Alex

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Tegler Youth Centre’s
Lady Flower Garden visits
 
 
This past summer, the youth at the Tegler Youth Centre were given the opportunity to visit Lady Flower Garden on two separate occasions. During these trips, the youth learned from Pascal about the gardens and got hands-on experience working in the gardens with various vegetables. On one of these trips, through the generosity of Emmanuel Homes, we were able to take the vegetables along with other purchased items to a kitchen to prepare them into a fancy meal for the youth.
 
Both visits began with weeding. At one point after weeding, one youth was told to go back to the tent for further instructions because weeding was finished, and he said he didn’t want to stop because, in his words, “I could do this for a job. I like it”. After weeding, the youth were given opportunities to pick cucumbers, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and potatoes. Again, the youth did not want to stop. After being asked about how they were enjoying pulling potatoes, one youth said: “this is hard, but then I see all the potatoes come out and it’s worth it”. Another declared it “fun”, saying that they were definitely coming if we went again.
 
After the vegetable harvesting time was done, the Tegler staff proposed that they stop to play some games before returning to the Centre. The youth complained, saying “what if we don’t want to play games?” They ended up picking potatoes through the entire game time instead of playing a game.
 
On the second visit, the youth gathered a bunch of potatoes and carrots to take to a church so that they could be prepared and eaten. With the money given by Emmanuel Home, the Tegler staff purchased fancy drinks, table cloths, and napkins, and then got chicken to go along with the vegetables that were harvested. The youth worked hard to prepare the food that they had picked, and they got to see the entire process of food going from the ground to being cooked to being eaten.
 
It was really cool to see how the youth thoroughly enjoyed the experience of gardening. I was admittedly skeptical about the idea because I figured the youth would see it as hard work when they would rather be playing their usual basketball or video games, but they were entirely on board and they enthusiastically enjoyed gardening. It was very apparent from the trips that the youth learned a new interest that they would likely not have given a chance to experience otherwise. It was a blessing to myself personally to see the youth connecting to something new and appreciating something different. Who would’ve thought we could get a teenager to complain because they did not want to stop weeding or argue that they would rather pull potatoes than play games?
 
On behalf of the Tegler Youth Centre’s staff and youth, thank you to Lady Flower Garden and Emmanuel Home for making it possible for our youth to learn something new and discover a new interest. Thank you for your investment in our youth, it has been deeply appreciated!
 
Alex Bosker,
Tegler Youth Centre