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Seasons Greetings from the
Ramarr Family
Greetings to Everyone November 2003
We hope this letter finds everyone well. We wish you a wonderful
Christmas season and a healthy, bright and prosperous New Year.
We love the letters and emails we get from home and abroad, so please
keep them coming.
This past year has once again full of many adventures and changes
for our family.
We spent last Christmas at our home in Soroako. Other years we had
traveled, so it was a treat to have a quiet Christmas. We followed
New Zealand traditions and had a barbecue with family and friends.
We spent most of the day on the raft on Matano Lake and had a large
‘barbie’ and pot luck lunch. It was a great way to share
the fellowship of good friends on such a special day.
Our great adventure of the year was our April sailing trip in Tonga.
Denis and I have both dreamed of sailing in the South Pacific for
many years, and this year we were fortunate to be able to have the
opportunity. Along with the VanRossen family, we rented a catamaran
in the Vava’u Island group in the northern part of Tonga. For
7 days we sailed, snorkeled, fished, swam, explored and ate to our
hearts content. We had amazingly beautiful surroundings, great weather
and fantastic company. Although we did stay within the island group
and did not do any open water sailing, we really feel that the experience
was everything we dreamed of and a lot more. We then spent three
days in a small resort and had the opportunity the explore the beautiful
island of Vava’u.
I could write 10 pages of our adventures, but I will keep my stories
to this short one. For my friends from the Sault, you will enjoy
this. For the first two nights of the charter, we hired a guide/skipper
so that we could connect in some way with a local person and make
the most of local knowledge of the area. Before we left port, we
realized that in this remote area, quite a lot of services and skilled
people were hard to find. Fala was a fantastic guide having grown
up in the area and sailing the islands extensively. He was fantastic
with the children and a real hit with the guys because he knew when
and where to drop a fishing line. As we got to know him, we realized
he was the town’s boat mechanic, refrigeration person, one
of the few qualified guides in the area, and the list went on as
we spoke to other people later on in the trip. One evening Fala
told us he really liked Canadians because of some Canadian yachters
from Sault Ste. Marie whom he had befriended a number of years ago.
During their stay in Tonga, this family got to know Fala and his
family and decided they would make sure he was educated. He attributes
his success in life to this family and the opportunities that they
opened up for him. He now supports a very large extended family.
We also saw signs that denoted “This project funded by The
Canadian Fund” on water and communications projects. When you
live in a developing country, it is always very difficult to decide
where and when you can help others out. The needs are everywhere
around you. It is always a difficult decision to weigh helping a
lot of people a little, or helping a few a lot. The people that
helped out our guide made a wonderful decision that really planted
a seed that will help out many others for years to come.
We traveled to Tonga via New Zealand. On our transit through New
Zealand, we were fortunate to spend some time with our friends the
Alexanders. We also took a week and had very quick visits to the
Bay of Islands and the Coramandel Coast areas. It was a rushed trip,
extremely beautiful and enough to know that we want to go back and
explore these areas further. I really hope we have the opportunity.
Upon returning to Soroako, we still knew we would be moving, but
not to where. As the weeks passed, Denis accepted the position of
Regional IT Manager for Asia Pacific, which would be located in
Brisbane Australia. We knew little of Brisbane as we had only spent
two or three days there three years earlier. Before returning for
our visit to Canada in June, we spent a few days looking around
and realized it would be a wonderful place to live.
During our first week in Canada in July, Denis was working in the
Toronto office. Dana, Alex and I spent our time visiting with Sherry’s
family and getting our medicals. Sherry, Chris, Justin, Tyler and
Jes met us in Toronto and we spent some wonderful, but all too short
time together. The highlight for the kids was the Jay’s game.
They really enjoyed it. We then had a wonderful weekend in Alliston
with the Laakso family. Then it was on to Sault Ste. Marie to stay
with Mom and Dad. Denis had to cut his trip short and return to
Indonesia, but we stayed on to enjoy a longer visit. Our time in
Sudbury this year was quite short. We did not get to visit or be
in touch with as many people as we would have liked to. We enjoyed
a few great hours at the NCYC while passing through and it was great
to see a few of our boating friends there.
We returned to Soroako for less than two weeks to pack up and say
goodbye. It was quite strange to leave the community, as everyone
is so close there. But it was a changing place with a large portion
of the Canadian expats also leaving.
Shortly after our arrival in Brisbane, the company put us up in
a beautiful downtown apartment. We were on the 24th floor
right on the river. The view was fantastic. Living in downtown Brisbane
is a real treat. It is quite a beautiful city with so much to do.
We enjoyed many strolls on the boardwalk and the city cat rides
to the park on the other side of the river. Denis was only a 5 minute
walk to work and this was a real treat for him. We spend our weekends
exploring the many beautiful areas near Brisbane.
We moved into our home on the 24th of October. It is
about 25 km west of the downtown business district. It is a little
farther out than we wanted to be, but it is a quiet suburb with
larger lots. The home is a little larger than what we had in Sudbury
and it came with a beautiful tropical garden. Denis is so excited
to have palm trees in our yard! I have a lot to learn about Australian
horticulture. All of the plants are quite different from what we
are used to and everything grows quite rapidly despite the drought
we are in. Every back yard here comes with the usual Aussie dangers
so we have had to learn a little about spiders and snakes. Hopefully
we won’t have to deal with them. The neighbouring areas also
come with some of the Aussie treats; there are kangaroos, wallabies
and koalas nearby.
Dana and Alex have settled into St. Peter’s Lutheran College.
It is quite a change going from a 12 student school to a 1400 student
school. They especially like the team sports as there are always
enough others to make up a team. This semester they both decided
not to try out any after school activities, but they both look forward
to doing a few activities in the next semester. At the end of this
week, the school year ends and summer holidays begin here. The holidays
will last until the end of January. Seems really strange for all
of us from North America to have summer and Christmas holidays all
rolled into one.
Denis’s job has him away from home more than he is here. We
all hope this changes in the new year. Most of his time is still
spent in Soroako and we really miss him when he is not here
We love to hear from our friends back home, so please feel free
to write or email us. Here is our contact information.
Denis email: ramarrd@inco.com
Marianne email: Ramarr_m@yahoo.ca
Postal address in Canada:
Denis Ramarr, Brisbane office
C/o Elaine Randall, INCO
145 King Street W, Suite 1500
Toronto, ON M5H 4B7
Postal address in Brisbane:
152 Pioneer Cresc,
Bellbowrie, QLD 4070
Australia
We wish everyone the best of health and prosperity for the New Year.
Denis, Marianne, Dana and Alex Ramarr
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