Jamie Fehr

This is a short story about me being a patriotic Canadian in a foreign land. It all starts with the Camino de Santiago and ends with the sad departure of my good friends Ian and Mayca. But the actual event, the Fiesta Post-Camino 2006 happened on the night of Saturday September the 16th 2006.

I hope that you have read my write-up about the Camino de Santigo, it’s pertinent to the discussion at hand not because I am going to refer to something from the article without explaining the context, but because had I not done the first event, there would not have been this second one.

During the Camino I made some friends. Some of which included a missionary couple Ian and Mayca. Ian grew up in Spain. His parents worked at the Media Center where I now work. He used to live in the house where I first lived here in Spain. After college he came back to Spain and married a really nice Spanish girl named Mayca, and began serving as a missionary in Spain with the organization Agape Campus.

At the end of the Camino I discovered two things. One, Ian and Mayca were leaving to live in the United States very soon, and two, Mayca speaks english, yet I had never heard her say a word. So when I caught word that there was a post-camino party rolling around, I knew time was short for saying good-byes and hearing how well Mayca spoke english.

The fiesta was on a Saturday and they were leaving the following Wednesday and so at the fiesta I laid out what I thought were some really convincing arguments for why she should speak to me in english, but nothing worked. I tried convincing her that I was her friend and could help her practice, I tried to tell her that she only had a few more days of Spanish anyway and that she should ease her way into the new culture by speaking english now, but it was to no avail.

I Thought This Was A Story About Patriotism

What does any of this have to do with me being patriotic? Possible nothing, but I really want to tell the story, and I think that some background will really help put it into perspective.

Continuing on

So to repeat myself, Mayca found every excuse in the world to not show me her english. She said that as long as she was in Spain it was not necessary that her know any english at all and that since she did already understand some she was doing “Good Enough” and didn’t need to demonstrate any skill until she set foot in the US of A. Then she asked me to sing the Canadian National Anthem …

Another Important Segway (Trust Me)

I was once a freshman at the Peace River Bible Institute (PRBI). And at that time it was mandatory for all 150+ freshman to try out for mass choir. The trial sessions were video taped and reviewed by a choir committee. And all the freshman tried out. Shortly after the trials a few notes started surfacing in peoples mailboxes indicating that their voice was not worthy of being part of the choir and that different class was being formed to fill up the Mass Choir time slot for them. Only 17 of those notes surfaces. I got one of those notes. Putting my voice in the lower 10% of the freshman of that year. Things haven’t improved since then, I am just a lot less shy of the fact that I don’t sing well.

The Rest Of The Story

Mayca asked me to sing the Canadian National Anthem. I obliged. I thought that my willingness to embarrass myself in public might soften her up for a little english conversation (really, I don’t sing well and it was guaranteed to be embarrassing, the segway above proves it). So I proceeded to belt out, quite unabashedly, the Canadian National Anthem. It felt really good. I hadn’t sung it since Elementary School and managed to fudge some of the words but in the end it felt ridiculously satisfying. However when it was a said and done, everyone at the fiesta just looked at me funny and chuckled to themselves, I didn’t very special but I did feel Canadian, and that was all I needed at the moment.

But the most important part of the story is that two good firends, Ian and Mayca Hertzler have left Spain. This country is a little colder now that they’re gone and they will indeed be missed. Bueun Viajes Ian and Mayca!