2018 On the Road Again #10

It turned out that my slightly fond memories of this particular corner in Saskatchewan were somewhat idealized. The wind, if anything, had gotten worse than it had been outside of Portage or Brandon, the dust devils were certainly worse and it was exhausting holding my body upright against the wind. The scenery was not that visually attractive - there was nothing to look at. It was in fact a boring place to stand for an hour or so. There seemed to be a reasonable number of cars going my way but of course I had no way of knowing how many of them were just going a few miles down the road or who was heading across country. I was more than delighted when a car finally stopped.

My driver was originally from Pakistan. His first comments to me other than to say where he was going, was to point out the number of cars that had only one person in it and yet they had not stopped for me. He sounded angry about this. While I may, on occasion, get frustrated at the number of cars that pass me by, usually (if I am lucky) with no more than a passing glimpse out of the corner of their eye and more usually a studied indifference of me, I never get angry at those drivers. It is their right to stop or not stop. I have no right, nor is it very useful, to get angry at them. My driver on the other hand expressed enough frustration for both of us. He was a Muslim - the only Muslim in perhaps hundreds of square miles. He believed that it was his duty, as a Muslim, to help people. He wondered why the other people on the road (he assumed they were Christians) did not follow the teaching of their beliefs. I could not give him an answer.

Although my driver, who had been in Canada for 6-7 years spoke grammatically correct English, his accent still made it occasionally difficult to catch all of his words. But we had an interesting conversation about what it was like to be the only Muslim in his town and the frustrations of working with Canadian Immigration. My driver's family still lived in Pakistan. He was not allowed to bring over either of his two wives. When he said that - I asked him to repeat what he had just said. He explained that his faith allowed him to have two wives but that Canada did not recognize that and therefore he was not allowed to have either wife join him. His "number one" wife had fairly recently just died and I think he was trying to determine if he was allowed to have his second wife join him. He did not seem optimistic. The cynic in me wondered if he was happier living alone and therefore was not trying too hard to have his wife move here. I didn't ask him.

My driver was, like so many first generation immigrants, an extraordinarily hard worker. He told me that he had fairly recently just bought a gas station. He also told me that local people kept on asking him how he could afford to buy a gas station. His answer was clear - work hard and save your money. I suspect that a few of the local people were unhappy that a "foreigner" had bought their local gas station.

My driver had twice told me where he was going. But because I had never heard the name before, or even noticed a sign along the highway, I could not quite understand what he was saying. Again, if I had realized that we were only going 115 kilometres, perhaps I would have stayed just outside of Moose Jaw. However where I got off was Morse, Saskatchewan. The gas station my driver owned was a big Esso with a bathroom and a convenience store attached. As I was there for some time, it became obvious to me that it was the only gas station for some miles and therefore it was a busy place.

My driver has a lot to teach other Canadians. Not only was he a hard worker who understood that sometimes one just needs to stay focused on a goal and ignore the smaller issues, but he also demonstrated that one's faith is not just something to celebrate one morning a week, but a lifestyle to live every day. While I don't usually pay much attention t it, it seemed to me that this trip I had meet at least two drivers who gave me a ride because their faith said that they should help people. Neither of them preached at me - they just demonstrated their faith through action. Nice!