Out of the Cold

It's cold out in Toronto. This fact has left me hibernating in the comfort of my room, working on essays & assignments for the last week. I keep myself out of the cold. Happily.

But I'm among the lucky few in Toronto that have a working heater (sort of) and clean blankets to snuggle up in.

Last night John and I began volunteering with an Out of the Cold program at a church in Toronto. Essentially, over 100 homeless or impoverished men and women join the program for some delicious food, lots of ice cream, and a warm bed to sleep in. The program runs 7 days a week, one night at a different church, but we've committed to Saturdays at one particular location.

We were fascinated by this program. I've volunteered at soup kitchens before and John has spent a great deal of his time volunteering with organizations but this is the first that I've encountered where your one goal is to be a friend. Of course, we spent a great deal of the night cleaning the kitchen and preparing meals, but we spent much more of our time just chatting with the people that make up the city of Toronto.

Last night, I met a DP from Estonia named Kate. Kate is fantastically smart. She has to be in her mid to late seventies and she's still attending classes at the University of Toronto. In the time we talked, she listed 3 universities she has attended. She has her Masters. Kate has spent some of her life hidden in haystacks to avoid the Soviet raids on small Estonian villages. She has lived as a refugee in Germany. She has fled to Canada. Kate's roof is leaking, she has little buckets to catch the water. She loves to read; before she dies, she says she wants a warehouse with lots of bookshelves so she can store and organize her books in a way that will allow her to find them, despite her cataracts. She smiles a lot. She's glad to have everything she needs: books, an electric frying pan (her words!) and extremely fluent English. She doesn't sleep very much. She had 3 bowls of ice cream last night. Then she went home.

John met Paul. Paul loves to wear the colour black because it reminds him of the sixties. Black is his favourite colour. Paul was teased as a child, and he believes that it's important to respect everyone. He thinks Europe is a fascinating continent. He sings Beatles songs sporadically. He had 2 bowls of ice cream last night. Paul fell asleep sitting upright on a chair.

We also met Scott and Raymond, two people with a quirky sense of humour and extremely approachable demeanours. Scott works in the textile industry. Raymond doesn't work at all. Scott didn't sleep last night. Raymond went home to sleep, hoping the television wouldn't be too loud.

John and I were lucky to meet these, and more, wonderful people at Out of the Cold. We hope to see them again at a future Saturday night. We were blessed and touched, and struggled with really wanting to help every person individually, but we know our limitations and our personal capacities. So, we kept scooping bowl after bowl of delicious ice cream.