Abdi Mohammed Mohamoud: Father, Basketball Coach, Mentor, Activist & Community Leader 2

Trudy Ann Powell: “My life is a continuous journey….”

Oh man, she’s my heartbeat. You know that lady, she goes through struggles, and she’s the one that helps me be resilient. To this day, things are tough in Jamaica, she’s 85 years old and she’s still hustling to make things happen, you know, put food on the table for others. I remember in 1988 there was Hurricane Gilbert. I remember when the house when it flood out. It’s flat and the water came up in the house.

Trudy Ann, photo: Tristen West
Before I came to Canada, we stayed at Central Village. Because when you are leaving the country, it’s not good to let people know where you are going. People don’t want to see you strive, it’s the mentality. You never know who might want to stop you and blight your future. So I stayed with a lady in Central Village for a year and a half. I went to school in Grade 8 at Whitehall Primary and Junior School. I came first in my class. That’s one of the big points in my life. I started to become more independent then.

So for a year and a half, you lived with a lady. What was she like?

Her name was Miss Iris, oh man. She was a good lady, but she was wicked too. She used to download a lot of the work on me. I guess as a young lady, a lot of the work was downloaded on you. She was not really affectionate because remember, she has so many people to share her love with. She runs a home care, she takes care of seniors and others. Delmar was there first. I didn’t really want to go there, because I was with my grandma but my mom gave the order so there I went.

So then I came to Canada with my siblings on July 19^th 1998, I was 13 years old. I turned 14 on July 23^rd. My siblings are Dwayne Morrison, then myself, then Delmar Reid my brother, then my sister Petra Francis. Then my mom had 2 kids here in Canada.

My original migration was just me and my brother Delmar and my sister Petra. My brother Dwayne stayed back in Jamaica. My mom was already here - she was here since 1992, when I was around 8 years old. We went to live with my mother at Vaughan and Oakwood.

Oh, man I was excited to come to Canada because I haven’t seen my mom in how long. At the same time, I miss back home because I was becoming a young lady and I had my friends back home. And I miss my grandma too. At the same time it was new, a bit of a culture shock for me.

I started in Grade 9 at Vaughan Road Academy in 1998. It was very interesting. My mom was working in a factory at the time so she didn’t have time to be involved in my education. I’m the oldest so a lot of things was downloaded on me, like picking up the kids after school. I didn’t have a lot of time with my friends, I had to kind of go around my mom. It was hard - coming from Jamaica and getting first in my class, and then the curriculum here - it was different. I had to figure out the school system quickly to make it work for me. I went there until Grade 11 and then I changed to Central Tech.

About 2 years after I got here, when I was 16, my mom kicked me out and I was living on my own. I had a lot of responsibility at home and I didn’t have a lot of time with my friends. So one time we went out and I came back at 1 o’clock in the morning. And she said ‘you know which party you came from, go back there’. So she’s thinking I’m out there doing you know what. As a young female growing up, your mom is protecting you, and she doesn’t want you to come home with a belly.

Where did you go to live?

I was staying at my friend Tasha’s house. Her building was close to me. I was there for a short period of time. One day I saw my mom in the street with my stepdad’s car. And she was like “Come here” because I haven’t seen her since she kicked me out. But you know Jamaican parents, they give you the hoof. So I don’t go and she threw a likkel bottle at me in the street. It’s embarrassing you know, a sixteen year old girl in the streets, you mom is running you down. So I went to the house and I knew I didn’t have to stay there because I was sixteen. So she called the police and said she would have the police lock me up. Then when the police came I said to them I don’t want to stay here no more. I packed up my stereo and my clothes and stuff and I went to a shelter where a friend was staying. After three months on the women’s priority list I got the place in Lawrence Heights. The staff there were very supportive.

That was in 2000, and I came to live in Leila Lane and I’ve been here ever since. I was still going to Vaughan Road Academy at the time in Grade 10.

Then came an important moment in my life. It helped me to turn around because that was the point where I was hanging out with the wrong people and got a brush with the criminal justice system. I got kicked out of the co-op program I was in at the Ministry of the Attorney General. I was embarrassed as hell. At the Ministry there were a lot of ladies there who had a lot of hope in me. But I couldn’t go back, so I left Vaughan Road Academy too.

I went to Central Tech after that. It was a life changing experience for me. At Vaughan Road, there was so many programs there. They were really focused on the specialized streams, not too much on the generalized streams. They put me in the English as a Second Language stream. I felt like I was working so hard but not getting the marks. When I went to Central Tech, I started going on the Honour Roll right away in my first semester. I felt like the teachers had a different approach. I really wanted to redeem myself after the Ministry of the Attorney General thing happened so I really started to buckle down. The guidance counsellors there helped me out too. I was in the Kiwanis Club - they sent me to Prince Edward Island.

I had one teacher, his name was Mr. Grant. He was Jamaican. I was thinking of going to the CDI- Career Development Institute. He encouraged me to go to post-secondary and think about public school instead of private school. When I got to my commencement, I was on the Honour Roll. When I left Central Tech, I had some scholarships. I got the Canadian Millenium of Excellence Scholarship and I was a National Laureate. It was through the Federal Liberal government. I didn’t go to University though, I didn’t have anyone to guide me.

Were you thinking about your future at that time?

Yes, I started thinking about my career path. I was always working too, because I didn’t want to mix up too much in the system. I went to Humber College for Social Work. I wanted to go into Social Work because I wanted to give back. I LOVE my community. The support system that I have had from my community, I feel like I’m in debt to my community.

Like I love the place, right from the get-go. I was coming into Lawrence Heights from before. Me and my friend used to come and chill at Circle B. The feel, the sense of community was strong right from the beginning. I just love the place.

Trudy Ann at LOVE or LOVE Mural Launch, 2012