Angelique Cishahayo left Burundi for Canada with little more than hope, and the weight of a decision that would change her life forever.
As the youngest of seven children, she had always been surrounded by love and laughter. But by 2007, her home country had become increasingly unsafe. Death threats and violent attacks were no longer distant stories. They were part of daily life. Leaving her family behind was the hardest choice she had ever made.
On October 9, 2017, Angelique quietly marked ten years in Canada, a decade of struggle, transformation, and gratitude.
A New Beginning
Her journey led her to Halifax, Nova Scotia, a coastal city whose cold winds and unfamiliar culture were a world apart from her life in East Africa.
“Starting a new life in a foreign country felt like being born again,” she recalled. “I was like a small child learning to walk, but this time without my parents beside me.”
In those early years, even simple tasks felt monumental. She had to learn how to shop for groceries, how to cook differently, how to speak a new language, and how to dress for snow.
“Then came the Halifax winter,” she said with a soft laugh. “I had to learn how to dress all over again, this time for the cold.”
The first five years were the hardest. The constant worry for her family back home weighed heavily on her. “I carried that pain every day,” she said. “But I learned how to live with it.”
Finding Purpose
Over time, Angelique found belonging in a place that celebrates stories like her own, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
As a Heritage Interpreter, she helps share the journeys of immigrants who, like her, left everything familiar to start anew.
One story from the museum’s Canada: Day 1 exhibition still resonates deeply with her, a quote from Chris Debruyne, who arrived from the Netherlands in 1950.
“One thinks deeply, leaving everything behind that I treasure… my brothers and sisters, family and friends. Acquaintances … the ground where I was born, yes one leaves everything … and will I ever see it again?”
“It’s exactly how I felt when I arrived,” Angelique said. “Even though I came nearly sixty years later, that emotion is the same.”
Within ten years of arriving in Canada, Angelique had built a life she once only dreamed of.
She became a Canadian citizen, a mother, and a storyteller, helping others find meaning in their journeys of migration and belonging.
Her two children, a son and a daughter, are growing up Burundian-Canadian. “They are my greatest achievement,” she said proudly. “They remind me every day how far I’ve come.”
She returned to Burundi only once, in December 2012. But the home she found was not the one she remembered.
“I was afraid to take taxis alone or walk in my old neighborhood,” she said. “I felt like a tourist in my own country.”
The visit was sobering. The city had changed, and the economic hardship was evident everywhere. “We were there at Christmas, but things were not the same,” she said. “Few children had gifts. The war had left its mark on everything.”
That trip deepened her appreciation for Canada. “Here, we are safe,” she said. “My children can go to school and dream freely, as every child should.”
Her story, like those she helps preserve at Pier 21, is one of courage, loss, and resilience, but also grace.
“Ten years later,” Angelique reflected, “I carry both Burundi and Canada in my heart. My story is one of learning, healing, and gratitude, proof that starting over can also mean starting to truly live.”
By – Angelique Cishahayo {Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21}
