border visit march 3, 2019

Sunday, March 3  2019. Afternoon at Roxham Road, USA.
A relatively mild day, we were able to stay outside without starting to freeze! In total six people crossed into Canada while we were there. None of the people who crossed were wearing winter boots, or good winter coats.

Two men of African origin men arrived first.  We could not make out where they said they were from. They were happy to take hats and scarves.  About a half hour later a taxi brought an African woman with a 2-year old girl child. She was not interested in any warm things. The taxi driver told us they  were from Swaziland (a small country in southern Africa).

Shortly after, another taxi brought a young man from Ethiopia who was happy to put on a woollen hat, scarf and gloves.  He crossed just after the woman and little girl crossed and he was made to wait outside the building for several minutes. We were glad he was protected from the cold.

The last person to arrive by taxi was a young woman from Lebanon. She spoke very little English, but was happy to take gloves and a scarf. We gave her a hug and wished her well in Canada.

The RCMP officers were friendly. One of them asked the man from Ethiopia where he was from, but other than that they stuck to their protocol.