As Others See Us

I recently attended a retirement party for a former colleague, a teacher who came to Canada twenty-some years ago, a single parent with two young children in tow, fleeing from war in Lebanon.

I realized how brave she had been as her children recounted - with laughter and tears - some of the memories of their early years. The strangest of all was their arrival on October 31 - Halloween. When they stepped off the plane, they were bewildered by the strange people they saw around them. Witches. Others with painted faces, wearing strange clothing.

We were afraid, my colleague May recounted. I thought I had made a terrible mistake and  I wanted to go back. I had chosen Canada over Australia because I remember reading somewhere that Australia had been a penal colony made up of criminals sent from Britain. So I chose Canada. We arrived - and then this!

I thought of another immigrant, a young woman from Somalia who had been in my English class during my teaching days. She laughingly told me that she had fainted when she first arrived. A woman approached her to help her. But she had long red fingernails, something my student had never seen before: I thought her fingers were dripping blood and that she was coming to attack me, so when she approached, I collapsed in a faint.

(Would it be too much to conclude that we never know what kind of an impression we are making?!)