The Village is Inaugurated

An early start was needed on Monday as I was on the shift that starts at 8am. I was about to leave the house to catch the 7am bus when my host, who was also just leaving the house, said he'd give me a lift as the Village is on his journey to work. This was really kind and meant that I got to the Village much earlier and with a smoother, quicker journey.
The first hour or so was spent manning the Multi-Faith Centre, and doing some final preparations for the morning Bible-study and prayer time. This takes place at 9am each day and is the responsibility of the chaplain on the first shift. It was great when someone turned up, and I enjoyed sharing this time with her - although the way our discussion went meant that I used hardly any of what I'd prepared!
Then I manned the Centre until the second chaplain came in at 11am. Soon afterwards, I went visiting in the Village, during which I called in at the office of Paralympic GB to introduce both myself and the Multi-Faith Centre and what it offers. It was good to meet some of the people there, not just team members but also the team assistants. Each team has one or more team assistants allocated to it to be their first point of contact for questions etc. This is just one of the many jobs done by volunteers. After lunch, and the chaplains' prayer and sharing session, I made my daily visit to the Polyclinic. I also visited the adjacent fitness centre and mobility aid repair centre.
Due to conversations I had, I didn't manage to finish my shift until 4pm; but then walked into downtown Vancouver for a few hours off before returning to the Village around 6:30pm ready for the Village Inauguration Ceremony. Usually each team is welcomed into both an Olympic and a Paralympic Village with a short ceremony ending with their National Anthem being played. In this dual site Paralympics, these ceremonies are happening at Whistler, so the Inauguration Ceremony was designed to take the place of these by welcoming all the athletes together. There were speeches, the introduction of the 2 honorary co-mayors of the Village, and some music from representatives of the Four Host First Nations. (There will be more about these peoples in another day's entry). Another chaplain and I went on to the athletes' lounge for the post inauguration 'party' for a short while, before heading home at the end of a long but worthwhile day.