Don't take the title with a bah humbug attitude. It's with good intentions in mind. It's been very busy and a bit stressful for us down here. Partially because we're getting ready to leave, problems with our host families and yes, problems with our group. But we're a trying group and have made great efforts to get beyond this.
Monday was a good day off. I worked on my Educational Activity Day, ironing out the scheduling and phoning more guests. One of those good, "get a lot done" hours. And I rewarded myself with SHOPPING! I went shopping around town, looking at more bike stuff and also some things for my host mom and my new host family. Christmas is around the corner you know!
We had two guest speakers on our CAD. A politician type man who knew a lot about the West Bank issue and he explained it very thorougly, results, descrepancies, situations, etc. It was another intelligent politics learning day/thingy. Our next guest was an RCMP officer. She gave us the down low about what they do, things she's done, issues the RCMP deal with. Kind of like a job fair, but more conversations. A good guest. During the day, and after we finished watching An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, some sensitive subjects were brought up. Some were the idea of larger, more powerful countries telling the lesser, more developing countries that they can't use polluting methods of becoming industrialized and more developed. As a technically developing country, the Chinese participants felt hurt when a few of us thought this was a good idea. I mean, I tried to use examples to compare. One I found was, a little brother looking at his way older brother, how cool he is, how much he looks up to him. But the older brother tells his younger sibling, "Don't do what I did" He left home, he did drugs, he was homeless for awhile, but he cleaned up his acts after a long time and now has a wife and kids. The point is, his methods did great damage, and shouldn't justify where he is. He wants his little brother to grow up healthy, smart and doing the right things. You have to ratify polluting the world in efforts to become part of a the higher up countries. Anyway, another button we pushed was the Olympics in Beijing. The Canadians were very surprised to hear that none of the Chinese, all 1.3 billion of them, that none of them oppose the Olympics there. We tried to explain how the Vancouver olympics had some groups that opposed them, as it wipes out entire blocks of homeless people, and from what we've heard, ships them East! This doesn't happen in China. People are compensated for their homes for more then they're worth. And because China has never had the olympics, its important for EVERYONE. It's a great pride thing. It was a sensitive afternoon, even with our circle check. Some participants felt that the circle check wasn't working, that we weren't discussing these sensitive issues that we were having and SUPPOSED to be talking about, that it was all about the little things; what we ate, some small activity we did, not how we feel about the group dynamic. Almost all of us talked about this with our counterparts that night or the night after.
We shared our feelings about this during mine and Gary's EAD on Thursday. It was a good break through for us, as were are breaking down those personal barriers and becoming a group. It's a good thing. I hope it gets better though. I'm glad to be apart of a mature group that discusses these problems (even if it takes awhile to) It was a good start to our EAD. Part of our presentation was community; what it was, what it meant to be apart of it, and how ideal communities are hard to produce. We had everyone come up with the perfect community and we explained how this was extremely hard to maintain. After, we sent everyone out with a questionnaire to ask people about volunteering, issues in the area, etc. The results were good, which we shared with our guests: representitives from organizations of community gardens, Kiwanis, poverty, community resources, etc. We had some good discussions about more issues around Kelowna. And for a final bit, we discussed just what we've learned here, how we've learned these things and what we hope to expect from Beijing. I gave everyone puzzle pieces and had them write down what they brought to the program, feelings, passions, interests, skills, etc. What "piece" did they fill of the CWY puzzle. It was a good reflective activity I think. It was a real good EAD I believe. We cleaned up and left for the Friendship Center, where our Mandarin teacher had prepared a Chinese feast for us. It was great. Rolls, hot pot, curry pork, sweet beef, lots of food! I will admit, I beginning to get used to Chinese food. But it's gonna be a full menu soon, so that may be a problem. But the night was good nonetheless.
It was an early wake up day Friday. We met the Mayor of Kelowna, Sharon Sheppard, at 8am. It was a brief, but very warm visit. She's very open and intuitive with the youth, despite being an older woman herself. We shared who we were, where we were from, where we worked, and just some general thoughts of Kelowna. One large thing was our partial dissatisfaction with the bus system. Face it, it sucks. Although we did appreciate that they had bike racks. She was glad to hear our comments. Friday was also the final day of work for most of us. And boy, did they put me to work at the Food Bank. I unloaded two trucks of food, moved boxes in the warehouse, sorted for a little bit. It was very crowded in the Food Bank, a rare sight! There was a tour of little kids, and a Korean group from a college, bar coding. I'm still kind of mad that Wendy, my work counterpart, left after like 2 hours, leaving me to continue working, because she doesn't like the work in the back. Whatever. I'm gonna pull that stunt in China! After work, I went straight to Parkinson Recreation Center where I helped the group make dinner. It was a large banquet for handicapped volunteers and their friends. We helped in the kitchen, set up tables, clean up a bit. I had to leave around 7:30 to go to my work staff party down town. I wanted to say goodbye to everyone. So some of the staff were there, just having a fun dinner in good 'ol Kelly O'Briens. There a small band that came in, collecting donations for, what else, the food bank! I don't know if they were hired through the food bank or someone else, but it was funny. I said my goodbyes after some dinner and a root beer, and returned home, late. It's been like that for the last couple of days. Leave in the morning, get home late at night. And today will be similar. We're going to a sweat lodge and having a Super Bad party after! We're not supposed to drink before going to the sweat lodge, so we're gonna make up for that tonight likely!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment