Like a human being
On the way in to work one day, I listened to a radio interview with Anas Al Abdullah, a Syrian refugee who had recently arrived in Toronto. It was wonderful to hear about what the experience had been like for him during his first week in Canada. It was heartbreaking to hear about what he had endured. It was moving to hear about the longing he felt for family members who will be arriving in Canada shortly. It was inspiring to hear about the sponsorship group in Toronto and the ways in which they had prepared for Anas’s arrival and how they had walked with him during his first days in this strange new land.
And it was impossible to hear Anas’s story without thinking of our own situation here in Lethbridge, Alberta—without looking ahead, imagining, dreaming, hoping. Since February, our local group has been collecting funds, raising awareness, and preparing for the arrival of families from Syria. But refugee sponsorship is no seamless uncomplicated process. There have been stops and starts and hiccups and detours along the way. Processes that I (naively, no doubt) think should take days or weeks have taken months. Information about specifics is thin on the ground. Government regulations and protocols seem to keep shifting and changing shape. As soon as I feel like I understand something or have some concrete idea about timelines, something changes. I keep being asked, wherever I go in the city, “When are the Syrian families coming?” And I keep saying, “I don’t know. Soon. Hopefully. I just don’t know.”
At times, it can be frustrating. We all want to be part of good and hopeful stories, but sometimes it feels like there is this un-traversable mountain of bureaucracy and red tape, this labyrinth of impenetrable paperwork standing between our little group and this good story that we’re waiting for. And if it feels this way for those of us on this side who are waiting to provide a welcome, I can’t even imagine how it must feel for the Syrian families who are waiting to come, families who have experienced so much hardship, so much loss, so much waiting.
