This is a First Person column by Syn Amanuel, who lives in Calgary. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, see the FAQ.
Daybreak Alberta5:25First Person: Syn Amanuel
When Syn Amanuel first arrived in Canada as a refugee, she says she hated Canada until one fateful night. Her’s is the latest in CBC’s first person writing series. Here she is writing it for us.
Two years after I arrived as a refugee in Canada, I returned to Africa to get married and to visit the rest of my family, who were refugees in Sudan.
I was telling everyone who asked that I hated Canada — the winter and how difficult life was — until one specific night, when my brother came to wake me in the courtyard at 3 a.m.
“Wake up, we need to get inside.”
“But I want to sleep outside where I can breathe freely.”
“Not tonight, a sand and dust storm is approaching.”
We rushed into the one tiny room where my mother and two brothers were living.
The wind started to blow furiously outside in the small, dirt compound. Inside, we sat in darkness with the windows shut and without even electricity to power a fan. The sound of rain outside was just blowing sand. I felt like I was buried alive.
When morning finally arrived, all I wanted was to pour water over my head, but that wasn’t available either. And the thermometer read 50 C, the maximum it could register.
Miserable, I sat under a tree in the compound.
And in that moment, the strangest thing happened — I actually wished for what I hated most. Winter!
I longed for the snow of Canada and finally realized that as difficult as things were for me in Canada, they were far better than what my family faced in Sudan.
Syn Amanuel cuts potatoes outside the small room where her family stayed while they were refugees in Sudan. (Submitted by Syn Amanuel)
I didn’t know it then, but I’ve since learned there are specific stages that many refugees go through, similar to the stages of grief. The first is a honeymoon phase, with a sense of relief and accomplishment for having made it to a safe country. Then reality kicks in with Stage 2, a stage of grief and hardship.
When you are a refugee, you are a nobody. You’ve lost your identity. Everything that you once believed to be true and familiar is jeopardized and you’re rebuilding a life from scratch.
In 2001, my sister and I fled persecution in Eritrea and were among the first Eritreans to arrive in Saint John. And although the local community was incredibly kind, they had little idea how to help us. We learned by trial and error. We literally had to open many cans and bottles to taste if it was close to what we were accustomed to eating. I have lasting scars from frostbite on my legs, from when I didn’t understand how to protect myself.
I was working two full-time jobs to support myself and my family back home, and to repay the immigration loan for my air ticket. I worked overnight shifts as a health care aide. My colleagues assumed I would sleep during the day, but that’s when I worked at Tim Hortons.
My colleagues assumed I would sleep during the day, but that’s when I worked at Tim Hortons.– Syn Amanuel
I thought I knew basic English but I was lost when customers ordered a “double-double,” and the term “feeling blue” seemed completely unrelated to emotions.
I felt exhausted, overwhelmed. Only the support of my faith community kept me going. My beliefs were the reason I left home, and meeting with my spiritual family three times a week brought me a sense of belonging in the midst of the pain.
The third stage in many refugee journeys is adaptation and acceptance. For those first two years, this seemed distant and unattainable. I wasn’t even trying.
Until the night that I experienced the sandstorm in Sudan.
It was my wake-up call, prompting me to reconsider my mindset. When I got back to Canada, life was still difficult but that spark of gratitude helped me transition into the recovery phase.
It took roughly six years, but I slowly grew comfortable with the new culture and surroundings. I moved to Hamilton, Ont., and took a one-year diploma course in medical administration, which opened the door to a better job.
My husband arrived and we moved to Calgary. Here, we were able to buy a house, and the city is so culturally diverse, I no longer feel like an outsider. I work in east Calgary, out of an office located amidst the many ethnic shops and restaurants of International Avenue.
Syn Amanuel now feels settled and grateful to be in Calgary, where she lives with her husband Melaku and children Zema, left, and Amron. (Submitted by Syn Amanuel)
Plus, the rest of my family was able to come. That took 10 years but finally my brothers, sister and parents all live together in the same city again.
Today, I can look back and see those stages in my journey. I’ve seen these stages in the lives of other refugees as well. For 15 years, I’ve been first volunteering to help settle newly-arrived refugees and am now doing so in a professional capacity as a licensed immigration consultant. Many people get shocked by the scale of the challenges they still face.
I want to share my story to give them hope, to tell them they won’t always feel like a refugee.
I also wanted to thank those who sponsored and welcomed me. Since I was sponsored by the Canadian government, that means my gratitude is toward the whole Canadian society.
Canada welcomed me with open arms 22 years ago, whether I was in a state of mind to appreciate it or not. And today I’m giving back to the community in my work and volunteer life; I didn’t let you down.
It’s been a long journey but now Canada is my home, even though I still hate winter.
Telling your story
As part of our ongoing partnership with the Calgary Public Library, CBC Calgary is running in-person writing workshops to support community members telling their own stories. Read more pieces from our workshop at the Village Square library in east Calgary.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Schools in Mexico will have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or else face heavy fines, officials said Monday.
The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile. School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense, amounting to nearly a year’s wages for some of them.
Mexico’s children have the highest consumption of junk food in Latin America and many get 40% of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund which labeled child obesity there an emergency.
The new ban targets products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday schools would have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.
“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum said. “It is much better to drink hibiscus flower water than soda.”
However, the vast majority of Mexico’s 255,000 schools nationwide do not have free drinking water available to students. According to a report in 2020, the effort to install drinking fountains succeeded in only about 10,900 of the country’s schools, or about 4% of them. Many Schools are located in areas so poor or remote that they struggle to maintain acceptable bathrooms, internet connection or electricity.
Also the most common recipes for beans, refried beans, usually contain a significant dose of lard, which would violate rules against saturated fats.
Mexico instituted front-of-package warning labels for foods between 2010 and 2020, to advise consumers about high levels of salt, added sugar, excess calories and saturated fats. Some snack foods carry all four of the black, octagonal warning labels.
But under the new rules, schools will have to phase out any product containing even a single warning label from school snack stands. It wasn’t immediately clear how the government would enforce the ban on the sidewalks outside schools, where vendors usually set up tables of goods to sell to kids at recess.
Mexican authorities say the country has the worst childhood obesity problem in the world, with about one-third of children overweight or obese.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
