Free Weekend

I thought about writing something for this, but one of my students wrote this fabulous poem about the weekend, so I thought I'd share it instead!

A Visit to Purple City!

Friday, September thirtieth and we were all at the camp

Sitting in class, we were learning like champs.

You could feel it in the air, one thought was the trend,

Why, it was all of the excitement for the Winnipeg Free Weekend!

We packed up our stuff while the boys yelled, “Van Crew!”

Then got in the vans and the time, it just flew!

Booth College was our home for those few short nights,

And we learned the members of our small groups without the use of sight!

We clucked and barked, mooed and giraffe-ed...

And by the end, all we could do was laugh-ed.

Then off on our own, we hit up the town

Visiting Purple City, and acting like clowns.

Welcome October, Saturday the first,

It was a day of celebration, the day of Coral’s birth!

The girls went shopping while the boys did their laundry,

I’m sure their mothers will be proud...something that rhymes with laundry.

The events of that night caused people to plan,

A trip to Value Village had some laughing in the van.

Now Value Village always has treasures to be bought,

And those gems that we found we thought, “How can we not?”

Decked out in stripes, glitter and colours so bright,

We all went Roller Skating—I mean, what else do you do on a Saturday night?

Oh the fun we did have! The laughter and glee,

Some were quite natural, but others had a hurt knee.

We skated and danced until our feet we so sore,

But let me tell you, that the night was not a bore.

On Sunday we went back to the place it all began,

CMU, where some of us could make a future educational plan.

It was the campus visit day and all the sites were in the land

And when we sat down to pray for supper, we were the only site holding hands!

That evening we all gathered as one collection,

For a night of worship and listening to a personal reflection.

The event was called the MUD cafe;

Mission Under Discussion, as they would say.

And that’s the tale of our eventful weekend of fun.

Just ask any Outtatowner, they will be sad that it’s done!

Written by: Megan

hanging out at the Ellice Café 

planking!

purple fun

roller skating madness

just awesome.

aren't we classy?

disco fits... right?

more fabulous costumes

again... just awesome

Basically, it was super wicked awesome fun.

Cheers,
Sandy

Chillin' at Camp

After our Urban Plunge, we headed back to camp for some much needed relaxation and learning.  If there's one thing that I've learned on Outtatown, it's how important rest is.  Your body is capable of so much more that you think it is, but without rest... Bad news!

So we went rock climbing.  That's restful right?

showing off our mad Spidey-skills

story time with Tara

Now, Tara has this incredible game that is designed to allow students to experience what it's like to be an immigrant in a foreign country.  It's a complicated game and at the beginning you only know 5 English phrases: "My name is...", "Where is the bathroom?", "Where is the government official?", "I have 2 children", "Where is the English teacher?".  The chaos and frustration is a pretty accurate experience for the most part, but it sure is hilarious as a bystander to watch students running around yelling "Where is the bathroom?!" at the top of their lungs.

The game quickly disintegrates into pure anarchy and you see corruption everywhere.

corruption in the government! 

the pass-off

hey! where's my portion?!

I rest my case.

Later on in the week we did a little bit of service at our camp - it's always nice to be able to give back to a place that houses and feeds us.

cleaning the van

With so many people we quickly moved through the tasks we were given and had a free afternoon to find an adventure.  We took off for the Pinawa Dam and figured, best case scenario, we get to swim in the rapids.  At the very least, we could wander around a super beautiful location.

Pinawa Dam

Lucky for us, the water wasn't outrageous and we were able to spend a few hours playing in the rapids.  I was a little nervous, just because as smooth as the water looks running over the rocks, my experience is that the rocks still jump out and bruise your rear.  But, contrary to my expectations, there was so much seaweed/algae that it was a lovely soft, smooth ride!

waterslide

My only complaint was the snakes!  AAAHHHHHH!  I hate snakes.  HATE.

And this is what was awaiting us...

Goerz, the snake guru

I spent the first 10 minutes standing on a rock, twitching and trying to hold in my screams...  But when challenged to hold a teensy, tiny, itty, bitty snake, I thought it might possibly be time to step up again and try to hold a snake for the first time in my life.  Now, you may or may not know what happened the last time I held a snake... Long story short, it bit me.  Ick.  But this guy was so little I thought it was worth a try.

I did it.  But I think my face accurately tells you what I was thinking.

freaking out.  no big deal.

Snakes.  Still not my favourite.

Cheers,
Sandy

Taking the Plunge

Outtatown is such a crazy program because there's so much that we do in a year - not only do we get to travel, go on crazy adventures and go to class, but we do a whole lot of experiential learning.  One of the neatest experiences of first semester is our Urban Plunges.  Basically what happens is we take our students to a church located in the North End of Winnipeg for a few days and allow them to learn about what goes on in the downtown core.  They interact with the people on the streets, the ministries working there and learn about the problems that exist in the world of poverty and homelessness.

The Vineyard is a really beautiful church, and I'm not just talking about the building (which, incidentally enough is lovely - it's a renovated warehouse smack-dab in the middle of the downtown).  It's really incredible seeing a church that is so focused on living in community with any person who chooses to come to church.  It's a place where the down-and-out feel comfortable going; it's not uncommon to have drunken homeless sitting in the back of church on any given Sunday.  And the great part is, there's always someone willing to talk with them.

Our Urban Plunge was a really positive experience this year - definitely not as heartbreaking as last year - but one in which our students had their eyes opened to what exists in a city many of them live in.  The first day they go on a 'Learning Tour' which is set up like the Amazing Race - they have clues to follow that lead them around the city and bring them to different ministries where they learn about issues like prostitution, gangs and community living.  One of the coolest things I think they're asked to do is literally donate the shirt off their back to a shelter in town.  As they're being shown through the clothing room, they're asked to exchange something they're wearing, and boy oh boy did we have some ugly sweaters show up at the end of the day.  And 2 pairs of pleather pants... go figure.

In addition they're challenged to take someone out for coffee (they're given $12 dollars to do that and find dinner for the 3 people in their group; a real chance to experience what it's like to struggle to eat) and the stories that they come back with at the end of the day are incredible.  It's really neat watching their definition of poverty change over the course of our Urban Plunge.  You stop seeing poverty as a lack of basic needs (like money, food, clothes and a place to sleep) and learn that it's about powerlessness, hopelessness, dependance and social isolation.  My favourite quote from the week was when one of the speakers said, "The way we think about poverty determines how we react to poverty". How very true.  In two years of Outtatown my stereotypes have been really challenged and I hope that I am a better person for it.

Harvey teaching about poverty at the Vineyard

The next 2 days were spent working with various ministries in the city.  A big theme we ran across was the idea of community living.  Which is space in which the people living together are inter-dependant and share a lot.  It's been challenging to many of us to re-define what it means to live well and think about what we could/should do with our possessions.  I don't know... I just love watching people break out of the mould of what the world tells us is important and find our own values.  

the view from the top floor of the Vineyard

Part of living in the downtown of any large city is exposure to ethnicity.  For one of our dinners we took the students out for food that was, in some cases, way out of their comfort zone.  But I'll say one thing about these guys for sure - they're willing to jump in!  We went for Shwarma (Lebanese), Korean, Mexican and Indian, and everyone came back full and with a smile on their face.  I have never eaten so much garlic at one time in my life, but the Shwarma was delicious!

At the end of our 3 days, we left the Vineyard and went back to our camp outside the city with our horizons broadened and better sense of what it meant to be a part of the world.  Awesome.

sunset at the Vineyard

plunged out and ready to go home

Cheers,

Sandy

ps. you should check out our site blog as well: www.site2southafrica.blogspot.com (or go through the Outtatown website: www.outtatown.ca).  One of my students put together a really fantastic video from the plunge.