Meeting the families

Sunday mornings are always anticipated because it’s the first chance we get to meet the families that will be receiving homes. Admittedly, the excitement in meeting them has, in previous years, been dampened by the fact that a few barriers exist. You may think it’s the language barrier, but that’s not it. The language barrier has always been closed by the excellent work of our interpreters. It’s the awkward barrier. The awkwardness of us Canadians being seated in the front row. The awkwardness of having families paraded in front of us and them having to answer questions in front of a group of strangers. There was plenty of awkwardness to go around.

But, something new has been done in recognition of that awkwardness while trying to forge a bond between two groups of strangers. The solution: fun, plain silly fun!!  Circle game laughter-relay game running-balloon passing-water being dumped on your head kind of fun! It’s a small change that acknowledges the awkwardness everyone feels and using that to show how similar we are in our initial apprehension and our ability to laugh at ourselves.

Today we played those games with 14 families. We will be working alongside them, as a first time recipient community.

Tomorrow we start to build...relationships and homes.