From Maine, With Love - An Allagash Brewing Podcast

S2 Episode 8: Partnering with Portland Trails

• Allagash Brewing Company • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Did you know: there’s a trail head within 10 minutes of every home in Portland, Maine? That’s thanks to the great work our friends at Portland Trails have been doing to make our city more accessible and connected through outdoor space. And we’re committed to a 3-year, $30,000 partnership, called Healthier Neighborhoods for All. Its goal is to help Portland Trails reach more of Portland’s immigrant community to help them experience the benefits of their extensive trail system.

Brett Willis:

This is from Maine with Love and All Gash Brewing podcast, where we talk about beer, our community here in Maine, and things that generally make us happy. And we have two community members here joining us from Portland Trails. Thank you for coming.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. Excited to be here.

Brett Willis:

So , uh, Brett, I am here , uh, Liz Wilson. Hello , uh, marketing manager. And then we have Angelique Bitshilualua Inclusion Coordinator for Portland Trails. And Lindsay Conrad, director of Development for Portland Trails.

Lindsay Conrad:

Thanks.

Brett Willis:

Thank you for coming. Yes. I feel like <laugh> . Yes. It's fun . It's what a treat . It's important to have guess and also to not exactly know , uh, everything we're gonna hear. Yeah . Uh , I think we , we experienced that with the , um, with , uh, Sebago Clean Waters. I think I , I honestly learned a lot on that process . Very great organization.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yes.

Brett Willis:

They're very cool . Yeah . And they do a lot . So, before we get into speaking about trails and everything that they entail here in Portland , uh, I do have to ask a special question for each of you that you will hopefully enjoy answering. And Lindsay , I'll start with you so you can get, so you can kind of get a feel for it. It's okay. What is, so, I know you are in opera, but what is the best play that you've ever kind of experienced or seen?

Lindsay Conrad:

Ooh , that's a great question. Thanks . Okay. So are we talking about , uh, like a play with that ? Like a , like we're not talking about musicals, right? It

Brett Willis:

Could be a musical, it could be playing musical . I think it's just kind of like a , a live performance. Live performance that you have seen that, that affected you.

Lindsay Conrad:

Ooh , okay. Well , uh, yeah, I just recently, about two years ago or so, I saw the band's visit on Broadway. Hmm . Highly recommend. I think it run , I think it ran like, maybe it got the Tony, the Tony Award for Best Musical Wow . In like 2019 to 20 years. 2020 something , something like that. Yeah . Yeah . Um, but oh my God, it was just amazing. Uh, I have a friend who , uh, is does Broadway stuff. He's mm-hmm . <affirmative> , he's in Ed. And so Oh , cool . Cool . He'll get us , you know, tickets every now and then . That's awesome. So , uh, just last , uh, fall I saw Hamilton, which is great.

Brett Willis:

Oh , nice.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. So I try to kind of keep up on the, like what's happening in the Broadway world Yeah . And try to go, like, see them every once in a while and fit it in with a trip to New York at the same time .

Brett Willis:

That's awesome. That's fun . Yeah. I , I did, my mom's big into theater, so she will buy us , buy me tickets from time to time. Nice . And so I did get to go see , uh, Dear Evan Hansen. Have you ever heard of that one? Oh, yeah. Oh , yeah . I saw Dear Evan Hansen. But the thing, the reason why I wanna bring it up is because , uh, Steven Spielberg was in the audience. No way . And so the people in that was the most, I've the hardest I've ever seen that anyone act in my life. The , they , the people were just , they were working hard sending it. Yeah . They were going as hard as possible. It was like , like , it was pretty cool. They were like sweating. They're , they're working hard. Could

Lindsay Conrad:

You see him in the audience?

Brett Willis:

I did . He was just like, down over a couple rows. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

See, that would be very hard for me, because I would try, I would be like, trying to, like, do I watch Steven Spielberg watching this <laugh> ? Or do I watch the actual thing ? Like, I feel like I would go back and forth.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. No, I did not. Uh, no , I watched the play. It was , it was good. It was really good. Great . Okay . All right . Angelique, I hear that you have a recipe in the main bicentennial cookbook. What, what is , uh, what is the recipe?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

<laugh> ? Yes. It's , um, I think that was , uh, salt fish .

Brett Willis:

Okay. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

It's , um, a Congolese recipe. Uhhuh like , uh, salt fish and , um, some veggies . Uhhuh like , uh, eggplant , uh, white pepper and green peppers. And , uh, white onion. Oh,

Brett Willis:

Nice.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

<laugh> . It's so delicious.

Brett Willis:

That sounds great. What is, what is salt fish then? Is it just salted fish or is it just specific?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

It's , uh, I dunno how you can call that here. Right, right. But it's a , a fish, they like, it's salt, like the dry that with salt.

Brett Willis:

Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

So before you cook them, you have to put in the water, like all night to remove all the salt . Oh, yeah . Have to rehydrate it . Sure. Yeah . Okay . And then you can , uh, make it as you like, if you need more salt in it, or if you , you don't eat salt at all , you can remove all the salt.

Brett Willis:

Oh , that's great. That sounds good. I've never actually used, I've never used salted fish in like Yeah . Cooking. I , I think I've always been intimidated cuz I didn't know how to necessarily treat it, but Yeah. Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

It just, the way the , they dry that. Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Yeah . Right .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

It's fish.

Brett Willis:

That's great. That's awesome. That does sound really good. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Angelique has also made donuts for us

Liz Wilson:

Oh, I , you guys had one of those

Lindsay Conrad:

Angelique's famous donuts. Yes.

Liz Wilson:

Yes. Whoa. Yes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. They're not , um, they're not sweet, which

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Is not something

Liz Wilson:

That, here you think of donuts in , you're like , really sugar bomb .

Brett Willis:

Right . What is the flavor?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Um , it's, I made that with , uh, the flour uhhuh . Um, some sugar, not more <laugh> . Okay,

Brett Willis:

Sure.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Um , one egg , if you, you want add , uh, allergic to eggs? Mm-hmm . <affirmative> and , uh, milk. The 1% milk. If you don't support the dairy, you can, maybe at the place of milk, you can put water. Oh,

Brett Willis:

Okay.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

There is a recipe also at , um, in , Amjambo. Oh, yeah. I , I made, that's right . African donut . Ah , if you type in Amjambo African donut . We found all the recipe we found.

Brett Willis:

Oh, perfect.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

How many flowers to take? How many milk and everything? Yeah . I explain all the courses through the ,

Brett Willis:

Look it up. It's

Lindsay Conrad:

Really good. They're , they're really easy. You said they were pretty easy to

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Make it easy. I choose the easiest way to make it. Yeah. Because it's with , um, everything is in already. You don't need to put some , uh, like , uh, all the all-purpose , uh, flour; it's different. You have to put so many stuff inside. Mm , totally . But I, I choose the one where it says Self Rising Flour. Mm-hmm . Hmm . There is already Sure , sure , sure . There we'll just add , uh, yeah . Some milk and , uh, yeah , sugar if you need. And then we will need , uh, oil. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> to fry them . Mm-hmm .

Brett Willis:

Oh , sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

It's like a fried dough. Oh, yeah . It sounds

Brett Willis:

Like , sounds really good . Okay . So to the topic at hand , um,

Liz Wilson:

You're not gonna secret question me.

Brett Willis:

I thought I was gonna , do you wanna be secret questioned?

Liz Wilson:

I don't know .

Brett Willis:

I was gonna let you slide this time, Liz. Uh ,

Liz Wilson:

We could dive into it, Brett.

Brett Willis:

No, no. Actually, I , I do have a secret question. You do. I did think about this. Yes. Um , has the woodchuck returned?

Liz Wilson:

Yes.

Brett Willis:

Oh no.

Liz Wilson:

I have a backyard woodchuck and it's not great. Oh, no. Um ,

Brett Willis:

And she has a dog who's its mortal enemy.

Liz Wilson:

I have a dog . It's like, yeah . Yeah. I, I know this is not going to prevent the woodchuck from getting back in my yard, but my husband has some like, I guess it's like chicken wire. And I cut a piece of it and I buried it in where he was digging in. And I like put dirt around . I'm like, take that wood chuck. And so far so good. But I did that this weekend. Cause he came in and ate all of the tops of my asters and like, oh , left a stalk. And that was it. And he was just like,

Brett Willis:

I thought you were gonna say he was like making coffee in the morning. Like, I came in and he was in my house. He was getting some pickles , uh,

Liz Wilson:

Famous pickles . I'll just keep people updated. This goes Okay . But I , I don't feel confident. Brett ,

Brett Willis:

Check it next time.

Liz Wilson:

Surf or turf?

Brett Willis:

Oh, surf or turf. Oh man, I can't choose. It's one in a situation. It's situational. I think I'd go for right now, I'd probably go for turf for some reason . A big steak does sound pretty nice. Does okay . Yeah. Yeah . I The moment. Thank you. That's a good one, <laugh> . I like that. Um, so before we dive in , uh, I wanted to start just with a little personal anecdote of why I'm especially excited to talk about Portland Trails. Is that, I think 2020 during, you know, the beginning of the Covid Pandemic, I would not have gotten through it if it were not for Portland Trails. Oh . Cause I live here in Portland. And that having that I had like, maybe a four minute walk away from my house. I was, I went on the trails probably at least like once a day. It was, it was such a wonderful Yeah . Respite.

Lindsay Conrad:

That's awesome.

Brett Willis:

From being cooped up.

Lindsay Conrad:

That's so good to hear was a lot of people did that. Yeah. We got so many different emails and letters and different things of how much it really like saved people when the pandemic hit. And , um, and a lot more use on the trail. There was points where the trails were busy. Totally. Like actually busy. Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Yeah . Totally. Yeah .

Liz Wilson:

Yeah . Um , or going to parking lots and you're like, shoot. Yeah . Yeah . I gotta go find another trail. Yeah . Yeah . Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

That's so good to hear. I'm so excited. I mean, that's really what they are. They're , they're a resource. They're supposed to be a resource for everyone, so. Totally. Um , yeah. Cool.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. Liz, do you wanna do the first question?

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. So I think just to put Portland trails in perspective , um, and just to give a little background , um, you know, we live in a city. I think some people think that there's not a lot of green space around in a city. But could you give us just a , a bit of context of how vast Portland trails is? Yeah . And yeah,

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. So Portland Trails has been around for , uh, 32 years. We were founded in 1991. Um, we have 76 miles of trails that wind all the way through , uh, Portland. Yeah . Um, but also Westbrook , uh, south Portland and Falmouth. Um, and the trails were strategically put there as connectors to different neighborhoods. So the interesting thing about Portland trails is that , um, we actually don't own most of the land that our trails are on mm-hmm. <affirmative> , um, because we're in an urban setting. Right. Right. So a lot of it is like easements from our awesome, like landowners and private landowners and businesses. Uh, we work really closely with the city of Portland , um, and , uh, we maintain some of the , um, land that they own. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , they maintain some of the land that we own . So we have a very, you know, sort of tight relationship there. That's cool. But it's 76 miles and , um, they really connect the different neighborhoods. And , uh, specifically because we wanted to not only create places where people could , people could have like respite mm-hmm . <affirmative> , they could like go out and have recreation mm-hmm . <affirmative> , they could , um, do things for their physical, mental health, but also so that it acts as like essentially an infrastructure Yeah . Like an off-road infrastructure That's cool. To encourage people not to use cars. Yeah . And I mean, Portland is changing. It is changing fast. Yeah . And it is, our little city is becoming not so little. Yeah . And there's a lot of people here. And the more we could encourage people to use non-car, or at least not single use car. Yeah . Yeah. Um, the better it's, it's gonna be. So we really think of it as kind of a resource. Uh, the biggest thing that we have to sort of contend with sometimes is that we aren't a government agency. Right. Yeah . Right. Um, I think a lot of people, and I think probably some of that is part of the name, right? Yeah . It's called Portland Trails. You're like, well, obviously it's the Yeah , yeah . <laugh> , it's the trails department in Portland. Right. Yeah. Um, but no, we're a com we're a nonprofit . We do work closely with some of the cities, but we're completely supported by , um, by donations and members and, you know, grants like the ones from Ally Gash and different corporate sponsors. So it's , um, uh, it's, yeah. That gives a little background on it , I guess.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. That's perfect. Definitely.

Brett Willis:

Definitely. Uh , and also to be very clear, like these are trails in the woods. Like this is what the trail is, you know . I don't know what other sort of trail it could possibly be, but I was just thinking, I was like, we haven't been really specific on like That's true. They're trails. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. If you live in Portland or come visit Portland, go and find, go and find some . Cuz there are some that are , uh, you know, I think about like, things on the, in the East end where we call them trails, but they're really just like pathways. Yeah . Yeah . Because school kids were going through this like, backyard to get to school because that's the shortest way, right? Yeah . We're like, okay, let's make this real and safe. Yeah . So let's create like a pathway. Right . And it's right in the middle of like, the city. Right. And then there's things like Four River Sanctuary. Yeah . I recommend anyone to go check it out.

Brett Willis:

Yeah . I'm trying to think if I've been, I think I've been Fore River.

Lindsay Conrad:

Oh yeah . Jewel Falls . Oh yeah.

Liz Wilson:

That's a favorite of mine. Oh

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah . It's the only natural waterfall in Portland. Right .

Brett Willis:

I don't think I've been, then Oh ,

Liz Wilson:

We're taking our next meeting. We're going to the falls. Perfect .

Lindsay Conrad:

Oh , perfect . And you're really like right in the middle of Portland. I mean, you are probably a, maybe, I don't know, six minute drive from like Monument Square, but it feels like you are in the middle of mm-hmm . <affirmative> of the woods, essentially. Yeah . That's wild. Yeah . Yeah . Very cool. Yeah.

Brett Willis:

All right . Um , so I guess what goes into maintaining the trails? You know, what does that sort of work?

Lindsay Conrad:

<laugh> ? That's a great question. And probably <laugh> , Angelique and I are like, not maybe the best people to answer this. We have a , so we have a very small staff. Yeah . We have , uh, seven people. Um, we have two , uh, people, Jamie Parker and Daniel Bishop, who are trails , uh, trails guys. And they , uh, we also have some seasonal help mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Um, but they take care of essentially about 50 miles of trails between the two of them and some, and some seasonals. So, I mean, it's, its a lot of , uh, a lot of people think that , uh, trails just sort of, you , you build them and then they're there. Yeah . It's amazing how much maintenance, and I'll say, especially with climate change mm-hmm . <affirmative> , we're seeing a lot, you know, actually using the example for a sanctuary has a lot of different ecosystems there. There's marshland, there's forest, there's a waterfall. So there's all these different things. Yeah . Um, things like erosion, flooding, all of that has become more and more, you know. Yeah. Um , uh, just an issue. Yeah. And also as we have loved that more people are using the trails since 2020, but it is more like usage. Yeah . And so, I mean, really a lot of it is invasive plants. Sure. Yeah . And making sure the pathways are clear. Yeah. Erosion. Um, we do, our , our trail managers are awesome. They have so much knowledge about how to do trails, how to , um, you know, there's different layers of gravel and stone and things that have to go under the dirt. Right . And some are more rustic. It's, they really go into the experience of creating, like, some of these trails are really rustic and we wanna keep them that way. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> and some trails we want to make as accessible as possible. Um, and that's something we keep trying to, to do more of, you know. Yeah . Yeah . I like our, our trail manager always says like, design for the least able person. Yeah . And then you're sure to make most people happy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that's something we keep, keep working on. But also, do you have anything to add on ? Cause I realize I'm just talking

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah . <laugh> , thank you. You about that. So , uh, our trust manager are doing something like , uh, the volunteer days Yeah . Where they can do some cleanup on the trail to make them like more clear and more well comfortable. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So sometime there is if uh , they can change , there is some , uh, bridge can follow away with the water and everything. Yep . They need to fix those bridges. Yeah . Cause they need people to, to be able to walk on and , uh, yeah.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. We, we, I've done a couple of the cleanups gonna , and I've helped , uh, build a Bridge or two . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> a little. It's fun. It's fun to build those. And it's like , simply but durable.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. But also, like, I'm tired after a day of it.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah. But you feel great . You said feel I I did something good for everyone. Yeah . Yeah. I went to one volunteer at , uh, ever Evergreen Cemetery.

Brett Willis:

Sure, sure. Oh, I've been on that trail.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yes. It was like, it was hard. And how can we do this? Okay. We tried, we cleaned up , and when people was using the toilet , they were like, they were happy. Oh, thank you for doing this. Now it's clear I can bike on and I feel great . I said , oh, I did something good <laugh> .

Liz Wilson:

Yeah . Yeah . Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

So , yeah.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. That's great. And that , that is a big part of it too, is, you know, hearing you speak before and you were saying that, you know, it's all free and there is definitely that sort of like, we'll get into that more, but it's like, it's so incredible to have these available to us maintained. And also just there's so like, plentiful because, so for like 70, you said 76 miles mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So Portland has I think 65,000 people in it at this point. Which is like , it's like a university, like, it's like a large college , you know, it's not a huge city. No . So that is so many trails for the number of people we have.

Lindsay Conrad:

And that's also not counting all of the different like, parks and green spaces Yeah . That are like maintained by the city of Portland too. Right. So there's the whole like parks and rec department that have all these parks and things. Yeah.

Brett Willis:

Yeah . That's super cool. Yeah. Um, so in that vein, do either of you have a favorite trail at the moment or a preferred trail?

Lindsay Conrad:

Ooh ,

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah. Yeah. I can share my story of , uh, the back cove one.

Brett Willis:

Oh sure.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Oh yes . That's my favorite. <laugh> .

Brett Willis:

Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Because I knew that trail before to know the organization. Mm . I was living at , uh, Washington Avenue. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , yeah . In the corner of , um, Washington and Veranda. Okay. I'm thinking in 2019, at that time I was not driving. Yeah. And it was hard for me to do so many things when my husband is not home. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , he was the only one who could drive us. And I have four children. Oh, wow. You can imagine when he's not home. So everything is like, you can't do anything. Oh man. No . Yeah. Yeah. I remember when we were in our home country, he used to tell me, you need to drive. I say , why? I don't need to, you have to drive me. Cause <laugh> for my home to go to Job, our company provide the , the bus and everything. I work for the Red Cross . Yeah . And then here I feel like, oh, I missed something. I could learn how to drive. Yeah.

Liz Wilson:

I don't wanna say he was right, <laugh> , but...

Angelique Bitshilualua:

He said, now you see, you can drive your , okay. I was supposed to take the bus for everything, sometime taxi. And he was like, ah , get to Hannaford from my apartment. Yeah . It took me like two hours. Cause I have to take two buses. Yeah. If you missed one. Oh , no way. Yeah.

Brett Willis:

Yeah . That's so hard.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

One day I saw people from my apartment walking around the water can see the park from , I said , ah , because I love being outside. Yeah. I'm like, I need to follow those people. I need to see where they are going. Yeah . Maybe it's a good place for me to exercise. Cause being inside all the time, that's not good. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I just get out and I follow those people. I realized that that way could connect me from my home to he . Yeah . In less than 45 minutes I say , wow, this is handsome. I can go with my baby in the , to the store . Yeah. For my home to Hannaford, buy some stuff and get back home. So I did exercise for myself and I get to the grocery store and I get back home safely. I said , thank you . Thank you. God. That's still my favorite trail. Yeah . And I called that short pathway the day I started at Portland Trails. I told them, for me trails means short pathway . Huh . Because that's what it means for me and what it was. So I could use that as a transportation way. Yeah. Yeah. And

Brett Willis:

Yeah, I mean, exactly as it was intended, it sounds like. Yeah . You know, you didn't have to get on the bus, you didn't have to be doing all these different things. You actually were connected to something that you wouldn't have been connected to otherwise. That's, that's awesome. Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

They , you know , the organization and they're missing job they're doing. I said, oh, I was lucky to get that trail because if Portland Trail was not there, if the trail was not there, yeah . I could get a hard time to get to the grocery store and other's place. But yeah, that was great.

Brett Willis:

That's awesome. I used to run that trail a lot. Back cove . I did the, the Loop. Yeah . Oh yeah . Yeah. I, I was, I was running pretty well one time and I got, I passed a guy who was obviously very serious about running and I like, don't know how I passed him. And then he like immediately passed me back, like as hard as possible. And I was like, whoa, dude. But I was , I don't know , for some reason I had that memory of trail

Angelique Bitshilualua:

<laugh> . That's so much fun.

Brett Willis:

I was not trying to be competitive, but I

Lindsay Conrad:

Impromptu rate us on

Brett Willis:

Back . Yeah , yeah . Right . Yeah. I didn't try to pass him again. I was just like, you can you get , you get this one? Yeah . Um, let me take Liz , do you wanna take the next one?

Liz Wilson:

Well, do you have a favorite of story ? Oh, right .

Brett Willis:

Yeah . I forgot. Sorry . I also forgot.

Lindsay Conrad:

I was so enchanted. I know . Oh yeah . Always . Um , oh , I think I always tell people, I'm like, I feel kind of bad. Like, I feel like picking a favorite tales know , like picking a favorite kid. Cause I'm like , <laugh> , I'm them . Ooh . Yeah . Yeah . All of them are just as great <laugh> . But I think , um, probably my favorite is the Presumpscot River Preserve. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , uh, it's actually right on the , the border of , um, of Falmouth and , um, and Portland. Mm . But , uh, one of the, one of the reasons that I love it is because I moved to Portland in 2019 with my husband and we were , uh, and then six months later the pandemic hit. Yeah. So it was a weird time to be in a new city. Yes. And , um, everything was closed. And so we kind of found our way. We got got to know Portland by going on the trails. Yeah. Hmm . Um, because everything, you know, wasn't open. And of course, you know, I'm in Portland and all I've heard about all these amazing restaurants Right . And culture. And I'm like, I can't do any of that. Yeah . Yeah. <laugh> . So , uh, we discovered that, and there's this one , um, time that we went, it was like on an Easter Sunday. It was the Easter Sunday morning of , uh, 2020. Yeah . And we were all in that state that we were all in in the spring of 2020 of uh mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And , uh, and we walked along , um, the river and it was a beautiful day. And there's waterfalls at the end. Yeah . And it was just, it was a little bit of a religious experience kind of. Yeah . And , um, I think it has just held like very special in my heart. And I just, I also like it in the way that it's, it's short, but it really feels like, again, to give you a little dad point , uh, Presumpscot River Preserve is a 15-minute drive from the middle of, of Portland. Oh . And it feels like, wow, I'm really out there.

Liz Wilson:

Totally. Yeah . Totally.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. Yeah .

Liz Wilson:

That's great. I know there's so many. I think Evergreen Cemetery is one that Yeah . Yeah . And like you hear , I think , um, I was recommended by a coworker in the marketing team and I , I just like, was not somewhere I had, I, you know, go on the Portland trails pretty frequently and I hadn't explored that. And I think I went in winter and it was just so beautiful, covered in snow and there's a duck pond that was frozen. And it's just, it's really just a beautiful, and again, like you just like pull off one main road in Portland and then you're transported. And so It is, it is pretty beautiful. Um,

Brett Willis:

I was gonna say too about the evergreen cemetery one: that duck pond? Cuz I have a young daughter. I have two young daughters actually, but one of them, I went out there and there are so many frogs in that pond. Oh my gosh. She has turtles, frog Haven , and turtles. And there's like a , like always an egret there. It's just hanging out for some reason. No , it's been there like three times. Anyway, like amazing wildlife to just go Yeah . Stare at frogs. Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

Have you ever caught the otters?

Brett Willis:

What?

Lindsay Conrad:

It's so funny there . So there's these otters that come to the, the ponds there sometimes. And we call them the otter paparazzi because, you know, when they're there because there are like tons of people and people like set up, you know, like professional. Yeah , yeah . Professional photographers will set up like cameras and they're all like, there's Yeah . Like a , it's like a big event. That big event didn't even the

Liz Wilson:

Trails

Brett Willis:

OT in me , you'll find those otters <laugh> . That's awesome. I saw a Pileated Woodpecker. That was the one I had to learn what it was. Oh yeah . And then it was big, it was bigger than I thought It was like a crow-sized woodpecker. Yeah . It was huge.

Lindsay Conrad:

It's a little terrifying. Yeah . It was

Brett Willis:

A little bit, but it was cool. <laugh> . I was excited.

Liz Wilson:

So I guess, you know, lots of trails here in Greater Portland. How do people go about finding Portland trails? Right ,

Lindsay Conrad:

Sure. Well, actually that's part of the reason is , um, that we're starting the Healthier Neighborhoods for All program was we were realizing that a lot of people didn't know where to find them. But , um, so there we have a pretty , um, uh, recognizable logo mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you'll sort of see that around. But also on our website, we have a digital trail map that's interactive. Mm . Um, and if you allow the GPS on your phone or your computer, it'll also show you where you are. Yeah. Uh , so it'll show you like a , you are here person and it'll kind of go with you if you're walking something. So if you go there, it's a great place to , um, to just find out the different trails that are near you. Um, right now every Portland resident is within a 10 minute walk of a Portland trail. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I guarantee you, if you live in Portland, you are within walking distance of a trail. So if you go on our website and look , um, at that digital trail map, we also have paper maps available too. Um, but that's probably the, the best way to find out where those are.

Liz Wilson:

Very cool.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. Nice. So on that subject of not everyone using the trails Yeah . How did you find that out? What was, what was kind of the moment that you realized, oh, not everyone's using these trails, or not as many people are using the trails as we would like, or Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. I don't know if it was a moment , um, more so like a general realization, right . Like a gradual realization, I guess I should say. Um, uh, we started this, it , it was probably maybe like, it was always something that I think we were , um, uh, focused on mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but also I think within the past, like maybe it's like five to 10 years as we've gotten more and more new Mainers mm-hmm . <affirmative> into Portland, we've sort of realized kind of anecdotally that the makeup of the demographics of Portland is changing, but the makeup and demographics of trail users was not

Brett Willis:

Right. Right.

Lindsay Conrad:

And that was a little bit of like a red flag of, of saying, okay, so what are we doing that , um,

Liz Wilson:

Is not reaching?

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. Yeah. What is it? And, and there's a lot of reasons, and some of it is systemic. Some of it's just like the , the trail and outdoor world can tend to be kind of a white space mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but that also, that doesn't mean that we still can't do something about that. Right . <laugh> . Yeah. Yeah. And , uh, so a few years ago we started kind of a , this, we called it a neighborhoods project at that point, and we started kind of going into different neighborhoods and setting up tables and trying to get some feedback of the people that living , living in , in different neighborhoods of Portland to say like, what do you want on these trails? Or, or, you know, what's keeping you from using trails? Yeah . But you know, it's hard to, it's hard to go on trails to find out who's not using trails. Right. Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Makes any difference any sense . Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

Um , like <laugh> , like we, we realized we kept coming up against a , a brick wall with that. Yeah . And we were like, okay, so this isn't this ist working. And it's because , uh, again, we strategically put these trails into all the different neighborhoods so people could use them and that it's so that it would be a resource mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But if the pe if people are using them, then what, what's the purpose? Right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's when we finally said, okay, we need to take , kick this thing into the next gear. Like what we're doing isn't working. And that's when we said, we're gonna start this healthier neighborhoods for all. We're gonna go into a neighborhood and like hyperfocus on just that mm-hmm . <affirmative> instead of trying to like pepper it with different places. Right . Yes . Mike , like really get like hyperlocal into that like community. And I think we need to hire someone that's not us, that this is like their full-time job and that maybe they're from the immigrant community. Yeah . Um , and can kind of relate to that.

Brett Willis:

Angelique, how long have you been with Portland Trails now?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Seven months .

Liz Wilson:

Okay. Nice. So this is very new. Yeah . That's exciting. Yeah . I mean , it sounds like you're already making a lot of like significant headway beyond, you know, Lindsay , what you were describing that was probably years of effort, which , so it's , it's pretty cool. Yeah . Thank you. And I feel like that, you know, I'm sure it has been years of work, but even just like the humility in recognizing that you didn't exactly know what the answer was, but knew you had to try something. Because to your point, so many new people come living here in Maine and like these trails are such a resource. Yeah . So how do we bridge that gap? And so, yeah . Yeah. And I think you got introduced to Angelique through in Her presence, which is another wonderful partner that we have had the pleasure of interviewing Yeah . On this podcast. Yes . Yeah . So , um, this kind of a , it's a like a little full circle moment here. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah . Well all Allagash is like the, like, you guys helped our meet cute. That's right .

Brett Willis:

We're the matchmaker. Yeah ,

Lindsay Conrad:

You were our matchmaker. Like you said, you know, we were looking for someone like, all right , we need to hire this inclusion coordinator. We want it to be full-time. We , like, we were thinking, so, I mean, not to get ahead, but our first neighborhood that we're starting in is Riverton. Yes . Which is right here where Ashbury is. And so at first we were thinking, well, maybe we get someone that's from Riverton. Sure . So that's really like in that neighborhood mm-hmm . <affirmative> . But then we thought, well we wanna be able to also replicate this in different neighborhoods. So maybe if we get one person to hire full-time, then that person can then move with the program. Totally. Um, and you introduced us to In Her Presence, which is an amazing organization. Um, I know you, you all interviewed Yep . Them Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Was actually two different people. It was Jeff and Zoe. Oh . I interviewed

Liz Wilson:

Them . I was like, yeah, that was me interview . Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Just cause Jeff Yeah. Right. <laugh> . Oh yes, I was there. Yeah. No I wasn't there. Yeah. But no, that was Jeff. Yeah. That you did an awesome, Jeff and Zoe did an awesome job .

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah . Yeah. They are amazing. They do great work. And basically they said , uh, we have the person for you. Oh , that's awesome. And Angelique came and what I remember you said when they first approached you about Portland Trails <laugh> . Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

So , uh, it was because I didn't know that all gosh , recommend you to come to in Inner presence because with Allagash, I know that , that I , um, uh, led another project with , uh, the Children's Museum.

Brett Willis:

Oh

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah . That one I got granted that project. Oh . And it was , um, I was between the immigrant families and , uh, the Children Museum. To help them go to the museum with their children to explore and learn something new because this is a new culture, a new, new country and everything. Yeah. So I did that. It was with a big success. And then when I heard about Portland trails, I said , what is that? I know Trails, but the name

Brett Willis:

Was Yeah , yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

I still learn English. And that name trails was not in my mind. Sure. Yeah . To be sure. And I was like, what is that? Is that a track ? No , <laugh> , I just get my license. I don't need to drive any track . <laugh> Mary . No, no. That's not my place. And Mary was laughing. She said, angel <laugh> .

Lindsay Conrad:

Right .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

You'll not be driving a truck , driving any truck . Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

It's the

Brett Willis:

Opposite. Opposite of driving trucks. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

She say , okay , I know that. I am sure I know how to drive back . Not at Park , no <laugh> . And Yeah, just for that . And funny , she said, no , it's, it's a trail . Starts explaining me what the meaning of trade and things like that. Cause she speaks French. She said, oh , it's just, so she gave me some example. I said , oh, I have my favorite trail . Yeah , yeah . The back and Yeah. Oh, okay. It's amazing. And I would love to take that job cause I love being outside. Yeah. Me and the nature, we have some connection. And through my career I have , uh, an education or not to race and , uh mm-hmm . <affirmative> , things like that. Yeah . I , I love being outside and being a guide for people. <laugh>, that will be a handsome job. So I really enjoy doing that. Yeah. And when I joined the organization, I met amazing people.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. They

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Are great . That,

Brett Willis:

And that, I think , from what I understand, the way that we'll get into talking about what Healthier Neighborhoods for All is, but I feel like the , the part that struck me was that you didn't necessarily come in with a plan. Yeah. You kind of came in with like a we wanna listen, like we wanna understand what the plan should be. And I feel like from some of the anecdotes you've told, like it sounds like Angelique Cuban really helpful in like being that person who's bridging the gap and figuring out what the plan is. Yeah . Like there was an example of you, you going and sitting at a school, right. Oh right . And trying to ba basically get people to be coming on the, the trails. Right . And like , you know, just be interacting. That that's a great story, I feel

Lindsay Conrad:

Like. Yeah. I mean, so we, we had started just we're partnering with the Talbot School, which is right over here. Yeah . And we went to their , uh, um, it was like a summer learning dinner mm-hmm . Thing mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And so we were there and we, we were a few organizations and we're trying to get people to fill out these surveys mm-hmm . <affirmative> , um, in Riverton to say like, do you use the trails? If not why? Or like, what do you want on them? So it's kind of just getting people sort of used to it. But anyways, we're trying to hand out these surveys. Schools are great places for that. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Cause you get, you know, the parents and the kids, all that. So we have this table set up and we're there and we have all the surveys and all of our, you know, cute little Portland trails stuff. Yeah. And Angelique and I are sitting there and the only people that are coming up to the tables are the white parents.

Brett Willis:

<laugh> . Yeah . Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

And, you know , they're talking to me, they're talking to Angelique and blah , blah, blah. And I'm , Angelique kind of came over, she kind of whispered to me at some point. She's like, I don't think this is working <laugh> . And she's like, okay, okay. Give me a second. And then she takes like the surveys. We have the surveys in seven different languages. So she takes, you know, a couple of each of the surveys and she just starts going around to the tables and literally just sitting down with people and are like, hi, how are you? Do you speak Portuguese? Oh, okay. Here, this is , I want you to fill out this, this survey. <laugh> .

Brett Willis:

Yeah. <laugh>

Lindsay Conrad:

Just literally like sitting down with people. Yeah , yeah . And doing it. You know , it's, and um, I know it seems like such a little thing, but it really does make a big difference. Um ,

Brett Willis:

How, how did the people react when you were sitting down with them ? Were they like, happy about it? Were they kind of confused?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah, they were . So the problem is that we need to have some strategies . We need to know how people are acting. Yeah. So you can sit there. Sometimes people are afraid they don't know how to come to you . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , they don't speak English. I say , yeah , what can I go do there? Yeah. What is that? And then we were like, I saw so many migrant in there . So the black people like me say , okay, I am one of you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I will not be afraid of you. I will just come and try to do something different. Yeah. I say just wait them and try to ex explain who I am and what I need them to do. Sure. Just sharing some information. Yeah. You know, that you have some amazing child around you if you been get there one day. So if you have a chance, if you tried them , oh , I don't know , where is it? Oh . Things like that. Which language are you speaking? Yeah, yeah. Which one can you read and write correctly and say , okay , it's French. Okay. I speak French too. And then we tried, I can explain each question and then can you fill out? And they were confident and they tried filling out them and they gave me some , uh, information like , uh, telephone number and mm-hmm . <affirmative> apartment number where they live. And they were confident and they said , yeah, I would like go there, but I don't know if I can go alone because I never go there. Sure. You have a right person here. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , your time will be my time. I will take you outside and you will enjoy being outside in HR . And things say , oh, since I am here, nobody told me about this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I feel quiet and I told Lindsay , I said, I ever a plane and it's worked

Brett Willis:

<laugh> .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Cause we can still there all the day and nobody will come. No.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Right. Especially if even the most basic thing, like the name, if there's not a direct translation Yeah . Like you said of the word trails, then there's already confusion

Angelique Bitshilualua:

For myself. I cannot lie you, I I was like, what is that? Yeah, yeah, yeah . And when they saw that in different areas , oh, it's a short pathway . It's like, oh, oh, it can connect me to this and Oh, I know I can try this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes . Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. Cuz I think Angelique you were saying too that sometimes trails will, sometimes it will translate sometimes into other languages, but it's like the meaning behind it is like a , a mountain. Yeah . Or like, you know , like , I'm going out for days and it's gonna be like

Liz Wilson:

A whole,

Lindsay Conrad:

Not like the trip . Yeah. And she has this, angel has this awesome , um, uh, business card that on the front all of all of her Info and on the back it's trails translated into five different languages.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Nice .

Lindsay Conrad:

But in like the, the what we mean by trails, right , right .

Brett Willis:

Like the dictionary definition. Yeah. Oh , that's great. Yeah . That's so smart.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

That make people feel like more welcome when they feel like, oh, all trails know me. And then Yeah. He knows like , I need to get this in my own language. And then things like that. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when you told me you took a job, we don't know . It's just somebody who just going here <laugh>, nobody else gave you like a step to follow, like things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are you going to build that trust and relationship? I say , okay, can you trust me <laugh> ? Yeah . I know that it's hard . Yeah . But I can do it. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

And the first step was to educate myself about the organization. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I spent like a month

Lindsay Conrad:

<laugh> . Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Reading the website, go in forth , everything. And when I was ready I said, okay, now I, I can take some basic information in the simple world , things like that where people can understand cause they don't need complicated thing . They are going through so many, so many things. Like yeah . The level of stress is so high. I need to make things simple and clear. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And if I give a presentation after the presentation, everyone is, wow , I need to go, I need to go outside . It's like I feel good. I say , okay, come on guys. And you can use it for benefits . Your benefits not for my own benefit. I know that I will work with you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , I will benefit that too. But it's especially for you because you are not going there. Yeah. Yeah. You don't use to go there. But you will love when you will start going outside

Brett Willis:

And, and thinking like to the point of stress as well. You know, like that being out in nature is like the most effective way for me personally to like reduce my stress. Yeah . To make my make, you know, just reconnect, breathe a little bit. Like it's, that's so that's actually a , like a significantly helpful thing. Yeah. For uh , a lot of the immigrants who are here

Liz Wilson:

And Right. And I think Riverton, which is the neighborhood we are in here at Allagash, is a very high population of immigrant families. Yeah . And so I think something anj like that you say frequently is that, you know, you don't need, it's an expensive gym membership or you know, they have access to the outdoors to help mental health and to have physical activity. Yes . And there's just so many barriers that you've both been working on sort of breaking to to get more people out there. Yeah . For those .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Cause you know, most of their apartment are so small. Yeah. Outside it's a parking lot for everyone. Right . Kids cannot have access to play. Now we are in vacation, the schools are closed. So Yeah . For many of the kids, they cannot go to to , to the school play, can't by their home . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So they need parent to be involved in this . Oh man. And then found a time just to bring the kids outside what I used to do. So my presentation, I said that's the love for yourself. It's like being selfish for a moment. Think about yourself. Yeah. Love yourself. If you love yourself, help yourself and you can help others. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , you will not be there to love everyone but you are, you don't have the love of yourself. Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , you need to think, what can I do for myself? Just taking your body, <laugh>, do I to work outside and yeah . Enjoy nature. Yeah .

Liz Wilson:

It's such a good philosophy that it's really we could all use That's an

Brett Willis:

Important one . Yes.

Liz Wilson:

To remind ourselves remember . Right . Yeah . Totally. Um, I guess what have you been sur so you've been doing all these surveys to understand, have any of the answers surprised you at all and what you're hearing?

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Um , most of them was like, they dunno where the trails are . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So they need information and um , they don't know if it's free mm-hmm . <affirmative> for everyone. Right . Cause it looks like some, they know that there trails , but they , they feel like it's a private PO property . Right . Things like that they cannot go through. Right. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And um, yeah, just few people said I need to go with a go . Like I don't feel like I can go by my own . Mm-hmm. <affirmative> because one , one person told me that if maybe I can go and Juan and then I fell bad, I can fall down. Who will help me? I need to be with somebody. I say, okay , you all right . I cannot say you have to call the nine one one before you down .

Brett Willis:

Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

You'll not be aware that I am gonna fall . So just be with uh , your friends, with your family . Say, oh, can I go with my children and say yes.

Brett Willis:

Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

If they are , you know , the car seat, it's hard for me to work with them. I say some of our tray are good for the stroller. Yeah. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> and some you can just have your baby, you can carry hair or something like that. Cause it'll be hard to use the solar on . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> some of our trails . But some are good for solar or wheelchairs or things like that. So. And

Brett Willis:

That's, I mean, it's just interesting too the the kind of communication difficulty , uh, where it's like, it's awesome . It sounds like you're making headway. Yeah. It sounds like you , you're really figuring out some great stuff. And a

Lindsay Conrad:

Lot of that is magic though. Yeah . I have to say, I don't know if you've been able to tell, but she is an amazingly charming person. Yes. I mean, there really is not <laugh> . Yeah,

Brett Willis:

I would agree.

Lindsay Conrad:

She's, this is, this is not a visual medium so you can't see . But she's laughing and she's very embarrassed right now . <laugh> .

Brett Willis:

That's okay . That's okay .

Lindsay Conrad:

But I mean, truly cuz it takes someone that's not scared to go up to people and just start talking and Totally. And , and all of that. And um, and she has this, maybe it's because you're a mom of four, but she has this great mom energy about getting people out. Be like, don't worry about it. I'm gonna be here the whole time.

Brett Willis:

I'll take you.

Lindsay Conrad:

Don't worry. You know, coming out . Yeah . Um, I think one of the things too we were surprised about is we weren't sure why people weren't using trails. Yeah . And um, it could have been a a , a bunch of different things. Maybe that they were scared to use it. Yeah . Maybe they felt like they didn't have time. Maybe they like legitimately did not have time. Yeah , absolutely . Or, or any of that. And kind of overwhelmingly what we've found is that people are just like, I didn't know they were for me. I didn't know they were there. Yeah . I don't know where to find them. And that's kind of the biggest takeaway in the six months that we've been doing it so far, is just that people just needed an invite. Yeah.

Brett Willis:

That's awesome.

Lindsay Conrad:

That's super cool. That's it. Cuz you know what nature kind of speaks for itself. Like once you're there. Great. Um, and it just takes someone like, like Angelique to, to be able to just kind of make that connection. You know,

Liz Wilson:

You've been so, you've been leading these group walks, which I think in terms of like building somebody's confidence in using these trails must go such a long way. And so maybe it only takes one group walk and then someone feels confident enough to take their friend for a group walk. And so Yeah . It sounds like you've also been having some success with sort of showing people the trails beyond just talking about them and introducing them. Yes.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah. Uh , I used to spend my time , uh, on the presentation. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , I need to , to explain mm-hmm . <affirmative> , why I need them to use that. Yeah. The benefit of using trails , when somebody will hear that just by walking outside or biking, they will reduce the risk to some disease like diabetes, like high blood pressure. Yeah . So they really work on their mental health and things like that. They feel like , oh, okay, this, this sounds good. And they have to understand that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's for their own benefit. It's not for somebody else. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . Cause maybe they can talk , oh you are you doing this because you need us to pay money for that because that's your job. Right. It's free. Yeah. And open to everyone. I am not here to selling something, so it's just, I just need you to be healthy. Yeah,

Brett Willis:

Yeah , yeah. Right.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

So that's make that very important. And then people can , uh, trust me and they , they can follow me. And then after the work , everyone is good and feel happy. They need a next step. They asking me what will be our next step . So when can we meet again to do uh , the the second work and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And after each work I feel like, oh, I did it. And it was quite <laugh>.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. And I feel like the, one of the stories you recently told was, were you , did you take a group of people on the eastern prom or something about the ocean? And there was such a surprise and it, you know, we take for granted we're on the coast and I, you know , it's so, such a given to, to me anyway. And so I think, I think you had said that

Angelique Bitshilualua:

You, that's uh , the Portland adult education. Yeah ,

Liz Wilson:

That's right.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah . I went there a lot in , so I think middle of May mm-hmm . <affirmative> and now I'm like three times a week. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> out on the trails. Huh ? I do like a presentation. After a presentation we go out for a walk . Oh . Cause eastern prom is uh , so close to border land and that education just 10 minute walk . Oh , okay. Just after that we go around. Then when we get to the ocean, to the beach and things, people are excited . They get to the water. I have some short videos of people playing with water and then they are exciting. They took so many pictures and we are running about the time cause they , it's um , a two-hours class. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> from the presentation. They all , they work , the teacher are rushing and the students are like, they don't care <laugh> . So okay. If you, you you see that like you are done teacher , see you next week. You can go and leave us here. And I was like, <laugh> , no, you cannot do that. <laugh> Finish with your teacher and get back together. Then we will plan for the next step. Yeah , yeah . Yeah. And after we work , they send me the message, they send me some, send the email and uh , some are waiting for our WhatsApp group cause they don't use the emails. <laugh> you guys communicate with me.

Brett Willis:

That was the thing that , that , that was one of the ones that kind of switched the light bulb for me is that a lot of , uh, the immigrants who you're trying to kind of talk to don't really use email or don't really pay as much attention to it. And so they'd prefer to use the phone and it's like one of these things where how else are you gonna find that out? Unless you literally talk to them , talk to them and are , are able to speak their language. Even like, I don't, I I took French in high school for like four years. I don't think I speak French.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Oh , no.

Brett Willis:

I could maybe understand a little bit, but , uh, sorry. French teachers in high school, <laugh>, I learned a lot .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah. Because we don't have people to sh to practice with practice . That's

Brett Willis:

Why . Definitely , definitely

Angelique Bitshilualua:

It's a language. Because I can realize when I got here in 2018, Uhhuh , I was not speaking English because I have people around me and I pushed up myself. So I to try to speak and then I can listen to you. I can understand what you are saying and I can respond back. Yeah. Before it was like, my mind is like in translating like yeah , you are in English, you are coming to me. Time to think. Yeah . To translate that to French and then get the response coming back to you. It will take me like five minute of thinking. Yeah. Yeah . And you can say, what does it ruin ?

Liz Wilson:

<laugh>, this

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Looks weird, but you cannot imagine what is going on in my brain. Yeah ,

Brett Willis:

Yeah ,

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah . But now I am not translating anymore <laugh> . Oh , that amazing . That's incredible. Yeah . I can listen and then respond back if I hear a response . So it's like people, so in Africa, most of the people are who are using emails are , uh, some who are working in the , the office like mm-hmm . <affirmative> Sure. The office job and things like that. You are there, you can respond to most of the email they send mm-hmm. <affirmative> . But if you were maybe in production, if you were in, maybe you are doing some businesses. Yeah . You , you don't need to to to have an email or something like that. Yeah . You can just buy your stuff and you , you can communicate through the phone and things like that. You can do your business something else . Yeah. When we got here with the language and everything, even the , the , the , the student , they have email set up for the adult dedication . They are not using that . Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And if Portland Trail was like sending emails and putting things in their social media waiting for people to respond back, they will not do me that. Yeah. Yeah . And I told them no, no. I discovered that most of people are using WhatsApp when they have wifi mm-hmm. <affirmative> . Yep . And they need like , uh, using the phone call and things like that. I have just my own phone. I don't need to make my private life Yeah . A work life . That will be terrible because it's a bunch of people out there.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah . Yeah. But you're becoming a very popular person. Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

I will not make a difference between the work you made a WhatsApp and things like that. Yeah. I need just something for , uh, <inaudible> project, just a phone just for that, where I can share pictures where I can share information about the upcoming event Yeah . Where I cannot call people and , uh, get some feedback about the work, what they like , what they didn't like. Sure . What can we improve and things like that.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Well, I think that's a great place to let us know how people can get involved if they want to. Yeah . Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

Absolutely. Yes . So , uh, we have a great little page on our website. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , um, the healthier neighborhoods for all. Um, I think the biggest thing that , uh, if you live in Portland or in Riverton, fill out one of our surveys. Yeah . We have them. Uh, we have online versions and seven different languages. Um, we also have paper versions at the , uh, Riverton library branch. Mm-hmm . If you wanna go there and fill that out. We're also gonna be , um, kind of overlapping now and , uh, moving a little bit into the Sagamore Village area. Great . So filling out separate is just really helpful. Mm-hmm . And it doesn't matter if you are a new manor , an immigrant or not, we just, we wanna hear back from you, so. Sure . Um, don't let that stop you. Uh, so definitely that. Um, if you have a group, if you are an , uh, an immigrant organization or , uh, immigrant assistant organization or a BIPOC-led organization and you want you to come do one of these amazing presentations, we call them kind of like, welcome to the trails or Trails 1 0 1. Hmm . Uh, they're great. Something that we've found out , um, is that it's hard to get people kind of cold to just go out on a trail when you've never been on one before . Yeah , right . Without some general info. And so these presentations have been really great. Cause it's like Angelique breaks it down and says like, here's what this is for, this is what you should do. She was very modest. She speaks four languages. So , uh, and , um, we've done , uh, presentations before. We'll also provide , um, other , um, uh, interpreters to mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm . <affirmative> if that , if you need that. So if you're an organization that , uh, thinks you would love to have Angelique come and give one of these presentations, do a group walk, please reach out to us. Um, and the other way is just becoming a Portland Trails member. Yeah. Um, we are a member-led organization. We have over a thousand members , um, and all of the , uh, you know, all of these donations and the, and membership , uh, fees to be part of Portland Trails goes into helping programs just like that. And that's probably the simplest way you can kind of get involved is just get into our community and Yeah . And kind of help us out that way.

Liz Wilson:

Cool. That's awesome. I love it. Yeah. Thank you so much Yeah. For coming. Thank you so much. This is such a fun conversation to have. That's good . Good . Didn't wanna go out kinda trail. I might just go, just get right outta here onto a trail. Yeah , we can do, do that . It's right across the street. We literally across the street , the river trail . Yeah . Yeah. That's awesome.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

So those coming days, we'd be busy at one because I will start some activities soon.

Liz Wilson:

Oh yes. Oh , exciting. Yeah. I hear . So do you have the events online in any capacity? Yeah. Okay, great.

Lindsay Conrad:

We can have , so on that website we have , um, we're doing, we're still getting some of the surveys, so, and we're trying to figure out what people wanna do. Yeah. Um, so that, that's a big part of it is kind of just hearing back from people and doing events that people are interested in. Um, so we've heard a lot about group walks . People really want picnics. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So we're actually doing a picnic , uh, for in her presence . Yep . Uh , in about a week and a half or so. Yeah . Like that. Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. That would be the 28th. Yep . Oh , okay. It's a Wednesday. So that's because the , the teacher is available that day. Right. Okay. They used to do the online class. Mm-hmm . She never met a student in person, huh ? Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And when I gave the presentation to that class, she said, we will reserve one day <laugh> before the end of the school year to meet in person. That will be a big work with Angelique outside. Yeah . And enjoy that. I said , okay , now we'll be going <laugh> , I'll be here waiting for you. Yeah .

Lindsay Conrad:

<laugh>

Angelique Bitshilualua:

And, yeah. Yeah. It's coming soon. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Yeah. It

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Is also with , uh, the new , uh, homeless shelter mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Yep . I have a presentation scheduled on , um, July, I think the first of Friday Of July. Mm-hmm . Oh , okay. I don't know the the date yet . Yeah . It's the first Friday of July. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that will be Friday at no . Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Great. Great. They , they said he used to have a staff meeting at that time with our old request . And , uh, everyone that will be a good time for me if I need to give a presentation there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . So they are so close to our friends . I need them to have a time to, to take advantage of , uh, using them to relax because they are stressed. They don't know where to go. They just get here. Yeah .

Brett Willis:

Yeah.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

For me, life , it's clear now because <laugh> I know what to do and my kids are already at school and things. So for them they are single. Some maybe left their children in the home country mm-hmm . <affirmative> and they are thinking about so many things at the same time. When can they get the work permits? When can they found their , their own apartment and things like that. The level of stress is so high. Yeah. I need them to feel like they are here already. They don't need to care about all those stuff . They can, maybe things took long time to work , but it'll be clear one day they need to relax and Yeah . Work outside. Totally .

Brett Willis:

Yeah. Yeah. And the background there a little bit is, so there was a , a , a very large homeless service center that was built right nearby us, like maybe like, probably like a four minute walk. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And a lot of the people who are actually using that center right now are immigrants or new , like recent immigrants to Maine. That's right . Because we are pretty big sanctuary city in that way. So it's, it's just interesting cuz it's like, yeah , I can see like coming here not really knowing where to go or what to do, it's like, it's so important just to be able to reach out and just provide, you know, just something to take some stress off.

Lindsay Conrad:

Just welcoming and like , it's also about, I mean, there's a million different logistics. Yeah . Right . And that has to happen, right? Yeah. Right . Like all of that has to happen, but also is there a way we can give just a little bit of joy <laugh> Yeah. Just a little bit of something, you know, in an otherwise chaotic time of life. Totally. Um, and even if they don't go on trails right away, it's something that like, oh, I was introduced to this when I first got here. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> mm-hmm . <affirmative> later on, maybe I can take advantage of it.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. At the right time. I know that I'm allowed to go on this, I know that I don't have to pay to go on this. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , I know that I'm not gonna get in trouble or something that's gonna jeopardize my, you know, legality. You know, I feel like there's so many different things that would , I would be , you know , totally agonizing over where I'm in that situation. Totally. Yeah . So it's , it's really nice.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

I got the one question when I was giving the presentation at the Poland adult education , one student asked me if I go out on the trail . I don't have , uh, the , the paper yet. Like , uh, I don't have green card, I don't have anything. Right. So maybe I can be in trouble. Somebody will ask me my papers and things like that. My identity and things. I say, oh, on the trail you will never found somebody like that.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

I never heard like that . Yeah . So you are free to go outside. You , you have the right to exercise and relax yourself so nobody will ask you about your Yeah . Like citizenship or things like <laugh> . Nobody can ask a question about that. Yeah . Some must have been huge way . People scared off

Liz Wilson:

Someone's shoulders.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah. They don't normally say , maybe it's not good for me to go there. They , they prefer to be just where they are living infin . Sure .

Brett Willis:

Yeah .

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Yeah . So by being like just inside, that's the level of stress will just go up and up .

Brett Willis:

Yeah . Yeah . Yes, it will . Yes it will .

Lindsay Conrad:

Um, we'll be having more events too great in Riverton and we'll just post it on our website. And then there's also like Portland Trails, general events. We're doing a scavenger hunt in , uh, in July. Cool. Uh , just like all throughout the city and where I think we're gonna make a little Riverton track just for Rivership . Yeah . Fantastic. Um, so all that's on our website. Um, and it's any way someone wants to get involved , um, we really, we feel just in general that , uh, these trails, we don't, we don't own these trails. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , they belong to the people that live around them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , uh, we're simply just stewards. Yeah, that's great . And just wanna help people enjoy it as much as they can.

Brett Willis:

Totally.

Liz Wilson:

Well, thank you both for this.

Brett Willis:

Yeah . Thank you both . This was fantastic. This is so fun to chat and , and to hear all about it. Yeah . And all the what your , what you have planned and everything else. Sounds really awesome. This is exciting.

Angelique Bitshilualua:

Thank you. Yeah . This is our pleasure.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Conrad:

Thanks

Brett Willis:

Guys. All right . Thank you. Thanks . This has been an all production and if you have something you want us to talk about on the show , shoot us a message at podcast all .