I was born in Somalia in 1981. By 1991 Somalia had a civil war. We ran to the nearest peaceful country which was Kenya.
My parents brought us to a refugee camp in the north east province of Kenya. Our hopes in that camp were to be resettled to developed countries or for our country to get peace so we could go back. That dream was in my mind every day when I woke up in the houses made of twisted trees with plastic on top. Most people at the camp want to be resettled but it’s not in our decision. At 8:30 every morning there was an update from the UNHCR on the notice board with the name, time, date and location for resettlement interviews.
One day I was in my office as a school principal, when I received a phone call from my friend: my name was on the UNHCR notice board for resettlement consideration. I called my wife to give her the good news. I stopped everything and hugged everybody to share my feeling. I left the school to confirm the notice board. I called my wife to tell her that I actually saw my name on the board and then rushed home to share the happiness with the rest of the family. I hugged and kissed my kids but they didn’t understand. I received appreciation calls from friends and staff at the school. It was a really happy moment… but there were a lot of steps still to happen. Eventually I got an envelope from an Embassy- you never know what is inside. It’s called feedback. Some people open the envelope and it says rejected. I got Canada.
“Bufis” is a word that describes the strong desire for resettlement. For me this hope was waiting for 20 years. It’s a REALLY strong desire and English words cannot describe it. It has a negative psychological impact. The feeling I had that day is connected with Bufis because if you succeed it is a positive thing and if you fail then you can have a psychological depression.
Now I am happily resettled in PEI with my wife and 4 children. Hell to heaven, saying goodbye. It’s a great turning point for my me and for my family. Now the desire of ‘’bufis’’ is positive, life here is nice and pleasing , I feel proud to live on the island.