National Adult Literacy Database

September 6, 1999

Peter is a learner from the Learners Speakers Bureau in Manitoba.

 

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Peter Friesen's Story

by Peter Friesen

My name is Peter Friesen. I was born in Mexico in 1963. I started going to school at the age of six, but I didn't enjoy it because the teacher didn't like me. I felt like I couldn't please him because he was always mad at me. Then, when I came home from school my dad got mad at me too because he thought I wasn't being good in school. I had a hard time dealing with my life.

At the age of nine I was already very hateful towards people because I thought that nobody liked me or cared for me.

At the age of twelve I started helping out on the farm. We had a dairy farm so I milked cows, fed them, and took care of the calves. We also had some land so I helped with the planting and harvesting.

At the age of sixteen I started going out with Sara. We dated for almost four years and when I was twenty and she was nineteen, we got married. That was in 1983. In 1984 we had our daughter. We stayed in Mexico for three years because we couldn't make enough money to pay for the trip to Canada.

In 1987 we finally came to Altona, Canada to live with my in-laws. They moved to Canada a year before us. Everything felt so strange here in Canada and we hardly knew anyone here. We had to rent a house on sixth street. We hardly knew any English. It was very difficult to communicate with people because most people didn't speak low German.

I got a job at Haul-All in Rosenort. It took half an hour to get there. I had to leave at six in the morning. I worked there for about six and a half years as a welder. Then I came to Elmer's Welding in Altona. I've worked there for five years as a welder.

In 1996, we moved to a farm two and a half miles out of Altona. We started raising pigs. We have two bio-techs just to make extra money on the side. We also raise calves and chickens in summer for extra money.

In 1988 we started ESL, but we haven't gone every year because I had to work night shifts. It has helped us a lot over the years. We can communicate fairly well now.

We regret skipping a few years now because it would have helped us if we would have gone, every year. Our writing, spelling, and computer skills still need a lot of improving.