BRRR...Warm Up With A Coffee Hot Chocolate Latte Donuts! ... ?

Well, we had a good thing going with our daily cute coffee sign quotes up until today. However, it is important to mention that we tried the donuts discussed in this sign and certainly weren't disappointed.

Here we are. Our last night in Hamilton. How quickly we went from having our L'Arche journey ahead of us to look forward to, to now having it transition into a beautiful memory. Today was a day of reflection, gratefulness, and rest.

We began the day with a closing reflection at the main office with our gracious host coordinator. We got to share and learn from her many experiences throughout the years and were sent off with a beautiful blessing from two special Core Members.

Afterwards, we took off for Cafe 541 to grab some lunch together. The unique part about Cafe 541 is that you have the opportunity to purchase 'buttons' that have a $1 value. The buttons are placed in a jar and can be used to purchase food by anyone who needs them. After lunch we got to have some free time to explore the city of Hamilton. We had a nice time visiting various shops and markets and enjoyed spending time together as a group!

In the evening, we went our separate ways to have dinner one last time with our house communities and to say some tough goodbyes to the Core Members and Assistants that have greatly impacted our life in the time span of just 1 week. These faces have forever changed us <3

Each one of "The Gannon Girls" agrees that this week has been nothing short of life-changing. We are all so grateful for the experience and will truly carry the memories from this week and the hearts of our new friends with us forever.

Some of the things we've learned on our L'Arche Ontario journey:

• "Push yourselves to be uncomfortable, because the end result will be beautiful." - Favour
• How to knit (thanks Brian!) 
• "The value of all types of communication; art, performance, sign language, body language, facial expressions." - Mary Margaret
• That ketchup chips are stellar. 
• How to be more comfortable with silence.
• "To find true community is rare, but when you find it, cherish it." - Meghan
• Various words in French from reading different food products and road signs
• Picking your split ends is bad. (ahem, in the words of a dear friend: "Knock it off, M&M")
• "The importance of understanding the dignity of each human being. Life is a delicate, beautiful thing that should be cherished." - Lydia
• How to communicate certain words/phrases in sign language: 'bathroom', 'thank you', 'beautiful', 'coffee', and 'popcorn'; to name a few.
• That Lydia is extremely prone to dropping/spilling things. 
• The difference in walking WITH someone and doing things FOR them.
• All the words to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan
• Simply put: "We learned how to encounter another human being with kindness, authenticity, and respect. We learned how to truly see God in them." - Alli

Thank you for reading along with our blog! We'll be sure to check in one last time when we return to Erie tomorrow afternoon!

- Alli & The Gannon Girls

“You Can Do This”- Coffee

Lastly, and the entry you’ve all been waiting for, welcome to the blog by Favour. This morning we started off our day by once again, getting Vintage coffee. Before this ABST trip, I never had a taste for coffee, and now due to the early mornings, busy schedule, and necessary afternoon boosts of energy, I NEED IT. I went with my typical Frappuccino but spiced up my order with an Apple Fritter. Considering we went to the coffee shop every morning this trip, it was no surprise that we were named the barista’s favorite “Pennsylvania girls”, probably because of all the business we brought to them this week and Alli’s persistence.

After coffee, we loaded the van and headed to L’Arche Daybreak, hoping to avoid the morning Toronto traffic. We made it in little time to L’Arche Daybreak thanks to the HOV lane. This was a very special place being that L’Arche Daybreak is the first L’Arche branch founded in America and the second community founded in the world. We were first introduced to Toni; the Day Break administrator. Next year L’Arche Daybreak will be celebrating their 50^th anniversary. Every annual event or celebration usually calls for other L’Arche communities reaching out and showing their support. She told us about the history of L’Arche, what it takes to create a new community, and about the first members of L’Arche, especially one of the original core members, who we had the fortune of meeting today at “The Club”. Father George and and this CM go way back, and it was beautiful to see them interact while knowing the history behind their relationship. We were then all split up into the 3 individual houses within Daybreak, I went to the house that holds the paper, wax, and clay rooms. Sister Carmen and I helped pack blue and white hombre candles ordered for a wedding, with the assistance of a core member. The core member went on to tell us about how she loves using the pottery wheel to make mugs and plates and wishes to someday make a vase or mug with a handle. Another core member shared with us his huge interest in cars, writing, and drawing. It was beautiful seeing how passionate he was and how he really liked expressing his interests. We concluded the day with a prayer led by Father George and Toni, discussing our best moments of the day, and pondering the past and future of L’Arche. Afterwards, we had dinner at Joe’s accompanied by father George. This specific Joe’s is run by people who serve the core members weekly and have a very close relationship with L’Arche. The Gang filed into the Mystery Machine (Scooby Doo reference) and headed back to L’Arche Hamilton.

After a few wrong turns, exits, and a snow storm coming in, we made it home. We were greeted by many core members and B+ Arnold Schwarzenegger and Batman Impressions. This week has been amazing. We have met amazing core members, amazing assistants, and amazing individuals who give their time to volunteer within this family. L’Arche is an experience I will never forget, and I can honestly say, changed me forever. Tomorrow is our last day here and all I can is closing is, thank you. 

-Emmanuella Favour Abara

Life Happens, Coffee Helps

Hi there, Alli here! Happy Wednesday from your favorite Hamilton Crew. At this point in the week, we seem to have been lovingly nicknamed "The Gannon Girls" by our friends in the L'Arche homes.

We spent our day at the L'Arche Hamilton Day Program, just a short walk from our home. The Day Program facility has a craft room, kitchen, and seating area. After getting a tour of the facility, Core Members began to arrive for the day. We were happy to see many new faces, as well as faces of those we've come to know and love. We helped Core Members with various craft activities such as candle making and coloring. Sister Carmen even taught a group how to make knotted rosary bracelets! The staff made a delicious pasta lunch for everyone as part of their Community Lunch that takes place each month. Many of the Core Members were most excited for the Music Therapy session that takes place at the end of each Wednesday. We were lucky to witness some phenomenal singing and performing skills!

After a short break this afternoon, we split off to our respective houses for dinner. This has personally been one of the most life-giving experiences thus far - not only are we welcomed into the separate homes, but the L'Arche Assistants cook beautiful meals to share and invite us into prayer, mealtime, and community with them each night. They answer all of our questions and have helped us learn so much in our short visits. The Core Members have seamlessly integrated us into their evening activities, like watching the Olympics, learning to knit, singing along to Ed Sheeran songs, and birthday celebrations.

Tonight, we were blessed to join the weekly prayer service where many Core Members and Assistants from the various L'Arche Hamilton homes come together in a prayer space to praise God with each other. During the service, Fr. George led a meditation that helped us to all consider how much we are loved by God for the unique and gifted individuals we are. There was an opportunity for us all to share our prayer intentions to be lifted up by the entire group. During this time, we came together to pray as one. What a blessing it was to hear the prayers from the hearts of those we are coming to know this week. I was especially struck by one Core Member when he began using sign language to express his prayers. An Assistant from the house was gracious enough to articulate his prayers aloud for us all to hear. We also were lucky to witness the community blessing upon an Assistant on her last day of work with L'Arche. There was such beauty and love in this room tonight, and I know we will all cherish the memory of being welcomed in this space for years to come. To share a piece of this beauty, I wanted to give you the lyrics to one of the songs we sang together, by Shaina Noll:

How could anyone ever tell you

You were anything less than beautiful? 

How could anyone ever tell you

You were less than whole?

How could anyone fail to notice

That your loving is a miracle?

How deeply you're connected 

To my soul.

Thank you for reading along our Wednesday journey, and be sure to check back with us to hear about our last two days with L'Arche Hamilton! 

- Alli

I Like Big Cups and I Cannot Lie

Greetings, dear friends!

Our L'Arche journey continued this fine Tuesday with a lovely trip to visit the community of Toronto (and coffee of course)!

We were privileged to spend the day with the Sol Express, a day program offered to Core Members both living in and outside of the L'Arche homes. Sol Express is a program that cultivates creative expression as a means to interact with the world and build community, and the groups on Mondays and Tuesdays focuses on acting. We were impressed with their collective accomplishments, and they told us about how they perform at the Toronto Fringe Festival every July, and were beginning preparations for the upcoming play season. Our time at Sol Express was filled with a variety of activities, including an introduction activity in which we introduced a new friend to the group after briefly interviewing each other and some improv games. Overall, we greatly enjoyed getting to know the participants at Sol Express, and encountering them in such a unique way through their creativity and artistry. 


Sr. Carmen even met a fellow Austrian!

To conclude our day program experience, we were joined by none other than the famous Fr. George, who lead us in a beautiful recap and reflection of our day, along with some of our community partners from Toronto. We then split off into groups and ate dinner in three of the different L'Arche Toronto homes. Though it should no longer surprise us, we continue to be incredibly moved by the profound welcoming and hospitality we receive from the Core Members and Assistants. Many of us were greeted by welcoming signs created by the CMs before even walking through the door! When we finally had to depart for Hamilton, we left knowing we were leaving friends.

One theme we entered into a bit more deeply today than before was that of the hardships and wounds that persons with disabilities often have from mistreatment by society, both previous and current, and especially through institutions. This topic came up first at Sol Express, as they are researching for their play about the institutions, and also came up in conversations throughout the evening. We reflected on how, though the Core Members we encounter are often so joyful and bring so much life to those around them, many of them carry a lot of suffering as well. This realization, rather than putting a damper on our experiences, helped us to more fully appreciate the depths of L'Arche and the complexity of humanity.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about our Hamiltonian friends at the day program! :)

~Mary Margaret

Soup of the Day: Coffee

Hello friends!

We began our day with some coffee from a local shop around the corner. It well-prepared us for an exciting hands-on helping day. Our big project today was to help at a thrift shop which supports the Hamilton Welcome Inn, which is a local community center. The center supports the community especially those people with low income. A few weeks ago the thrift shop was taken over by a new manager whose goal it is to get the shop organized better. And so we helped to clean up their workshop where the volunteers sort all their donations. After setting up a nice break corner for the many volunteers who come to the shop to help each week, we got to help sorting cables, hangers, books and .... Christmas donations....

For us as a group it was so nice to accomplish this work together. We definitely could feel, that working together at a project can truly move mountains! And it was beautiful to see how happy the people are who give so much of their precious time to help to build up the local Hamilton community.

For dinner we went again to the different houses of L'Arche Hamilton. We continued building community with the members and had heart warming experiences. In one house we were part of a birthday celebration for a 75 year-old core member, in another house we took part in the knitting session of a core member and another community got to knot bracelets after discovering it on the wrist of one of us. Definitely an enriching evening for all of us!

-Sister Carmen

Hamilton: The Home of the First Tim Horton's

Hello Friends!

Our first full day in Ontario at L'Arche was eventful! We began the day with mass at St. Joseph's Parish, which has a special relationship with the L'Arche community here. In addition to the general proceedings of Mass, there were special musical guests from Estonia (a bass player, a pianist, and a trumpet).

After mass, we returned to the Sherman House (our home away from home) to relax before an adventure around Hamilton with the Sherman House. Our first stop on our adventure was Tim Horton's. (Little known fact: Hamilton is home to the very first Tim Horton's.) While at Tim Horton's, we met with other members of L'Arche homes around Hamilton and enjoyed a delicious meal (with the addition of Tim Bits and coffee of course).


Our adventure continued with a visit to the Bay at Lake Ontario, which was a beautiful sight to see. Although it was somewhat chilly and a bit windy, we were able to take a nice walk along the water.

We then returned to the Sherman House before dinner. From there, we split off to different homes around Hamilton to eat dinner and visit with the Core members. ABST members visited the Holton House, Cornerstone House, and Charbonneau House for dinner. At each house, memories that will last a lifetime were created at this time with the Core members.

The group reconvened at the Sherman House after dinner for reflection, which focused on celebration and community in the context of L'Arche.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about our day!

~Lydia :)       

Welcome to Hamilton!

Hello!

We have officially departed today for Hamilton, Ontario.  We were graciously given a blessing by Fr.  George before we departed for a safe and special trip. He prepared for us a mission statement that we all participated in to further enrich our journey. We left around noon this afternoon from the Gannon arch and arrived safely in the city of Hamilton around four o'clock. The group enjoyed munchies and snacks from Alli's "snack pack" along the way.

Once we arrived at Sherman House (our home base in Hamilton), we were introduced to all of the core members and assistants in the house. They were all very friendly and inviting. We joined them for dinner and enjoyed Pita Pit subs. Afterwards, we relaxed and settled in by immersing ourselves in a puzzle and were treated to manicures by one of the core members. There definitely were many laughs and smiles that were had by all.

The group ended the night with a reflection. We watched an informative TED talk about realizing one's abilities and inabilities in life and concluded with personal journaling.

 ~Meghan