Just over a week ago was our Vancouver Urban Plunge, which was somewhat of a trying week for a lot of us. It was full of rain, walking and interesting food - which was definitely a new experience for myself. Although these things stick out in my mind as I write from the dining hall in Esperanza, the day I will remember most from our week in Vancouver is our last one. I'll be writing about that day and hopefully I can give you a small taste of our experience during the Urban Plunge.
Our last day was a time where we were split into groups of 5 with the instructions: "Do something today that will impact Vancouver", or something to that effect. My group and I began to come up with some ideas that you may expect to hear with instructions like that, such as garbage clean up and things of that sort. As we began to walk towards downtown, we discussed the fact that anything we do today probably won't have that big of an impact on the city of Vancouver. This thought gave way to discussion of what sorts of things may actually impact the city, which, in turn, got us thinking once again about what we should do. We eventually came up with the idea that we could find our what the people of Vancouver themselves think that their city needs in order for change to come about. We preferred to make it a general question to start, rather than lead them to things that we think need to change based on what we have seen so far.
We started it off by asking people we saw in the mall downtown, people who looked well off (since we had mostly been around and dealt with people who were less fortunate). The responses of these people were very surprising to us, mostly because each one was so different than the last. Their concerns ranged from better Sky Train routes to worries about too many tall building to the obvious problem of poverty in the East Hastings area.
After each of us interviewed a few people, we wanted to take our target class to the extreme. We ventured next into the high class clothing store Holt Renfrew, in which we attempted to speak to the person highest up in the company, that we wouldn't need to book an appointment to see. As we were on our way to the store's concierge, we were stopped by a woman and her assistant, who were quite curious as to what we were doing in the store (now keep in mind that a lot of us hadn't showered all week and had been walking in the rain all day). At this point we all got an overwhelming feeling that we were being looked down upon, something I've never felt before.
It turns out that she was some sort of manager and fairly high up in the company. Thinking it was the perfect opportunity, we asked if she could sit down and answer a few questions about Vancouver. She made a phone call and very quickly told us there was nothing she could do for us, then sent us on our way. After this experience we were all amazed at how similar it was to the cliche representations of upper class or elite people - because I don't think any of us had experienced something like that before.
Our next stop that day was to go get some food. We went to Tim Hortons and sat to think about where we would go next to interview people. We decided to keep on going with asking richer-looking people, because we all found it so fascinating. Upon stepping outside Tim Hortons, we saw a homeless man drawing a few small pictures and we began to talk with him. We had no intention of interviewing him as we did with the others, nor did we, but rather simply talked to him and learned about him. We found out that his name was Don and he had worked for Air Canada for 30 years, but fell victim to addictions, which landed him on the streets, where he has been for some time now. We were all blown away by Don's willingness to open up to us and how genuinely friendly he was, despite the fact that he had no idea who we were.
After that we interviewed a few more people then then headed back to the hostel, where our day ended. Originally, in my mind, I hadn't expected a whole lot from that day, but it turned out to be the most meaningful for me. The day made apparent to me the stark contrast of the outlook on life of the rich versus the poor, and how each treats people who are strangers to them. It also showed me that in many cases, people who are very fortunate - like us - could learn a lot about how to treat others from those who we too often think need to learn from us.
I hope I've been able to give you a small taste of something we have learned from the week in Vancouver, and thanks for reading.
Joseph Sones
