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