Settlement

My name is Mona. I moved to Canada from Sudan about five years ago. First, I came to Brooks, Alberta. I stayed in Brooks for one year and then I moved to New Hamburg, Ontario where I lived in a motel for one year. After that I came to Kitchener where I now live with my husband and a beautiful daughter.

I was excited to come to Canada as it is one of the most developed countries. I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a better future. But I was disappointed here by the difficult weather. It was also difficult to move on into my profession as a medical doctor, and there were lots of barriers facing me. First, it is not easy to learn a new language, and it is not easy to be away from my mother and sisters. I haven’t seen them for five years.

But I also met with nice people here. Today, I feel more comfortable dealing with a variety of people in Canada. I think one of the great things about Canada is that people generally accept differences between people -- differences in color, religion, and financial situations. Similar to my country, people don’t accept each other even though most of us are brown in color. We are divided into tribes. Every tribe thinks it is better than other tribes. Even people from one tribe refuse to marry someone from another tribe because they think they are better than the other tribe.

I found summer very beautiful in Canada. I walk with my daughter to a park every day. I like the water splashes, swings and slides. My daughter was inspired this summer as she started to play with other kids in the park. I also appreciate Canada government public services like free public schools for everyone. I especially like the YMCA as people over there helped me to write my resume and to apply for Canadian Citizenship. I like the respect I get here everywhere.

Before I got my driver license, I used to use public transportation. I like how it is organised and how all people respect time. In my country, I spent most of the day looking for a ride to go to university or to work. My final impression of Canada is that it is a good country to live in and earn more money, but you have to work hard to reach your goals and to live the life you dream.