Hi everybody, in case you haven't heard, we all made it safe to Calgary; all fourteen of us! The trip here was full of the unexpected. Sam actually made a sandwich last 30 minutes, podcasts about injustice made everybody upset, and candy lasted way too long during petty competitions.
We left yesterday at 9 am, got to Calgary right before supper, and made tasty pizzas for to eat. (Thank you Dalhousie Mennonite Brethren Community Church for letting us use your ovens even when we smoked out the kitchen and almost set off the smoke alarm. Thanks to Tiera and Hannah, that didn't happen.)
After supper we played cards, listened the radio (yes Evan, there are classical music stations!), and explored the open areas of the church. Really quite an uneventful but interesting day.
This morning we woke up at 7 am, had breakfast, and set off on our first day to explore inner-city Calgary. Thanks to the public transit system and our guides Kari and Kristen, we eventually made it to the Salvation Army (interesting detours included getting off at the wrong C-train stop, going down the wrong construction sidewalk, and finding the wrong door into the Sally-Ann, which was locked from both directions!). Once inside the elusive building, half of us went to the kitchen to prepare food in hairnets and aprons and the other half went to the laundromat to do some spring cleaning. It was an interesting morning full of fascinating people. In the kitchen, vegetables were chopped, bread was sliced in large quantities, and sandwiches were flipped. In the laundromat, walls were washed, windows were mostly cleaned (streaky, but at least you can see through them now) and grime was expelled.
For lunch we got to eat with the clients at the Sally-Ann, where Joel met a man named Blair and conversed about many intriguing topics.
Next was more public transit, this time with buses to a parking lot which held a truck and trailer belonging to Streetlight, an organization that works with homeless youth. The trailer is a mobile drop-in for Calgary's Street Kids, but it needed a little TLC. We had lots of fun organizing their fully-functional kitchen, and cleaning everything that had a surface. Dan and Evan were pros at washing ceilings without ladders by the end, Gwen and Sarah had oodles of fun scrubbing floors, and Hailey's a master at stairs. Right now, we are settling down for a wonderful meal of taco salad and perogies. Yes, we know you're jealous. The cooks, including Erin, Sarah, and Hannah, are dancing away in the kitchen creating all the food. Activities at the moment include basketball in the gym with Parker, sleeping upstairs with Jocelyn and Hailey, and hanging out on the comfy couches in the foyer.
Today Mryna was unable to join us on our adventure due to an unfortunate sickness called the flu! Jim, you will be hearing about this when we get back, sorry she didn't authorize it with you, but we figured it would be hard to get in contact with you.
Tonight we hope to do something extravagant like relaxing in the city, maybe taking in a movie, or doing some coffee shop exploring.
Tomorrow, comes the long awaited Night Tour, among lots of other things. We'll keep in touch and hopefully have pictures for you in the next couple of days.
Thanks for the prayers and support!
Your faithful bloggers,
Judith, Gwen, and Sam (who is busy in the kitchen but will hopefully be here next time.)
