Side Quest episode 4 ‘Chicken Wings’

In this episode of Side Quest we explore a bunch of VIDEA projects, consider role playing games, and learn about each other over dinner. 
Whether you like skateboarding, D&D
or chicken wings, this episode has something for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to SideQuest, a project by me, Tai, and my parents, and also my friends, from the Salmo Valley in BC. The goal of SideQuest is to elevate each other, relate, and communicate about what it means to be youth in current times. But mostly we're just gonna eat and hang out. The answer is many, as long as the light bulb represents ideas around equality and reconciliation. In this episode, we chat about a bunch of different Vaidia projects that are happening this year. We started by sharing a meal with a few of the Vaidea project managers and our supervisor. Eating has been a running theme throughout SideQuest. Coming together over wings, whether chicken or cauliflower, really brings people together.

SPEAKER_10 1:09

There's a whole bunch of things.

SPEAKER_12 1:18

I'm pretty good. I am in the same room for the main course. Yeah, do you want one? Yeah. Isabel wanted did you want to do introductions before? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 1:27

Okay. So we're good. My name is Marcus, and the thing I do for Hidea is uh a gardening project.

SPEAKER_09 1:34

I'm Dave. My wife. Jen? Tyus? Yeah, we're working together on side quests, which is super fun. Knowing Marcus and Isabel for 20 seconds. Ever. I think it's been really cool. It's been awesome to get to know Joe and hang out with you and the kids. Yeah, it's been really, really fun so far.

SPEAKER_10 1:55

Charlotte, you're gonna have to introduce yourself too soon, so think about what you're gonna say. I really like that. That means it's your turn.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_10 2:10

I'm Tyus. That's all you have to say.

SPEAKER_12 2:15

I was gonna do it. I'm Jen. Ty as well. And I'm sorry, I missed getting to meet you last week when you walked to our house, but now I get to meet you tonight. And I've known Marcus and Isabel as neighbors and friends for a long time, and I've worked with Isabella Cooten Kids. And I love doing some Vaidia catering like projects, kind of aside things to do with Vaidea. And I've latched on to these boys' podcasts because face it, they need me to come work. You actually probably don't, but I uh I thought that you might, so here I am. And it's really fun, so nice to meet Joe and to hang out with the kids. One of my favorite lines from the first batch of recordings was there's a slide, let's ping down it. A piece that I'm looking forward to is at the end of our project. Like I think we wraparound through the summer. So we're gonna have um uh dinner hoping that we can collaborate with the um garden, community garden. And um, I love doing food stuff. So have a little party at the hall or the park or wherever it works out. And um yeah, gonna do like a live podcast show. We hope those are all the rage these days. Joe and some of our podcast friends.

SPEAKER_10 3:36

That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_12 3:38

You're turning.

SPEAKER_08 3:41

Shiloh.

SPEAKER_13 3:45

Uh what are your hobbies? What do you like?

SPEAKER_08 3:48

I like playing D. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Playing what? What's that? Oh, I'm okay. That's been around a while. Oh, is it? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought my nephew played that when he was younger. No kidding. It was a thing when I was in school.

SPEAKER_12 4:11

It's having a renaissance they say, stranger things.

SPEAKER_06 4:14

Is it actually like still a board game or is it online? Uh it's it's both online and a board game now. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

This part is from my nana, or people who don't know. Dungeons and Dragons is a popular cooperative tabletop role-playing game where players create characters and embark on fantasy adventures guided by a dungeon master using imagination, dice, and character sheets. It focuses on storytelling, strategy, and social interaction. The game, often played in campaigns, was created in 1974 and is published by Wizard of the Coast.

SPEAKER_08 4:45

Can I roll to throw a rocket at him and try and can I can I roll to distract him from the swing? Yes, I wanna throw a rocket at him. Oh, I roll an eight.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

An eight? And it's not actually gonna be attacking me, like trying to knock him out.

SPEAKER_08 5:15

Yo, he's a child.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Let me just like whip out my butt. I want you to uh roll a uh roll in a child. That is what number then is that. 23? 23 So you are able to uh hit him in such a way that um it's non-life threatening.

SPEAKER_10 5:44

You know, by dad is gonna be doing a D project.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

No way. Really?

SPEAKER_10 5:48

Across Canada.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Oh, that's so great. Dungeons and Dragon.

SPEAKER_10 5:53

It's gonna be a way to engage uh youth to get back onto the land, so there'll be a component of like taking the game and then going outside. Making fun. I'm not sure exactly what.

SPEAKER_06 6:04

I'm sure there's probably a university degree you can get in the game.

SPEAKER_10 6:07

I there is a master's.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Is there really a crazy Dungeons and Dragons historically gained a bad reputation, primarily due to a nineteen eighties moral panic, often called the Satanic Panic, where religious groups and media incorrectly linked the game to Satanism and witchcraft. Critics of feared players could not distinguish fantasy from reality. Turns out the studies have found that participants who play D show significant decreases in depression, stress and anxiety, and significant increases in self-esteem and self-advocacy over the study period. Players often say playing D is authority and provides a space to express emotions in the game without concern for outside consequences. I play a role-playing game with my friends whose voices you can hear on the podcast. It's fun together and create characters to go on creative adventures. I feel like we know the difference between games and what happens in real life. But anyways, we play a different game called Danger Heart. There are a lot of different role-playing games in the world.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

My old head's having a hard time wrapping itself around that one. It's just uh far out there. Dungeons and dragons get a master's degree in a game.

SPEAKER_13 8:02

I think it's all about like the imagination and like the role playing and how you can like express yourselves to different characters and teamwork is a big part of it. Like he and his buddies failed.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

It's a real crazy. So what did you roll on? Strength or finesse? I know they're both the same, but what did you roll on? Finesse. Strength. Oh, wait, strength. Strength? Okay. Um so the 12. Um he still hits you, but there is no invisible force. That would just be way too old because it'll happen in every single time.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

No, it's just gonna be like this thing so I don't get on the shape.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

I'll take it as an hour. Uh so we hit you. Um and you'll take one temporary point.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Thank you, Alex.

SPEAKER_10 9:00

I'll definitely tell you when that when that project comes. I I think it's coming this summer sometime. I'll let you know about it. You guys can join in. That's really fun.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

That's I like the idea of getting kids back to the lab.

SPEAKER_10 9:12

That's right. It's like that Pokemon, like the when they when you had to go and look for Pokemons out in the lab. Yeah, yeah. Pokemon Go, yeah, exactly. It's perfect. See the discussion you spawned just from saying I feel old. Um thanks for coming tonight.

SPEAKER_13 9:36

Yeah, I'm really grateful that he's able to come with me. It's nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

A local filmmaker, Brian Lai, joined us at dinner to share some of his experiences. He's working on a documentary of some of the Bydea projects.

SPEAKER_13 9:49

Filmmaking has been a big part of my life since I was probably like 12 years old. My parents got a handicam in like 1990, and so I just like started making silly movies with you know my buddies, and I skateboard, and I started making skateboard movies every summer with my friends. You know, my I guess my identity really, like since I was 12, it's something I still do.

SPEAKER_10 10:19

Brian helped uh Ugandan the Ugandan what skateboard society or union start.

SPEAKER_13 10:31

2005. I um I'd been teaching English in Japan and I returned to Vancouver and I'd had some money saved and I wanted to go to Africa because a friend of mine had been doing uh Kyuso uh work in Mozambique, and so I thought, well that sounds interesting, and so I just Googled volunteer Africa, just very broad, and I ended up going to Uganda. And I was there just gonna go for four months, I ended up staying for two years, almost two years. And I brought my skateboard with me. And just before I was going, my friend's like, bring it with you. You always like have a good time with it, and so I brought it. And it's a really long story, but eventually essentially I was skateboarding one day at the local stadium, and a guy named Jack came up and said, Hey, I've got a mini ramp on my property. Do you want to come see it? I said, Great. And then we were in like a real poor suburb of Kampala's, and we go down the hill, and uh there was this little skateboard ramp, and everyone was skating. And then he said, Do you want to help me make it bigger? And I was like, Yes, this sounds like a real good connection and fit. And so we got to know each other, and then I fundraised, and this is 2005, so there wasn't like social media to help you like really like spread the word about something. So it was a lot of friends and family, and it took I think it took about four months, and it was all built by hand by youth in the community. And um friends in Vancouver helped me with the design, and there was a skateboard park in Richmond that I always used to like skating at, and there was a specific ramp I wanted to replicate, so my friend drove up there in the middle of the night and like measured it and like sent me a measurement. Um and so that was yeah, that was 2005-6-7. I guess I left in 2007. Um and it's still going, and it's which is like really great. Jack, who I worked with, and we had to register an NGO for skateboarding, and that was a big just a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of moving around town, and um yeah, so that that was that sort of chapter of my life, and it's still nice. I haven't been back there since 2013 though, but still in contact, and it's really growing now. Like 20 years later, skateboarding in Uganda's like huge, and it's really like on the radar of all like the skate mags and like the whole and it's really inspiring if you go check out there's a few other parks that have started from that one, and it's amazing what's happening there.

SPEAKER_11 12:57

Um you've been a few times then, because you said you went the last time you were there.

SPEAKER_13 13:01

Yeah, I've been three times. I guess I went once for the long time and then twice since then. Yeah. Um yeah, so that's that's a bit about me. I think there's I guess lots lots to share. Um it's it was nice to meet uh I've met Dave also. I used to work at the Langham in Caslo, to be the program manager for the theater to our music festival in the lake.

SPEAKER_12 13:29

Okay. Now I understand where I live.

SPEAKER_13 13:33

So that's a neat connection, and then yeah, Tynes is last week. The uh you know how you're growing the avocado tree? Our daughter, um Shella's sister, found like an avocado kit, and she was like, I want to do this. I'm like, I know someone who's done this. Yeah, they were like having a 19 books, like, yeah, and as far as my work with the film projects, and uh right now it's nice just to be getting to know everyone and learning about what everyone's doing and hopefully um through getting to know people, then making a plan for filming it and your project. I feel like I know you a little bit because I've listened to that one on the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Same sound, yeah. Yeah. I don't like the sound of my voice. That's what everyone says when they know, isn't that curious? Yeah, you know, I you never really pay attention to what you sound like. I guess unless you're a singer. You know. And the first time I heard my voice on uh on a recording, I was like, that's not me. Oh I can't sound like that. So yeah. Well, that's good. Wow, you've got a quite a history with the film.

SPEAKER_13 14:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

That's great. I love that. Starting skateboarding in Gambit. Yes, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_13 14:57

It's it's lovely how yeah, how it because it wasn't my intention, but it happened. That's my passion.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

It was meant to happen. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. Wow.

SPEAKER_13 15:10

I never meet much and you you you lived in Rwanda, I believe, is that right?

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Or you visited Rwanda, I was thinking. Yeah, back in the 70s.

SPEAKER_10 15:19

Well so now to you, Joe. We all know a lot about you, but Marcus doesn't, so give us a little brief. And Shiloh doesn't.

SPEAKER_09 15:27

Shiloh. I've not very fast.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Well, my name's Joe, and I play flutes. I used to make them. Um I used to make drums and do a lot of leather work and um I don't really know. I'm just uh just an elder in the community that likes to do a lot of things that are um aboriginal based. You know, my mother was Cree, so yeah. And I I love to see kids like I love this idea of the dungeon and dragon thing because I'm a real uh techno wean. I don't know anything about technology, and uh yeah, are you? Oh yeah, I'm I'm thinking I was I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and we were talking about uh you know radio, yeah, we were talking about social media, podcasts, documentaries, the whole bit, and both of us were brought up with the um the viewpoint from the elders that this was bad. That we should stay away from it, and at certain times, with certain things, uh especially around ceremony and sacred things, no social media, no cameras, no phones, no none of that stuff. It's you're asked to leave all that behind, you know. So I'm still working on that. I you know, I have a hard time with a video game.

SPEAKER_14 17:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

So yeah, um, and I've lived in the Kootenis for a little over 40 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 17:29

Where did you grow up or where were you born?

SPEAKER_04 17:33

I was born in Vancouver. Okay, then we moved to Mexico City.

SPEAKER_06 17:37

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

And lived there for eight years, seven or eight years, and then Amsterdam. My dad worked for the airlines. Oh, okay. Yeah. So we did a lot of traveling around. Um we never stayed in one place very long. So yeah. That's my my story, and I'm sticking to it. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 18:02

Well, um, Isabel, I know everybody here except for Shiloh, but now I know Shiloh, which is awesome. Um one of the biggest gifts that Kootney Kids gave me was getting to know you a few years ago when we when I went to Drum Circle with you. So that's how we know Joe is through the drum circle at Kooteny Kids. And then all of a sudden you just started being more and more part of our lives and so grateful for it. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

I'm grateful for it too.

SPEAKER_10 18:32

That's awesome. Yeah, this is the second project I think we've roped you into, and there's a couple more in my brain that you're gonna be roped into. So yeah, yeah, it's been a blast. So yeah, I just uh and I've worked with uh Jen forever. And I'm glad that I get to still work with you through Vaidea because I miss working with you there. And yeah, that's about me. I just love working with Vaidea because I get to do all these community connections and travel. And travel, yeah. I'm kind of over the travel right now.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Are you?

SPEAKER_12 19:07

Oh my gosh, how your last trip was for our dogs.

SPEAKER_10 19:10

Yeah, my dogs are missing, yeah. Uh Uganda was awesome. It was a Zambia trip that put me over the edge, yeah. Because Uganda, at least I was there for a good month, but uh Zambia I was there for five days. I actually spent longer traveling there and back than I did uh in Zambia.

SPEAKER_06 19:27

Like it was 90 hours on the way home and because of delays. No, and 42 on the way there.

SPEAKER_10 19:33

Yes, yeah. So I spent what 130 hours travel and I probably and I probably spent 125 hours in Zambia. So you know, it was a lot. Um but I'm grateful for it because I'm gr no, I'm I feel really privileged that I got to do it because there were seven youth that were going there. They would have had to go on their own. And they are the most incredible seven youth, like the variety of the youth that was there, their backgrounds, what they were their intention on going. It was it was just amazing to get to know them. Everywhere from like the Yukon to Inner City Winnipeg, like and just a phenomenal group of seven. So you hadn't met them in Suk? I had never met them, and so then I spent four days with them in Souk doing the pre-briefing with them. Um so I got to know them then, and then and then I felt like the mama duckling. Like I turned around and there was like seven people. I'm not even sure if I'm fully over the travel yet. Yeah, I've been really like not quite my energetic self, but I think today I'm finally almost there.

SPEAKER_13 20:42

Anyway, that's it. When did you return? Just a few days ago? Sunday night. Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 20:47

Yeah, you're doing great. Yeah, yeah, not bad.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

So yeah, I'm finishing the chicken.

SPEAKER_10 20:53

There's a whole bunch of things.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

There's a whole bunch, I know. What's going on with you guys?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

This podcast is sponsored by Videa. We also thank our elder, Joe Lindsay, and our project manager, Isabel Herzig, for their help on this project. Life as a teenager in this world can be confusing, busy, and full of memes. It feels good to take time out to be with friends and learn about our elders. Our side quest continues. Thank you for listening.