Farewell Saskatchewan

The SExT family with Roxanne Ma from The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) on our last performance of our Saskatchewan tour. We did it!

​We woke up to a rainy day. The clouds were sharing the same emotions as most of us. We knew it was going to be our last day of our tour, so emotions were through the roof. ​

​We arrived at the school and did our hour of tech. Everything went perfectly. Unfortunately there was a warning made before the show and the students looked super scared and were trying their best to hold their emotions by hiding their faces. See, we want students to feel their full emotions and enjoy the show however they want to. Our show deals with sensitive topics and all reactions are valid. We've done this show for so long, so we expect a whole range of reactions (which is normal for us). Sensing the audience was holding back, we decided to make this an incredible performance of a lifetime for them. By mid-show, we made them forget about everything and just enjoy the show. Not only did we educate them on topics we cover in our shows, but we also gave them a happy place to let their emotions out.

After the show, we got amazing feedback from everyone, including teachers of the school. Everyone just loved the show and were speechless. They left the show with more knowledge about issues such as mental health, STIs, abusive relationships, etc. than they came in with.

After leaving the school, we decided to thank our driver Richard by giving him a card and gifts from everyone in the cast, and singing him a song which we wrote for him. Then we went to the airport to go back to Toronto. Everyone was sad leaving Saskatchewan, as we all have fallen in love with the place and the people of Saskatchewan.

We love you, Richard <3

​We had a 5 hour layover in the city of Edmonton, so we decided to leave our bags in the airport and to explore the city. Half of us went to an Asian restaurant, and the other half went for Greek cuisine. From my experience, the Greek food was one of the best Greek food I've ever had. It was absolutely delicious. The climate was amazing at the dinner table and we knew that this would be one of the last times on tour that we would be loving each other's company.

After finishing our food, an incident happened in the restaurant. An old man tripped over and hit his head. His friends weren't even helping him, and the man couldn't get up. Suddenly the whole climate of the room changed. Our director Shira is trained as a first responder, so after waiting 20-30 secs to see if the person could get up by himself, she decided to step into her first responder shoes and went to help this stranger. She was assessing the situation, and figuring out if he had a stroke or if he had to much to drink, since the guy couldn't speak properly and was slurring his words.  She asked him if he knew where he was, and if he knew what happened. She also was checking his heart rate, pupils, etc. Basically she went from Director Shira to a super hero Shira, and after that incident, we now call her Wonder Woman.

This photo was taken moments before Shira morphed into Wonder Woman and saved a man's LIFE. What can't this woman do? #truestory

​While waiting for paramedics to arrive, we found out that his friends had gotten him drunk. During this time the old man told Shira, "Those are some nice tits" and then tried to grab her breast. 

via GIPHY

See, regardless of drunk or high, one cannot do that without consent, which was making me furious. However, Shira handled it like a champ by laughing and not taking offense, and continuing to treat him until paramedics arrived.
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After that incident, we got in cabs to get back to the airport for our flight back to Toronto. We are really happy about our tour and we are proud to say that we have made a difference in the lives of young kids across Saskatchewan. We want to thank The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) for making this possible. Without their hard work and funding this wouldn't be possible. Thanks to them, youngsters across Saskatchewan can now make healthy, educated choices in life and we are hoping this will also impact the rate of STIs like HIV in the province of Saskatchewan. Thanks to our social media coordinator and Shira's best friend, Elena Juatco, for all her hard work. She's the lone wolf who looks after the pack even when she's not around.  We're hoping to do a tour like this again. Thank you everyone!

- Post by Isfandyar Virani, O.G. SExT Cast Member, Stage Manager, & Co-Producer