Settlement

My husband came to Canada sixteen years ago. He was the first one to settle in Canada before our family. He was a student here and when he finished his studies, he was able to sponsor me and my daughter. I came to Canada on February 1, 2011. It was a bittersweet moment when I left my country, Nepal. I still remember the day when I landed here. It was snowing heavily. I had never seen so much snow in my life. The temperature was around -15 degrees Celsius. I never experienced that much cold in my life. When we got into the car and headed home, I looked outside and saw the houses here looked smaller but the roads seemed bigger and wider than those in my first country. I was very sad to have left Nepal, my parents and my home, but at the same time, I was so happy. Finally, my daughter and I were reunited with my husband here in Canada.

We stayed at our family friend’s house for a week and then moved into a basement apartment. I never lived in a basement before. All the more, I never thought that you can live “underground.” There was no such thing called living in a basement in my country! The basement was very dark and I did not have a good feeling about it. Days passed by and I was alone at home most of the time. One instance, I encountered a dangerous insect. It was something that I have never seen in my whole life, and I was really petrified. I was crying to my husband most of the time because the horrible insect kept on coming back, and one became many! We informed the landlord but he did not do anything about it. I begged my husband to find a new apartment. Finally, we moved out after four months. Now looking back, I think I was brave enough to be able to persevere living in a basement. The encounter with the dreadful insect was also one of the funniest moments in my life because until now, I have not found out its name.

The toughest time of my life in Canada was when I got pregnant with my second daughter. I felt so alone and I missed my mother a lot during that time. My husband had to work from morning to night and my older daughter went to school during the day. I had no one to talk to. I had difficulty understanding English, at the same time, trying to figure out what other people were saying. I registered in an English class in a LINC centre near our home. I was so persistent to learn the language that I went to class every single day. All the persistence paid off because in no time, my communication skills got better.

I became more confident and I could talk more comfortably with anyone. I was so happy that people could finally understand me, so I gained more friends from other cultures. Also, I have become more patient when listening to what a person is saying and realized that I can follow instructions better than before.

Despite all the challenges I went through, I overcame them with the support of my family and my two daughters. Overall, it has been a great and worthwhile journey for me in which the three P’s—patience, persistence and perseverance—have played a big role in my life. I have learned that if you have these qualities, you can accomplish great things. It has been almost six years since I came here and I am really grateful that I am in Canada. So now I am used to the cold and the heavy snow in the winter, and the roads do not seem that big and wide at all.