The Role of Faith

 

Souad Loka

 

Souad was born in Zakazeek, Egypt on February 15th, 1925 but she lived most of her life in Cairo. She remembers helping the poor through the work she did at her church and until now she works with the church in order to aid those who need it most. When she immigrated to Canada she donated her house in Egypt to the church.

 

Souad came to Canada in the early 1980s when she already was in her late 50s. She had two daughters and one son and she and her husband were sponsored by her son who already lived in Canada. She had no specific vision of or idea about Canada, and everything she knows about it was through her son who lived here.

 

The son is married to an Egyptian girl whom he met and got married to in 15 days. It was a traditional, arranged marriage. After she and her husband came to Canada, her two daughters, who were already married, followed them. Souad’s sisters, brothers and cousins followed suit.

 

Since Souad’s children were working, she babysat her 3 granddaughters which meant that she stayed at home most of the time without interacting with English-speaking Canadians. She regrets not learning English, and feels it would have been better had she worked outside the home and learned to rely on herself. Now she finds that she needs help with the smallest things, for instance, in reading and understanding a letter written in English. She is fluent in French but this doesn’t really help when you live in Toronto. When she first arrived in Canada, her son helped pay for her living expenses; however, now she lives on Ontario Works. Since she is inadequate in the English language, she dislikes interacting with people. She even stopped going to the bank, and after two months of taking money from the children and having them do the banking for her, her monthly payments from Ontario Works were stopped because they thought she had died and her children were taking the money.

 

She never interacted with other Canadians, only those of Arabic-speaking background. People in her church community were like one family, they called each other all the time or meet in the park with their respective grandchildren and exchanged stories.

 

Souad has noticed that Toronto has grown considerably since she first came here. In the 1980s she used to walk all along Ellington Street without seeing anyone and there were fields of plants and greenery on either side of the street with very tall grass. It was a bit scary because the streets were so empty. Compared to today’s standards, Square One was like a ghost town.

 

One of Souad’s saddest times in Canada was when her husband passed away. She misses him immensely, especially when she goes to church without him and sees the spot he used to occupy in the pews.

 

When she first came to Canada she was able to learn the laws and rules through friends and relatives, however, she finds that the difficult part is learning the culture, something that the person has to learn on their own. For example, in Egypt, it is very common for people to interfere in your private life, since the whole notion of privacy is based on the extended family system. In Canada, even if someone tells you their problems, they probably only want you to listen to them and not necessarily give advice or tell them how to conduct their personal affairs.

 

Although she remembers Egypt fondly and continues to send money to the poor through her church, the fact that all her children and family are here, makes her feel that Canada is now her new home and she doesn’t really want to go back to Egypt. She still celebrates the same holidays as she used to in Egypt, and her daily topics of conversation are the same, but all these take place in a new land. Because of her involvement in the church, she is able to travel with members of her community to places in London, Ontario and Buffalo in the United States. Her church group is her social network and provides her with a safe support system within which she can operate in a comfortable manner.

 

Souad is a woman of deep faith and her faith enables her to see the positive aspects in any situation. She believes that everything has its advantages and disadvantages but the person who walks in good health in life will not find it difficult to accomplish their goals. The person who lives a superficial life and wants to show off will never live happily.