Curiosity About the Unknown Transforms a Life

Let's talk about your first experience as a volunteer. In 1975 you left for Malaysia. Was that your first experience outside the country?

Yes. I was 18 years old and a unilingual francophone. I had never had any real intercultural experiences, except for meeting some foreign students when I was a student at Cégep. So, I was really coming out of a single-culture environment, without any international experience at all.

What was it that led you to such an adventure?

I was finishing Cégep and I had been accepted in a university architecture program. I think it was really the attraction of the unknown that motivated me. There was also the chance to learn English—Canada World Youth always has a Canadian stage before heading overseas and mine was in western Canada. I was rather tired of academic life and I really wanted to have a taste of other ways of life and learn something while having an adventure. I was also attracted to the group experience Canada World Youth was offering.

There were two work projects in Canada: one was in Nanaimo, British Columbia and the other in Brooks, Alberta. There were two-month stays in each of these places before going to our host country, Malaysia, on a four-month assignment.

Which made the biggest impression on you during those first assignments—the Canadian or the foreign experience?

Both of them made a big impression, certainly, because the change of language was disorienting in both places. But I think what surprised me the most was going through culture shock in my own country, before I even went overseas.

You weren't expecting that?

Not at all. And it wasn't only the language. When I arrived in southern Alberta, I discovered different values and a different culture. At the time, nationalist feelings were very strong in Quebec and that disturbed the rest of the country a lot. It was the first time I had ever been exposed to people who questioned that movement.

And then in Malaysia?

In Malaysia, the biggest shock was living so closely with other people and losing some of my freedom and my personal space, and also living with polygamous families.

No one prepared you for that?

Yes, but reading about these cultural differences and living in a house where that was the way of life; those were really two different things for me. It is a shock and you do have a tendency to make value judgements. At 18 or 19, for me, it really wasn't in my frame of reference. It was my first real contact with Islam and it had an impact on me. Because of my experience with CWY, I learned how to observe, accept and respect these differences.

In addition, at the time, Malaysia was a poor country; there were lots of poor children who begged in the streets. I had never seen so much poverty. In the end, I was surprised and fascinated by the great cultural diversity of Malaysia. Three ethnic groups live there together: the Malays, the Chinese and the Tamils. I came from a place in Quebec where there was very little cultural diversity, and so that diversity in Malaysia really struck me.

We should also mention that at the time there was no Internet or all the other means of communication we have now.

When they told me I was going to Malaysia, I was lucky enough to have an atlas where I could find the country on a map of the world!

And do you remember how you felt when you came back to Canada? Did you experience culture shock when you returned?

It was very hard on me when I returned, because I felt very isolated. I had just had such an intense experience, and there were very few people around me who had ever had that kind of experience, with whom I could talk about what I had just been through. When you have been through something so intense, you need to talk about it. In the first year after I came back, I went back to school and tried to maintain contact with the other participants who had been in my group. We would meet in Montreal, Quebec City, and even Toronto. It took quite a lot of time for me to wean myself away from that very intense experience, which had made its mark on me, and move on to the next stage in my life. I'm not sure that at the time there was much understanding of returning culture shock, and I was totally unprepared for it!

Can you name one new skill you acquired from that experience?

Before that, I was unilingual, speaking only French, and when I came back I was perfectly bilingual. These new language skills truly opened the doors to the world. For me, learning the language is part of understanding the culture—whether it's here in Canada or elsewhere. I also learned some of the local language, Bahasa Malaysia. It has always been essential for me, ever since then, wherever I have worked, to try to learn the basics of a language. It opens doors, and it opens the door to the culture and to people's values.

When you came back, did you return to your architecture studies?

No. One thing I learned from that experience was that I really liked working with people, so I decided to study psychology.

So the experience had an influence quite early in your life?

It had an influence on my interests and my studies. And then, while I was going to school, I continued as a volunteer for Canada World Youth. After I finished university, I applied to be a group leader, and I worked for CWY for almost four years.

And it was there you met your husband?

That's where I met him.

Since then, you have worked in international development and intercultural projects both here in Canada and abroad. You and your husband both worked as cooperants in Togo for two years. When you returned you worked for a private company that specializes in intercultural training, Graybridge Malkam. And now here you are at the FCM. Have I skipped some steps?

Yes, but not too many. I also worked for South Asia Partnership Canada, an NGO that managed various projects, including one supporting small and medium-sized NGOs in Sri Lanka. Now, with the FCM, I look after the Asian municipal development programs. I truly appreciate the partnership values we emphasize at the FCM and the mutual respect that develops between our partners in the South and the volunteers from the Canadian municipal sector as they work together on our development projects.

Of course, parents have some influence on their children: have your two children also been involved in international youth volunteer programs?

Yes. Our daughter went to India and Ontario with CWY. That changed her life's direction a bit, too. I think that in India she discovered an aspect of the world that she had not been exposed to at all. Our son went to Botswana on a three-way exchange focusing on the environment. There were young people from Botswana, South Africa and Canada in his group.

You are really a family of citizens of the world?

Circumstances have led us there. We never said to our children, "You should join a program like Canada World Youth and see the world!" It was their own idea to become participants in the CWY program. But one of the most interesting aspects for my husband and I is that we have developed a network of very close friends who also went through Canada World Youth—not necessarily the same year, and not necessarily in the same places—or who have lived or worked abroad in other development programs. Our children grew up with that and must have heard the anecdotes and stories that piqued their imagination. So it is not surprising that they also developed an interest in experiences like Canada World Youth.

Thank you, Renée.

It was my pleasure.

Additional Learning

International Cooperation, Volunteers and Intercultural Effectiveness
Canadian International Development Agency Volontary Sector Program
Canadian International Development Agency Volontary Sector Program - Canadian Partner Organizations