MANITOULIN—Manitoulin’s newest residents, the Eritrean-Canadian families who arrived last month, are settling in nicely thanks to the hard work of an army of volunteers, while in Manitowaning, that community anxiously awaits its family, due to arrive on Tuesday, March 15.
“We are super excited,” said an enthusiastic Lianne Hovingh, representing the core group of volunteers that will help the Manitowaning family. “We have a family of seven: a father, mother, 22-year-old daughter, 21-year-old son, 19-year-old son, an 11-year-old son and an eight-year-old grandson.”
The house is ready to welcome them, although Ms. Hovingh admits with a laugh that it may have to be dusted first as its been ready to go for quite some time.
“The community has been fantastic,” she said of Assiginack, also taking the time to thank Ben and Sarah Quackenbush and the Little Current group for “paving the way” for the Manitowaning group, providing helpful advice along the way.
“We’ve been encouraged to walk alongside them,” Ms. Hovingh explained. “The first few weeks are crucial to meet their emotional needs. I have no expectations, but to walk alongside them. We will just do the best we can do.”
She noted that this family, like the larger Little Current family, is coming from a refugee camp and has likely been there for many years.
“It’s so exciting that we have a date and they’re actually coming,” Ms. Hovingh enthused.
In Little Current, Sarah Quackenbush couldn’t be any happier with the way things have gone for her family, a mother and two children: a girl, 7, and boy, 8—the same age as her own children.
“It was a very busy first week,” Ms. Quackenbush told The Expositor. “The family stayed with us the first week and our kids are the same age so they did what children do, played together—language wasn’t an issue. They are already absorbing so much English. By the end of the week they were already putting together short sentences.”
The children have fallen in love with snow, she was pleased to report, adding that she felt a little heartbroken when she told the boy that soon the snow would be gone and saw a tear appear in his eye. They have been doing what many Little Current children do in the wintertime: they’ve gone skating at the recreation centre, sledding at the Manor hill, went for a snowmobile ride, built snowmen and had a snowball fight.
Ms. Quackenbush sung the praises of Little Current Public School, where the two children are attending school. “The whole school has really gone above and beyond and really helped to make the transition a good one.”
The mother speaks some English and will soon start English as a second language (ESL) classes with the hopes of moving onto continuing education with an eye on elder care or perhaps housekeeping. Ms. Quackenbush said the mom is busy throughout the day sewing and learning to cook Canadian dishes, but is excited for the ESL classes to begin. “She just keeps saying thank you and is overjoyed to be here. She definitely wants to work hard and contribute.”
“One of our worries was bringing these families to Canada in the dead of winter,” Ms. Quackenbush admitted. “I kept thinking, ‘what are we doing?’ They went from 41° every day there now to this, but they bundle up and wear their snowpants, to the post office or to the grocery store, and they’re doing really well. They are so eager to try anything new.”
Ms. Quackenbush said the day they moved them into their new home they brought the family door to door to meet the neighbours. “Everyone was so nice,” she said, listing the comments such as ‘if you ever have any trouble you just come here,’ ‘I’ll shovel your driveway,’ ‘if you have problems with your plumbing, you come to me.’ “I know they’re surrounded by good people.”
In Western Manitoulin, Gore Bay has welcomed a grandmother and her teenaged son to the community and, according to volunteer Greg Bond, the pair are doing well and loving Manitoulin.
“Everyone I talk to, I tell them how impressed I am with them,” Mr. Bond said. “(The teenager) speaks pretty darn good English. His abilities, both speaking and reading, floor me.”
He noted that the grandmother spoke not a word of English, but is picking up words by the day. “The grandmother has been working really hard,” Mr. Bond said. “She’s a tiny wee thing—five foot nothing and barely 100 pounds—but she’s tough as nails. They are the only ones left of their family, and she got him here.”
Mr. Bond noted that the teenager started school the same day as the Little Current teenagers and “loves it.”
“And the school did a stunningly brilliant thing,” he added, explaining that the new students are all taking two gym classes, music, art and math. “It gets them socialized, improves their English and gets them credits—they can launch into the tough stuff this fall.”
Mr. Bond said that the teen is also mesmerized by hockey and has caught a number of games at the Gore Bay arena. He also watched a bit of Ontario Hockey League play at Mr. Bond’s house on Sunday afternoon.
“They’re adapting well, but they have a long way to go yet,” he said, adding that the next phase is to continue to work on the grandmother’s English and teaching them Canadian ways. Knitting classes will soon begin for the grandmother, a social outing too, and her two to three hour-long visits each day will continue.
In Mindemoya, the family the community has been so anxiously awaiting is on temporary hold as everyone, volunteers and the Canadian government included, didn’t realize there was a new addition to the family, a baby who didn’t have a Visa thereby halting the immigration process. The Mindemoya group is trying to make arrangements to get things moving for the new arrival, but time is of the essence.
Back in Little Current, the family of seven is also enjoying their new surroundings, schoolmates and getting to work.
Linda Erskine, the Little Current core group lead, explained that the family had a wonderful time with the other Eritrean families in Gore Bay over the weekend at a party hosted by Central Pharmacy proprietor Kidane Gebrekristose, a fellow Eritrean-Canadian. And on Monday, the adult son began work at a Little Current business, which he enjoyed very much. He also had opportunity to tap maple trees with Dr. Roy Jeffery, a member of the group.
The 21-year-old is a quick learner and eager to work. Anyone with odd jobs, and patience for the language barrier, is encouraged to think about hiring the young man on.
Ms. Erskine said the group is also putting a call out for senior volunteers, also with patience, to step forward to spend time with the mother, a widow in her 50s.
“With the adult son working and the children at school, the mom is going to be home alone,” Ms. Erskine said. “We are looking for people with patience to go in and bake with her while going through the ingredients in English, take her to the seniors’ group at the library some mornings, someone from the quilters guild or a sewing group to teach her handcrafts.” She added that on Friday night she will be taking the three boys to volleyball at LCPS and hopes someone from that group will take that role on henceforth.
Ms. Erskine said that a couple is also volunteering their time to teach other volunteers Cambridge ESL to teach the new family and asks that people consider signing themselves up for this task.
To volunteer with the Little Current family, contact Ms. Erskine at 705-282-4283 or email lmoshe7@hotmail.com.
“They are such lovely people,” Ms. Erskine concluded.
