Stephanie tells me, "There are a lot of rules. It took four hours to explain all the rules to us " (at Orientation)

Except for 14 days each trimester when they billet with local families, the K-Kids live together in a KatimaHouse.

Schedules are made for dishes, cleaning, shopping, cooking and for any excursions, which must be pre-planned and approved. Then there are the physical, cultural and second-language activities everyone must take a hand in organizing and participating in. Then they work seven to eight-hour shifts five days a week.

"A big part of it is self discovery," says Stephanie. "I've found out things I'm good at and not good at. Like I do better working one-on-one with children than in a group. "As for the K-Group, "...it's like a second family."

Andrew Martin is from Montreal and is helping the Friendship Centre with the renovating of Houston's new Youth Centre. With power tool in hand, he adds, "It's pretty intense in every way. Every high is intense and every low is intense." He continued with more words such as "growing, healing" and then, "I'm a lot more aware of my faults, more than ever."

All deepness aside, Andrew has learned how to cook. For a young man not able to "cook toast", he now bakes bread, pies and waffles and is looking forward to being able to bake something for his mother when he gets home. He thinks his future might include becoming an (eccentric) English teacher and working in Japan one day.