Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Laurette Barker, Angélie Caissy and Marjolaine Quer are preparing for the adventure of a lifetime. In March 2024, the three Central Québec School Board employees – Barker is a vice principal at St. Patrick’s High School, Caissy teaches at New Liverpool Elementary School and Quer teaches at Ste-Foy Elementary – are heading to Senegal to take part in the Rose Trip, a desert trekking competition for teams of women that also serves as a fundraiser for breast cancer research and supplies for local schools.
The idea started taking shape due to a series of chance encounters, Barker explained. She learned about the trek from an acquaintance of her husband’s, and she had worked with the two women who later became her teammates.
“I think all of us are quite adventuresome in our own ways, either in terms of travelling or of pushing ourselves to try new things, but we’ve never done anything like this, to this extent,” Barker said.
The Rose Trip is a three-day desert orienteering challenge in rural Senegal. Teams will face the challenges of isolation, sandy desert terrain and oppressive heat. Barker, Caissy and Quer have done several preparatory hikes and learned to use compasses and other orienteering equipment, but they recognize that there’s no way to fully prepare for all the unknowns they might encounter.
“We’ve been speaking to people who have been [on the trek] in past years, and conditions are hard to predict,” Barker said. “We don’t know how our bodies are going to react and … the temperature difference is going to be a lot. We’ve also spoken about how we communicate as a team and support each other when things get hard.”
“We have to be ready to adapt to the unknown,” Caissy added.
“We’re expecting parts of it to be [physically] difficult, But there’s also the development of ourselves as people. I think it’s going to ground us. Our lives get so busy that sometimes we forget those moments of feeling human and feeling that we’re part of a bigger picture. So I think that being under those stars in the desert, for me, that’s going to be moments of feeling like we are pushing ourselves, but we’re also connected in a larger sense of peace and calm and quiet and meeting the people there,” said Barker, who will be visiting sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.
The three-day hike will be followed by a walk for breast cancer research and awareness and a visit to a local school. Caissy said she and her teammates all know at least one woman who has battled cancer, and they are looking forward to honouring their friends and loved ones and supporting cancer research alongside other teams of women from around the world. On their last day in Senegal, the three teachers will visit a school.
The three teammates are gradually discovering each other’s strengths and interests. “If there’s a cactus on our path and we have the option to go around it, I might go through – that’s the hockey player in me,” Caissy joked. “Laurette is an animal lover, so if she stops to see an animal, we might be in trouble.” Besides their physical preparation, they are busy raising funds for their trip – they hope to raise $15,000 – and looking at how to share their epic journey with their children and their students. “I think they’re proud of us –to see us embark on this journey even though it isn’t easy,” Barker said.
Barker, Caissy and Quer are organizing a Christmas market at New Liverpool (St. Vincent) Elementary School on Nov. 18-19 to raise money for their adventure. See the Community Calendar for details.