National Adult Literacy Database

December 13, 2004

The following story was written by Lyndel Bullard, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lyndel took a writing course at the UFCW Local 832 Training Centre. He is the father of three daughters and works full-time, all of which keeps him very busy. He does take time to relax, though. Lyndel likes cooking and having fun; these are things that he spends his time doing when he's not at work.

A Better Way of Life

by Lyndel Bullard

Canada is much different from the country where I was born, Barbados, a small island in the Caribbean where the sun is hot most of the year. Before I left Barbados, I had only seen snow on TV. When I was told that we would be moving to Winnipeg, Canada, where my mother was living at the time, I was excited to go there, because I would be taking a plane for the first time. I was all set to see snow. Thinking back on that time, being so young, I had no idea that moving would mean for a long time. But at nine years of age, and my sister at six years of age, we were just very happy that we would be seeing our mother again. Telling our friends that we were about to go on a plane made us look good, and I can still remember people telling me, "You are so lucky to be leaving here."

As for living in Canada, there are three types of weather here. It goes from spring to fall to winter, and it can be really cold in parts of Canada at certain times of the year. It took me a while to get used to the cold. There was a time when I wanted to go back to Barbados, but I was told that I had to stay in Canada. In order to make my sister and me feel more comfortable, we were sent back home to Barbados every Christmas, until we were able to understand why we had to stay in Canada. And why did my family come to Canada? To have a better way of life.

[This story was taken from a collection of stories written by literacy students, pp.28-29, at the UFCW Local 832 Training Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The book is entitled Writing Our Voices.]