[Steve]

I am a partner in a sawmill in the town of Manning Alberta, 100 km north of Peace River, not far from the Northwest Territories. Let us say it is remote. There are 1500 people in the town, and the nearest towns of any size are Peace River 100 kms to the south and High Level 200 kms to the north. It is an area of farming, forestry and oil. Definitely a roughneck area. "Outsiders" are suspect, and anyone with a university education is doubly suspect. Everyone in the town knows what everyone is doing at any time, or so it seems.

Ten years ago there was one Chinese family. You guessed it. They ran a restaurant. Husband in the kitchen and the wife out serving. Her name is "Chris." When I first met her ten years ago she was wondering why she accepted to come from China to marry her husband and live in this (in the winter) dark and cold place.

Today she has a thriving business. She knows every one in the town by their first name and knows what is happening in their families and they know what is happening in hers.

Two years ago a Korean family bought a gas station and convenience store. "Charlie" reads everyone's credit card when they pay and knows everyone's first name and is fitting in and doing well.

Now we have two workers from China in the sawmill. Steve and Joe. Steve is from Shenzhen and is an electrician, and Joe, a milwright, is from Tianjin. When they first arrived (via an internet ad) there was some surprise in the mill. "Hey we got a couple of Chinamen working in the mill".

Now they are well accepted and "you hear nothing but good things about them" as one employee said. They have kind of been adopted and helped by some of the people in the mill. They are good at their job, and at the Christmas and safety awards dinner they were digging into their steak like everyone else. I spoke to them in Chinese and they were pleased with Manning and did not mind the isolation of the location. The mill manager is keen to hire more people from China.

There is no SUCCESS at Manning, no mulitcultural society, no program to make things easier. They just fit in and do well.

[myjames]

learned a new word from above: THRIVING, thanks..

[shawcable]

myjames _BBCODE_WROTE:

learned a new word from above: THRIVING, thanks..

maybe that was not what he meant though...