Mother Popper It's Almost Half Over!

       Last few days of the first semester is here! Which is CRAZY. Thinking back to my first blog post, sitting on my mom's bed, having so many questions and having no idea what I was in for. Well, to tell the absolute truth, this program was way better than I expected in some ways. As of right now, I don't really want to go home! :P I of course want to see my friends and family and ooofff courrsee go to London! But I've grown to love the people here so much, and the community living aspect of this program has shaped me so much. (maybe even more than the speakers!) I won't make a list of all the change that has happened in me, it'll be long!
            A lot of my fellow Site 3 Outtatowner's are worried to go home, depending on the different circumstances that each one of us has. I'm excited but also a touch worried. I want home to feel like home, for it to be were I want to be. Over thanksgiving my parents couldn't be around because before they got my schedule they had planned to travel  to go to a dental conference. If I didn't already explain that, but it never hurts! It was a good weekend for sure, but I felt not really at home....at home. It was like I wasn't supposed to be there, I needed to be back with my group having adventures and traveling all over the place.
            And frankly, I think that's an aspect of growing up. You get to the point where home is of course always going to be home, and I love my home, but I have so many other adventures and things to see. I learned a lot about myself, and in the first few weeks of Outtatown I wanted to go home quite badly, but I realized after a while that I could not only survive away from my family but I could enjoy myself!
            A couple weeks ago I felt the itch to go home, because of idea of Christmas in Manitoba. :) I love Christmas. So I'm not saying I never want to go home, but I know that I can go and do what I want really anywhere I want. Awesome. 

            On another note, it's awfully early....well not really...it's like 8:30. I'm sitting in the hotel lobby of Irwin's Mountain Inn in Banff.  We got here on Saturday evening, (it's now Tuesday!) and this last weekish until Thursday we are having our debrief sessions and our ski days. We had our first ski day yesterday, which I must say I was less than excited for. (Today was the second day, and it was optional because you have to pay for yourself!) I am not a sport girl, at any means. I can dance, I can act, and I can sing. However, you ask me to ski or snowboard down a freakin' mountain I'll be freakin' afraid. I had decided to try skiing because I hadn't ever before, and I had snowboarded a few times and I wanted a change. We decided not to learn on a bunny hill...but rather on what has to be the longest run there was. It was HUGE. At the top I nearly had a mental breakdown because I couldn't stand up!  By the time it was lunch, my friend Rachel and I were deciding if we should even go out again in the afternoon. After almost not going we decided that we should, but we would go on a few shorter runs just in case we wanted to go inside again. To make a long story short, that was the best afternoon on Outtatown for me so far. All of a sudden I was doing it, we did one run (number 40) and it was alright I fell once or twice...but then we moved onto an adventurous homemade almost completely random runs. It was a combination of three runs 2 chair lift rides and then the gondola ride back up to the top! It was AWESOME. Rachel and I did it with some newer snowboarders at first and we had to wait for them because they were a touch slower, and the second time we did the same. The last time we did it on our own all alone and from taking us 40 minutes to do the whole thing it only took us ten! We improved time 1000!! There are three different levels of runs you can do, the easiest is green (Besides the bunny hill) then blue then black diamond. You also had the option at the end of the day to ski or snowboard down the mountain. Rachel and I with so much adrenaline in our veins we decided to do it. It was seriously breath taking going all the way down a mountain, twisting a turning and watching the sunset over the mountains. Rachel and I improved soo much and didn't fall once after run number 40, both our first time and by the end we were skiing down the mountain that was leveled at blue. Aweeesommeeee. So good. BEST DAY EVER!
               We have our Christmas party tonight which will be fantastic, we are all dressing up and having a nice dinner and games in the evening. I through up some pictures and updates tomorrow :)
              Last week we spent at Camp Kawkawa once again, which I thought would be so long and boring...but our entertainment committee planned some seriously awesome shenanigans like the crazy utensil meal, and the twin meal. Aled and I dressed up as twins, I even straightened his hair! Also we had two speakers, one of which we all really loved named Nathan Reiger speaking on idols. So good, he was awesome :)  Also, coincidentally both the girls and the boys had the idea to plan a appreciation day for each other. The boys started doing the dishes, serving us food, looking all spiffy, and being all around gentlemen. The girls all thought that was all they had up their sleeves. Not the case! One evening they kept all the girls outside the dinning hall and then escorted us in three at a time. We walked into the dinning hall and found a candlelight dinner, with rose petals on the floor and table. Each place setting had cookies with our names on them, and a note from one of the boys. Each boy picked which girl he wanted to write for, it was freakin’ special. It was the sweetest thing ever, we have THE BEST BOYS. No question. :) 

                Then the next day, we had planned to do the guy appreciation day. We set up the tables near the fire place, hung up Christmas lights, got center pieces, and set the dinning hall up like a restaurant. We had a little booth that said "Please Wait To Be Seated" and I was the hostess, we even had a menu for each boy. We had waitresses, Christmas music in the background, and we even bought them special food. (Like real eggs for once!!).                  For dinner we kept them outside once again and when each one came in we clapped for them,and each girl selected a boy to take by the arm and lead him to his seat. We had big encouragement notes on each place setting that every girl had written something to every boy. We had dinner and then of course some classy slow dancing afterward. So much fun it was unbelievable, I also had a great partner :)

Thanks Boys! You're The Best <3

Funny Utensils Anyone?

Do We Look Like Twins?

Menu At My Hostess Booth

Mentor Dinner With Natalie :)

           

A Claustrophobic Birthday

                     Long time no blog. Here we are again, I'm currently sitting in Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle! I love Seattle, it is similar to Vancouver for me, but I like Seattle a lot better. I don't know, I didn't like Vancouver as much. I also think it's our location in Seattle that is great, it's right beside the Seattle Public Market and within walking distance of almost everything. Perfect :) I spent a little bit too much money...which I really didn't plan on...but I couldn't help myself (which is still no excuse,haha.) Also...there are about a trillion Starbucks here, there are three in one small mall...that's just stupid. Delicious but stupid.    
                   We have done quite a bit in the last few weeks I must say...I'll start at the beginning then. So just after we left Twin Creeks we went to Camp Kawakwa, and spent a week there. It's quite nice we get wifi! They don't really like us there that much though, a few unfortunate events happened that included breaking a couch and pushing one up against a radiator thus...burn holes. Awkward. So to apologize we are having a work day for them when we return for a week after we leave Seattle tomorrow. Within that week at Kawakwa we had a few birthdays! Including MINE! I'm finally 18, it's about time gee wiz. Anyways it just so happened that that day we had a special activity planned, we were going Caving! Exploring caves...which is super cool, and scary. I'm sorta claustrophobic...and it was cold and wet and scary...Haha. It wasn't what I expected, I expected big caves and just roaming through them. They were tiny little things that you somehow all managed to get into and you pretty much just explored the caves that were created from huge rocks falling on one another. So, I did end up leaving a bit earlier with some of the other claustrophobic people. But, it was a really cool experience...and who else can say they went caving on their birthday!
                   After that we went to Camp Squeah only about 30 minutes from Camp Kawkawa, for the all sites conference. So all the sites except French Africa ( because it's only a one semester program for them, and they are currently in Eastern Africa) got together for about 4 days. Something super special about this week was that since the beginning of the program we had been planning to do a Flash Mob at the conference! I was the choreographer, and we had been working on it for weeks and weeks. Somehow, (let's not talk about the reasons why...) but word got out the other sites. Site 2 thought it would be funny to do one too....and do it on the first night we got there. Obviously...this made me all mixtures of heartbroken and angry. That dance is like my baby, and they just stole all of it's thunder. Anyways after a while I forgive their site, a lot of people in our site really disliked site 2. And I wanted to find a way to mend that relationship ( to he honest, site 2 brought the dislike for them on themselves) so we decided to do our Flash Mob at the last moment possible and have a big dance party at the end will all the sites! So that's what we did, it was really awesome, and site 2 did a great job...but ours was admittingly better. :)
              Also at all sites we had different activities, along with sessions and worship. We had an absolutely awesome speaker, his name is Bruxy Cavey and he pastors a church near Toronto. He described himself but saying "Some people say I have a face like Jesus, and a body like Buddha". He spoke on stuff that I could really connect with, he taught about "NO RELIGION, KNOW GOD", pretty much just all about the relationship, no religion. I love that, because that has been my philosophy for years, everything he said make me think and made me laugh. He was beyond funny, and I ended up sitting in the "hot seat" every session, right in the middle right in front of him. So whenever he needed someone for an analogy it would be me! It was SO FUNNY. One time it was about being a stalker. He explained this elaborate story about stalking me, and how he thought we were close and how he took pictures of me and my house and sat in the bushes and sometimes call my phone just to hear me say hello. Haha, super creepy, and funny. Then he alluded to God, and that God has stalkers, people who read their bibles, know everything about him, and think they know him. But God doesn't know them, God will and does have stalkers. A real relationship is needed. It's a simple as that.
                  And now we are here in Seattle at the end of our weekend, we volunteered at different out-reach centers, I went to a food bank and helped people carry out their items. It was actually a really interesting concept for a food bank, it was more like a grocery store type set up. There aren't pre-made hampers but rather boxes of food and people stationed with them, clients come in a choose what they want. It was a lot more personalized and I'm sure gave the clients more dignity. We went to visit two different churches in the matter of 24 hours, they were SO different. We went to Mar Hill downtown, and it was so trendy with crazy jazz music and a really young crowd. Then the next morning we went to a conservative Mennonite church, we sang out of old hymnals and the congregation is vastly older people. Super cool cultural experience. Today was a free day and I went to the EMP, or the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.Check er out baby! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_Music_Project_and_Science_Fiction_Museum_and_Hall_of_Fame
 This is getting long! So I digress...but guess what? There is only 17 days left in semester one! Crazy!

       

What A Big Pencil :)

More Caving...Looking smokin.

First Starbucks Ever! 

Space Needle!

   

Free Prayer Anyone?

  Part Two!
SO what did we actually do? On the first day we did a scavenger hunt type situation once again. Which was lovely, it was slightly less programmed at set up then the last one, we just went around the rough and rich part of Vancouver.  Answered a few questions, we had to share our lunch with someone as well. It just so happens that the poorest and the richest parts of town are right beside each other. Thus making for an interesting day for sure. I was paired up with two other people and we roamed the streets, we were asked to not bring any valuables, like wallets or other such things. One of our later “challenges” was to find dinner for free. We were suggested to go to a soup kitchen, and feel what it’s like to not be able to eat that night. My group decided that we didn’t want to go to a soup kitchen, to take a meal from someone else who could use it more. We sat in McD’s after asking tons of restaurants if they had any extra food they didn’t need or could give to us for some work in return. It didn’t work exactly, so we asked the manager at McDonald’s she told us that we should go to the protest down at the Vancouver Art Gallery (affectionately nicknames the Vag. Cute…) They were handing out food for the protesters there, there is a tent city set up with like tons of hippies. They had prepared soup and bread, thankfully we asked them if we could have some soup and they said if we could do something in return. We gladly washed their dishes and swept their floors, and had some super spicy soup! It was a really interesting way to eat dinner for sure. It was also beyond humbling to have no money and no way of feeding ourselves that night. Feeling completely helpless really opened up our eyes. Millions of people feel that every day, and we never knew what that felt like until now.

The next day I went onto the streets with a few people and offered free prayer! We stood on a street corner all day ( we switched shifts) holding up a sign saying “FREE PRAYER”. It was really interesting, we got some happy people willing to pray with us, for their families, for the world. We also had some unhappy people, scoffing us, swearing, not pleased with us being there. Overall, great day.

Then the next day we did a temple visit day, we went to three temples, Muslim, Sikh and a Buddhist temple. We had to be very conservative, I mean VERY. All the girls wore long skirts to the floor, a collared shirt, and a scarf on our heads. It was….informative for sure. We need to educate ourselves in all other faiths and religions to get a good grasp on our own. And we did, I find however that Christianity seems to be the most simple and less traditional of all the faiths. There are so many traditions and customs, to remember. It’s all so complicated, and I was quite overwhelmed by each temple. By the end of the day I was SO looking forward to taking that dang skirt off, I mean I love dressing up….but long skirts make my body unhappy.

The last day we got the choice to go to Union Gospel Mission (Soup Kitchen) or to do Impact Vancouver, which is just like doing anything to impact the city in a good way. I chose to go to UGM, and I had a great day handing out food and talking with people. Julie got proposed to by a lovely man from Sudan (haha), and we met the cutest baby named Dylan! Next, we made our way out to the paradise of Twin Creeks Retreat Center, where you find gourmet food, amazing people, and the most beautiful facilities that I’ve ever seen. From staying in sketchy hotels, that little bugs crawl out of your suitcase or off of your toothbrush to a beautiful, huge, chalet near Abbotsford. They have tons of movies, and stunning rooms, we are spent a couple days here, pretty much doing nothing. Just relaxing and taking some time off from all the hussle and bussle.  It’s almost like heaven here, I love it.            

We Got Some Really Great Soup One Night.  It's called Pho!

Well At Least Some Homeless Woman Will Be Nicely Dressed.

Vancouver proved to be not as bad as I let on for sure. I had a feeling something would go wrong however, and indeed it did. I have had a great week…. bare that in mind. First of all, I left my purse at the hotel by accident when I spent the weekend with Kaityln ( I didn’t mention this before) so we went back to get it. Whilst at the aquarium I tried to take pictures of the fish, there was this mysterious giant black box in my pictures. I obviously got worried….but then we took it to the mall to a Blacks. I tired to use it before we went in, and it wouldn’t take a picture at all. We are talking an expensive SLR camera here, not no crappy point and shoot. After a while we determined that my mirror was broken inside, it wasn’t smashed…I mean it wasn’t moving properly. So it might not be covered by the warranty if my camera was dropped and it got this way. I determined in my brain that it couldn’t have dropped in the last 24 hours because for more than half it as sitting on a table in my purse. Also the woman said that I would remember the drop; it would have been that big that I would definitely remember it. The next task was to figure out how to get it fixed, I would need to send it to a Blacks then it would be sent to Nikon, and then they would determine the cause and possibly fix it. This will take 4 to 5 weeks, I will not be in the same place for a very long time. So we determined after a stressed crying phone call to my mom that Kaitlyn would ship it home to Stonewall then they would take it to the Blacks where we purchased it then off to Nikon. Hopefully I will have my camera back in time for my trip to London that I have just planned in mid December to visit my friend Jessie. Oye Vey. So for the next few blog posts I will probably have some low quality pictures and/or other people’s pictures!
            Next downer, (gee this is getting pretty negative….don’t worry it’ll get better). When we got to our second hotel were we were staying for the Urban Plunge, we unloaded our trailer and the leaders then told us of a bit of a luggage fiasco that had happened 2 nights prior. Basically our trailer’s locks had been cut, and possibly things had been stolen out of the back. We had all priority packed so that we had one bag for about 6 days. So everything we didn’t need for this week was inside the trailer. After looking around and not finding my 65 liter backpack, 13 other people and I gathered and determined our things had been stolen. To say the least thousands of dollars of things had been stolen, pants, winter jackets, cameras, a passport, you name it. People were quite bummed, but everyone had a really good attitude and carried on through the day doing outreach. At first it was hard to go onto the streets and reach out to people who had done this to us….I understand they weren’t the exact same people…but you get it. THEN, the miraculous part comes in! (for me anyways…) We had been praying a lot about this situation and then after our day of outreach we met back together….and we heard a crazy story (which involved me jumping for joy). Turns out one group of people from our site were walking down the street and saw a man selling things, some of the books he was selling looked awfully familiar. They were actually all the books we are studying this year…RED FLAG. Also they recognized some of my things, so they called one of our leaders who contacted the police. Then two undercover police officers came and arrested the seller. Crazy crazy stuff!! So I got back all of my shoes inside of my backpack, (all of which were new or newish…like my runners, hiking boots, and some more fashionable boots) my rain jacket, and my boots. AWESOME. They were found in dumpster, and this man found them and begun to sell them. They all smelt like garbage…but at least I have them!!
I feel as if the update on the actual Urban Plunge will have to be a separate post….too much random crap

Tepees, Belugas And A Sketchy Magee Hotel

I haven't posted in like forever. I'm not sure why. Well I am, I just have not been in the mood to blog as of late. Don't ask me why, I don't know! I'm currently sitting in a sketchy hotel on East Hastings in Vancouver. If you don't know, it's the very rough area in Vancouver. Our Urban Plunge begins tomorrow and frankly, I am worried. We are staying in even more of a sketchy hotel later this week, and going out into the community. It's much different, well...worse than Winnipeg. Also we were staying at a lovely church downtown, here we are not. I also don't know my way around this area whatsoever....Winnipeg on the other hand I do. So this is a nerve racking experience to say the least. We had a free weekend here in Vancouver, and I went to go see the new Footloose on the first day and it was CRAZY AWESOME. I was in the musical at my high school and I LOVED reliving the story again. However it was a bit different, it was modern...not in the 80's, which I didn't mind at all. Then they changed a few of the characters...which I wasn't opposed to...it was just was different. Some people where created out of thin air, some where nice when they weren't supposed to be, and Ren's mom was dead....which was also not in original story line, but what yeah gonna do. It was great though, I loved the dancing, the acting was great, and the guy who plays Ren was nothing less than beautiful! :)  Then I spent the next day and a half with my friend Kaitlyn, it was really nice to get away from my group and experience the city with someone who knows it generally well. I got to go the Vancouver Aquarium! We got to see the BELUGAS. So crazy lookin things, their heads are so small but their bodies are huge and strong and weird and blubbery. It was great. We also went shopping and had dinner, great times. She is the best. Awesome.

To do a brief update to where we have been for the past few weeks, I'll give you and overview! After girl/guy week we had a few days of nomadic lifestyle. We stayed in a church for a night, girls in the sanctuary, boys in the youth room. They were really sweet people that invited us, they fed us and let us make a mess of their church. All they wanted in return was to hear our stories, and get to know us. Very nice,welcoming people for sure! Then we moved onto Blackfoot crossing which was like a museum/interpretive center on a reserve. We stayed there for one night and in total about one full day. We slept outside at the bottom of a HUGE hill in Tepees. That was interesting to say the least, we had a wood burning stove in each one. However that posed the task of waking up every couple of hours and re-woodifying the fire. Our fire went out around 2:00 in the morning...a couple girls got up and started it up again. It was so freezing that night, one of the ladies up at the crossing said it got down to -14. I don't know if it got there, but it was freakin' cold. One of the girl's tepee's ran out of wood during the night, they were even more cold. On top of it we had to pretty much hike up the giant hill to get back up to warmth, bathrooms, and running water. Anyways, it was interesting learning about their culture and their people for sure.
We moved on that day to Pioneer Lodge near Sundre Alberta. We spent around a week there with two speakers, a Halloween party, and free camp activities ( like archery, horseback riding). It was really nice there, we only had to share a room with one other person and we had our own backroom attached! It was glorious. I was an enchanted fairy for Halloween! It was really fun getting dressed up and pretending I was someone else :)

We also went to a church on Sunday near the camp. I loved it, we haven't been to an actual church in a long time. Usually we are away from a town to go to church or we have our own, it was nice to connect with people from a little community like that. Then we came here! Woopdee do.
I am so freakin tired, and I have to embark upon a whole new realm of scary tomorrow. Oh my Gish Gosh.

Enchanted Fairy Of The Wood!

First Snow Out At Pioneer Lodge!

Chillin On A Glacier. Literally.

            Hello Banff. Tis my third day hur, we drove up on Tuesday! Eighteen hours of driving baby. Howdy. It's girl guy week, so we are all split up, the guys are in Canmore and the girls are in Banff. We had our Thanksgiving home-stay weekend, which was super nice. I'm so grateful that I live close to CMU because I got the chance to go home. People involved in the program that don't live near here, had to find a place to stay. All of them who didn't have connections close by stayed at other people's houses within our site. Which I mean would be fun, but for me I love some good alone time. I got to re-pack everything and have great food and sleep in my own bed. I got to do whatever I wanted because I didn't have to Chauffeur anyone around, and just feel comfortable at home.
            A bit of a bummer though, my parents had planned to go to Vegas that weekend for my Mum to go to a Dental Conference, before we got my schedule. They realized after that I was home and they were gone. It's alright though because we got to see each other on Friday night and have a great dinner (of steak shrimp and crab!) and then I dropped them off at the airport the next morning. Which was nice, I felt very independent!

           We had thanksgivin dinn, and such. Pretty chill weekend to say the least, there was the home opener for the Jets! Which was really fun, Kelsi and I got all dressed up in our Jets swag, and made sliders. (mini burgers) They were beyond good, even though the Jets lost...It doesn't really matter to me. At least Winnipeg has a team! WOO The next day I stayed at my cousin's house close to CMU because we had to be there super early (5 am!). We had a nice family dinner, my little cousin complained that I got his room and he had to sleep downstairs, and we watched Hawaii Five O. Great TV.The next morning I ride to CMU and we were off! Eighteen hours later, we arrived at our destination. Banff is incredibly beautiful, mountains are such a spectacular creation. A foreign creation to a Prairie Girl like myself! It's so funny because it stays rather dark in the morning at night (because it's October) but also because the mountains cast a shadow. I don't know if that's just me, but I think it should be a scientific fact. The shops are all so cute (not to mention expensive) and the mountains are just breathtaking. I do love it here, it's an awfully rich area though...it's hard to believe people live here.

                 On the first day we had a scavenger type hunt thing once again, we had to answer trivia questions about Banff and Canada, as well as complete tasks. The tasks were all pretty much just talking to random strangers and asking them about their church, about Banff like the culture there, if these people were originally from Banff or not, if not then where? Lots of stuff, as well as a photo challenge to have the best creative photo in Banff. We were split up into groups of 6, two girls from each site. There are 3 sites as you can probably tell, 2 groups of South Africa people, and one group of Guatemala people. It was super nice getting to know other girls doing the same thing as me, just with different people involved. NEAT. My group didn't win however, too bad. We did take a picture like the Beatles Abby Road Cover as our creative picture, it's pretty neat!
                        Then the next day we went on a hike up at Lake Louise. That was seriously breathtaking, in more than one way. Hiking is so not easy, continuous up hill walking is what I call a work out. Holy poop. It was so rewarding though, the views were mind-blowing. Like I've never seen before, and it really makes me question people who don't believe in God. That believe at all this beauty could just be created by fluke. We made it up pretty dang high, ate some food and then started out trek back down again. We went out for dinner in our Mentor Groups, and that was that!
                  Today we went to the Colombia Ice Fields, so pretty much I stood on a glacier for the day. Well actually, I was only on it for 20 minutes but it was so great. Once again the view was INSANE. Bonkers. We were just standing on what must have been miles of ice, with mountains all surrounding us. We had to take this explorer vehicle situation that had HUGE tires and only went like 18 miles per hour, but we were driving on ice and up and down some hills. Oye. There was some seriously crazy Asian tourists there, they kept asking for pictures with our girls and being little monsters up there. It was hilarious, very very friendly people. Well, it was mostly just young guys around us girls...haha. What are ya gonna do eh? We had a session tonight with our speaker, like the other days...I just haven't mentioned it yet. She is great and we talked about sexuality tonight, because the boys aren't around! It was really cool to hear her take on some things, and we got some real tidbits of info from her.
                I'll write again this week, I'm sure there is much much more to share later. I hear we have lots more entertainment to come!


PS I have completely lost my voice, like completely. I could speak barely at all today, and yesterday it as high-pitched squeaky and would cut out every third word. Oh dear. I've been resting it, having lots of herbal teas and drinking lemon and lime juice to cut through all the phlegm! It's gettin better though...I'll keep ya posted!

First Day Finding!

 This picture in the hotel ladies Room Completely Sums Me Up.

                    

Ah, God Is Good.

October 6, 2011

So I’m currently writing outside on a picnic table at Camp Arnes, with people from my site swinging on the swings, throwing a football, and lying on the grass together. It’s truly beautiful watching from the sidelines writing it all down, I love his community. I didn’t think I would as much as I do right now. We have a great speaker, like seriously a great speaker here with us. His name is Gerry from Soul Sanctuary Church in Winnipeg, he is the pastor there and he is so challenging. He’s quite intimidating at times, and he has a very firm way of speaking. I love it though, I feel compelled by his words every day and I really want to listen. I love it. I was thinking sometime in December when I’m home I will stop by the church for the Sunday morning service, and see if some of the local Outtatown students in my site would like to join me. Hearing about his church it sounds super neat, and somewhere I would feel comfortable. He says it’s a rock and roll church, haha….I LOVE THAT.  His last session with us, was mind blowing almost. He talked all about culture, and the world we live in today. It was crazy, he’s like 40 something, and he knew everything. Had so much insight, and so many times we think that older folks don’t understand us as teenagers, and youth adults. Crazy, he spoke right to us like he was one of us. He knew more about my culture than I did. I’m a little overwhelmed now; because I’m so worried to raise children someday…I understand I got raised in this culture. But it’s a scary place; there is so much media around us all the time, and so many messages being fed to us. And all of those messages pretty much promote an unhealthy lifestyle. Ugh. Too much.

            In other news, last night we had a talent show. It was super funny and ridiculous, and if you are my friend on Facebook I’ll most likely post videos from it. There was so many ridiculous antics, including two girls dancing inside of one sleeping bag, boys eating like 10 cookies…without their arms and two girls behind them acting as their arms. If you didn’t already know, I’m a classical singer, so I sang a song called Taylor the Latté Boy. It’s by Kristin Chenoweth, she has been on Glee multiple times she played Gilenda on Broadway in the musical Wicked. She is amazin’. Just sayin’. So it was really fun, and I got great feedback from my performance, I made it seem like I was going to tell them a story. I got everyone to gather in close like story time with Tedi, they all sat close cross-legged in front of me, and I looked at them, and started to sing. It’s a really funny song, with the need for some singing power. Which I gave, believe me. : )

The weather has been so amazing lately, so warm, in October!! It’s made me so happy and content. I’m way better than I was before. I remember when I called my mum, and I cried because I felt alone and I didn’t feel comfortable in the community. Now I’m so much more confident in myself, and I can be myself. I started to fall into the background at the beginning, allowing my personality fall away because of the fear that people wouldn’t accept me for who I Am. Now, I know they will, and I’m not afraid to be crazy. Because, gee wills I’m crazy. Ah, God is Good. 

 Small Group Fire :)

                                        

Fall Has Come!

                                                                

  What a Beautiful Creation

                                            

More Toilet Talk, Flyers, and Procrastinating

DAY TWO OF URBAN PLUNGE

Also, at Vineyard we (the girls) slept all in a jumble upstairs in the nursery. What  a mess. There was a bathroom attached to it though…however the stalls didn’t have doors on them. Yah, we got close with one another quite quickly. My small group and I got placed with a church (it’s more of an outreach center) called Walls of Freedom. We went around the core “high risk” inner city regions and handed out flyers and put them in people’s doors.  At first all of us said to ourselves, “Oh we are just handing out flyers”. The flyers said dates and times for community gatherings and other outreach events that are always held in local gyms in the area, which makes their “services” so much easier to attend. Throughout the day we realized the meaning of the flyers, it was much more than just handing out flyers. Jim and Jackie (wrong spelling of her name…I just can’t remember how!) are a married couple who ran the mission and they were the most generous friendly people I’ve ever met. They told us stories about how much impact the flyers have had on the community. One man received a flyer and came to one of the events (which are almost completely geared for community, they are potlucks, with sports for all ages, crafts for kids, and other forms of childcare. There is a church service aspect, but no one is forced to listen or to attend that part of the gathering) and accepted the Lord. About a month later he suddenly tragically died of a heart attack. His girlfriend spoke at his funeral and couldn’t stress enough how thankful she was that he accepted the Lord. One flyer saved one life. Beautiful. We got to meet so many neat people on the streets, and I uncovered something amazing about the inner city. It is crazy how open people are to flyers. That may sound dumb, but if we went to Polo Park (Winnipeg Shopping Mall) and tried to hand out flyers there would be close to no response.  Or if we went door to door, (like we did) but in the more suburban areas richer regions of the city, people wouldn’t respond. People came right up to us and asked whom we were and what we were doing, people genuinely wanted to come to the events, and were excited about them! It was amazing, and very eye opening. I also have begun a love for inner city missions and outreach; I can make a difference in my own community. I don’t have to go across the world to change the world; there is enough pain and suffering in my own backyard.

DAY THREE OF URBAN PLUNGE

On the third day we got to choose where we wanted to go, and I raced at the option to go the law courts. I thought it would be a really cool experience, I watch so many crime dramas on TV and I’ve been in a actual court room….so I wanted to! So we found ourselves in a small courtroom with two lawyers, a judge, the accused a police officer guarding them, and some other woman sitting at a desk probably recording the whole dealio. The first court we sat in on was a young man, around my age that had a number charges against him. I can’t recall them all, assault was one, stealing someone’s prescription medication, and the biggest one, stabbing. His lawyer made it very clear that it was not this client that did these things but he was with his good friend who did all those things. The judge seemed pretty peeved at the prosecutor, probably because he barely had his poop in a group. The defense lawyer (as a disclaimer, I have no vocabulary when it comes to this stuff…I hardly know a thing) was really young, and also seemed a little unprepared. Later we were taking to the man who was escorting us for the day, and he said that most often the appointed lawyers who represent people who cannot afford regular lawyers, hardly see the case before they enter the courtroom. Sometimes they receive the case five minutes before they have to defend the person. The defendant was completely at the mercy of his lawyer, he just had to sit there and watch the whole thing unfold. Powerless. We sat in on other courts later on that day, and one larger one that consisted completely of just pushing back court dates. For nearly a hour we sat there and watched pretty much one lawyer with tons of cases, ask for two weeks for pretty much just talking. Sometimes it was a month, 3 weeks, 2 months. It was all very ridiculous, it just seemed like they were just procrastinating.

We then went and looked at different areas of the city, and most of it I had seen before. However, we reached a few regions I had never seen before. More troubled part of town that I had never seen. I pretty much live in Winnipeg, (I don’t…but still) and I didn’t know these places existed. That day was eye opening for sure. We recapped in the evening and shared stories (which we did every night…I just didn’t mention) and then we headed “home” or to Camp Arnes. Whichever way you want to flip it.

A Standoffish Privileged White Kid.

October 5, 2011

            Hello October! It’s been quite a while since I’ve written last; I can’t seem to find much motivation to journal or blog lately. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Perhaps it’s my tiredness, I find myself being very tired and really we aren’t doing too much so I shouldn’t be so tired. Who knows! We have been back at camp for 8 days, and a little bit since the urban plunge now, and we have a new speaker taking us up to Friday (today is Wednesday) and then we go home for Thanksgiving Homestay Weekend!

DAY ONE OF URBAN PLUNGE

 I suppose I should fill in everything that happened from the Urban Plunge until now, the plunge was not worth as much worry as I thought. It was actually so amazing, and I loved being home in my own city. We stayed at Vineyard Church in Downtown Winnipeg, and we met some really awesome people there at the church and in the surrounding community. On the first day they sent us off in groups of 3 or 4 and we did a sort of Amazing Race type deal, except for the fact that it wasn’t a race. It was like a scavenger hunt, in which it didn’t really matter how far you made it. What mattered was the experience you had. My group and I started out and we went to a great local food mart with low prices, local art, books, and a free snack basket for kids. It was an awesome community based store with helpful tips posted around, and even visual representation of how much sugar is in breast milk compared to pop and formula. Encouraging mothers to breast feed, and keep their children healthy.

Then we moved on down the street and ran into some kids, a guy in my group was and is such a people person so of course he stopped and played with them. We learnt their names, and begun just to hang out with them. At first I was a little standoffish, wanting get to our next destination, and not ready to step that far out of my comfort zone.  But then a little girl with beautiful red hair ran up to me and said “ Are you from Vineyard Church?” we were told not to say to anyone where we were staying just for safety concerns, so I hesitated, but said “ uh, yeah”. I mean she’s just a kid, what could she do to me? Then she ran inside her house, and came back outside a minute or two later and said “My mom said you guys should come in for coffee!” (That day we were supposed to take someone out for coffee…but we got the pleasure to be served!).  I go inside, and my group members slowly trickle in throughout the next half an hour. The woman who invited us in was so hospitable, gave us coffee and even offered us lunch. (We had lunch packed so we turned her down, not to make her fuss anymore over us, no matter how sweet or her it was). Turns out she was from Vineyard as well, and we chatted her up and heard her story, in which she was beautifully open to share. She had two beautiful girls, the redhead who couldn’t help but continually chat me up, and her littlest that could hardly walk but had the sweetest smile and happiest disposition. It was a pleasure to get to know her and her family, and see how the Vineyard Church is making such an impact in the community.

Next we moved onto a church in which we had a speaker talk about gangs, in general, and here in Winnipeg. It was astounding to hear about how many gangs are out there, and I so often brush off the idea of gangs when they are alive and well. In fact we are leader in Canada for having the most gangs, yay…Go Winnipeg. So many times I don’t look at graffiti in Winnipeg either, now I know what they all mean… and I look for it now. Almost every gang that I can remember from our talk has the word “killers” on the end, which is so sad. It was really interesting learning about gangs, as well as the prostitution industry here in Winnipeg. I more so thought prostitution was hardly a problem in Winnipeg, when it is such a huge issue. It was heartbreaking to hear about how most prostitutes are my age, and younger. How their family members, moms, dads, prostitute them out to finance their addiction. That be it drugs or alcohol. Addictions plague so many people, not matter just in Winnipeg, which directly correlates with prostitution and gangs.

We moved on to the heart of Main Street, talking with people and taking them out for coffee. Matt our outgoing brave member jumped right in and begun talking to pretty much anyone he could find. It was intimidating being out on the streets, just trying to start a conversation with any random person. It was definitely a learning experience, and I learnt I need to become more comfortable with that sort of interaction, as well I’m hoping to find other ways to reach out to the inner city community. I feel a call to help my city, and hopefully in the next coming years I can do that.
            We moved on to Vineyard for another chat, in which I’m not going to lie, I don’t remember much of. The man just answered some questions, and didn’t have too much of a point.  Then off to Siloam Mission to have a little tour and to donate the shirt off our backs to receive a different one from their pile (I feel bad about this because all of the girls in our site knew this was coming so we purposely wore not our favorite shirt that day). We then had to find dinner….with only 3 dollars each. We met up with some homeless guys around 19 years old outside of Siloam Mission, and they helped us find dinner. It was really neat just to talk with them because it was just like being with friends, we could relate to them and them to us. I thought it was really cool of them to walk around with a bunch of privileged white kids and be friends. If I were one of them, I would probably hate someone like me, however they hung out with us. I found somewhere to eat along the way but some of our site went to McD’s and bought them dinner. Super good. And that’s part one. It took a while now didn’t it? Don’t worry the other parts won’t be as long. I promise.

Makin Our Way.

Vinyard Church Baby

Justice,Community, and Worship

The Most Difficult, But Beautiful Experience Yet.

September 22, 2011

            Alright, so. It’s been a while since I have written, partially because we went on a canoe trip in which electronics were exiled…We have been pretty darn busy doing reflections, unpacking, doing laundry, and starting with a new speaker. The canoe trip was out at Pioneer Camp on Shoal Lake in Ontario, and it was a trying but fun time indeed. There were crazy, and I mean crazy winds on the first day and we did about 13ish kilometers of canoeing. Our site was split up into two groups, however due to the wind our whole site ended up meeting by fluke at the same island campsite. We had a huge gathering that night, with lazy man porgies for dinner (which I must say I never would have eaten if I wasn’t so tired, wet, and hungry). The next day was way better weather with close to no wind, and a lucky meeting with the Guatemala site that was also portaging their canoe’s at the same time, just in the opposite direction out of Canoe Lake. So to make matters easier…we just switched canoes! So great, no need for any heavy canoe lugging! Then it was off to our campsite on Canoe Lake to make stir-fry and set up camp. It was truly beautiful on Canoe Lake, our site was perfectly positioned on the shore for the sunset to be in view. The next day was out of Canoe Lake after a bushwhacking hike up a hill (a rather large hill), we had lunch at the top and the view was so breath taking.  We then portaged back into Shoal Lake (not easy, I hate carrying canoes), and a couple kilometer paddle to our site. The next morning was raining and yucky, but luckily we only had to out on the water until 10 o’clock, and then we were back at Pioneer Camp. A delicious meal of (real cheese…not processed) grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, epically good.  There were some super highs and lows on the trip for sure, but it all pushed me to be way more thankful for everything I have, even here at camp away from home and constantly surrounded by people.

            Which I must say, no matter how thankful I am it is quite difficult. I’m not having the best day of my life for sure, and being around so many people with such strong personalities is not easy. However we have a new speaker named Wendy and she is really great, she is speaking on Peace, Conflict Resolution, and Reconciliation. She is a really great speaker, quite passionate about what she is teaching. She really enjoys group work and that’s how these two topics connect. Working in large groups often with so many people with differing personalities and temperaments has taken a toll on me. I can’t escape it though, so I guess I’m just going to have to deal with it.  I’m also struggling to find my place in the group a little bit, and trying to find how I fit within this whole group atmosphere is something I’m sure will come with time…but I hope it comes soon.
            Funny Story of the Blog: So, one of our guides on the canoe trip name was Rob, and his sister Liz was our other guide. At first they looked boring compared to the other guide (who was CRAZY), and I was a touch disappointed. However, as the trip went on I realized how much I loved Liz, how funny she was and her laugh was simply the best.  So, on with the funny story, notice how I haven’t said much about Rob yet. Well, the first night back at Camp Arnes we all sat down and talked about our highs and lows during the trip. I had already said my highs and lows, and so had most other people. Then Luke mentioned another high moment for him were Rob calls (Rob calls is Rob’s way of waking us up, calling us back to things, anything really. It’s this loud scream type holler). Then I said “ I think another high for me was just Rob!”. That may not seem that funny, but everyone knew what I was saying. He was such a good-looking man it wasn’t even funny, everyone was thinking it…but no one had the guts to say it but me. There was a touch of hysterical laugher after my comment, no biggie.

            We have our Urban Plunge in Winnipeg from Sunday until Tuesday, I’m pretty sure will just be homeless during the day and be patrons and Siloam Mission (Winnipeg Soup Kitchen), and then we sleep in a church basement downtown. Not going to lie, I’m scared.