On Wednesday, the ALSO Calgary students served at various locations including The Salvation Army, Mustard Seed and Inn from the Cold. All of these experiences involved working at homeless shelters- serving lunch and assisting with other tasks such as cleaning. Our eyes were opened to the different kinds of shelters that exist (some of us served at a family shelter) as well as how many people are living without homes in this city. Those of us who served at Inn from the Cold were saddened by how many families with very young children are living indefinitely in small cubicles with bunk beds. Although we were shocked by this reality, we were thankful that agencies like Inn from the Cold exist to help struggling families, single mothers and children. One of the highlights of the day was going on a street-walk as a part of an activity that we did with the agency 'Steetlight'. The street walk involved sharing coffee and cookies with strangers that we met downtown. We had a lot of great conversations as well as some difficult ones. From talking with so many different people from different walks of life, we realized the varying opinions about homelessness and poverty among Calgary's citizens. One of the most interesting people that Shenyce, Jerrick, Matthias and Emily met was a homeless man named Andy (see first photo). He was a very positive person with many tidbits of wisdom to share. He even played his banjo for us, which was quite a treat.
