Hello all,
Congrats to everyone who has got a mail from AVO recently. All other awaiting mails, God shall make AVO contact you soonest.
To the glory of God, I and my family landed safely in Calgary on Sunday (3:00PM local time). The journey was so long but fun. Courtesy of IOM, we got a good ticket via Lufthansa from Lagos to Frankfurt and connect to Air Canada from Frankfurt to Calgary.
Landing in Calgary was a wonderful experience. The weather was fine on Sunday and I was opportuned to have three (3) families waiting for my arrival at the airport. They are all wonderful people as they waited over two (2) hours for us to finish our screening with the boarder agency and co.
The experience at the custom post was strange. The guy took time to search all our bags. He siezed our dry ponmo (so painful), ginger, maggi cubes - chicken flavor. He said they are not allowed in Canada. He also asked how much I brought and collected from me to confirm. I was amazed but i thank God thank that things were in order.
The lesson learned is that at most times, it is a good idea to ensure all necessary requirements are met. I cannot just imagine what the guy would have done if my POF was not in order. He was in to confirm the rate for that day and came out with the conversion to CAD - I still had a little above my minimum POF.
After all the screenings, the guy stretched his hand for a handshake and he said "Welcome to Canada". If I have thought of the packs of ponmo he siezed, I wouldnt have responded, but all the same, the excited was all over me. We then proceeded to reception where our family and friends were waiting to receive us. I was very excited, 3 families came with 4 cars to pick just 3 of us, it is God's glory and favor. Imagine 7 people coming to receive you to a new land!
Well, so far we have been able to get our SIN, apply for our Health Insurance and open bank accounts. We have done some shopping as well and we are still going to do more because it's snowing already. I will like to stop here for now but I promise to give you gist of other events later.
I like to thank my good friend of twenty (20) years now - Gent2 who is my host, Ma Ig, Bade who stayed with us at the airport before we went for boarding and all other forum members who encouraged us in a way or the other. By the special grace of God, everyone expecting good news from AVO will get it soon (Amen).
NB: This is a request to all my forum friends, kindly forward your numbers to this email - bidemiolaoye @ gmail.com (I dropped my phone on the plane and 'am yet to get it)
Bye for now.
BDX
