Today we had an impactful presentation at MCC Alberta. One of the things we watched was a TED Talks video entitled "The danger of a single story." See the bottom of this entry for the embeded video! So worth watching!
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| We took city transit and walked a lot today. We were heading to the bus stop to wait for our transfer. |
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| Right beside the bus stop was somebody's shelter built into a tree. |
We arose from a deep slumber at
5:30 AM today to help pack up the cots, and to clean up the remnants of a
large breakfast that was cooked before we woke up.
Due to popular request, two pots of coffee were made for us, and after
consuming a few cups, we hopped on a bus headed for The Mustard Seed.
However, due to a few mix ups and a general mass of confusion, we ended
up getting lost, walking across the over-pass twice, (on which Jess
"Pretty much crapped my pants.") and ended up taking a tour through the
CUPS building.
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| This was posted in CUPS - Calgary Urban Project Society in downtown Calgary. |
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| Outside CUPS. The wall mural was painted by a Paul Driediger. Anybody know him? |
On the way to CUPS, we walked
around downtown Calgary, and I couldn't help but to notice that within
the difference of one block, the scene had completely changed. One
minute, we were walking amongst a bunch on "suits," and by the time we
had walked down one sidewalk, we were surrounded by blue collar workers
and various people in dingy, grimy clothing.
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| "The Family of Men" - a sculpture in downtown Calgary right near the Drop In Centre. |
Shortly after, we took a lovely walk by the Bow River, and took a
distant glance at the drop-in center, while comparing the old area to
the new. Recently, that whole area of the city has been completely
renovated to attract more people, remove negative connotations, and to
"clean up" that part of the city. The Calgary Drop-In Centre (D.I. for
short) is apparently the largest of its kind in Canada, and the second
largest in North America! Seriously, it's huge!
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| Walking along the river in Calgary. |
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| At MCC Alberta packing school kits. |
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| Cloie packing relief kits at MCC Alberta. |
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| Jess and Ursula filling school kits at MCC Alberta. |
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| Vichael was so proud of his box castle! |
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| After we were done, we prayed over the the kits, asking for God's blessing and safety. |
To conclude our week, we stopped
by MCC Alberta headquarters, packed some school and relief kits, then
proceeded to listen to a few different speakers talk about MCC.
As for the remainder of the evening, I'm not sure what we are doing.
I'm assuming we won't do anything physically aggravating due to the
early wake up. Tomorrow, we wrap up and head back to Rosthern,
concluding our ALSO experience.
Travis Hebert
Calgary, Alberta
May 3, 2012
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| THANKS MEGAN ENNS & DAVID ZENTNER AND MCC ALBERTA for coordinating our week. It was awesome! |
Here is the TED Talks video mentioned a the start of this blog entry. Please watch it. It's around 20 minutes long.
