Liudmyla Mokra with her two sons, 7-year old Oleskii and 18-month-old Ihnat. The family has been in Canada since June and was attending the First Christmas in Canada event hosted by Saamis Immigration Services on Friday.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
Saamis Immigration Services hosted a First Christmas in Canada event on Friday afternoon. One family attending was Liudmyla Mokra with her two sons, Oleskii and Ihnat. The family has been in Canada six months, arriving at the beginning of June from Kamianske, Ukraine.
Liudmyla’s husband is still in the Ukraine as he’s unable to cross the border.
“It’s not very easy to be alone. I am happy I have my host family. They are my best friends now. They’ve helped me with everything and because of them I’m here.”
Ihnat turned 1 after arriving in Canada and is now 18 months old and had the News playing pass the cup and a small red ornament throughout the interview. Seven-year-old Oleskii, who is in Grade 1 at Ross Glen School, showed up right before the photo was taken with an empty plate, announcing he’d been eating cookies.
“At the beginning he (Oleskii) had a little problem with conversations,” mom said.
In the summer, Oleskii had some English, animals and numbers, but he is now able to construct sentences, make friends and play with them.
Liudmyla and her children are still living with their host family. She has been looking for work, but it hasn’t been an easy path and she is having difficulty securing employment. She is a teacher but there are restrictions in her work permit and she is working to change them, which is a months-long process. Two weeks ago, she finally discovered what she’d been doing wrong as someone explained it to her and has reapplied and is back to waiting. Until then, she isn’t allowed to be a teacher.
In the meantime, she is trying to find something but for many positions she is over educated and for others she lacks the necessary experience to secure the job.
The family likes living in Medicine Hat and Liudmyla said it is about the same size as the city they came from. She likes the pace of the city and doesn’t find it too loud and feels safe and comfortable living here.
“There are beautiful people here, so it’s good. Now I have some friends.”
