2nd day of Canadian Phase : our first volunteering activity

October 12^th 2012,

We did our first volunteering activity, we were divided into small groups, my group was Yen, Ariane, Me, and Dhila. We collect food door to door for Feed Nova Scotia from 9 am till 12 am, then we went back to our EAD space.

It was funny and challenging, that was the first time I knocked at so many doors, and said, “Would you like to donate some food or money for Feed Nova Scotia?” to strangers. Some of them were friendly, and some were not. Some houses even put some stickers that stated, “no intruders”, so we may not knocked or ring the bell. Sometimes we split up into two, and knocked at two doors in a row. After we ring the bell, or knocked the door, we count until ten to press the bell button or knocked for the second time. If no one answer, we left the house. We found a host family used to be, so she let us in and donate some food. Sometimes Dhila and I were afraid of the dogs that appeared first when people open their doors. It was tiring but a lot of fun.

When we came back to our EAD space, then we walked to eat our lunch together at Natasha and Ona’s house. (That time, Natona’s host family was Sue & Laurie, till they moved to Joanne and Burpy’s house).

It was Friday, so Muslims went to the mosque, we called it Masjid, to pray. It was a little bit surprising, because in Indonesia, women does not go to the mosque to pray Jum’at, but in Halifax, most of the Muslim women also pray Jum’at in the mosque. Some of the Canadian girls enters the Masjid, they were watching what did we do in the mosque, we prayed.

We continue our adventure, to have The Council Tour in downtown Halifax. We walked to the council, it was not as tiring as when we came back from the council, because we have to climb up to go back home.

Before we went home, Yen, Ken, Dhila, Ariane, Faisal and I went to Dollarama. It was the first Dollarama experience. Hahahaha. Dollarama is a store where you can find cheap and affordable stuff, it’s only about a dollar, or more, but not more than ten dollars I guess. Yen bought me a cute pink slippers and a Canada flag luggage tag. Sweet!

Then, we walked, AGAIN, to Frenchy’s, a second hand store far far away from downtown Halifax. It was a long walk. I bought some sweater and cardigans there, and when we want to go back home, we were some kind of lost, and also tired (it was Me, Yen, Kayla, and Dima). So Yen called Evelyn, and thank God she was willing to pick us up. She also drove Kayla and Dima home.

That night, I had my first Canadian steak, it was a little bit raw in the middle, but I was willing to try how does it taste, the raw meat, so I did not protest or cooked the meat to make it well done, but I just tried it. It was.. good. Hehehe, forgive me for being naughty, cause I eat raw meat, hahahha. Actually, I really like the mashed potato. Canadian potatoes is the best. Lol.

That was the interesting part of that day. Good night, Halifax.