Posted on October 31, 2016 under Monday Morning Musings with 4 comments

The Reddy family celebrating Diwali

Symmetry: A sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance.

India is a busy country… a very busy country. From the moment you step off the plane, you notice that perpetual motion is a way of life. Nowhere is this more apparent than navigating the streets of large cities.

I’m a small town boy and the rhythm of our town is unhurried and predictable. With a small population, traffic is never a big issue and the flow of vehicles is quite orderly. We have traffic lights which control when to start and stop and sidewalks for passengers to make their way safely as they go about their daily lives. As a matter of fact, the town is so laid back that most pedestrians are able to cross our Main Street ( there’s only one! )  without the use of traffic signals. Car drivers are uncommonly polite and will let you step out into oncoming traffic without fear of being struck.

I arrived in Hyderabad, India after being awake for the better part of 40 hours after travelling half way around the globe. I was met by my driver, Khadir shortly after 6:00 a.m. I had watched several Youtube videos about India so I wasn’t totally shocked with what I saw on the 45 minute drive to my home for the next 4 months.

In Canada, the highways , roads and streets are there for the pleasure of vehicles. Any other form of life who interferes, does so at their own  peril.

After getting my things unpacked and meeting several of my new colleagues, I decided to take a little walk as I hadn’t had any exercise in the previous two days… unless you call “ cringing when two babies screech on a plane for 10 hours, ” exercise!

The temperature was in the low 30’s as I exited the APMAS complex. I started up the street and the first two inhabitants were a cow and a goat. “ Hey, you’re in India, get used to it,” was the small talk going through my sleep deprived head. Things got very chaotic as the road became a tangled web of taxis, scooters, buses, animals ( lots and lots of dogs ) and aforementioned pedestrians. I was told by Khadir earlier in the day that honking the horn was mandatory in India so at least I was somewhat prepared for the cacophony that ensued. It is one thing to watch a Youtube video. Experiencing it live and in person is another thing altogether.

With no sidewalks, I had no choice but to join the fray. I quickly discovered the rules of the road: there are no rules. It is every man and animal for themselves. I realized quickly that walking, which used to be a pedestrian activity, was now a matter of survival. I am an avid walker and clipping off 8-10 kilometers is no big deal. After less than a kilometer of navigating the city streets of Hyderabad, in 30 degree heat , with no sleep, I decided that heading back to my residence and getting some sleep was a better use of my time.

Growing up, we were taught to count sheep when we were trying to get to sleep. I lay my head down on my pillow and started counting dogs.

 

Have a great week! 

Posted on October 27, 2016 under Storytelling with 14 comments

 

The first part of the journey is over….travelling to India. Next up is the adventure of discovering a new country and a completely different culture.

Most times, the precursor to a long trip is a lousy sleep. Mission accomplished. Five hours of fitful sleep and I finally gave up at 4:00 a.m. ( Tuesday 25^th. ). I flew to Toronto late afternoon and spent a lovely seven hours hanging out at Pearson airport, that wonderful, warm architectural edifice that only the owner could love.

They have done a “ do over” of the International departure area and it is actually quite pleasant. However, despite the hordes of people and the dizzying array of flights to every corner of the globe, it was surprisingly quiet. It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on. At every departure lounge, there were hundreds of small work stations with free Ipads. There was virtually no other seating…. None of those nice high back chairs to pass away the time.

Every single human being that wasn’t in a lineup getting to board a flight had their nose pressed to one or more electronic devices. And guess what? To ensure that you didn’t have to interact with any of those annoying human beings, you could place an order at one of the food kiosks or restaurants without having to get off your butt. All you had to do was go to the restaurant menus conveniently located on the home page of the Ipad and presto, you could place your order… and pay for it with a credit card machine sitting right beside the ipad.

It looked like zombie world. I know this is progress but there was zero human contact. No one was talking with anyone else.

Thirteen hours on a plane. I know that many of you have travelled to places like Australia that are long haul flights but this was a first for me. And boarding a plane at 11:00 at night, feeling like one of the aforementioned zombies, was thought provoking. I knew that I would get some sleep and sure enough I nodded off before we even taxied down the runway.

Then a funny thing happened. After previously dimming the lights so that people could sleep, at 1:00 a.m., exactly two hours into the flight, the lights came on and we were served a hot dinner. I have never knowingly ( maybe when I was a student at X?! ) eaten creamed chicken and soggy veggies at this ungodly hour.

There were several infants on the plane, some of them conveniently located a mere row away from me.

There were a few fairly decent crying attacks, one lasting 7.5 hours and the other, 5.5 hours. I’m exaggerating of course but not by a whole lot. There weren’t many quiet moments on the trip. One poor little guy obviously had some kind of ailment and repeatedly coughed and sneezed non stop ( every six seconds…I counted! ) for three solid hours. Instead of sleeping I watched reruns of Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls. Desperate times call for desperate measures! And before you could say “ Wake up Little Susie”, they were serving cold cut sandwiches at 5:00 a.m. ,Toronto time.

Oh yes. We played a game of “seat swap” with my two seatmates, a middle aged man and a ten year old girl, both Sri Lankans. The little girl couldn’t quite decide where she wanted to sit and repeatedly asked to move. Doing this in a bus is one thing but inside a sardine can is quite another. I’m wondering if Air Canada could possibly make it any more uncomfortable for flying?

I must  say that their map of the route is impressive. It was very interesting crossing wide swaths of Europe and seeing places that you’ve heard of hundreds of times. Our path took us near Turkey and Syria which got my attention. The cities of Aleppo and Ankara both popped up… places where the Almashhouds lived before moving to Canada.

Have a great weekend.

Posted on October 25, 2016 under Faces in the Crowd with no comments yet

The Almashhoud family arrival at Stanfield International Airport – October 11, 2016

“We were so excited and relieved when we got the call that we had been accepted to travel to Canada. The suffering was going to end, and we were about to start a new life.”

Meet the Almashhoud family.

Aleppo is situated in the northwest corner of Syria, near the border of Turkey.  It is believed to be among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. Yaser Almoustafa Almashhoud and his eight siblings were born into a middle class family. His future wife, Raghda Ahmad, and her seven brothers and sisters were also born in Aleppo. Her father taught at a trade school and owned an appliance repair shop. Both families lived a very peaceful existence.

During his high school years, Yaser had worked part time as a car mechanic so it was no surprise that he enrolled at the Syrian Republic Institute to take a car mechanic course. After graduation he did two and a half years of mandatory military service. Early in the new millennium he changed course and joined forces with his brother, who had a business in the burgeoning satellite television industry. The first satellite dish that he installed was at his parents’ house where he was living at the time. He was hooked on electronics.

Like many Syrian men, the trajectory of his life was fairly predictable: complete high school; take additional studies at a community college or university; complete military service; get a job; get engaged; get married after achieving some financial stability, and have a family. And, like the fairy tales, they would live happily ever after.

The fairy tale would eventually become a nightmare.

There is a Syrian proverb that goes something like this: “When you get engaged, the money will come.” Because of the success of the business, Yaser and Raghda were able to get married in 2002. The next ten years brought happiness and prosperity as Yaser and Raghda moved to increasingly larger houses with the births of their four children, Shahd, Nour, Mohamad and Yousuf.

The satellite dish market became saturated quickly, so Yaser moved into the new and exciting field of cell phone repair and service. Like most places in the world, cell phones were transforming the way people communicated.  He quickly became proficient with the technology and opened a small shop. From humble beginnings, the business flourished.

The rumblings of civil unrest began in the south of Syria in 2011. By 2012, Aleppo started to experience protests against the regime. These were peaceful gatherings with no signs of weapons or violence. This did not last long as the protests turned violent.  Yaser moved the family to a safer part of Aleppo. Things deteriorated quickly as they experienced food and fuel shortages. In late 2013, bombings erupted in the suburbs where the Almashhouds were living. The family was very frightened and at Raghda’s urging they decided to move to Idlib, where Raghda had relatives. The trip was not without incident as the terrified family encountered sniper fire along the route.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Idlib, Yaser received a call from a neighbor in Aleppo inquiring about the family’s wellbeing. His friend was extremely concerned, as Yaser’s house has been flattened by a bomb that day and he was worried that the family had been inside. To this day, Yaser credits his wife and children’s instinct that it had been time to leave Aleppo.

After a short stay in Idlib, the family then moved to Al Bab as there was no work for Yaser in Idlib. Yaser also has relatives in Al Bab. After a few days in their new locale, bombs started to rain down on the city. Yaser and the entire extended family decided that it was time to leave Syria and they agreed to go en masse to Turkey. The departure was scheduled for 10:00 in the morning but was delayed until 2:00 that afternoon.  Yaser took the opportunity to get a haircut and shave at a local barber shop. While sitting in the chair, he could hear explosions nearby. He received a frantic call from a cousin who informed him that the house where the other family members were waiting prior to departure had been destroyed by bombs. Nine relatives, including aunts and uncles, died that day.

The next few years found the family moving numerous times in Syria and Turkey as the civil war raged on. Yaser eventually opened another store in Aleppo. He witnessed carnage on a daily basis, often taking the dead and dying to nearby hospitals. One day, he heard mortar fire and stepped outside his shop to find the lifeless bodies of more than two dozen people.

After many relocations and dislocations, the family ended up in Kilis, Turkey. At one point, the family occupied a cold, barren house that had no furniture. The family huddled together, sleeping on the floor under a couple of blankets. They remained in Kilis until January of 2016 when that city experienced bombing. A friend jokingly inquired if Yaser and the family were interested in registering to travel to Canada. Yaser immediately completed the paperwork.

They moved to the Turkish city of Mersin and in April 2016, they received a call from the United Nations Refugee Agency. They were very excited that there was now a file open for possible resettlement in Canada. A clerical error resulting in an incorrect phone number on Yaser’s application caused a delay, as the Canadian Embassy was trying to track the family down to tell them that they had been cleared to travel to Canada.

While they waited for news they enrolled the children in school in Turkey. On the day school started, they received the life-changing call that they would fly from Istanbul to Canada on October 10^th of this year.

Near midnight on October 11^th, a tired but very excited Almashhoud family came down the stairs into the arrival area of the Halifax airport. They were greeted by a group of Antigonish residents, including members of our growing Syrian community.  

As this family continues their journey let us welcome them warmly, with wishes for peace and safety in their new home.