“It is like a dream.” Thanya’s family is here. Everything is far, far better than she could have ever imagined. Every member of her new family is the most loving, beautiful, open and amazing person you could ask for. They are embracing their new life with open arms. There is nothing shy or retiring about any of them. Everything is unfolding in ways that she could only dream of before, leaving her feeling so very grateful.
On Thursday, the day they arrived, Dunia, the reporter for Shaw TV went to the airport with her and others to greet the family, and she filmed their whole day. She is also an immigrant from Iraq so could speak Arabic with them! Then they went into Victoria and had lunch at an Iraqi restaurant; another chance for family to meet people from their home country. On the way home (a very hot day), they stopped in Mill Bay and the children had their first chance to see and wade in the ocean. Once they reached Duncan, a friend was there at the apartment with a lovely meal prepared for them. It was a very big and exciting day for everybody.
Yesterday, Thanya and her son took the children down to the market where the Duncan Summer Festival was kicking off. The next thing she knew, the two older children were up on stage singing an Arabic song for the Juniors Got Talent show. Shahad, the teenage girl, had already henna-painted Thanya’s hands and feet, and soon she had arranged to have her own booth at the market doing this on a regular basis- how amazing is this!
Even though the family has little English, the will to communicate is strong, and hanging out with friends and family is what they love to do. Already they have met everyone in their apartment complex, and two different people, one of whom lives there, have volunteered some time working on ESL with them.
Thanya had been concerned that these people from such a different culture would perhaps be shy and retiring and slow to meet people and make friends. Well, the culture of loving and giving knows no borders and these people are rich in that culture.
Their bags are packed. They just wait now, until they can go to the airport. Saad says sometimes they just sit and look at the packed bags. There are 8 of them.
the Last On-Line Conversation
“Did you pack the blah blah blah?”
“Yes, it is in the green bag. Did you pack the blah blah?”
“I put it in the blue bag.”
Saad’s brother, Omar is visiting this week until they get on the plane on Wednesday. He was able to get a last minute visa into Syria to say goodbye.
This has been a great friendship, and now everything will change…for the better, of course, but it has been lovely these last six months. I have never gotten to know a Muslim man before and he certainly has never known a Canadian woman.
The world and its disasters has allowed a fairly unusual friendship to develop and I, for one am grateful.
Saad is a different man from a month ago. Happy, excited, joyous, laughing. Today was the first of three days of orientation to Canada
Canadian Flag
1. Canadian money
2. The National Anthem
3. Luggage, what they can and cannot bring.
4. Hand luggage.
5. How much money to bring. If he has more than $10,000, he must tell Immigration (big laughs here).
6. They get Medical care for 1st year
7. PST, GST.
8. The Queen, the Prime Minister (more laughs here since he knows I think he is a big fat slob)
9. The flag and the Maple Leaf
10. And best of all… there are 3,000,000 lakes in Canada
one for every ten people. Now THAT is a useful fact.
There are 30 people in this group. They will not all be coming to BC but some will be going to “The Oil Place where there is no provincial tax….” That would be your basic Alberta.
Next Saturday is his last dental appointment and he is pretty happy about that, too.
Saad reports that neither he nor Ilham have slept more than 4 hours at a time since they got the phone call on the 8th. They are packing and planning and going over everything in their minds. They insist upon bringing everyone who is a part of his “support team” a small gift, because it is their culture to do so.
We spoke of how bittersweet this month will be…saying goodbye to everything they have ever known culturally and linguistically to come to a country where the daughters and the mother will be functionally illiterate, speaking little to no English. Saif speaks better, but I do not believe he can read. Saad’s written English is poor, although he can get by and his spoken English has improved leaps and bounds since we first started talking. That plus the excitement of a new adventure and a new life in a new land.
Saad has one more appointment with his torturer, the dentist, and he will be glad to have that behind him, for sure.
The hard part is over for them, but now the hard part begins for us, as we will have to teach them absolutely everything. How to use a western toilet. Eating with forks and knives. Cleaning products. Where to buy food. How to manage a chequing account. Insurance. Building a credit rating.
This commitment will have to last for at least a couple of years before they will be confident enough to negotiate the perils of life in the western world!’
At 5:00 pm Damascus time, Saad’s telephone rang. He looked at the call display and did not recognize the number.
He thought, “Oh God, what is this?”
He answered and a strange voice said, “Is this Saad AlSadoon? This is the Canadian Embassy calling, please come in tomorrow with your family and your passports so that we may arrange for your visas.”
When he hung up the phone he shouted Yippeeee! and Yahooooo! Shahad started to cry, Ilham was incoherent and the whole family was jubilant. It could be that they will be with us for the next fundraiser.
We have had some dark hours, all of us, wondering if this day would ever come. But our patience has been rewarded and our dream is coming true!
Saad got news yesterday that one of his friends that had his interview with the Canadian Embassy in Damascus 43 days after theirs, has been approved to come to Canada. I told him that I was actually cheered by that, which means that the 9-10 month window of approval is actually correct. We knew because of his military history that his application would take somewhat longer. So I am not downhearted at all, I think it is good news.
This has dragged on so long that Saad has to go and pay $135 to renew his Visitor Visas. As part of this, they have to all get AIDS tests and chest x-rays. He said he had to do some serious sucking up and had to tuck $10 into his passport when he gave it to the man.
I checked with our MP’s office this afternoon. They were going to check on the progress of the application. The embassy has emailed them the following:
Please be advised that Mr. Al-Sadoon’s application is still pending the receipt of the background checks results. At this time we cannot predict how long these checks will take.
Please also be informed that background checks are conducted by Canada and we have no control over this process but we expect it will take several more months.
Hanna at Jean Crowder’s office also wrote:
I regret that this e-mail could not be more encouraging. As we are still well within normal processing times for privately sponsored refugee applications however, there is little more that can be done at this point. For a comprehensive list of processing times please see the following link: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/11-ref-private.asp
I will also be following up with the embassy in a few months to check if the background investigation has been completed and get an estimated timeline for a decision.
The Cowichan River
I am somewhat choked by this, but I guess the process is the process. I spent 1½ hours on line with Saad today, cheering him up. They are so tired and so bored. So I kept sending him pictures of the Cowichan River and Cowichan Bay and Chemainus and Duncan to show him where they will be living.
Thanya will be talking to him tomorrow morning, too.
We also talked of songs we liked and he said that when he was a young man before he was married, he was considered a very good dancer. There was a man at a nightclub who offered to pay him to come and dance a half an hour every night and he would be paid. Saad refused because he said if his father found out, he would have killed him!
Getting Arab men to dance is like asking them to donate a kidney—they want to help, but are unsure how goofy the idea seems. Arabs are very self conscious; more so than the Mormon kids I know.
So he will have to give us a demo when he arrives here! Whenever THAT is. Especially if he can dance like THIS guy!!
While Ilham has had all the dentistry she needs, Saad continues to go back to the dentist to continue the process of fixing his upper teeth.
From what I could gather today, what ever the dentist did hit one of his his cranio-facial nerves and he was in agony. He did get some pain killers from the dentist but for some reason he did not want to take them until later. He was trying to act normally, but I could see the pain in his face. Poor guy.
In the meantime, we have been talking about snakes. He hates snakes. Across the street from the internet cafe there is a store where they sell snakes and birds. It seems that the owner sometimes walks around holding snakes in his hands and the other day, he walked into the cafe. Saad practically hit the roof and started gabbling about being brave and laughing hysterically. It was very funny.
Camel Spiders of Iraq
But I can’t laugh because I am afraid of spiders. And in Iraq there is a giant spider called the camel spider. Saad has heard of them but has never seen one. they can move at 10 mph. Eeeeek.
We have spoken several times to Saad and the family since the moved to their new home The new internet cafe is only 4 minutes away, so he can easily bring the family from time to time.
He was very funny today, telling me about Italian tourists and talking in pseudo-Italian, that sounded suspiciously like “spaghettimacaronisignora.” Also paraded his English accent which is hilarious.
We have been trying to set up a yahoo Messenger meeting between Saad and Ilham and our friends in Victoria, Mehjin and his lovely wife, whose name I cannot spell! It was to have happened today, but they have a large party coming to their restaurant on Thursday and must begin preparations today.
Perhaps next week. They thought we should phone the Canadian Consul for Immigration in Damascus to enquire about the status of the application. I asked our MP’s office but they replied:
Just to clarify, at the 9 month mark it is early in the time frame for applications to be processed. At 9 months, 30% of applications are processed and 80% of applications are finalized in 18 months.
The last status update that I received was on April 13th when the embassy told me that they are conducting background checks using an outside agency and thus they have no control over that aspect of the process. However, the family will be contacted when the background checks are completed.
As you say Sharon, it is certainly not time to panic; we just need to be patient! This is the process and the timelines are long, but it is entirely within the jurisdiction of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
They will check again in 2 weeks. What makes it a little hard to bear is that a lady he knows whose initial interview was after his, has already been giving permission to come here. Sigh.
On Thursday, the day they arrived, Dunia, the reporter for Shaw TV went to the airport with her and others to greet the family, and she filmed their whole day. She is also an immigrant from Iraq so could speak Arabic with them! Then they went into Victoria and had lunch at an Iraqi restaurant; another chance for family to meet people from their home country. On the way home (a very hot day), they stopped in Mill Bay and the children had their first chance to see and wade in the ocean. Once they reached Duncan, a friend was there at the apartment with a lovely meal prepared for them. It was a very big and exciting day for everybody.
