Edmonton #1

well, we made it. we left school around 9 am and got to Edmonton safe and sound. the whole gang is all staying at the same venue this year instead of two different ones like we did last year. this year we are staying at Kings college. it is quite nice. after getting all cozy in our rooms, we went out for supper and then sat in on and participated in a lecture about the truth and reconciliation commission. it was very interesting and tomorrow we will be spending the day with Harold, the guy who did the lecture when we go to the native healing center. that's about it for today. we will keep you posted as the days go on.

 

-Paddy

Calgary D1 - breaking down the myth of difference

     Today was the first official day of ALSO 2012 in Calgary, and the vast majority of the day was spent in the van. We had a seven hour van ride from Saskatoon to Calgary which gave us a lot of time to think, or anticipate, or do nothing related to the trip at all. Personally, my thoughts were building in anticipation for the events that lie ahead of us. 

At Foothills waiting for supper.

     We had an official introduction from our group leader and RJC alumni, Megan Enns (so great to see RJC Alumni out in the world serving)  as well as a debriefing from a couple of social workers, one of whom had once "experienced homelessness." I put this in quotation marks because I picked up on their hint: that there is a distinct difference between saying "you are experiencing homelessness," and "you are homeless." The latter implies that being homeless is an eternal state, and that no hope can be found for your cause. Throughout the entire speech from the social workers, they never once used the term "homeless," but replaced it with "experiencing homelessness" on a number of occasions.

Debriefing with Calgary social workers after playing "The Game Of Life" (not the board game.)

     Another point they laid upon us heavily was related to the theme of ALSO this year; removing labels. They spoke about meeting people on the streets, taking the time to talk to them, and learning their own unique story to find out that the street people aren't any different than you and I. 

Journaling time!

     Before we embark on a journey that no one of us in this particular group have experienced, we are taking an evening to hang out and have a bit of fun, such as curling through the legs of chairs on the gym floor, and playing basketball with a volleyball. Tensions are running high in that game, as Nick yelled "My pants keep acting like PANTS!" followed by him kicking a ball at LP.

     We are being sent to bed early to prepare for our night on the street tomorrow, when we will spend an entire night out in the city, experiencing what it's like to have nowhere to go, (but you will read about this in a different blog post.) It has been relaxing for us so far, but things haven't even begun to warm up yet.

Travis Hebert

Calgary, Alberta

April 30, 2012

     

A New View of Saskatoon

Often when RJC students visit Saskatoon's downtown they go to the Midtown mall or perhaps enjoy a movie at the Galaxy theatre.  Not today.  This morning 22 students visited The Lighthouse, a low-income housing initiative/homeless shelter right across from the Galaxy theatre, participated in an urban plunge in the city core, and volunteered at the Saskatoon Food Bank and Thrift Store.

The day began at the MCC Centre (thank you MCC!) with guest speaker (and alumnus) Lynette Zacharias sharing the story of how she founded Farm-in-the-Dell, a group home and vocational centre for adults with special needs.  Three students will be volunteering there this week.  She also shared about other experiences that she has had working in community schools in Saskatoon and up north that opened her eyes to the '3rd world' right in Saskatchewan.  We certainly don't need to travel that far to find need in the world. 

After this introduction we traveled downtown to visit The Lighthouse, a shelter and housing initiative.  Our guide was another alumnus, Deeann Mercier (Isaak).  It is quite encouraging to see RJC grads making a difference in the world!  The amount of people that use the programming at the The Lighthouse is astounding.  I have heard and read of the need for housing in Saskatoon, but to see, feel, and smell it was impacting.  I never knew so much was going on right downtown either.  While there, we also heard from some representatives of 'Straight Up' a gang rehabilitation group that works with Father Andre, a respected priest who ministers to those in gangs.  It was one of the speaker's birthday, so we sang 'Happy Birthday' to him.  It was moving to see him touched by this simple gesture.  People are people.

After the Lighthouse tour it was lunch and the students were placed in groups, given a toonie each, and sent into the downtown core to complete an 'urban plunge scavenger hunt' and to buy the best lunch they could with the money they were given.  Through these tasks many food security issues became apparent.  After this exercise we volunteered at the Saskatoon Food Bank and then ended the day journaling at the MCC Centre.

There is need in Saskatoon, but it was inspiring to see and meet many people who are working to make a difference!  Tomorrow we split up and go to volunteer at: 1) Vincent Massey Community School, 2) Habitat for Humanity Saskatoon, and 3) Farm-in-the-Dell in Aberdeen.        

An Experience In And Of Itself

Hey ya'll back in good ol' Saskatchewan. We finally arrived in Mobile, Alabama
this evening. It was an experience in and of itself getting to this point in
time. Let us tell you of our journey.
We started off our day leaving a very interesting motel , Knights Inn, and
headed to the amazing Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church in Pass Christian,
Mississippi. The church was such an amazing experience that it was
indescribable. The church was so welcoming and was so ecstatic to have us as
their guests. They out did us with their singing but they still loved our
pitiful at best singing. As one of the men from the church said "The holy
spirit has different ways of showing itself. Sometimes its silent but then at
times its very verbal. ( in a good way)." That's what they were, very, very
verbal. It made some people emotional and changed some peoples perspective on
life.
Rev. Harry Toussaint spoke about how God sees all, hears all, and how God
delivers. The favorite quote from church was "Don't box with the devil, your
arms are too short. Let God box the devil for you" By Rev Harry Toussaint.
After church the group indulged in an amazing southern Baptist church potluck.
Soooooooo Goooooooooood.
After church we loaded the bus and headed to Honey Island Swamp Tours back in
Louisiana. It was really "Whoppo." This was the name of the very large, 13 -
16 foot, alligator the group saw and fed. We also got to see and feed smaller
alligators, see turtles, snakes and Blue Herons. One of the alligators one
group got to feed only had one eye. What's with that? We also got to see a
perch jump out of the water. In the river we saw some people actually catch
catfish, crawfish and other fish.
The experience that made the most people uneasy is when the bus broke down.
It has broken down three times. Once it wouldn't start, it stopped on us at a
stop sign and then the third was on Interstate 10. We had to wait on the side
of the highway for half an hour. Apparently where the engineers placed the ecm
(motor computer) on the Detroit Series 60 engine on the bus allows engine heat
to heat up the ecm which causes the engine to miss fire. It will be looked at
before we come home, hopefully.
Luckily we did get the bus going long enough to get to a store where we ate,
and then to Camp Christian. Phew. Lets just say the bus drivers didn't have
their best day today. But we got here. Thank Goodness!! Talk to ya'll tomorrow
when you check in to see what mischief we cause while trying our hardest to
build some sort of shelter.

For the group

Kayla Bloomfield
Nathan Hebert

Calgary ALSO on its way!

The French quarter

Sooo, on Saturday we ventured down to good ol' Louisiana! We got to see the
ocean on the way down south which was pretty exciting for some of us (Jaye and
Trissy). The main part of our day, besides being on the bus, was spent in the
French Quarter in New Orleans. We toured around there for the afternoon
visiting little shops and eating delicious beignets! The Quarter was filled
with buskers and street venders selling things like paintings, henna tattoos,
and fortune telling. They were all very friendly people! Some went so far as
to sing love ballads to us and one even proposed! (Wedding date to be
announced.) The French Quarter is a very beautiful part of New Orleans with
many old architecturally beautiful buildings and statues. We experienced an
atmosphere that we had never been able to experience before. After our dandy
afternoon in the warm southern sun we ventured to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
to our hotel. Today we are heading to Pass Christian Goodwill Missionary
Baptist Church. We are looking forward to meeting Billy Morgan and worshipping
with his congregation. This afternoon we're going to a swamp tour which we are
all super excited to see! We all want to see some 'gators! Then we'll head to
Mobile to Camp Christian where we'll be staying for the rest of the week.
We're not sure if we'll be able to blog from the camp yet so this might be it
for a couple days! So s'long fer now!
For the Group, Meghan and Jaye

BIg drives and even bigger smells!

Well, where should we start? We rode a bus for 36 hours. That's like midnight, to midnight, to NOON. We
became quite comfortable with each other, each adding our own personal odor to the lovely stench the
bus gives off. But we survived! We stunk, but we survived. How many miles did we drive? We don't know.
Which state were we in at any given time? We had no idea. How much longer did we have left? That we
knew! Anyway, after a long 36 hours we arrived at Graceland, Memphis, home to the one and only, ELVIS
PRESLEY. uuuuuuuh huh. (insert hip swivel). Some of us signed our names on the wall surrounding
Elvis's estate, and others ate burgers. (Cough, Jake, cough). We then made our way over to the Civil
Rights Museum, guided around by the one and only Ryan, (not Epp, but the tour guide Ryan, though I'm
sure giving Epp Ryan the chance he would have loved to enlighten us with all those random facts he
keeps in that head of his) who astounded us all with his vast knowledge of American history. He was
craaaaaaaazy smart! Needless to say we all learned a lot! The best part came when Reverend Samuel
"Billy" met us at the end of the tour. He was on the balcony when Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated. There were three men on the balcony, and he is the only one still alive. Some of us were
uber pumped to shake his hand. He's the guy we're all standing around in the picture you see. He was
real sweet! After the Civil Rights Museum, we went to our hotel and took our long awaited showers. It
was pure bliss! We then went out to eat, and have been enjoying some free time for the last few hours
before kick in. Tomorrow we head to the French Quarters at 7 in the morning for a 6 hour bus ride.
Golly Gee we love that bus! Well, that's all for today folks. See y'all later!
For the group,
Jenna Dueck and Nicole Brockman

Local ALSO Groups Prepare for the Week Ahead

The students traveling within Canada for ALSO week continue to prepare for the week ahead.  Student's are gathering sleeping bags, work boots, and other personal items as they get ready to work and serve in Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Calgary.  "I'm really looking forward to experiencing the overnight on the streets in downtown Calgary," said grade 12 student Luke Pomedli.  "This makes it real...you're really there.  It's something to talk about it, but actually being their is the real story."  During ALSO week students will have the opportunity to learn about poverty in Canadian cities first hand.   

Hola from Guatemala

RJC has safely arrived in Guatemala and spent their first day touring the City
Market and also meeting Antony and Irma at the MCC offices. Tommorrow we are
off to El Salvador and Honduras. Adventure awaits!!

--
Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)

ALSO Sending Chapel

The students wore their red (orange?) ALSO tshirts today. Here they are in chapel focussing on the "why" we do this. Jesus loves us and asks us to love others. We ended the chapel with laying hands on the Guatemala group who are leaving tomorrow morning and praying for them. Alabama leaves on Thursday and the rest of the students go to their assignments on Monday.

A full school pic at the end of today's chapel.

This is the second mobile posting test

This is a test of the mobile blog posting via email. Each ALSO location
will be posting to the blog (rjcservice.blogspot.ca) if possible.

This is the second test as the first test needed some tweeking.

You should see a picture attached to this post. This is the bus that
will be heading to Alabama later this week.

ALSO just around the corner

We are slightly more than a week from the first of our ALSO groups hitting the road for one of the most intensive and formative RJC experiences. Watch this blog space for updates from Guatemala, Alabama, Edmonton, Calgary, and Saskatoon.