Remembrance Day in Canada - an on-site cultural exchange. We started the day by handing out poppies to our Chilean friends and explained the significance of Remembrance Day. This was followed by 2 minutes of silence at 11am, which again the entire group participated in. As a token of friendship, the team gave Christobal's family a large Canadian flag.
Teleton, another local charity group was also on site to work on the house. They were conducting interviews with Christobal and filiming the building progress as part of the promotional material for the fundraising.At lunchtime, the 2 grouops shared food and dined together. The elderly man from our team said grace. It was a nice moment, but reminded me of the Norfolk County Christmas dinner, where the mayor said grace in fort of hundreds of employees. This would rarely happen in a diverse city like Toronto.
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| Cristobal getting ready for the interview |
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| Cristobal played with the computer as his mom was trying to feed him |
Our tasks today included removing the cement in the living room for new tiles and plastering the walls in Cristobal's bedroom. The progress was unfortunately not as productive as I had hoped. However, it was still a meaningful day. We interacted with the family and were included in the filming. At the end of the day, our Chilean friends taught us to say "Chile, un solo corazon" - Chile, only one heart! Canadians and Chileans, we were in this project together. Our heart was with Cristobal's family and our goal was to complete this house!
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| With the fellow Habitat teammates |
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| Our attempts at removing the cement in the living room |
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| The shared backyard with Cristobal's grandma who lives next door |
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| The rooster in the backyard |
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