Walking through the crisp snow and cold of a January day in Manitoba, Aude Pingard had no idea 20 years ago that she was about to meet her future husband.
A French citizen, Pingard found herself exposed to some of the worst of a prairie winter while hitchhiking across Canada.
She was granted some reprieve by a farmer from Kenton, Man., who stopped to offer her a ride.
“It was January, 40 below, and he felt sorry for me,” Pingard recalled during an interview at last week’s Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference.
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The two became briefly acquainted after that chance encounter, but 10 years passed before their paths would cross again.
Pingard, a veterinarian, returned to Canada in 1989 for a series of conferences in Edmonton, Saskatoon and Toronto. She decided to pay a visit to the man who had offered her a ride on that chill day a decade earlier.
Their relationship grew from there, although a year elapsed before Pingard moved to Canada permanently.
She and her husband now have two daughters, and Pingard works as a veterinarian, doing locums in the Brandon area.
During her nine years in rural Manitoba, she has found some similarities as well as some striking differences between life in rural Manitoba and the rural France that she knew.
A common thread between the two is the emphasis placed on raising a family and finding time to enjoy life and friendships.
The differences, however, are many.
Pingard marvels at the amount of land that goes unused in rural Manitoba. She cited ditches and farmyards that “are big like a field by French standards.”
Although a waste in some ways, Pingard said the unused land is also a plus, since it offers habitat for wildlife.
She also considers prairie farmers more attuned to the global events that shape commodity prices. Subsidies paid to French farmers offer them a buffer against events and trends in the world market. Prairie farmers do not have a cushion with the same thick padding.
“Whether the crop in Australia is good or not is irrelevant to the French farmer,” Pingard said.
Cultural differences
In terms of cultural differences, she said the sense of community in rural areas remains foreign to her.
In France, her sense of community came from within the family, where there was solidarity among the relatives. Pingard is also puzzled by parents who spend countless hours throughout the winter attending their children’s hockey games.
She is even more puzzled by people who faithfully tune in to televised sports. She prefers to participate in sports rather than watch them on TV.
“Instead of living life, you are watching other people living it.”
Generally, she finds life in rural Manitoba more relaxed than in the region of France where she practised veterinary medicine.
And like many Europeans, she appreciates the courtesy that motorists extend to pedestrians here.
Perhaps without that courtesy she would never have met her husband.
