Journeyman Stories

Just the other day I was invited to take part to a ceremony celebrating the Asian Food Heritage (do you think I could have missed that?). The food was great, the speakers were amazing chefs, each one sharing his (or her) journey, and at the same time presenting a special dish they had prepared for us. It is was a great event. It was also an opportunity to launch a couple of promotional videos for the organization that had put together the event, and I happened to be in one of them. I was a star for one evening. Towards the end of the ceremony, one of the producers of the video came to me and just said: "what a coincidence that you talked about your country Burundi in the video, and now Burundi is all over the news!" He was right. About thirteen years ago, when I first came to Canada, I had hard time explaining to people where my country was located. Very few people had heard of Burundi. I had to tell them that Burundi is South of Rwanda in Africa. Fast forward, now I...

I have never seen her get angry. She is always calm and collected. Nothing seems to get on her nerves. If there is anyone who is close to being perfect that is her She has been my best friend, my mentor, my guide for a very long time. Her opinion means a lot to me. She is ready to defend me whenever something comes against me. She went through a lot in her life, but she is still standing. When everybody is thinking that the world is falling apart, she remains calm just because she knows that her prayers work. She is my hero, she brought me to life, she is my role model, above all, she is my mother. This is a tribute to her. Once again, happy mothers' day mom. Always a pleasure Patrick The Journeyman.

Last week my wife and I were in Montreal for a series of training. It was for the first time that I was away from my daughter for more than two days ever since she was born. It felt strange. On Sunday, she woke up crying; she missed us a lot. I got a call early in the morning letting me know that Skylar was crying. A few minutes with her on the phone did the magic. She started to smile again. When we were finally back in Toronto, I couldn't wait to see her. My wife got out of the car quickly and ran into the house. A few minutes later, I joined her. When Skylar saw me, she laughed so hard, a laugh that I haven't seen for a while. She gave me this long hug that brought tears to my eyes. It was awesome. A few  years ago, I went to Ottawa to host an event. At that time my daughter was still a baby. I was there for only one day, but I missed her so much. I remember writing to my mom to tell her that I now understood what she feels now that her three boys have left the...