The Point

Friday, October 20, 2006

Of giving and taking


Canada World Youth/Jeunesse Canada Monde celebrated its 35th anniversary yesterday. If you haven't heard of it before, it's a Canadian NGO that works with partner organisations overseas to set up international youth volunteer exchanges -- and if that doesn't make sense, an example would be the exchange I was sent on 2 years ago to BC and China for a total of 6 months to learn about... many things.


It's an amazing organisation and I think I've internalised the experience I had with CWY-JCM so much that I forget sometimes how much of an impact it's had on me. Getting to live with a host family in another region in Canada and overseas made me shift my perspective on a lot of things. Parts of your culture you take for granted as being universal, ways of making compromises in groups, ways of overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles in language, relationships, planning community events... The learning that comes from the program is almost all informal, and much of it doesn't make sense until long after it's over, when you can look back and see Oh, that's where my thinking totally changed on this and this and this and I was forced to let the world in.

Anyway, they had a shindig last night at City Hall and two groups on Africa/Canada Eco-Leadership programs came to do some dancing and talking and signing and listening, and I realised how much I missed being surrounded by people who are passionate and driven to learn and consume and thrive off of everything around them. I really think Canada World Youth does a tremendous job of cultivating that thirst, so here's to them, and here's to 35 years, and here's to 35 more.

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posted by Christopher at 9:01 p.m.

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