Once in a while, you get to be part of a moment that matters. Midnight on Monday night offered a moment like that, when Oliver’s long-awaited Syrian refugee family stepped off the airplane at the Penticton airport and suddenly transformed from hypothetical refugees into real people: Mom with an exhausted smile and an armload of sleeping two year old, Dad thanking the welcoming crowd in unexpectedly confident English, seven year old Yazam clutching a toy plane and watching with huge eyes, four year old Ghazal so tired she willingly tucked herself into any arms that would hold her. Not victims, not different: just a young, modern, awfully tired family.
They are here!
A day or two before the Al Lwisis arrived, Oliver’s Syrian Refugee Support Committee wrote an arrival announcement article, intending to submit it to the media when the family finally touched down in Penticton. It described the fundraising, planning, organizing and Government paperwork navigating that has been done to date by the Committee in preparation for the Al Lwisis’ arrival. Now that the family is here, however, all that seems insignificant compared to the fact that, after months of waiting for them in a refugee camp and for us in Oliver, they are finally here.
If the Al Lwisis worried about feeling alone and isolated in this overwhelmingly new place, their first few hours in Canada are hopefully dulling that fear. Despite the (VERY) late hour, a crowd of 40 – Oliverites young and old, a Syrian refugee family living in Summerland, and Arabic translators – met the Al Lwisis at the airport with balloons and stuffies, warm mittens and welcome signs, hugs and tears. Jamal Khawaja, new to Oliver himself, drove through the night from Vancouver to Oliver to deliver the family’s luggage that was unfortunately left behind in Vancouver. And the rental house they now call home offers comfort and safety, as well as home cooked meals waiting in the fridge, a welcome card signed by a huge number of Oliverites, a spice cabinet translated into Arabic, a playroom full of donated toys.
This is what community looks like. Thank you to the huge number of people in our town who have helped make these things and much more happen.
There is much yet to be said about how our community might best help the Al Lwisi family through the undoubtedly challenging road ahead. They have English to learn, a school and community to settle into, employment to find, and Canadian life to integrate into. But we’ll save that for another day and another article, because today is a day to celebrate.
They are here!
Welcome home, Mohammed, Nesreen, Yazan, Ghazal and Manessa! We look forward to getting to know you soon. But first, we wish you some very much needed sleep.