Fun Facts Friday

Hey Everyone,

                This is David writing today. For those of you who don’t know me, I am full of useless information that I usually share and after I say the snippet I follow through by stating “Fun Fact!” This week on the trip the Gannon group has heard many of these fun facts such as the leading cause of lower back pain in males and many others. From this experience, we have also learned many useful and interesting facts about L’Arche and incorporate them into our daily reflection. So if you see the phrase fun fact pop up from any of the other members in this group, it was probably my doing.

                Yesterday we went to the L’arche community in downtown Toronto and had dinner with them. At my house, we had an excellent dinner and community prayer. At this house there were four Core Members and three assistants who were all readily accepting and welcoming of us into their community. That is one of the fun facts that we have come to realize on this ABST. After dinner we were cleaning up and taking the plates out to the kitchen and there was one Core Member who was nonverbal who really made this experience of L’Arche so touching. I was standing in the kitchen with my arms at my side and my hands in my pockets and he came up beside me and looped his arm into the space between mine. I took this as him welcoming and accepting us into the house. Before the prayer, another one of the Core Members took the time to describe what was going on in each of the pictures and again the nonverbal Core Member stood up and made his voice heard when he took a picture off of another shelf and showed it to us. It was of him and another Core Member walking down the street holding hands.

 

                Today we had a reflection with Chris Jarvis who works in L’Arche Daybreak and while we were in the chapel for reflection we were able to have some really awesome experiences. Fun fact L’Arche has a program called the Spirit Movers which is a group of Core Members who use dance and music to express themselves and have performed for the public many times and are well known throughout the community. They were practicing in the room that we usually have reflection in hence why we were in the chapel. Towards the end of the reflection we were joined by one of the Core Members who plays the wooden spoons in the group and has performed publically for large groups. Fun fact, this performance touched each of us because it was so beautiful to see this happen before us. As we do our final reflection, we are talking about the different experiences we have had that challenged us, pushed us forward, and those that have touched us this week.

And finally, fun fact, in Canada tourniquet is pronounced without the final “t” (so you would say it “turn-a-key) as is Toronto (so you would say it Tor-on-oh) and they also have milk in bags! This has been “Fun Facts by David *tooth glint* “(when you see one of us back in the states, be sure to ask us to sing the theme song for you J)

One more sleep till home!