poverty...again

hi all,

Sunday marked the beginning of DemoCrew, a four day intensive inner-city workshop/camp-like experience for youth from all over Western Canada and parts of the United States. For four days, youth sleep at a local church, volunteer in meal lineups, learn about issues such as addictions and prostitution, partake in meals with guests of The SEED, and gain a wider perspective on the topic of homelessness and poverty. I had the privilege of running a couple of interactive lessons that potentially impacted myself more than the kids.

Hit the Streets
the idea behind this game was to split our group of 32 up into groups of 5-6. they then were given garbage bags and the task of collecting $2.50 worth of bottles and cans for deposit. when they returned, we collected the bottles, and counted the highest team at $5.75. the kids were excited to learn about their accomplishment, but then reality hit. the teams managed to do this in 45 minutes with five people. "can you imagine doing this on your own for 8 hours a day" i asked? taking into consideration the soaring rates of rent in Calgary, and then food...it's no wonder people are homeless. the students soon learned that bottle pickers do this as a form of legitimate income, and that some who have mental disabilities (or subsequently, have been deemed as "unworkable" by society) or new immigrants have to resort to this as a career. many individuals who are bottle pickers are extremely capable, and clearly committed and persistent workers. for whatever reason, they have to be a bottle picker. some of the kids mentioned that "people looked at us weird and thot we were poor". or "a mother and her daughter saw us picking bottles and they immediately backed away from us." while another said "someone said 'oh my goodness, these kids are so young'". i guess they failed to notice that all of these youth were wandering around downtown in a blatant team t-shirt that said DemoCrew on it, and were clearly part of some sort of activity...it's interesting how quick we are to form opinions and judgements on people just walking down the street.

the reward were Tim Horton's gift certificates for the group that were to be given to a guest that the group decided upon. and, of course, we gave the bottles that were collected to some of our bottle pickers at The SEED.

Hunger Banquet
this activity made me gulp a couple of times. picture this. Group 1 - four people. Group 2 - nine people. Group 3 - 19 people. Group 1 was given a large spread of cookies, cupcakes, fruit, sparkling apple juice, breadsticks, and yogurt. Group 2 came in afterwards, and were given cheesebuns and some grapes tossed into a basket. Group 3 came in, and were seated on the floor, with a communal bowl of rice, and a pail of water. you can only imagine the tension that slowly developed over 15 minutes of eating fine food...and crap rice. Group 3 tended to make sarcastic comments to Group 1, while Group 1 were merely eating food that they were given. Group 1 had to eat their food while in front of them was Group 3 on the floor with their rice. Group 2 was surprisingly quiet. how did the debrief go? great. lots of talking. comments such as "i felt awkward eating all my food because Group 3 kept on looking at me" said a Group 1 participant. "i just didn't like how they got so much more food than we did, it's not fair" from Group 3 etc. discrimination happens both ways.

we then proceeded to explain that 1.2 billion children die a year. that's equivalent to 1 child dying every 3 seconds. to illustrate this more clearly, we tapped people from Group 3 on the shoulder and asked them to lie down on the ground...and one by one, each student laid down showing the staggering amounts of children who die everyday. in addition, many die for absolutely stupid reasons. the list is long but they include easily preventable diseases contracted from contaminated running water. i grabbed a bottle of street water, and held it up..."eew, what is that?!" this is someone's drinking water who has no other water to drink...it's either this, or dying from thirst. some walk miles to collect this filthy water to wash dishes in, drink from, and bath in. (and all i have to do is turn on a tap??) women are the poorest of the poor...and in some countries deemed unworthy of being educated. they stay home, serving husbands, and if they should rebel, or disobey, they are beaten, thrown hot oil on them, until they are well-behaved again, as if they were dogs. for those who are able to escape, they might discover the life of prostitution...making money so that her own child can receive an education that she herself was denied once. wonder why addiction happens? because there are so many broken people in the world who just want the numb the pain......either that, or you simply jump off a bridge.

writing this entry is getting me emotional, sad and upset. and yet, i feel so helpless despite having this opportunity to work at The SEED...or even with Out of the Cold back in Vancouver. when i first arrived in Calgary, i commented on how the water tasted gross, and very chlorine-like. i scoff at myself knowing that i have the security of turning on a tap that gives me clean water, and yet am able to complain about it. i remember when i was in Ecuador and my host family said "so...you just turn on your tap and you get drinking water?"

i still remember my first time working with youth at the Quito Dump with students from the Alliance Academy in Ecuador. it's been a couple years coming, but i'm so glad that God has slowly been softening my heart towards working with youth/children. a few years ago, my friends will remember me as wanting nothing to do with the generation younger than mine. but with each year of maturity, i'm able to appreciate the company of youth, their insight, their potential, their zealousness. it's a beautiful thing. and i thank God for this opportunity to serve at DemoCrew...i can only hope that the small role that i play in their time here makes some sort of a difference in breaking down their walls, and opening their hearts towards people that Jesus loves.

now and forever learning,
dL