Walking together: Healing and hope for Colombian refugees

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w a l k i n g t o g e t h e r 51 Social situations and interpersonal relations: Many interviewed Colombians alluded to differences in terms of equality and social stratification. As displaced people in Colombia they had experienced discrimination and marginalization in Colombia. Being treated as equals in Canada was one of the most common observations about the cultural differences they had noticed since arriving in Canada. “In Colombia people recognized me around the country and I was well liked as a newscaster and journalist. After my displacement I used to be embarrassed easily. In Colombia you have to wear nice clothes, a suit and tie, if you go to the bank or go out shopping. Here you don’t have to do that, no one is paying attention to how I dress, to what I eat. If I go into the bank with sandals and shorts, no one cares. Here there isn’t discrimination about what one is buying, whether I’m buying rice and eggs (food for a poorer person) or whether I’m buying meat (food for a richer person).” - Carlos “I realize that no one looks at you here. If you are walking in flip flops it looks normal. People mind their own business, their shopping - they aren’t paying attention to you. It is a different culture, but they see us as normal. It’s not like in Colombia where if you go to a bank or to a store wearing simple clothing the door guards ask you what you want, what you are doing there....[Here] if you don’t speak English people try to help you.” - Roberto “It’s neat to learn about another culture. We’ve noticed a lot of differences: At the supermarket women with little children go ahead. Children are given a lot of privileges here. Honesty: we left our wedding rings in a doctor’s office, later we returned and they had saved them for us.” - Jorge “There are times when I’m walking on the street and people that I don’t know greet me saying ‘good morning.’ They don’t look at me they way they did in Colombia - when one walks in the street and when a rich person passes they look down on you. The people treat me much better here...My son felt a lot of discrimination in Colombia, he was considered a “special child” and wasn’t allowed to attend school, and here they treat him like any other child. He is not the same as he was in Colombia. Here he is waking up, he is adapting to the other children. He speaks more! He understands a lot. He is learning to write. He has many friends and the teachers love him. He is learning how to greet people with his hand rather than by hugging.” - Adriana Driving etiquette: Observations about compliance with the rules of the road speak to the difference between being behind the wheel in Colombia and in Canada.
52 w a l k i n g t o g e t h e r “Here drivers come to a complete stop at every stop sign. When we told our sponsors that in Colombia we also have stop signs, but no one respects them, they replied that here there is a $250 fine for not stopping. I am not sure if Canadians obey the rules because of fear of a fine, or because of their culture of proper conduct. I think it is a combination of both.” - José Differences in diet: Some Colombians commented on encountering surprises as they were served their first meals in Canada. “When we arrived to the apartment we were really hungry because of the trip. There was some roasted chicken in the apartment. We told our sponsors that we hadn’t eaten, so they heated up the chicken. When we bit into the chicken we were shocked to discover that it didn’t taste like anything! It didn’t have any flavour! Here they eat raw vegetables - in Colombia we eat cooked vegetables. It was really funny for us to eat raw vegetables. We had to keep ourselves from laughing out loud.” - Sara Hope for building intercultural community: Despite what may initially seem like great cultural differences, even barriers, Colombian refugees are hopeful about the possibility of developing mutual understanding with their new Canadian friends and communities. “We hope to accustom ourselves to the Canadian “human warmth.” We can’t say that here there is no human warmth, only that it is very different from the Latino human warmth.” - José “We are human, and we are with other human beings. We have the possibility of mutual understanding with one another with any human society in the world. We have differences in our customs and certain elements in our society, but there are common elements that unite us in our identity. As believers in God, we have the identity and hope to be able to connect with and understand people in any part of the world.” - David RESOURCES ON COLOMBIAN CULTURE Although some of the following resources fail to mention - or seem to even deny - the presence of an armed conflict in Colombia, they are excellent resources to learn more about the many beautiful aspects of Colombia and Colombian culture. The official tourism website of Colombia has information on the cultures, traditions, food, and holidays of many different different regions of Colombia: http://www.colombia.travel/en/ BBC Country Profiles page has up to date information on Colombia: CIA World Factbook entry on Colombia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html The official youtube channel for tourism in Colombia has many high quality videos showing Colombia and it’s culture: http://www.youtube.com/user/Colombiatravel Though dated, much of the information remains relevant on this Citizenship and Immigration Canada profile for Colombia: http://www.cp-pc.ca/english/colombia/index.html
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Walking together: Healing and hope for Colombian refugees

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