How I immigrated to Canada?

It was in 1977 6 months after my 20th Birthday, that I followed my parents and two of my youngest brothers along on our last trip to Canada.  Let me tell you! What a trip! It took 30 hours from Brussels to our BC location.  By train from Brussels, waving goodbyes to our Grandparents and uncle and aunt.  Boy it was hard! on our way to Oostende.  Taking the ferry to England and the train again to London.  Finally on our way to Calgary, Alberta in Canada and then to a location in BC and by car from there for an hour with some friends to our final destination.  We were all very tired and now we just had to settle in our new country.  It was the hardest part, we felt lost.  The country that welcomed us as tourist had changed but still welcoming somehow.  I found out on my part that the bakery I had worked at as a landed immigrant had shut down and I had to do what I hated most, looking for a job not only in a different language but in a different culture with different thinking. I was added to the long list of unemployed people in July '77 and in August found a job, 300km from home.  I had never been that far from my parents, but I had to learn fast.  It took a month at that job in a large hotel as a pastry chef to find out I was no good for the job.  Everyone in Canada we had met had praised European baking and bakeries but one thing no one knew is that I had come from a country where the apprenticeship was not as rigorous at the time as Canada.  I had been used at my jobs. I was paying for it now.  Maybe also my mental illness that had not been diagnosed yet kept me from learning my trade.  Nevertheless,  I found a job making croissants in Vancouver and that was fun.  I still remember the wage was $4.50 Canadian.  I was so happy to make that much money but with inflation going up I have found it doesn't look as good as it seems.  In Belgium, I had been paid a salary and was not used to having coffee breaks and 8 hour shifts.  It took me a while to get used to those.  I lasted about 2 weeks at that job because I had to commute between Chilliwack and Vancouver every day

Meanwhile, I kept learning the bad and the good of the English language as I wondered from jobs to jobs in bakeries of all sorts and even working through the night sometimes to earn a living.  I had to make a decision as I noticed that cooks had more choices in their trade I decided to follow a one year course on cooking that changed my life for the better, not because of the course but of whom I met.  This was a life changing experience as some would call religious but it was far more than that it gave me hope forever.

After that year I had also met at the course a friend who spoke to me about a Christian camp that was in operation but is no more.  It was a camp who helped teenagers who had been in trouble with the law and were given another chance in life.  A chance to better their lives by learning new skills.  Eventually I taught them baking as I knew it and cooking.  They would come out of that camp with new found confidence and a spark in their eyes.  They needed hope.  Later on, in my life I found out that yes we all need hope and I needed hope to get me through life as I found out about my mental illness.  You need hope too and I am not ashamed to give it to you through Jesus Christ.

Have a great day!