Presenting: "The Outer Limits" - Linking Toronto with Kolkata - and Changing Lives 2 by Susanne Pacher

Last summer Philip approached the Scadding Court Community Centre to offer video lessons and was taken up on his offer later in the fall. Philip's goal is only to pass his knowledge on, he did not want to make the documentary himself. He is interested in the participants' stories, but only if they want to tell them. His primary role will be to help put together the video footage after the trip for a documentary produced by the participants themselves.
Terry Smith has been accompanying the participants for the last few weeks. His responsibility has been to teach the young men how to teach English as a Second Language. Before Terry retired early from his position as a teacher with the Toronto District School Board he was working in a special program dedicated towards what he calls "hard-core non attenders". Often these young people come from low-income neighbourhoods, have issues such as learning disabilities, low self-esteem, abuse at home, obsessive/compulsive disorder or anxiety issues.

In this role his approach was to work on the underlying problems, often this involved making referrals to the health care system or even the court system. Once these fundamental problems were addressed the students' attendance returned to 100% in many cases. Students felt comfortable in the friendly non-traditional surroundings where classes were located at the Scadding Court Community Centre, and they enjoyed this non-judgmental environment. Often the role of these specialized teachers is to model behaviour such as conflict resolution or communication skills in general.

Terry connected with the Outer Limits program through his link with Scadding Court and he has been providing ESL training as well as goal setting and life planning to the participants since the first week of December. He will also accompany the group to India where he will offer counseling services and be responsible for administrative issues and trouble-shooting for the entire three months.

More than 30 years ago Terry himself travelled to India, and just in January and February of 2006 he had a chance to go back to this fascinating country and went backpacking with his wife. He flew into Bombay (Mumbai) and travelled all the way up to the Himalayas. During these trips he gathered a number of impressions of Indian people: he experienced them as very warm, friendly and generous and felt that they were genuinely interested in getting to know you on a more profound level. Terry added that the distance is broken a lot quicker in India and there is a lot of joy, noise and celebration. He was humbled by the complexity of Indian culture, and the ingenuity, energy and industry of the poor people.

Terry explained that the four Toronto participants will initially be teaching in teams of two, and later split up and be given their own groups. They will be teaching English as a Second Language to a total of about 50 children who range in age from 4 to 14. Terry really believes in this innovative approach and says that many other intervention programs fail. This program reaches young people at transitional points in their life, reaches in deep and allows for profound personal growth.

He also explained to me a variety of items on a display table that the group will be taking to India with them: first and foremost anti-malarial pills, ESL teaching aids and games for the children as well as sports equipment for football, soccer, basketball and baseball which will give the Toronto participants a chance to play sports with the Indian children. Big emphasis will be placed on inter-cultural connections. Terry added that he can tell the young men are ready to go and he is very excited to be part of this opportunity.

Yusdel Amaro Hidalgo, a 24-year old Cuban born man, is also one of the participants in the Outer Limits program. I initially approached him in Spanish, my favourite language, and told him that I spent 16 days in Cuba in April of 2005. Cuba has been one of my most interesting travel experiences to date and I fondly recall my time in Havana and the things I learned about this unique culture.

Yusdel talked about his childhood and adolescence in Havana and spoke of a very strong sense of community. He had a great social network and close friends and enjoyed many good times growing up. About six years ago he arrived in Toronto, by then in his late teens, to be reunited with his father, a Cuban filmmaker, who had relocated to Toronto several years earlier. He was now together with his father and sister in Toronto while his mother has stayed in Cuba. Being reunited with his dad was great for Yusdel since he had not seen much of his father for about six years.

At the beginning he spoke very little English and spent a lot of time working on his language skills in ESL programs. His early years in Toronto were difficult because he missed this sense of community. Although there is a fairly large number of Cubans in Toronto they live fairly dispersed throughout the city, and the sense of community that you see in the streets of Havana simply does not exist here in North America. Despite his linguistic challenges, Yusdel finished high school in three years, sometimes studying with students that were four or five years younger than him.

One of most significant experiences of culture shock for him were that here in Toronto it was not socially acceptable to compliment good-looking women as it would be totally normal in Havana. He learned that inappropriate comments or gestures could be interpreted as sexual harassment and could lead to severe consequences. I agreed with him that these cultural differences exist, and looked at it from the other perspective: when a woman travels to Cuba it certainly takes some time to get used to the come-ons, the comments, the catcalls and the whistles. For many North American women this behaviour may come across either as flattering, annoying or even threatening while for a Cuban woman it would be absolutely normal. There is no doubt that these cultural differences exist and that it takes a while to get used to new ways of doing things.

Since completing high school Yusdel has been working in various jobs. Due to his father's training he spent some time in the film industry as a sound technician. He has also worked in the hospitality industry, in construction and in various community programs. More recently he has been working with Toronto's Park and Recreation Department.

For Yusdel it will not be the first time in India: he already went there in 2003 for an international benefit concert. Scadding Court had organized this concert several years ago and as Yusdel is currently at a crossroads in his life, they invited him to participate in the Outer Limits program. In 2003 Yusdel spent 21 days in India and when he was approached to participate in the Outer Limits program he immediately thought he'd like to go back to India again.

During the training program he has learned a lot about such diverse topics as racism, social class, community work, relationship skills, film making and photography, and he has gained a whole new perspective of life. He admits that it is finally starting to sink in, that he will be going to India in just a few days. He is looking forward to going and can't wait to go. He wants to learn as much as he can about the people and the culture and hopes that doors will open and that he will be able to apply the lessons he is going to learn there to his life in the future.

Tessefa Francis, a 27 year old Torontonian will also be going to India. His parents came to Toronto from Kingston, Jamaica, and Tess, as he is known by all his friends, grew up in different parts across Toronto. Some of the neighbourhoods and the public housing projects he grew up in were quite rough and he witnessed a lot of violence. Nevertheless, he says he had a normal childhood, adding that in the winter he and his friends played outside until their feet were cold. Tess admits that during high school he was more into the fun than the academics, school was definitely secondary, and he scraped by as far as his grades were concerned.

After high school he started a program in business administration at Seneca College, but realized that it wasn't his thing and dropped out after the first year. He then took a program in video editing at the Academy of Design because he wanted to do something creative. For several months he worked on a special project for the National Film Board - a documentary with a title along the lines of "The Making of a Hip-Hop Dancer" where he had an opportunity to shadow the video editor. One thing he learned was that you can never have enough footage.

So far this has been Tess' only exposure to the film industry. He said that he tried to apply for various opportunities in the industry, but ponders that he may not have put in enough effort. He has also been working with the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation Department during the summer, doing outside gardening work in the parks. He adds that he doesn't mind working outside, and during the winters he has been looking for work.

Tess connected with the Outer Limits program when a friend called him out of the blue, saying that the program needed a person with a post-production background. The preparation for this program in India has opened his mind about issues such as culture shock, oppression, economics and politics.

Reflecting on the situation of visible minorities in Canada, Tess said that in middle school he had friends from every nation, but during high school teenagers started to socialize more within their own racial and ethnic groups. He commented that he has faced some of the stereotypes commonly targeted at black males, for example women will clutch their purses in his presence, and shopkeepers step up their surveillance. There is no doubt that you stand out as a visible minority, but at the same time he shrugs and says you just have to deal with it and not let it discourage you.

As far as his stay in India is concerned, Tess hopes to come back with a sense of accomplishment, a new perspective on life, and hungrier. He admits that there are many less fortunate, less privileged people out there and concludes there is a lot of opportunity, you just have to grab it. Tess has never really travelled much before, so he admits he is a little nervous, yet excited about this new venture ahead of him.

Levis Adjetey was born in Ghana 26 years ago and came to Toronto at the age of eight. About his time in Ghana he remembers a sense of warmth and community growing up and he found that when people have less they become a lot more creative. It was snowing when Levis first set foot on Canadian soil, and he remembers being unimaginably cold.