Homecoming!

February purposely saw no blog. A lot was going on, and I decided not to to type anything. On the last day I decided to drop in and let my fingers dance on the keyboard, then I decided against it.

We hosted the Winter Olympics which ended on the last day of February. Then we had the Paralympics in March. If you know me well , you know that I would have done anything to be in Vancouver during that time, however it was nice to know that the Olympics where right in our backyard, so yeah you guessed it the Olympics were the culprit. I do not recall being so interested in sports as I was. I mean I cried when Tessa Virtue and Scott moir , danced their way to olympic Gold, and cried when Melissa Hollingworth, cried in front of the nation, when she became fith in her sport. I was engrossed in Hockey games... I was sitting on edge , and cheered Canada on. I tried to catch as much action as I could. O Canada is a song we all grew to know so well. I think if you reside in Canada and you still do not know the National anthem , there is something teribly wrong with you. I remember thinking that at some point if one was to look down from space, Canada would stand out, because of all the red and white that we proudly wore.
During this time I went back to one of my best courses at Uni- Roots to Modern Canada. Over the years we have often tried to define our Canadianess. Often times our identity is tied to what we are not in comparison to our neighbours to the south. Yet, there are many things that make Canada, from being a peaceful nation , excellent human rights record, vast landsacpe, natural resourses, the wilderness, the maple leaf, hockey, the moose , the beaver.... I could go on and on. Maybe unlike most nations our Canadianess, can find its definition in all these things - we just don have that one thing that defines us.
Up until the Olympics, I was Canadian only in the sense that I hold a Canadian passport that grants me hassle free entry into the US. I still think of Zimbabwe as my home, and would often think of Canada as a transitional phase. Among other things, during the Olympics, I became fully aware of what it meant to be Canadian , and came to embrace Canada as my home. The beauty of it all is that I can call Canada my home as much as Zimbabwe is my home, and the beauty of being Canadian is that I don't have to choose, both countries can be my home. It has taken 9 yrs and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics for me to feel at home.