Girls Week/ Vancouver Urban Plunge

Hey everyone!
Sorry i havn't been keeping intouvh very well. It is hard to find time on the internet since we can only use the laptops that people brought a long.
But after thanksgiving we headed for calgary which actaully didn't seem like too long of a drive. I did sleep most of the way, but it was good. Yep, Saskatchewan is pretty flat and it was nice looking out the window and i woke up one time and there was snow on the groung and when we stopped for lunch we had a little snow ball fight. But once we saw the mountains it was gorgeous. Much nicer than the flat lands. ha.
So we got to calgary at night and then the guys had to drive another 2 hours to canmore where they were staying. I wasn't really sure if i was going to like girls week becuase every time i do something like this we always end up talking about the smame things and i just didn't really want to again, because i thought i had heard it all already. But our speakers name was Sharon and she started off with the creation story and we talked a lot about getting to know ourselves as women and what our role is, then we spoke a lot about relationships with other women, which i found really interesting becuase we don't often take time to look at how our relationships are forming with other women and how those relationships may shape us or what kind of woman that you may want to become. Then of course we talked about dating. But we had this day where we were all able to think up some questions that we as a group wanted to ask the guys as a group and they did the same. Then we answered the guys questions and the speaker and two girl leaders went and presented our answers to the guys. It was interesting to see what they had to say to our questions. Then we went to banff and walked up a mountain on a trail and the mountain water was so so clear and beautiful. Then another day we spent in Banff haning out with our PMG (pier menotring group) I am in a group with 2 other girls. Then we headed off for Vancouver and we stayed at a backpackers hostel right down town.
The Vancouver plunge was so far probably my favorite and most impactful thing i've done ever. The first day we were just getting to learn the city and so we did this scavenger hunt. We started at 10 and we packed lunches with an extra lunch and we walked aroung the city. Up and Down Hastings (which is the street where a lot of the homeless population is in the city). So everyday we were slpit into different groups of 3 or 4. So at first it was really hard to just walk up to some one and start talking. We were also supposed to share our luch, and it was getting to around 3 and we still hadn't eaten lunch. So finally we decided to ask for directions for our next destination and just by that simple question our group ended up talking to Pete and Judy for 1.5 hours. That was pretty sweet. They were both living on the street, but Pete just knew so much. He knew so much history of a lot of different countries. Before he was 30 he had travelled to 33 different countries. He has a son who is a truck driver, a daughter who is a nurse and antoher daughter who is an x ray examinar. He hadn't spent last christmas with them, but he saw one of his daughters last fathers day. He had lost his job becuase he said that when he would get his paycheck he would spend it all on alcohol and he just wouldn't show up to work after. Ya, but he loved reading and looking into the history of different countries, it was fascinating. So he had asked us where we were from and we said Canadian Mennonite University and he was asking us all these questions about Mennonites and asking us about our religion and what not. It was really cool becuase he seemed genuinely interested just becuase he loves learning. He actually knew quite a bit of church history as well. Pete was so happy that there were people that would just come and hang out with people and just get to know what it was like living in the city. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he said, "I am so fortunate, i don't like it when people complain becuase we have to much." I just thought that was crazy. Here is a man living on the street and he is saying that he is so fortunate. I am living with so much and when do i take the time to sit back and just see how fortunate i am.... and to catch myself complainng about minute things during the day. So i really appreciated that. Ya, then we saw then the next day and talked to them for a bit.
Then we did a temple tour the next day. We went to a Buddhist temple where we just kind of looked and observed on our own. Then we went to a Sikh temple where we had a guide and we got to ask some questions and then we had luch there. The food was actaully really good. What i really liked about there religion was that they were adamant on including everyone and not judging anyone. They served 3 meals a day everyday of the year to whom ever wanted to come, could be cique or not, business man, or a man living on the street. Anyone could join. But i just couldn't beleive that they did not beleive in heaven or hell. So after you die its done. Then we went to a Mosque and we had another guide and he spoke about a lot of the rules about being a Muslim. (i have to try and hurry now, my time is running out)
Then we did a day where we as a small grouap had to find a way to impact vancouver. I will probably give you more details another time.
Ya, and now we are in Chilawack BC at a camp and we have more speakers coming in. I saw Aunt Monika Rachael and tim for a few hours.
I am having a great time here and learning lots!
I miss you guys!