Youth Recreation Club - All Girls Zumba on Tuesday March 8th

"On the way..."

"I really love sharing my culture with Canadians and
other people living in Toronto" ~Eske

Visions of Unity in Diversity is a digital storytelling project by CultureLink, funded by Inspirit Foundation.The program promotes respect for diverse religions, cultures and spirituality through exchange between youths, fieldtrips to places of worship, attending cultural festivals, sharing by various religious leaders and interaction with one another.

This is Eske's story:


Project special thanks to UforChange.

The Story Lives

"The music was loud," ~Richard

Saturday, April 27^th, after I messed around downtown for two hours and finally found a place to park my bike on the crowded Dundas West, I went to a small concert, called Live the Story  with other participants of Wintegration. We met in a small cafe and, as usual, Lynda provided free TTC tickets, and the tickets for the concert. And it was so nice of her to go to the subway station for our tickets!



Lynda, Ren, Harry and me, Richard (clockwise from front-right)



"It was fun and I liked that kind of music they played." ~Sebastian Pinecos

"Great band. Had fun tonight!" ~Desmond Wang

Actually, that was the first concert ever I’ve attended in Canada. When we got there, we found the music so loud that me and my friends even go to the washroom to avoid damage to our ears! Halfway through the concert, it was getting to be pretty late, so Lynda and the other guys left.



"The last three songs were pretty cool!" ~Richard

I decided to stay for the rest of the concert. It was a pity that those guys didn’t stay for the rest of the show, because the last three songs performed by the band were actually pretty cool! Especially the one called “I Want You to Rock and Roll”. The following singer, Andrew Bisante, was another great surprise, as he sang and played his own songs which sounded pretty impressive! After Andrew was done, another band went on stage. I had to leave at that point, because I had to ride my bike home. My way home was dark, but I was feeling good. It was worth it!

"It was fun. I find it really interesting." ~Tenzin Dhuedul

In general, the concert experience was pretty good, except for my messing up downtown. But the music was pretty good, especially in the second half. What’s even better was that we got to attend the concert for free, thanks to Kids Up Front for their partnership with CultureLink’s Newcomer Youth Centre. And thanks Lynda, for the opportunity, and it’s always good to get social, isn’t it?

There is also an important lesson for us to learn: never leave a concert (and your dream) halfway through, because you never know when things are going to be turning good!

Eskista - Ethiopian Traditional Dance Workshop

Today, we went to CultureLink again for Wintegration, the Newcomer Youth Centre (NYC)'s after-school program. When we arrived, Lynda told us we would be learning how to dance. Well the dance is from Ethiopia. Alright, sorry, but I have never heard of this country before then! Lol.

Learning about Ethiopia and the traditional dance, Eskista

Eskender Admassu is the name of the guy who was the volunteer teaching us the dance today. The dance style is called Eskista, which is a tradition Ethiopian dance.

So the main part in this dance is shaking your shoulders. This means you should hold your whole body still, and only shake your shoulders.

Wintegration learns Eskista

Anyway, I’m not a good dancer. After 2 hours of trying, (forgive me, but our dancing was really bad, lol) we watched Eskender dance for us. Alright, his dance moves looked really professional, not like us.

"You should hold your whole body still, and only shake your shoulders" ~JieMin Li

After he showed us his moves, and also a performance video on YouTube, today's Wintegration Program came to an end.

Wintegration participants after our dance workout

Not only did we have a nice workout, we also learn more about Ethiopia. It was lots of fun and interesting. Thanks Eskender!

P.S.: my shoulders were really painful and sore on second day! lol

Written by: JieMin Li

Edited by: Lynda Young