The lake doesn’t have any waves today. The barn is quiet, almost silent. Most of the animals are sound asleep. Besides the pigs, the only thing making noise is myself. My name is Joe McDonald, keeper of the animals here in South Lake. Not many people live here, maybe a couple farmers, people who want to keep away from the city, anyone who likes quiet places. In case you were wondering why I considered myself as “The Keeper of Animals” is because the people here call me that. I don’t know why they don’t call me by my name, but they do call me by my job. It’s interesting.

As I proudly strut into the barn, I watch the chickens and cows slowly crawl out of their deep slumber. I take a couple quiet steps deeper inside the building barn, then, I release the dogs out of their cage. I greet them on their way towards the sheep “Hey Arty, Rika, and my favourite, Nile.” “Go save some sheep!” I then, call Ricky and Dawn to come back from their night shift. I direct them into the cage and watch them gradually fall asleep.

I yawn, go back to the house and whip up some pancakes. I grab the maple syrup, butter, and now, I eat! After I’m done, I sprint into the garage to grab the car to motor over to the field. I check on the crops and make sure that no nasty crows are there, I pick a couple apples for lunch and head back home. I crawl into bed and take a quick nap. Actually, it wasn’t so quick. I woke at 2:36! Now that’s crazy considering I went to bed around 10:30. I normally take only an hour for my naps, not four. I jump down the stairs, three by three, then I flood into the kitchen, grab my apple and prepare a PB & honey sandwich. “ Man! I love PB and honey!” I bite into the crunchy apple and feel it’s juice stream into my cheeks.

After lunch, I begin to cook myself some spaghetti for dinner with a nice meat sauce. I picked some nice tomatoes from the field yesterday, I throw them into the meat sauce. While the sauce is on the stove, I check on the dogs and the sheep. The dogs are playing together while the sheep are staying still. “Same as usual,” I whisper underneath my breath. I start to wander around the farm, looking for an activity. By the time I find something to do, the meat sauce is ready. I race over to the kitchen to remove the sauce from the stove. I prepare for the meal and start to eat. The first bite floods my mouth with juicy, flavourful sauce. Right after dinner, I let Arty, Rika and Nile come back into the barn while I release Ricky and Dawn. As I strut back to my house I tell myself “Just another normal day.”

This is a right that lets people live is a safe world, away from harm and abuse. It would be a great right for the people in Afghanistan would have this right. In a couple scenes in “The Breadwinner” where people are getting severely harmed.

In one part, Parvana meets a girl named Homa, She came from Mazar where Parvana’s family was going. She talks about her family being murdered for no reason. She said that she looked outside, everyone was dead while the Talib’s go from house to house, killing everyone. They took her family out on the street, they shot them right there. She hid in a closet until they left, when they left she got in a truck and arrived in Kabul. If this right took place in Afghanistan, people would not always be scared of being killed

In another part, Parvana and Shauzia walk into a stadium hoping to sell cigarettes, matches, and gum to soccer spectators. The realize that nobody is happy, or excited, they look over and see the Talib’s take out a table and some prisoners. They chop off a prisoners arm yelling “This is what we do to thief’s!” This is extremely violent and devastating. The only reason they are thief’s is because of the Taliban ruining everything they owned, causing them to steal for survival. If they had this right in place, there would be no life ruining threats, it would just be a couple months or years in jail.

I find this right extremely important when it comes to countries like Afghanistan, they don’t have laws in place like this there, and your always hearing stories of abuse happening there. I think this right keeps humanity from turning on each other. That is why I think its important.

“Hey Lachlan! Are you coming?!” I shout, looking up at the scorching hot sun, as my best friend bursts out the back door, racing towards the dock. As he passes me, while I’m taking my time, stepping cautiously down the rocky path. Once we reach the dock, we throw our life vests on without buckling it up, and in a flash we are on the boat, jumping up and down, excited to start tubing for my first time on Sproat Lake. Next thing I know, I’m flopping up and down with Lachlan right next to me. I look over and, what! Lachlan has a super serious face, it looks like he is in a fight! “HEY LACH!” “WHAT”S WITH THE SERIOUS FACE!” I yell. No response.

I look back, seeing my feet dangling of the tube, almost in the water. Lachlan’s feet are just barely hanging off the tube, due to me being taller. Then the dads point out a massive water bomber, bigger then airplanes at the airport. I give a thumbs up to the dads, signaling faster. ” That’s the biggest vehicle I have ever seen!” I shout hoping someone will hear me this time. Lachlan responds “I agree!” The red and white bomber must be about 15m tall and 35m across. I start to feel my grip loosening while I’m admiring the water bomber. “Kerplunk!” There I am, laughing my ugly little face off. Behind me I start to hear someone yelling ” Man down! Man down!” I turn around and see the boat, turning to come pick me up. As they get close I start swimming toward them, the best I can. Once I hop on the boat my dad is already pulling the tube in so I can get on. I get on and we continue the lap around the lake. I see all sort of other rivers and creeks flowing into the lake. Ben (Lachlan’s dad) points to one that apparently we will be going to tomorrow. And what feels like 30 seconds later I am in the water. I pretend to sun bathe and float on my back with my hands on the back of my head.

As the boat picks me up, Lachlan wanted to take a break. We pull him in and one he is all dry. The dads hand each of us a soda and Lachlan stares at me. “What?” I say, as I start giggling he manages to keep a strait face and says, “There is and underwater mountain right underneath us.” I look down and I cannot see a thing. I respond “I don’t see it.” I look at the depth of the water on some machine that I don’t know the name to. The depth is only about 4m when the lake is usually about 80m deep. “Wow!” “That’s incredible” I say. As we start moving I see the depth drastically increasing. “I am never going to forget this!” I exclaim, excited to tell mom. As we continue the tour of the lake, Ben points out a river streaming slowly into the lake. He says “That’s Salmon River, We’re going there tomorrow.” “Cool!” Lachlan and I say in sync. We fire up the engine again and wiz by the river, until it’s out of sight. Next thing I know. I’m home.

That night, I lie in bed, swearing to myself I will remember that day. At least for a couple of years. It proved to me, that something as boring as water, and the ground, can be a few of the most fun things in the world.

The Right to Asylum

The right to asylum isn’t a commonly known right among many people. The definition of Asylum is: “the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee.” Or a place offering shelter and support. The right to asylum means: if someone feels like they are going to be hurt or tortured somewhere they are allowed to flee with acceptance from another country.

The responsibilities for this right are hard to think of if you haven’t done any research. I believe that one of the important things with this right is to act on it before you get hurt. I also think that you should only escape if you have permission from another country. It is only acceptable if the government accepts you to come somewhere, not only your friend or family. I believe that you should not be taking advantage of this right by doing something illegal somewhere and trying to escape before anyone in the country your in figures out you did it. Therefore, the responsibility of this human right is to act with kindness and respect and to look out for all people, including yours and your loved one’s safety. Another responsibility is to respect the country that you are entering.

Personally, I am very thankful about the existence of this right. If some innocent person has a chance to be harmed in war, they can be escorted to a better place. Currently lots of people from Syria are flooding into Canada, because of the war going on in Syria and the protection Canada has to offer. It makes me feel like I’m lucky whenever I see a refugee. It also makes me feel sad because of the violence that happens in other places of the world. I am reading a book called “The Breadwinner” by Deborah Ellis. It is a book that takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan right after the Soviets left. They talk about how many rights where taken away from them, including the right to asylum. They are in a very tough situation and that right would come in handy to them.

Hi, my name is Malcolm, you can call me Mac. Welcome to my blog. I am in grade 6 and most of you that visit this blog will probably know me. This is my blog that I will be posting my schoolwork on. Please respect the rules for this blog, including:

• No Swearing
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• Respect the blog
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• Treat others with respect
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If you follow these rules, you put a smile on my face. Thank You!