Alley

This is at the heart of why I'm here. Vancouver's other side.

This alleyway is not too bad actually and not too far toward the downtown eastside, where I spent much of today. It's in the back alley's where the poor and disenfranchised live most of the time and there are a lot of marginal people in Vancouver.

I heard stories today about several generations of aboriginal people brutalised, marginalised and indoctrinated by the residential school system, the last of which closed as late as the 1980s. Families were torn apart, children were abused and broken and the fallout from that is immense and the ripples are still there to see on the streets around Hastings and Main and further east from there. And in the alleys, at night.

There are a lot of wonderful and dedicated people working amongst all of this, and they see and help lots of people every day, but there are thousands to care for and not enough money or resources in the system dedicated to fix these issues.

There are people within the health systems at a strategic level working to change things for workers on the ground but that is a long slow process mired in politics and beauraucracy and it takes a long time to turn things around.

But those people are there at the heart of beauraucracy and in the clinics and on the streets in the face of this huge problem, trying to help and this is another reason why I love Vancouver. It's not all about the electric buses and beautiful buildings.

Oh and the interview went well too, although we'll see how well I did once it's transcribed and some of the other researchers can give an opinion of my interview technique.