know it is only the beginning of a dream once dreamt under a tree in Kenya by two incredible young ladies...

where it will go? We can only be sure it will be as unstoppable as the tide for change that has already biked across this country.

By: Kristin Ryan

** Editors Note:
As journal editors over the past few months, we (Jocelyn and Jessica) read this last journal and couldn't help but relive each of the memories it describes even though they seem like a millennium ago. Upon our return to Ottawa, a full circle as we came back to where so much of the project was created, we were filled with feelings of accomplishment unlike any we had ever felt before. We were full of happiness in looking back at each obstacle which was worth overcoming, at each stressful moment, each late night, each disagreement, struggle, doubt, and each and every last drop of life energy that could be squeezed out of two people to make impossibility possible...

We still feel happiness in knowing that it was all more than worth it.

Our lessons learned continue to spill out of us, there are too many to even try to record here. Every day we revel in the realization of how incredibly blessed we have been to have so many generous and giving people have faith in this dream. People who have given love, encouragement, wisdom, and inspiration, and without this generosity we would never have been able to complete this circle so close to our hearts. And as the many scenes of the past 20 months run through our heads, and we try to explain the inexplicable to the many who ask, we now speak our greatest lesson with confidence and proof, for we have learned that dreams can come true, that anything is possible, that a better world is more than attainable: it is inevitable.

In closing, we want to thank all of you who have read this journal, and smiled, laughed, sighed, and cheered with us as you have read of each of the events shared through these words. We hope we have been able to provide you with the hope and inspiration that we have found on each one of the 164 days of this incredible journey. Please keep checking our website as we are soon to post a little slideshow/video we made to sum up our experience, as well as many of our lessons learned, and of course, the unveiling of the future of this project. May you continue to find reason to dream in this world where anything is truly possible...

In love and gratitude,
Joss, Jess and the rest of The Otesha Team 2003