A long first day

St. Andrews,
After a 1am arrival to the church sunday night and a 2am Wendy's run for dinner, starting off with full energy monday morning was certainly challenging. We begun by splitting our group of 18 into two - both headed fosoup kitchens in the greater downtown area. After a quick orientation, our group began to prepare a filling lunch for 90 clients under the instruction of former professional chef Ben. Over the sound of blasting 80's rock, we made sandwiches, cut orange slices, chopped a salad, prepared soup and biscuits, assembled incoming food donations, and generally worked in organized chaos. At 11, lunch was served and we spent the next hour and a half serving the people, an efficient system of plating, serving, scooping and cleaning. After lunch was over, we spent a while washing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen.



For our lunch, we immersed ourselves in the delicacies of Greek cuisine at a restaurant in Greek Town of Toronto. We then had to switch gears and travel to the far east to the Chinatown area of Toronto. We had two hours that were filled with tasks pertaining to Chinese culture such as learning new words as well as understanding the significance of their colors and sculptures.

As if we hadn't been tired enough, the main highlight of the day came around 7pm when we did our streetwalk around downtown Toronto. We were prepped with a story told by a CSM staff member who asked us to put ourselves in the shoes of a kid who grew up under a number of difficult circumstances that landed him on the streets of Toronto at 13. We were given a $2 coin for our dinner and a token for a one way subway ride. We were instructed to only talk to our leaders (our "conscience") and to not work together whatsoever, as we were only in groups for safety. Our five main concerns would be food, shelter, hygiene, entertainment, and money. And we started walking.

Being told to follow our "roles" closely, we soon began searching for spare change, looking at possible places to sleep for the night, and venues to buy our only meal of the night which couldn't exceed $2. Our leaders presented problems to us as we suggested ideas, pointing out dangers that we normally wouldn't notice or even have to worry about. Most of us ended up eating a small burger the entire night. This was a night that we will never forget, and it changed out perspectives. Watching people paying twenty bucks for parking and then eating a huge meal, completely oblivious to anyone on the streets.

After three hours in the shoes of a homeless teen, we finally boarded the subway back to our home for the week, and shared a quick debrief with one of our leaders.

We are so tired, it is 11:30 here, and we're running on four hours of sleep So ta ta for now.

Thanks for the prayers,

-Zoë Henderson and Jon Thorpe