“Even the little child.”
Jean Pierre Makosso is leaving no one out of his inspired thank you to the Sunshine Coast for the reunification of his family after 15 years.
“I want to thank everyone – the whole community,” said the Gibsons-based dancer, actor and author, beaming with joy. “From the little child to the mayor, from the hippie to the director or the principal, each one of them is part of this. This is what I call the project. Each one was part of this project, this miracle project.”
The project was completed in late May when daughter Amanda joined her parents, Jean Pierre and Yvette, in Gibsons. Yvette had arrived from Congo-Brazzaville in September 2012, reuniting with her husband after more than a decade apart. But, because Amanda was attending university in Tunisia, her application for permanent resident status was delayed by red tape.
“The battle is over. Thank God!” Jean Pierre said back in May, after hearing the news.
Amanda was nine when her father left Africa. Now 24, she said the two never lost their connection.
“It’s like we’ve never been separated because we were always talking, and it’s like we just continued to live,” she said in a recent interview with the family.
“We just weren’t physically together, but [we were] in our spirit and our minds. Sometimes my father called me and said, ‘You have to wash your teeth this night, don’t forget it.’ So it was like he was there for my education, you see,” she laughed.
People on the Coast have responded with enthusiasm and sometimes tears to Amanda’s arrival, and she said she’s been touched by the response.
“It was just kind, I think. Like my father says, they were part of the project, so for them it was normal. But for me, it’s not so normal, because kindness nowadays is not human nature. It’s like kindness is exceptional now. So I was very surprised to see ‘welcome home’ and to see all the beautiful cards, and the gifts. I was surprised.”
One regret for Amanda is that she never got to meet the late Joni Thompson, the Gibsons woman who worked to bring Jean Pierre to the Sunshine Coast and championed the reunification project, literally going door to door to drum up community support.
“I always say I was born in July 2001 because I was born here,” Jean Pierre said. “If Joni wasn’t living here, if I didn’t come to this place, this would not happen, because this was the right place to be for this to happen. So I’m just so happy that this has happened. My daughter is here. And Joni would say, ‘Yeah, you did it,’ and I’d say, ‘No, we did it.’ We did it. The whole community did it.”
Amanda’s arrival does present a challenge for the family. With a master’s degree in marketing and bachelor’s degree in law, Amanda may have to move off-Coast to continue her studies or pursue a career – and, after years of separation, her parents may decide to go with her.
Yvette said it wouldn’t be the same anywhere else.
“Here it’s like our village for us. We have all our family here. It’s like a home,” she said. “Even if we go to Vancouver, our life is here. Gibsons is like our better place to be in Canada.”
“It’s like everybody knows us here, that’s the thing,” Jean Pierre concurred. “Being somewhere where everybody knows your name is really being home.”
If Amanda leaves the Coast, “I might follow,” he added. “But the Sunshine Coast still stays home. It’s where our life began.”
Amanda said she is taking some time to rest before making any big decisions.
“I don’t want to think about life now – because I know that when I start to think about it, there will not be an end. It will just be go, go, like everybody here, they just go, go, fast and fast and fast. But me, I just want time to think about it, to think about the direction I want to give to my life here.”
