Let me tell you about a funny story that happened to me on the first day I landed in Canada. Before I came to this new country nearly a year ago, my husband and I gathered contact information for a few acquaintances we could contact while in Canada. We spoke to one of them and they recommended we reserve a house belonging to our religious community in the city. Once everything was assured and settled, we moved. A person working for this community picked us up at the airport late in the evening and brought us to our new home. He handed us the key, told us about the facilities and left quickly.
We entered and experienced our first impression of Canada. The smell was atrocious! The previous tenants left the place a mess and forgot to clean the washroom toilet. What was more, the toilet refused to flush and we couldn't use it! The windows were all broken and wind easily got into the house. It was too cold to stay inside. There were no locks for the house and very unsafe. We could hear rattling sounds coming from cockroaches and other eerie night crawler noises. We were too terrified to go upstairs or downstairs for fear of bugs, animals or criminals. There was nowhere to sleep except for on a filthy, bug infested mattress on the floor! Instead of sleeping on the mattress, we stayed up thinking about what we could do. We tried using wireless internet but could not get a signal. We tried finding someone on the road we could ask for help but there wasn't a single person around. We felt as if we were in a desert. Since none of the utilities were working, we decided to wait outside to see whether anyone from our religious community would help us with our dilemma.
Once we spoke to our religious leader the next morning, we discovered the house was more than 100 years old. The church had bought this house on this land to eventually restore and improve facilities. It wasn't meant for us to use and the information for us to use this house was miscommunicated. We were finally able to contact a relative in Toronto and were welcomed to stay for as long as was needed. They were very hospitable and made us finally feel welcome in Canada. We now live in a house and are doing very well. Looking back on that time, we laugh about that night.
