Life in Rural Canada – Strathroy: My Perspective and the Lessons

I have been motivated to write this piece after my home stay experience, which was part of this year’s African Leadership Program (ALP) with Engineers Without Borders, Canada.

Mr. Brian Simpson (L), Anthony Selase Sabah (M),
and Mrs. Joana Simpson (R)

Prior to my home stay, I first arrived in Ottawa for a week of EWB’s National Conference. Then I moved to Toronto for a week of leadership training. This traveling gave me different perspectives on Canadians and what they value. I realized that in both Ottawa and Toronto, generally people were rarely interested in reaching out to others. I have had to smile to people on the streets of Toronto to try to get their attention but with no success. I observed consistently in trains and buses that passengers only engaged with their mobile phones and iPods, with no interaction with the people who were sitting beside them. EWB, the organization on whose ticket I came to Canada, had an exceptionally curious staff who would always ask about you, what you do and other things. I must admit that I see this as an organizational culture that EWB has established. Otherwise, these same staff would have found themselves relating the same way as people I met on the street. This is different from Ghana where people usually greet each other and proceed to find out how the entire family is doing. So this was my first shock beside the weather.

However, things changed when I had my home stay in Strathroy. This was an arrangement made by the organizers of the ALP for us to have a perspective of how Canadian families live and relate. My first home stay was in Strathroy with Mrs. and Mr. Brian Simpson, a pig breeder. Strathroy-Caradoc is a municipality located just west of London, Ontario, with a population of 13,541. It is a primarily rural municipality. Industries include turkey and chicken hatching and processing, and corn farming. Some industrial products are also manufactured in Strathroy, the township's largest locality and its commercial, cultural, and industrial centre.

My previous two weeks’ perception of Canada changed the moment I met the Simpsons. Because of the way I was welcomed, it took me less than an hour to settle down in the family. During my stay, a meeting was set up for me to visit a poultry farmer who is in the neighborhood. At the farm, he went the extra mile to teach me everything about his business and offered to give me any further information I needed as far as the poultry industry in Canada was concerned. To my utmost surprise, this farmer, who met me for the first time, asked his wife to prepare dinner for us with his Reverend Minister, friend and his wife. We had a great dinner I must admit. Also, there was a football match organized at the local school where we went to play afterwards. Interestingly, the organizer of this game was a man in his fifties, who played the whole time, while we the younger ones became tired as the match progressed.

With all these experiences, I began asking some questions which are yet to be answered.

Why are the people in Strathroy, at least the ones I met, so open and welcoming whereas the opposite pertains to Toronto and Ottawa? If family life is that intimate with their doors always open to people in Strathroy, what changed in Toronto and Ottawa? Is it that the children of those families are not in Toronto and Ottawa to share the same or is it a matter of city life versus rural life in Canada? If so, are there any lessons we can learn from the rural folks? Or did I get the single story?