$1.25TT

Since I've been back, whenever my nephew Liu is over and I'm playing Dandelion, he appears and gives me coins. The first time, he ran up to me and gave me two 25 cent pieces. I asked him what they were for and he said: "Aren't you busking?" (He had seen this video while I was away). The second time, he gave me one 25 cent and one of the big 50 cent coins. In total, $1.25TT.

More busks for tusks

Photo taken by Nancy at our busking location on Wednesday

(Canada Chronicles continued ...)

Yesterday (a few hours ago) we busked in the same spot on the corner of Yonge and whatever-street-that-is with the "World's Biggest Bookstore". This time we were joined by Mike and Rob from the drum class.

Warming up

Before we began Nancy laid out the elephant booklets we'd been given at Wednesday night's benefit concert and I wrote up the necessary on the sidewalk with chalk. Nancy's roommate had given her a medium-sized wooden elephant (with one tusk symbolically missing) for display purposes. It stood by the large plastic cup we had (instead of a hat this time) for donations.

We started drumming at about 9:30 p.m. and, within 20 minutes, we had made $14 and attracted a small audience of people who also drummed and wanted to join in. They never got to, though. The night's festivities were cut short by a woman came up to us and told us to stop playing because there are condominiums nearby and we were disturbing residents.

$27.25 (in approx. 45 minutes)!

Today there was an amplified band performing on Dundas Square (they were quite loud and would have drowned us out ... so instead of drum-busking there as planned, Nancy and I moved further up the street to the corner near "The World's Biggest Bookstore". It was a good spot. In approximately 45 minutes (from 6:45 - about 7:30 p.m.), we drummed up $27.25 for the Asian Elephants. One Asian girl and her mother even stopped and asked if we were thirsty and gave us bottles of water.
I had purchased some sidewalk chalk for the event and wrote out the information, drew an elephant mascot and a lucky flower around the hat. We placed Elephant cards (with information about the benefit concert we attended later tonight) around the hat with the money. Various interested people stopped and took cards, promising to come to the concert. Some stopped and read the chalk signs and dropped money. Some dropped money without knowing what it was all about. Some did not drop money, but did little shuffling dances as they walked past. Some laughed and smiled. Some stopped to listen. Some walked by without a glance. One woman blocked her ears and muttered: "Stop making so much noise."
The plight of the elephants is a sad one. At the jazz concert we were given 3-page booklets with information and stories about the elephants that have been rescued ... or not, as the case may be. There are parts of the booklet that we just could not read because the facts were so horrific and cruel. I won't bother to go into details ... but suffice it to say ... it is estimated that within 2 decades, these beautiful creatures could be extinct if things keep going the way they are.

If you haven't already, check out the website, learn more and donate to a worthy cause if you can. Every drop counts.