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A portrait photograph of a homeless man in Regina, Saskatchewan

Me: Shawna signed you up for this?

Carl: Yes she’s been very bossy with me (laughter). She’s like a supervisor to me.

M: You from Regina originally?

C: Yes. I’ve been on my own since I was 15 and I’ve been around a lot. Yorkton, Regina, Saskatoon. Back to Regina. Then to Manitoba, then back to Regina. Then to Edmonton. Then back to Regina, it’s like oh my god. Regina has always been my home since I was like 15.

M: Do you have family here? Is that what keeps bringing you back?

C: I have relatives and all that but I don’t really bother them all that much. Regina is just familiar. It’s where I grew up and went to school and all that. I have a lot of people. Some relatives out at the reserve and some in Regina. A big family tree.

M: Do you have a house here?

C: Yeah yeah I got a place. A one bedroom house. My niece came to my place for the first time. She’s like “Wow uncle. Your place has no people. It’s so quiet.” I’m like ya. Well I do like my house. She’s out by Yorkton

M: Oh, that’s where Yorkton came in then?

C: Yeah. Cuz I have grandkids out there (you have grandkids!) I’m already a great grandparent (What?!) Ya! (You don’t look old enough for that?!) I know! I mean that’s how much of a big family tree . I happened to be on a date and I got a text message. It said come to my place. I was like, who is this? “It’s me grandpa.” There was a party there and I was having a hard time getting through and she heard me from the other end, she just yelled for everyone to go to the side. I just walked right through. I was like okay. She said just wait here grandpa. I was like, why. She said I have a surprise for you. I was like all right.. She came back holding a baby. I thought she was babysitting for somebody! I’m like ookkay granddaughter. Who are babysitting for? She just burst out laughing. She’s like Grandpa, that’s my baby. I was like oh.my.god. She smiled, yes grandpa, you are a grandparent already. Okay. This was my first great granddaughter I held on to. And I was on a date. Then my date noticed I was crying and goes, did someone hit you in there? No no no no, it has nothing to with anybody. And if you’re going to try and assault anybody you’re going to have to go through me. He’s like, what do you mean. I was holding onto my first great granddaughter. Ohhh, I didn’t mean to rush you. Then we went on with our date. (That’s a really great story) Now, I’m going back to university next year.

M: Cool, what are you taking?

C: I’m going to take Psychology and Native Arts. I just picked up the forms here and I gotta drop them off. Plus I gotta pay $100 for my picture ID and I gotta write a letter to my reserve for funding. So shouldn’t have a problem with that.

M: Did you take classes before?

C: Yeah at the First Nations University of Canada.

M: Great Grandpa in university

C: Yeah, it’s going to take a while to get into it. Getting up for school and that. Routine and all that. Cut down on my hours of trying to stay up all the time. Looking forward to taking Psychology again. I took before when I was 18. And my uh, professor in Edmonton was writing to me, wanting me to go back and finish my degree. So I thought, well I better get back to school cuz two of my granddaughters are in grade 10. They’ll be graduating in two years and then they’ll be going to school. I’ll be going to school for three years. Once they start I’ll be in my last year. Going to school with your grandpa (Laughter)

To help people like this please visit www.carmichaeloutreach.ca or www.maybelldevelopments.com and consider donating or volunteering today.