Changing Worlds: Diary Of A Jamaican/canadian Experience

Between July 1999 and June 2000, 173,210 immigrants arrived in Canada, among them 6,196 Caribbean nationals. Most settled in Toronto, enhancing it's burgeoning multiculturalism, but Evangeline's family chose Ottawa instead--a city known as the coldest posting a Jamaican diplomat could receive.

Evangeline discovers more about Canada the hard way. Although from 1994 to 2001 the United Nations declared Canada the best country of abode, Evangeline confirms that there are at least two sides to this, as to every other story.

Minority status and its unfamiliar problems, subtle pressures to conform to new moulds, unemployment and family reunification hurdles dog the positives of the resettling experience.

But active faith and steadfast purpose bring triumph in each circumstance. Jamaica, never far from Evangeline's heart, becomes a place to pray for, to visit on family matters, and the target of plans for entrepreneurial "snowbird" escapes.

As recipient of Jamaica's 1992 Governor General's Award for the parish of St. Andrew, Evangeline remains patriotic. Ten percent of her profit from "Diary," for instance, is pledged to community outreach projects of the Christian Life Fellowship in Kingston, starting with their Peter's Rock Christian School in rural St. Andrew. Visit them at www.petersrock.org today