Talk Without Speaking

So, I’ve been all but gone from here the past little - not the greatest way to spend my one year blogging anniversary. I’ve been busy with all kinds of new things on my plate.

The most important of which has certainly been that I’m volunteering with the Immigration Services Society of British Columbia. I volunteer in their Work Resource Centre which helps immigrants and refugees look for work in Canada. I’ve also just begun to volunteer with their host program where you are paired up with someone new Canada in order to act as a resource area as well as offer friendship. So far things are really going great there and it’s more than incredible to meet people from literally all over the world. To say that working and volunteering with people of so many cultures and races is eye-opening is the understatement of all time!

Tonight I was at an anti-racism seminar which was put on for the volunteers. Again, people from all over the world sharing their experiences. Although the seminar really wasn’t about individual experience but rather about the empowerment of behaving in a witness role that aids a racist situation as opposed to contributing to it or simply acting in a passive manner.

After all this talk about involvement and not being passive I am later waiting for the bus where a homeless man is trying to sell his bus tickets to the women at the bus stop. I stand nearby and turn my iPod off so I can pay closer attention. The first woman says no several times before finally caving and buying a used ticket from this guy. I can see him looking around the other people waiting at the bus stop - he’s looking for someone victim-like who isn’t looking around and, of course, he picks another single woman. After she says no about 10 times this guy is still pushing it; I finally have enough of this and step in - tell the guy that it’s “asked and answered”. He’s initially a little confrontative about this whole thing until I point out that he has approached all women. He actually thanks me and apologizes, we have a good chat; he tells me that he is getting frustrated about needing money for somewhere to sleep tonight.

Tonight has been incredible rewarding and also quite emotionally tough. I’ve been exposed to the reality of these people’s lives and that’s not something that you can shut out. Open up to a few and you feel like you are opening up to all; all of a sudden you are living in a community, a city that is alive with human beings full of passion and life and suffering. It’s like waking up.