Today was packed! Overly packed with scrumptious food, heart stirring stories, and tremendous guest speakers among various organizations.
We started out our day at the Forks Market where our class decided on Danny’s Breakfast and Brunch. Everyone was stuffed because the proportions were very large. Ananya’s vegetable scramble looked entirely too delicious “It was amazing, but Stephen made it a 100 times better,” she says. Stephen rang up twelve separate orders and miraculously memorized each of them. We were shocked.
We were all required to do “man-on-the-street” interviews at Forks Market, which personally made me nervous because talking to strangers is hard. We all ventured off on our own separate ways with our journalism pads and pens in hand: some were in pairs and some went solo.
I was able to speak to Naomi, an employee of Coal and Canary, which is a home-made candle shop. She was very friendly and she asked me why I was in Canada. So, I was able to talk about our journalism class and how I was interested in afterschool programs for refugee children. She commented on how diverse and beautiful Canada is because of migrants. “I would not be able to recognize a refugee in passing from a person who has lived here all of their life. Canada welcomes refugees. Refugees and immigrants provide many skills that make this country better as a whole.” I was surprised that a Canadian would know so much about refugees and immigrants.
A Roundtable with the Sawa Theatre Troupe, by Deb Amos
After visiting the photo exhibition by Nadim Ado, a Syrian refugee, we headed to Fairmont Hotel to listen to the Sawa Theatre Troupe at a round table discussion. “When I heard we were seeing a theatre troupe, I was surprised to see such young voices expressing their desire to create a community,” said Amy, one of my classmates also on the trip. The founders emphasized the personal challenges they faced; “We don’t want the refugee children to be painting a narrative that requires audiences to feel sympathy. We don’t have to make people cry for us,” says the cofounder of Sawa, Montaser Al Jajeh. The refugee children have a lot more to offer and theater provides them with a blank canvass to express themselves. I was able to see the group laughing and having a good time. I could already tell that this was a group that was different from the narratives I had heard.
The most powerful moment today was talking to Abdi, a seventeen year old refugee, staying with Karen Gordon, a 72 year old retired nuclear scientist. “Karen is like a mother to me,” Abdi said. He told me how he used to mix up the words kitchen and chicken. He said that he once said, “I’m in the chicken,” which made us laugh. Abdi is a huge fan of soccer and this has helped him cope with all that he has been through. He attended the NEEDS after school program and told me how helpful and kind the staff and teachers were. He was able to take English classes. Abdi was full of life and hope, which was so encouraging to me. It was so inspiring to listen to his story.
