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| A cold and rainy day in Calgary. |
We stepped out into the rain early this morning, took public transit to the Dream Center, and helped out with a few small tasks. For the most part, the staff educated us about what they did to help the homeless. In order to stay at their facility, participants had to be clean of drugs and alcohol. We heard the testimony of a man who had been addicted to drugs and alcohol, cleaned up on 11 different occasions, and was now taking residence at the Dream Center. The theme in it's entirety for this ALSO week is "Looking Beyond Labels," as we are encouraged to look past all stereotypes and negative connotations towards those experiencing homelessness.
During this man's testimony, he made all of us realize that the labels can be flipped on us. When he heard that we were members of a faith based school, he said "Oh, so you're all a bunch of Christians." This statement is a label based off assumption, that is not entirely true, as not all participants are of Christian faith. It did make us realize that we are not the only one's who are taking a group of people and placing a single judgment upon them.
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| Sorting hygiene packages at the Dream Centre. So awesome to have RJC Alumnus Megan Enns coordiate our week as part of her work with MCC Alberta! |
At noon, we went to a very upscale mall in downtown Calgary, where we ate our bagged lunches in the food court. I took a look at about 90% of the people strolling through the mall and noted that the whole percentage were wearing dress clothes. Our rag-tag RJC crew received a few odd looks as we walking around the atrium, and up to the food court. I tried counting the number of suits, but gave up after 46.
I, in my dirty skateboard shoes, makeshift shoelace belt, and baggy 25 cent sweater from the MCC Clothes Basket in Rosthern, walked past a man on my way to the washroom, who grabbed the wallet from his coat pocket and held onto it for dear life as I strolled by. Perhaps it's wrong to say, but it felt good to have someone judge me based on my looks, to learn the feeling.
Our intern tour guide, David, mentioned that some shirts in that mall can be sold for $2000. "My van is half the value of one of those shirts," he told me. Downtown Calgary also has some poor area's as well, so it was interesting to see the ephemeral line between to two vastly different lifestyles.
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| Downtown Calgary has a very public facade of opulence. The agencies we worked at are not far away from where we had our lunch. |
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| Riding the C-Train (LRT) |
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| At the Salvation Army where we cleaned some rooms. |
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| The view of downtown Calgary from the Salvation Army building. |
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| In the kitchen at the Salvation Army. |
We worked at the Salvation Army for the afternoon, and Luke commented, "Most of these people don't even look homeless," thus, realizing the stereotypes that we make against the homeless.
We prepared and ate supper at the Salvation Army. As we ate, we spread ourselves out in hopes that we could "make new friends." Most of the homeless were not willing to force association like we were, but that's their own choice, I guess.
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| Public transit in Calgary. |
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| Wet hair - there was a lot of rain! |
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| Modeling the hair nets required in the kitchen at the Salvation Army. |
The highly anticipated "Night On The Streets" was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. I suppose it makes sense, but I think it would be a good experience to be stuck on the ice-cold streets, in a predicted snow fall. The homeless have to tough it out through conditions like that, so why shouldn't we?
We will, however, make the best of the situation, and educate ourselves further on the topic of poverty being close to home.
Travis Hebert
Calgary, Alberta
May 1, 2012
