YWCA Settlement Services staff, clients and volunteers learn some line dancing steps from an instructor during a holiday celebration.  (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Home for the holidays

Newcomers celebrate first holiday season in Canada

Dec 23, 2019 | 4:00 PM

Prince Albert welcomed over 100 refugees this summer.

On Friday, many of them celebrated the holidays at a party at YWCA Settlement Services. The event included plenty of food and a line dancing lesson.

Among those enjoying the festivities were Mutaganda Emmanuel and Bugeni Siliva. The couple arrived in Prince Albert with their three children in September.

Mutaganda Emmanuel (left) and Bugeni Siliva stand with their two year-old son. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW staff)

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, they had spent nine years living in a refugee camp in Uganda before coming to Canada.

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Through an interpreter, Emmanuel explained that Christmas is the most important holiday in Uganda, celebrated by going to church and eating a special once-in-a-year meal.

“It’s mainly about food,” he said. “If you’ve never slaughtered a big animal, maybe a cow or a goat, every family would like to slaughter some kind of animal and then you all come together as a community and eat.”

Emmanuel said he and his wife were initially unsure what they could do to make their Christmas dinner meaningfully unique this year with easy access to so much food, particularly meat, in Canada.

“How can we still make it special? We plan on now having our own African meal because it’s rare to find African food in Prince Albert so we’d like to go to Saskatoon to buy it where there’s an African shop,” he said.

The couple said their first three months in Canada were going really well, but their biggest challenge has been the language barrier. They are both taking English classes at the YWCA.

As for the weather, though they find it very cold, they’re learning to bundle up and don’t think the prairie winter will be a problem compared to what they’ve been through as refugees.

During the conversation with paNOW, their settlement counsellor Jered Nsimba translated for them.

Nsimba is also Congolese and has a similar story of coming to Prince Albert after spending years in a refugee camp in Uganda.

When he thinks of Christmas in the camp he thinks of drinking Coca-Cola.

“So back home, it’s something that’s so special,” he said. “That is the day where the leaders will get money and supply people with a Coca-Cola or Fanta. So to them it’s really Christmas, especially for the children.”

Nsimba arrived in January 2017 and began working for the YWCA about a year ago.

“My smile never ceases,” he said. “Even picking up people from the airport, my supervisor usually sends me because I’m excited just knowing I’m going to be part of this transformation journey for somebody out here.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom