I thought of starting from the day I came here. It was my third time travelling to another country. First one was to Singapore and the second was to India. But none of them was as long as this journey.
I left all my near and dear ones including my lovely little wife I name here onwards as ‘ Nangie’ (her pet name -reflecting love and respect) which means ‘little sister’. I got all my bags and baggage though ‘check in’after the sad good byes and all and moved slowly towards the boarding room. Until my flight ‘s ready and the gates open I called my Ayya, brother in law in Italy and he also wished me good luck. That also reminded me of the Camp friends in Ratnapura and how they all hugged me and wished me good luck on the other day we had the last dinner together. This was the first time I go away for longer time period to spend it all by myself especially without my Nangie by my side (I really don’t know how I am gonna manage without her). So I was wandering through the whole period (from the day I met her in the college up to now) I spent with her sharing and caring for each other. Then I called my mother to say good bye and tried to console her as well. I knew she’s gonna be really upset to miss her little ‘Pattie’(my pet name) . I felt that 20mins of boarding time as a day or two. Finally when the gates open and we moved in I felt my little backpack was so heavy. May be because of my heavy thoughts. Somehow I managed to relax a little as I see the land below started to become smaller and smaller and finally vanished I felt that I missed my entire mom, younger sister, brother, and his family and my Nangie so much. Anyway the fact that I’m gonna join the family of my elder brother gave me a kind of relief and I hope the same would be for them.
During the journey I did not have any trouble at all except the pain in the ears when it landed. (That happens to me all the time when the flight lands) And of course I couldn’t forget how I LOST my belt in the waiting room of the London airport. Having s aid goodbye to the air hostesses and put my first step in Canada gave me the beautiful feeling ‘I’ve done it’ Then at the immigration I was asked to produce my documents and they checked. Finally I was so sad to know that I was given a restricted kind of work permit only for the job I came for but I was very much interested (at least part-time) about the IT field and specially the hardware and communication. But all my hopes were now gone what to do.
Therefore came out of the air port and met my brother and the family. I was very anxious to see little Kevin and grown up Lahiru. Meeting them got me out of my low feeling and we drove away to new home.
THAT’S HOW I CAME TO THIS COUNTRY.
