Fern told wonderful stories about her tutors, their different backgrounds and achievements. "What I find surprising is that my tutors are not the people who don't do anything; my tutors are the people in the community who volunteer for everything and who are running with their own kids and who have families and active businesses. They're totally unselfish."

Even with the frustrations of limited training and resources, Fern loves her job. She enjoys the challenge and appreciates that "it's never boring." And she knows that her work doesn't go unrewarded. "I'm not getting the rewards externally like a higher salary or a fancier building; the rewards I get are intrinsic. They are within the job and me. I guess if you were real 'pie in the sky', you'd say they were the best kind,"

Sitting on the plane, heading back to Camrose. I've been thinking about the past 3 days - the trailer ladies and how well they have made the best of a difficult situation. And I've been thinking about Rica's comment about teaching the whole person. And Astrid's belief that students are worth our best effort. These women take huge risks as they give of themselves. Toni draws on her experiences from her own childhood as well as her teaching background to better connect with her students. Bonnie brings her love of motherhood to her work. They are whole people teaching the whole person. They use all that they know to help their students and each other.

I've been thinking about the fact that all the people working in the trailer are women and (from what I heard) all the administrators of the programs are men. These women really are special. Do the administrators and government decision makers know just how special? I wonder if they appreciate that the field of literacy in Alberta, as we know it today, wouldn't even exist without the unselfish dedication of people like the women who work in the trailer at Medicine Hat College.