Victoria adventurer Colin Angus just became the first rower to complete this year’s 1,200-kilometre Race2Alaska solo, a stunning feat of grit and endurance.
Which made it the second-most exciting news wife Julie Angus heard this week.
Julie finally — finally! — got to welcome her Syrian uncle and his family to Victoria, a year and a half after the war turned them into refugees.
Except she couldn’t be at the Victoria airport to greet them, as she was flying to Cranbrook to shoot a Lexus commercial with Survivorman.
She did, however, intercept the Syrians between flights at Vancouver airport, where they had a joyous reunion.
Good thing the newcomers got out of Turkey before the coup attempt.
Got all that? No?
Then let’s back up a bit.
The Anguses are well-known — real-life Indiana Jones adventurers whose global exploits have been documented in book and film. A decade ago, the then-fiancés spent five months rowing across the Atlantic, just the two of them sardined in an 24-foot boat, beset by sharks and hurricanes. National Geographic named them its Adventurers of the Year.
In 2008, the newly married couple spent seven months cycling and rowing from Colin’s ancestral home in Scotland to Syria, where Julie’s father was born. That was followed in 2011 by Olive Odyssey, a sailing trip in which the couple, with infant son Leif in tow, traced the ancient Phoenician olive oil trade route through the Mediterranean.
Olive Odyssey was supposed to end in Syria, too, but those plans were disrupted by the eruption of the civil war, trapping Julie’s uncle Bassam Wafai, his wife, Alia, and their three children.
“It’s been eight years since I last saw them in their home in Syria,” Julie said.
The war was hard on the Wafais. In 2014, the only other family still living in their apartment building was killed by a falling bomb. The family stayed in the damaged building until things got even worse.
In March 2015, they paid a smuggler and made the dangerous border crossing to Turkey, where they languished until this week.
Julie desperately wanted to help them get out, but Ottawa wasn’t particularly interested in welcoming Syrian refugees until last fall, after the death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi roused a somnolent public.
The Anguses were among 16 Fairfield residents who came together to sponsor the Wafais. They quickly raised the $55,000 needed to sustain the family during their first year in Canada. Two members of the sponsoring group, both University of Victoria professors, donated a suite in their home.
Then Julie, Colin, the profs and the rest of the sponsors waited and waited for the red tape to be cut, not knowing when (or if) the Wafais would arrive — which made it ironic that neither of the Anguses was in town when the Syrians finally made it here Tuesday.
Colin was up north, having just become the first solo rower (most entrants compete as teams) to complete this year’s gruelling, two-week Race2Alaska from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan. Julie was committed to appearing in that car commercial with Survivorman, Les Stroud.
She did manage to cross paths with the Wafais at the Vancouver airport, though. There was a special moment when a stranger rushed up to welcome them, too. It was a nice introduction to Canada for refugees who hadn’t exactly been embraced with open arms in Turkey. “I think that’s a feeling they haven’t had,” Julie said.
Bassam Wafai — Julie’s father’s brother — confirms that. The Wafais had their hopes dashed so many times, suffered so many setbacks, that even after being told the family was coming to Canada this week, he didn’t believe it. “We will stay in this prison forever,” he told himself.
Now that they’re here, it feels as if they’re emerging from a nightmare. “We can’t believe ourselves. Are we in paradise?” Bassam, a fine artist who spent time in Canada in the 1990s (he had plans to immigrate here before returning home and falling in love with Alia), speaks fluent English. But on Saturday he said he was having trouble expressing the depth of his gratitude to those who brought his family here.
“There’s a future here for my daughters, my children,” he said. “There are human rights here.”
The family have plunged into Victoria life. They already have library cards and passes to Crystal Pool. Alia, a hairstylist, is keen to learn English. Son Nour, who just turned 20, had been in Victoria all of two days before going to work as a dishwasher at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Daughters Rawan, 11, and Toulip, 15, will have a language assessment before enrolling in school.
The children all beam like sunshine. No, says Bassam, they didn’t do that before arriving here. Ask Rawan (nicknamed Nemo, because she once had naturally striped hair reminiscent of the Disney fish) for her favourite moment so far, she talks about the greeting from the Fairfield sponsors at Victoria airport. Toulip says landing in Victoria has been like landing on the moon — and it turns out the moon is a totally awesome place.
It’s hard not to look at these kids, absolutely radiating happiness, without thinking of how close they came to being trapped in a totally different life.
Meanwhile, the Fairfield group that sponsored the Wafais is awaiting a second Syrian refugee family, made up of a chemistry teacher, her two young children and her two brothers, both computer engineers. That became possible after that $55,000 fundraising campaign brought in $110,000, thanks to the generosity of Victorians.
“It makes me smile at the beauty of humanity and how wonderful people can be,” Julie said.
