NotesTranscript

Notes

Journey to Canada reflections

Mon, 29 Jun 26

Colony Life and Language in Paraguay

• Mennonite German colony in the Chaco region of Paraguay
• Low German spoken daily; High German only in church and school
  • Grandpa couldn’t speak High German until age 6, when school began
  • Teachers were also Mennonite German
  • “Just like here, when you go to school, they can’t speak English at the beginning”
• Dr. Kettler (Canadian doctor) was present in the colony for a number of years; first name unknown
• Ben Peters (second cousin, lived mostly in Vancouver) passed away last Christmas
  • Knew each other but weren’t close: “we had nothing in common”

Grandpa’s Departure at Age 20

• Left Paraguay for Canada at 20, leaving Nettie behind; felt “very depressed, very sad”
• A cousin brought him by motorbike to say goodbye to Grandma
• Bus picked him up at 4pm, traveled all night to Ascension for the ferry
• Promised Nettie he’d come back one day
  • “There are a lot of things you promise in life”
  • Didn’t expect to actually return for a long time: “I thought that game was over”

Early Work in Canada

• Arrived in Vancouver with Uncle Ben; first day: construction site, mud and snow over the ankles
• November 1966: one month hauling chicken manure for a difficult boss
  • Loaded manure by wheelbarrow onto an elevator, then into a truck, then out to fields
  • Boss’s verdict at end of each day: “You should have done more”
  • “That was not my favorite month”
• Berry picking at Herman Jesse’s farm: whole family (9 people) for a full summer
  • Stayed in a farmhouse on the property
  • Couldn’t speak English, knew no one: “We were totally strangers”
  • “That was a time I’d like to forget forever”
• Construction work that followed felt like a relief by comparison

Grandma’s Journey to Canada

• Traveled 400km by bus from the Chaco colony to Ascension (~12 hours on dirt roads)
  • Roads were unpaved and very bumpy; now fully paved
• Flight route: Paraguay → Rio de Janeiro (departed 1am) → New York (10-hour flight) → Toronto → Vancouver
• Arrived pregnant; feet so swollen she wore flip flops through the airport
• Nearly froze in New York: only a light jacket, snow piled outside
• Toronto immigration officer stamped her passport and asked, “How do you like Canada?”
  • “I didn’t know how to answer that. He hadn’t even arrived yet.”
  • Grandma remembers him as very polite

Family Settling In

• Motorbikes were the primary vehicle in Paraguay
  • Grandpa’s family used bicycles; his dad had a motorbike
  • Grandpa eventually begged a reluctant seller to part with a brand-new motorbike, bought on borrowed money, later sold at a loss
• Grandma’s whole family followed to Canada in May 1969
  • Settled in Abbotsford, at the same farm where Grandpa’s family had previously lived
  • Visited often; Grandpa and Grandma were in Vancouver at the time
• Eric born July 8, 1969, shortly after Grandma’s family arrived

Transcript

Speaker AOkay.

Speaker BIt says. Let's see here. Let's see. Yeah, we did that one. We did that. Dr. Kettler, the Canadian doctor. Was that. Did you have a first name for him or roughly? When did he come?

Speaker CI don't know. You don't know that those things that. I don't know. I know that he was. For a number of years. That's all I know.

Speaker BHe was here for a number of years. Okay. Okay. All right. That's fine. At home, growing up, did your family speak Low German day to day and high German in church and school?

Speaker CSchool, yeah. High German was just in church and school. Ireland, that everybody spoke.

Speaker BLodger, really?

Speaker CWherever you went. Yeah.

Speaker BInteresting. I didn't know that. Okay.

Speaker CIt was a German colony. German Mennonite colony.

Speaker BBut that's interesting that you guys would speak Low German in the day. So, like a casual German, but go to school to learn the High German.

Speaker AYeah, so.

Speaker CSo we would not really go to school to learn, but if you go to school, it was High German, you know?

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CI couldn't speak High German until I was six years old. Now when I start going to school, just like here.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CWhen you speak. A lot of people go to school, they can speak English at the beginning.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CYeah, it was just like that.

Speaker BOkay.

Speaker CYou have to learn that slowly.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CBecause your teacher taught kinder with you, you know?

Speaker BYeah. But they were. Was your teacher Mennonite German, too?

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker BInteresting. I didn't know that you also learned High German. That's cool.

Speaker CWas a Mennonite colony, Was all German.

Speaker BOkay. Okay.

Speaker CAnd in German church, the preaching was all High German, you know?

Speaker BYeah. Okay, another question. The second cousin, who told you that you'd no longer recognize the place, and who passed away this. This last Christmas, what was his name and what was he to you?

Speaker CWell, he was a second cousin to me.

Speaker BA second cousin?

Speaker CYeah. I wouldn't say friend. We knew each other, you know, we would talk here and there, but he was. He. He lived most time in Vancouver.

Speaker BMostly in Vancouver.

Speaker CSo we had nothing in common.

Speaker BAnd what was his name, do you know?

Speaker CBen Peters.

Speaker BBen Peters. Okay. All right. All right. That's good. Let's see. Okay, we're gonna jump to a little bit of when you were coming to Canada, the journey out to Canada when you were 20, leaving Nettie behind. What was the goodbye like? And did you think you'd see her again?

Speaker CI don't know that.

Speaker BYou don't know.

Speaker CI can't answer that. Well, I promised her I would come back one day, but, yeah, there's a lot of things you promise in life.

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker BYou just don't know.

Speaker CYou have no idea what was what. I don't think that she expected me, that I would ever come back. And I really did. I expect that I would go back.

Speaker BYeah. But you don't remember.

Speaker CFor a long time I think that game was over, you know, but then all of a sudden.

Speaker BDid you. So I'm thinking like when you knew you were going to Canada, were you excited or were you feeling torn?

Speaker CNo, I was very depressed. Very.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CVery sad.

Speaker BYeah. Did you. Do you remember saying bye to grandma at all?

Speaker COh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker BIt was just kind of like whatever

Speaker Acousin brought him with the motorbike on A motorbike to our house?

Speaker BYeah, yeah. To say bye.

Speaker CAnd there the bus pickers picked me up at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Speaker BReally

Speaker Ctraveled all night till 1:00. And then we hit ascension to the. We got to the ferry there. We had to stay until. In the morning till the ferry would go, you know.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker ABut you.

Speaker BSo you did go and say bye to grandma. But I don't remember what it was like.

Speaker CI was all. The continuous.

Speaker BWas awful. It was awful.

Speaker CIt was terrible.

Speaker BOkay. All right.

Speaker CI wish I had, but. Never happened.

Speaker ANo. That's why I don't even want to talk about it.

Speaker BOkay. We'll move on to another one. Hopefully this one's better. Okay. Your first day in Vancouver. Construction, half snow and mud over your ankles. Walk me through it. Who was the brother with you? Was that Ben?

Speaker CYeah. Uncle Ben. Yeah.

Speaker BYeah. Okay. All right. That was an easier one. The month hauling chicken and manure for the farmer haul. What was that like? And what made the boss so hard to work for?

Speaker CWell, it was one manor knight who knew. Who knew nothing about just work, work, work. I just about killed myself working all day. And at the end of the day, he said, you should have done more.

Speaker BWhoa, he's a mean guy.

Speaker CYeah. And he. And he passed away already, so.

Speaker BOh. See, they were like, good riddance.

Speaker CGoodness.

Speaker AGood, good.

Speaker BWell, there we go. That's that. So that one was. He was just a mean guy. Okay.

Speaker CMonth of November, 1960. 66.

Speaker BReally.

Speaker CAll. Every day. I had a big truck.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CAnd then we had an elevator sitting there. And then they met the whole manure with the wheelbarrow and dumped it onto the elevator. And then it went into the truck.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CNow when the truck was full and it went to. To a field and dumped it.

Speaker BWow, that sounds smelly.

Speaker CThat was. That was not that Was not my favorite month.

Speaker BNo, that doesn't sound nice at all.

Speaker CI'll start working on construction. Was my favorite.

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker BLike, this is great. This is a holiday. All right. Nine of you picking berries at Herman Jesse's all summer. Where. Where did you all sleep and what was

Speaker Ca farmhouse for us.

Speaker BA farmhouse?

Speaker CWhere? They're there on the farm. They had a big farmhouse.

Speaker BOh, with beds and everything?

Speaker CYeah.

Speaker BOh, that's nice. Okay. What was that summer like for a family? Fresh off of the. Off of the plane. What was that summer like then? What do you think?

Speaker CAwful.

Speaker BIt was awful.

Speaker CAll I can say. No, I was. You know, we got there and we didn't know anybody.

Speaker AI don't think a word of English.

Speaker CWe were. We were totally strangers. Nobody knew us. We don't know anybody. Couldn't speak English. That was a time that I'd like to forget forever.

Speaker BOh, that sounds so rough. Like, I can't imagine going and trying to just get things done. Like, how do you do anything?

Speaker CIt's not. Not easy to go into a foreign country and you can speak the language.

Speaker BI can't imagine that would be hard. You guys are incredible for doing that. You just are. Okay, Grandma, I have a question for you, actually. When you were going back with grandpa, what were you feeling leaving Paraguay? And had you ever been on a plane before?

Speaker ANo.

Speaker CNo.

Speaker BYou've never been on a plane?

Speaker CNo, I haven't been on.

Speaker AVery sad. I hadn't been on a family behind. Yeah, very sad. Especially my dad. My dad came to Assumption and said goodbye there and yeah, it was very hard because I was so close with him.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker BOh, I didn't know that.

Speaker CYeah, we had to. Where she lived. We had to travel 400 km on a bus.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CSo we lived in like a colony and a Chaco. Okay. Now we have to travel to. To the couple city Ascension. Okay. Took it was about 12 hour ride because we didn't have paved the roads the way we are. We were on dirt road and. Bumpy. Very bumpy.

Speaker BSo you said you took a ride. Was that like on a bus? Yeah, it was on a bus.

Speaker CI mean now, now that everything is paved there, just like here.

Speaker BYeah, it's very different here.

Speaker CTotally different there.

Speaker BYeah. Okay. Okay. Do you think you can remember this one? This one might be harder. The Toronto immigration officer who just stamped her passport till that moment again. What did you say to him? Do you know? Do you remember?

Speaker CHe just asked me a couple of questions, you know?

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CHe asked me if I had applied for Grandma Before.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker AAnd he asked me, how did you like it? I don't know.

Speaker BHe didn't.

Speaker ABut I remember he said, how do you like Canada? Yeah. I didn't know how to answer.

Speaker CI don't know why. I don't know why he asked me. He just hadn't arrived, you know, so

Speaker AI don't know why he even asked me.

Speaker BHe was trying to be friendly, but exactly.

Speaker AVery polite.

Speaker CThat was a very short thing. We walked into his office and he asked me a couple of questions. I answered and he said, you're free to go. So we went.

Speaker BWow. But you were. You were pregnant at the time.

Speaker AYeah. Yeah.

Speaker BThat would be hard.

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker BAnd you don't know what they're saying.

Speaker ABarefoot. I walked. You were barefoot? Because my feet were so swollen, I had flip flops on and I could not get my.

Speaker CWe have been flying all night.

Speaker BThat's awesome.

Speaker CWe took off in the Rio de Janeiro at 1 o' clock at night and then we flew 10 hours to New York.

Speaker AWhen we came to Canada, we walked out of the airport and it was cold and snow.

Speaker CNot here. Was in New York.

Speaker AYeah. And Vancouver.

Speaker CNo, there's no snow in Vancouver. It was quite. They had a lot of snow, but they're just big pops.

Speaker AYes.

Speaker COn the road, that was. That was New York.

Speaker AI didn't mean on the roads, I meant on the side.

Speaker BOkay.

Speaker AAnd it was so cold. I remember I had a sweater over and I walked there.

Speaker CAnd that was in New York, where we almost froze to death.

Speaker BMan, I can't imagine you guys going to do that.

Speaker CI had just a light suit jacket on, that's all. And there was a lot of snow on the outside. It was very cold in New York.

Speaker BSo it was Paraguay to Rio de Janeiro to New York to Vancouver.

Speaker CYeah. No, from New York to Toronto.

Speaker BOh, to Toronto.

Speaker CFrom Toronto, we flew to Vancouver.

Speaker BThat's a long trip.

Speaker CFour hours from Toronto.

Speaker BYeah. Oh, my gosh. Okay, A little more here. The motorbikes you bought down there on borrowed money and sold at a loss. What were they like and where did you ride?

Speaker CWell, on the roads. That was our travel vehicle.

Speaker BOh, that was your main vehicle?

Speaker CYeah, yeah, it was our travel vehicles. All we had.

Speaker BOkay. Not. But so at that point you didn't do like wagon and horse or anything. You did motorbikes.

Speaker CThe what?

Speaker BThe, like the buggies. Like the wagon, buggy stuff. No, you didn't do that. It was

Speaker Ca motorbike everywhere. That's all we have.

Speaker BSo how many. How many motorbikes did you have then just one. Just one. But what about if your whole family

Speaker Cneed any more than one?

Speaker BOh, but like what about the rest of your family? What would they do?

Speaker CNo, when we lived with family, nobody had no motor. Oh, yeah, my dad had a whole motorbike.

Speaker BHe had his own motorbike?

Speaker CYeah. So if your family has just bicycles and. Oh, I was always to work on bicycle with my bicycle.

Speaker BOkay. So did you like going on the motorbike more?

Speaker CYeah, well, we couldn't. Couldn't afford motorbikes.

Speaker BBut like when you got yours.

Speaker AOh, yes.

Speaker BThen you liked was much better.

Speaker AYeah.

Speaker CBought a brand new motor. Bought a brand new motorbike. Okay, well, somebody had just bought it brand new and he sold it to me.

Speaker BYeah.

Speaker CI went and bagged them. Bagged them. He didn't want to sell it, but I bagged him and he finally sold it to me.

Speaker BOkay, I see. Okay, I have an interesting one. So it says grandma's whole family followed that May. What was it like having her parents land in Canada too?

Speaker CI don't know. I can't answer it.

Speaker BGrandma, what do you think?

Speaker AIt was good.

Speaker BIt was good.

Speaker AYeah, yeah, Yeah. I loved it.

Speaker BThat's good. Did they live close by to you guys?

Speaker CNo, they moved right away. They came. We lived in Vancouver that time and they have. They lived in Abbotsford. They lived at that place where me and my family lived before.

Speaker BOkay.

Speaker CThe farmers, they lived.

Speaker BDid you like.

Speaker CI had a big family too, you know, so they needed a big house.

Speaker BYeah. Did they come and see you guys or have you over? Do you remember? Like that. Would they invite you over for a meal or something?

Speaker COh, yeah.

Speaker AOh yeah.

Speaker CWe went there quite often. Yeah. Well.

Speaker BAnd I guess in May. So how long after. How was grandma still pregnant then?

Speaker COh, yeah. Well, Eric was born July in July.

Speaker BSo was that when they first met Eric, when they finally came up?

Speaker AYeah. Wow. Yeah.

Speaker CBut Eric wasn't born yet when they came up?

Speaker ANo, when they came, they came.

Speaker CThis was May. May and 1969 and May. And Eric was born July 8th.

Speaker BOkay. And none of them. They didn't know English at that point?

Speaker ANo. Oh, no, no, no.

Speaker BWow. That's wild.

Speaker AVery.

Speaker BHere.