Page 14 - SAFFER 07

Canada – My Personal Perspective
by Steve Coetzee

Chapter 2 - A Strange Beautiful World want to stand in his way. Nicole starts the same whining
which I quickly put a stop to. She still needs to complete her
schooling. Annie gets Nicole registered at the school and we
are set to start our new life. I have purchased a 3-cylinder
Pontiac Firefly for transportation to work while Annie utiliz-
es the well-organized transit system.

Weekends afforded us the opportunity to investigate our
beautiful surroundings. Lynn Valley Canyon, with the
cool river flowing down from the mountains surrounding
Vancouver, is always an awesome calming place to relax and
enjoy long walks with the dogs.

It is September 2000 with Nicole back in School. Annie is
having a tough time emotionally with David back in Cape
Town. We had left South Africa to give our children an
opportunity that they would not get in South Africa and now
one of them was back where we did not want them to be. Life
settles down and fortunately on the work front, my employ-
ers have seen that I have much more to offer and employ me
permanently. This affords us the opportunity to start looking
for a permanent home. Nicole will finish her schooling in
two years and then we want to have a place we can call home.

Every year in autumn, Vancouver has an international
fireworks display and we join another ex-South African
couple to watch the fireworks from a vantage point up Mount
Seymour, one of the three ski slopes surrounding Vancouver.
I have consumed a number of frosties, so Annie drives the
Firefly. The road up to Seymour is steep and winding and
soon I smell a burning clutch. Annie was not used to the
small Firefly with the pedals so closely placed and was resting
her foot on the clutch which was enough to cause the slip-
With the two rebellious children complaining about not hav- page. We make it up the hill without further mishap but the
ing friends and how they miss Cape Town, Annie and I have clutch will not last much longer so I will have to find alter-
our hands full in educating ourselves in the Canadian job nate transportation soon.
market. We are totally clueless if our South African qualifi-
cations are good enough to land us work at the same level we The autumn is gorgeous and with the amazing autumn col-
had been or if we would have to start over. At 43 years of age ours and leaves on the ground the whole world changes. The
this is a daunting task for me to tackle. Annie however is first family settles into life without David and Nicole is prosper-
off the mark and lands a job with a reputable company. ing at school. Annie and I take weekends to investigate our

Two weeks later, after walking the streets with resume in
hand, I land an interview with MTU Maintenance Canada
and a contract position. We have also managed to find a rent-
al in North Vancouver and move in at the first opportunity.
It is a new home but without furniture, as ours was on the
high seas for another three months, we purchase mattresses
and sleep on the floor. A desktop computer and desk open up
communication back to South Africa for all and the televi-
sion ends up on the box it came in.

Much to our dismay and Annie’s heartache, David insists
on returning to South Africa. He needs to be with Bianca,
his girlfriend and other close friends. I am angry but do not

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