Kindness of strangers

Tana Silverland has put Canada’s reputation for being a kindhearted country to the test.

Silverland came to Canada from the United Kingdom in June 2010 and almost immediately headed out on a two-and-a-half-year journey across the country to raise awareness for SOS Children’s Village Canada. Silverland, an administrator for Cambridge University, started the campaign 15 months ago and relied entirely on the kindness of strangers.

She said she doesn’t carry much cash on her and any money she has required was donated by the person she was staying with and intentionally made sure that she wasn’t funded for the journey.

She started her journey in Whitehorse, Yukon and planned to end in Newfoundland. She made it into Thunder Bay over the weekend and made Lake Superior her 110th stop. Despite some bumps along the road, Canadians have not only met this expectation but also exceeded it, she said.

“I suppose in a sense I’m sort of heading out to just get a sense of my new home country and see whether Canadians really are as kind as they are made out to be,” Silverland said. “I’m putting your reputation to the test. I’m basically depending on the kind strangers here in Canada for my own survival. I want people to think about how precarious life is. You don’t necessarily know where your next meal is coming from or where you are going to be sleeping at night.”

With her journey just beginning in Ontario, Silverland said she’s having a bit of trouble. She had little difficult finding people to hold her up for a few days in British Columbia but as she travelled east, she found it increasingly difficult to find that kind stranger.

“Ontario is proving quite tough so far in terms of finding people to take me in,” she said. “It is possibly the hardest work since I got here. I’m hoping that will all change as I continue through Ontario. I hope Ontarians will prove my first impressions entirely wrong and prove that they are just as fantastic if not more so.”

She added when she went through the prairies it was like everyone went on vacation.

Besides her family, Silverland said she never relied on too heavily on anyone else. She remained independent and did most things on her own. When she started this journey, she found she had to make a few adjustments.

Along the way, Silverland will be posting her progress on her website. Anyone who is interested in donating to SOS Children’s Village can do so on her website.