8 sauder students

4 more friends from Food not Bombs

5 days of sleeping bags and cardboard boxes

120 hours learning about ourselves and the world around us

more food than we need (of which all extra will be given to homeless in the downtown eastside)

Countless people dropping change and bills into our jars

Even more words of praise and support

Over $12000 raised, and more to come

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one great experience to help an amazing cause.

I want to thank everyone for all the support and help that we have received, through monetary contributions, food donations, and their kind words and high fives. It is because of you that we were able to get through this all. Our experience through these past 5 days have been profound for all of us, and yet we are barely experiencing the tip of the iceberg of what it is to be homeless. We have had you to motivate us, push us, and help us along. We have had your food, so generously prepared and donated, to make sure that our bellies were always full. we’ve had your change, your 5, 10 and 20 dollar bills, and your online pledges. we’ve had your late night visits, with hot chocolate and marshmallows to help us get through the cold times. we’ve had your kindness… but the real homeless don’t. They are the ones that need our support. They are the ones who could really use the warm meal, soft blanket, and the kind words.

The issue of homelessness is like the Hydra - it is a multi-headed beast, and we need to find a way to defeat it. But unlike the hydra story, instead of having to rely on some herculean hero to defeat the monster, we must all band together, and use all the resources that we have at our disposal to overcome this problem. By putting our minds, our hearts and our hands to work, we dont need super powers or godlike abilities to find a solution, because together we are stronger than any of us as individuals.

This week hasn’t been about the group of us here or across the country just tryin to raise money - more importantly, we have been trying to bring this issue, so easily ignored, to the forefront of everyone’s minds. Homelessness is a problem that we as a society have dutifully ignored and pushed off to the next person, hoping that even though we go to bed with the problem at our doorstep, our dreams will somehow make it disappear in the morning.

its time that we woke up.

have a good day, and god bless

paul

hey everyone!

lots of love to all of you for everything today, its been a huge 24+ hours… but im tired right now, we jsut spent our last night chattin…. just about to go to bed, but i promise a good one in th morn… gonna be up super early, we’ve got Canada AM coming out to us at 6:30 in the morning… wish us luck!

much love….

Paul

thanks

thank you all for the support that you have given us.

thanks for the bagels, the granola bars, the donuts and the pasta.

thanks for the samosas, the cookies, the milk and the cocoa.

thank to you we are going to bed with full bellies, unlike many of those actually on the streets.

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thanks for the friendships, the kind words, and the light jokes.

thanks for the help, the love, and the support.

thanks for the family, and reminders of the light at the end.

thanks to you we will get through the down times because we have you guys keeping us up, unlike many of those actually on the streets.

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thanks also to those who doubt us, ridicule us, and put down what we are doing.

thanks to those who pretend not to see us, make us feel invisible, and walk right by.

thanks to those who would rather stay ignorant of the problem on their doorstep than try and work towards a solution.

thanks to you we are going to keep going through this week, so that we can make a difference to all those youth and hopefully open YOUR eyes to the issue at hand.

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thanks… for everything

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paul

last night was different than the first, thats for sure… it did get a bit colder, and i guess i wasnt quite as tired as i was the night before because i tossed and turned all night long… and i guess the caffeine from teh donated coke that i had late night didnt help either….. nonetheless, this morning was a good one, we all are getting used to the routine now of gettin up, grabbing all of our stuff, and tryin to figure out some breakfast… thank you soooo much to everyone who has been helping us out….. Lindsay for the amazing oranges, Matt for the latenight timbits and hot chocolate, my bro’s at Kappa Sigma for the shepards pie and the guys over at Phi-Delt for the rice and greek salad… we really appreciate the support, the donations, everything…

So there were 8 of us original participants here in vancouver, and since sunday, we’ve been joined by another group of 4 students who are a part of a group called ‘Food not Bombs’… they’ve joined us for the long haul, and have some really interesting experiences that they are sharing with us. Every weekend, they go down to the downtown eastside, gather food that the businesses in the area were going to throw out, and cook and distribute vegetarian meals to over 200 homeless  people…  that is such an amazing contribution, and i am really glad to have met these guys…

Now, i think that more work needs to be done to not just feed the homeless, but to try to curb the increase in the homeless population and eventually lower the number of people on the streets…. In our discussion last night, we all had a hard time agreeing on what the problems were, and what we could possibly do to find a solution…. and just like conor, I don’t think that any of us really left that discussion satisfied with any outcome, and I hope that in the next few days we can figure out some second and third steps that we can take to tackle the problem once we are done with our 5 days here… I’m really looking forward to these discussion, and if you have anything to add, let us know!

off to another day of classes, should be fun times, I think im starting to smell a little worse for wear now hahaha

paullie out

Hey all… so we got our first day finally wrapped up… i’ll blog about it all more in the morning, im just a bit tuckered out right now… take care, be safe, and have a good night!

Love,

Paul

wow…. I was standing outside, asking for spare change, when a friend of mine walked right past me without even a look back…

right after that, I had a UBC security guard tell me that i had to take off my sign and stop begging, before he realized that I am one of the students doing this… he then apologized, and told me about how UBC security is supposed to get beggars off of campus because we are soliciting for money…

It’s just so easy to ignore the problem, or to ship the homeless away and make it someone elses issue… I am so glad that we are out here trying to make a difference, however small, and am so proud of everyone across the country who is working with this!

love you all

Paul

Hey all!

one night in! surprisingly, for most of us here in vancouver the first night wasn’t too bad…. i slept pretty well, only woke up a couple of times, and was lucky enough to get a dry spot of pavement… but as conor said below, its all a bit surreal when there are 8 of us just hanging out…. I know that during the evening yesterday, those times that there were only a couple of us sticking around were tougher, for sure… the rest of the week should have some interesting times, i’m looking forward to this all!

Cheers to smelling worse and worse everyday!

paul aulakh

vancouver - sauder school of business

20 DOUBLE CHEESEBURGERS!!!

thanks to everyone who is donating online and to us in the form of FOOD!!! ahhahah

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment. - Thomas Carlyle

I’m homeless… or at least as close as it is for a Sauder student to get to being homeless while living on campus near the bookstore with our sleeping bags! But i’m so excited for the next 5 days… I really think that its going to be an experience to remember, and a chance for us to see another side of life that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to see.

right now, we’re all just kind of chilling here at the bookstore, some are trying to study, but i think we’re probably all going to get some rest pretty soon… and tyler just noticed that its starting to rain, so hopefully we dont get wet! (our hearts go out to all of our friends braving the snow and freezing temperatures, i guess we have it a little easier eh?)

anyways, I’m out, see you all in the morning!

lots of love,

paul