Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned in to the Mac city morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start the show off on the same note. We start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:23 Oh, she caught me, loves near listen to the next anymore.
Speaker 0 00:00:32 All right. We are back and we have a great guest. As you know, I do not introduce my guests. I let them introduce themselves. We had a short conversation with this gentleman months back, but, uh, he has graciously agreed to come back for a longer interview. So I'm going to let him introduce himself, sir, tell everybody who you are and what you're about.
Speaker 2 00:00:52 Well, good afternoon, everybody. It's Lancaster Lauren. So certainly happy to join you guys today, Elliott. Um, I'm a 15 year, I would say, uh, you know, home of Fort Mac for the last 15 years. Um, I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to do engineering. That's my background, my forte. Um, and that's, what's been keeping me busy for the last 15 years. Really happy to be a part of the community and, uh, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 0 00:01:17 Yeah. Okay. So you were on the show when we were at thick with barbershop. So it was just a short, a little bit of time. So I'm gonna re introduce or ask you some of the same questions that we just covered before we have better microphones now, a better system. So initially, where are you from? Cause you're not from here.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 No, and I'm sure people probably pick that up from my accent. Um, so even after 15 years it's been, it's been tough to change my accident originally from South Africa. That's where I'm from.
Speaker 0 00:01:46 Yeah, it was cool. And we were talking off mic. I know we didn't discuss this, but the education system that you went through and how you ended up getting here to Canada is so fascinating to me. Um, I love talking to immigrants just in general, because they're so brave in regards to, when you think about packing up your life, everything, you know, the people, the culture, the society, and going to a different country, the bravery is on a different level, but with yourself, especially how you had to go through school and it's very different from us. You go to high school or junior high, high school, college university within your country, and then you progress. It was a little bit different in South Africa. So can you explain a little bit about that? Because I don't think a lot of people know or whatever have to go through that kind of a story.
Speaker 2 00:02:34 Absolutely. Yeah. So it's really interesting. I mean, I think the, the big difference was growing up in apartheid, South Africa, right? And so I was fortunate enough to kind of experience the tail end of that. Um, but I was pretty fortunate to go to pretty good school. So school in South Africa unfortunately was divided by race. So opportunities also divided by race too. I was fortunate to go to a really, really good school, um, which then opened up some doors. So we actually had a, um, a principal, what we call a principal back home or headmaster. And he had started the school basically for nonwhite people. Um, recognizing that opportunity was an equal, but his vision was really how can we empower people of color and give them an opportunity. So over a number of years, he was able to gain investment from elsewhere from outside of the country and really, um, both to school.
Speaker 2 00:03:28 Um, but to get into the school, you have to not, I can not do this and to the attitude test, I was fortunate to get in and get exposed to a very different level of education. So my parents wouldn't have been able to send me to a private school, to a good school, so to speak with her. I had to rely on the public system, but I was fortunate to go to the school and just a very, very different experience. It taught me to think differently. It taught me to, to, to open my, my world, um, as a composed to like compare to where, where I came from, look opportunities were limited challenges all the way. Um, and then that eventually gave me the opportunity to go to university. I studied engineering or at least mining engineering specifically. Um, and then, yeah, I was able, I was fortunate to get a scholarship, um, because my parents wouldn't have been able to afford sending me to university.
Speaker 2 00:04:16 So getting a scholarship was, was a dream come true, which eventually led me to starting my mining career back into Africa. I worked in the mines probably about the deepest gold mine in the world, by the way, it's actually part of the Guinness book of world records, Western deep levels, right. And she's just outside of Johannesburg and work there for what a year and a half, and then eventually made my way into consulting. Right. And as I progressed my career in consulting, um, that's when opportunities started coming open, I started traveling across Southern Africa. I got an opportunity to work in England. Who's Becky Stan. We just bought the central Asia. And that's what started perky my interest around opportunities elsewhere. And eventually I started looking around, um, there was an advertisement in our local newspaper. It didn't say anything about Fort Mac was uncle or anything like that. It was just mining engineer. And, uh, I applied and the rest is history. That's 15 years later. That's
Speaker 0 00:05:12 Awesome. Yeah. For some of the, we have younger viewers, I look at the demographic. Some of them don't know what a partite is. Can you explain roughly, and we're not going to get into a deep conversation about it because it's a big one. Can you roughly explain what apartheid was and is when you were there?
Speaker 2 00:05:30 Absolutely so, and I can only share my personal perspective. I'm not going to go into the politics. It's a pretty sensitive topic, depending on who you speak to course, we all experienced the system in different ways. Um, from my perspective, it's basically a political system that was established in South Africa. I would say more or less towards the late forties into the fifties, 1940s and 1950s, um, where really the government at the time, as we progressed to becoming a Republic, as you know, the English panel withdrew and became a Republic in 1961. And that was a system established to basically separate races, right? Believing that erases develop separately, they'd be better off. Right. But obviously it wasn't as simple as that, with that came a lack of opportunity. Um, because basically it was a grading system, right? Everything that you did was separately. So I grew up in a community of what we call allied people.
Speaker 2 00:06:28 What better is better known outside of South Africa as mixed race people. But interestingly enough, mixed, mixed race people made retries, mixed race people in the apartheid system. So I grew up in a community I've only mixed race people. So you'd do everything within this community. That's relied on the community for social gatherings, for schooling, for churching, um, politics. So it was interesting. I mean, growing up, I didn't quite recognize, um, the, the disadvantages, because when you were a kid, you know, you were around family, you were around friends that becomes normal. It's only once we actually started growing up, looking at finishing school, going to university that you start asking questions around the world. What is this world? The bot, all of a sudden, because when I graduated from school in 1994, that was when we became the new South Africa. We had our first democratic elections and that meant I was able to go to university. And that was the first year the university actually opened up to all races. Right. And all of a sudden growing up separately and then coming together and being integrated in 19 90, 94. So fascinating experience looking back on it. Now, I think my view has changed as well. Just having the experience I've had in Canada,
Speaker 0 00:07:42 Completely different, fascinating to me. Cause I, um, I come from a mixed relationship as well. And I remember like I grew up in Canada and when you're mixed, it's you got to navigate, you got to navigate through things. You're not one of either. So you find yourself in this limbo of sometimes I'm trying to figure out how to belong to wherever you choose to belong to. And I remember, uh, I was young and I read Malcolm X's book by enemy ancestor, phenomenal book. I've read it numerous times. Loved it. Uh, the main reason I liked it so much is because he changes convictions, which is mind blowing to me. He was so focused on one thing. And then at the height of his fame, when most people, if like you're on a pedestal for this one thing, even if they had an internal like, oh man, I'm wrong.
Speaker 0 00:08:37 No I'm famous for this thought process. I'm sticking with it. And then he's like, no, no, I'm willing to say I was wrong. And like, people can't do it. Who are normal individuals, nonetheless, somebody who's built a career and a following so that I was reading this book and it just was fascinating to me. And my mother said, if you like this book, you need to read Mr. Mandela's book. So I read that book next. And at the time this is back in like the mid 90, late nineties. So apartheid was coming, like you said, to an end. And so I would have never known about it. So I was reading this book and finding out all about it. And I'm like, this is fascinating to me. Like, it's, it's horrendous. It's not good, but it's, it's fascinating how anybody would have thought that this would have worked and how much time and effort was put into making it work poorly. Absolutely unbelievable. It's unbelievable. So now the country is not like that anymore, but it still finds its struggles of trying to navigate through like everybody coming together. So have you had an opportunity outside of COVID I know to like go back home since you have moved away in Fort Mackey place of residence. Yeah. I've,
Speaker 2 00:09:50 I've been home a few times. It's still home for the most part. Um, you know, I kind of call Canada home too, so I'm fortunate to have two homes, but yeah, no, it's interesting because you know, thinking of the journey, um, you know, each time I go back I'm different. Right. Um, and it's not the same place I lift because things are changing in South Africa too. So it's interesting in that, you know, there's the whole political system. And I think South Africa is well known for its politics, right. But since the politics have changed, there's a lot of social change and that social change there's good and bad. Now it's relative. I can only speak to it from my perspective that we're not speaking on behalf of south Africans, but, um, there's been some lot of good positive developments, but there's also some areas where unfortunately we still struggling.
Speaker 2 00:10:36 Um, and I think that's going to be an ongoing struggle. I mean, you know, South Africa is no different to the rest of the developing world. Um, we, we, we, we experienced significant change and with those changes come challenges. The question is how do we adapt to those challenges? That's right. And I think where South Africa is right now is I think they eat a lot of adaptation. When do we have enough people? Do we have the right people and help lead through that change? I mean, so Africa has gone through a significant brain drain. There's a lot of people. Um, I mean, including myself, um, you know, that's no longer in the country. And I think, um, that has had an impact, especially for the younger generations who are there to kind of help both younger people and help create that vision for the future. I think Mandela was really, really good in that he gave us hope inspired hope, but he gave us the opportunity to do the work now the work needs to be done. And I think this is where we starting to see traction in some areas, in some areas, maybe not a lot of traction. So that's one of my passions that in the future being a beneficiary of goodness and an opportunity, um, you know, hopefully at some point I'll be able to go back as I do, um, you know, and, and hopefully give back. That's awesome. That's cool.
Speaker 0 00:11:54 But, uh, yeah, when you have change, it's not good or bad. It just, it is what it is. And, um, Fort McMurray has gone through a lot of change. I am born here and I grew up in the eighties and it was very quiet community back then. But then all of a sudden in the late nineties, early two thousands, it blew up. Um, and with that came a lot of positives money expansion. But with that came a lot of downsides, drugs, prostitution, congested, traffic, and the community grew and played with that. And now we're in a position where like, the infrastructure is great, but now we're in a recession. So that Nessus, that infrastructure isn't necessarily needed for what you have. So I'm always interested to hear about politics from other people's countries and how they deal with things just because not any country. Has it nailed down a perfectly or McMurry?
Speaker 0 00:12:48 Definitely. Didn't some things went well, some things didn't, but yeah, it's fascinating to me, especially South Africa, I have to say I haven't met a single person from your country that I haven't been enamored with. Uh, when I went to college, there was, um, two individuals, a gentleman and a female, um, that I was just enamored with. And when in my working world, I've had the pleasure of working with some south Africans as well. And your guys' outset on life and how you just view things to me is so interesting because you've had to learn to navigate, put puzzle pieces together. And the way you guys think is just, I love it. I love it. I think if anything came out of that awful experiment, it's like your guys' brains and how you adapt and look at the world, I think is a huge positive. Yeah, it's amazing, man.
Speaker 0 00:13:43 So, and when I, when I met you at the barbershop, Allie was just like, you got to meet this guy Elliott. And I'm like, okay. And like, Allie never introduces me to any guys that I have to meet because I know enough people, but he, I remember Allie saying Lancaster is a deep guy. He has some awesome thoughts. I think you two would hit it off. And when you came on the show, the first time, I'm like, oh, this guy is awesome. So dude, thank you for like keeping in contact with me and coming on the show again cause you're super into
Speaker 2 00:14:13 No. Well, I really appreciate that. And thank you for your kind words. I'm really happy to be here to share part of my story and hopefully, you know, share some insights in terms of what the journey has been about. And it's really interesting cause I got here towards the end of my twenties, right? So in my 15 years, I think my view on the world, you know, although there's still a south African story, um, you know, it's, it's amazing to kind of merge that with my Canadian story because in that 15 years, I must say, uh, you know, there's a lot of things I learned in South Africa. There's a lot of things I didn't get to learn and Canada's helped me close that, you know, specifically Fort Mac, I should say, Canada for me is Fort Mac. And this is where I landed 15 years ago. And this is both the life and it's just been an amazing experience. So bringing those two stories together, um, I think, um, yeah, hopefully one day I can kind of leverage that and share that with others. Maybe
Speaker 0 00:15:05 Write a book. So speaking about books, so he talked about it. The reason you're here today is because you had an opportunity for education. And so education is paramount and a part of education is reading. So last time we got together, you recommended a great book for me. I've never read it before. Definitely an insightful book. It kind of matched you as an individual. Um, how do you pick books to read? I know like you obviously liked reading and that was a phenomenal recommendation. Um, what are you into when it comes to books?
Speaker 2 00:15:38 Well, I think for me, it's all about learning about human beings. That's what, that's what intrigues me the most. So, um, I'm often into philosophy history culture, um, because I think given the opportunity to live in, uh, in, in, in, in a place like Fort Mac, being exposed to so many people from different walks of life, I'm always interested in their stories. Um, and I think that's what books gives us the opportunity to do is to glean into how other people view the world specifically given history. Um, so I've done a lot of reading, um, you know, in terms of human development, human progress, how did we get to where we are today? That's right. And that's, that's kinda what I, what I enjoy tapping into, because I think learning from others just makes you that much richer person. Yeah. Right. And
Speaker 0 00:16:27 It gives you an insight of like, Hey, I've, I've heard, I've read this. I kinda know where this scenario may be going. Like I'm gonna, I I'm bad with names. There's animal farm. Right. That's right. Animal farm was the book that you recommended. Yeah. Amazing book written so long ago. But as I'm reading this book, I'm like, I know how this is going to end like this doesn't end well for the other animals and you can just see it, but it's so true upon human nature. So like a book like that, like I will definitely have my young, he's only six. It's too mature for him as of right now. But that's a book I'm going to get him to read when he's a teenager. Um, because as an adult, in my late thirties, I was able to read the book and be like, oh, I know where this is going, but how valuable that would have been if I would've read that when I was 13 or 14 so that I could have navigated through life a little differently.
Speaker 0 00:17:20 Right. So yeah. Education and reading books. I love it. So, but I'm not a big reader and I'll put that on right now. I listened to books even when you recommended it, I got the audio book. So that's how I digest knowledge. Well, yeah. So let's switch gears for a second. In regards to topics, you came into this house, rocking some bangers of shoes. You came in with some Michael Jordan, some air Jordans, nice ones too. Those are vintage Jordans. Tell me about your sneaker collection and like what, like, cause you obviously have to like shoes and know a little bit about shoes to be rocking Jordans that were that clean. So
Speaker 2 00:18:01 Well, it's interesting, uh, shoes, uh, passion. Um, and it's, it's interesting too, because uh, living in Fort Mac, I don't always get to wear all my favorite shoes, but you know, growing up for me shoes define the person. Right. Um, you know, it tells a story like how did you choose that, that beer shoes? Right. Um, and to be honest, like I've got all different kinds of shoes. Okay. Shoes, you know, sneakers. Um, but I think to me, shoes goes with how I feel. Right. And uh, and, and to be honest with you, I think I've got probably like over 40 pairs of shoes. That's wrong with that. And uh, yeah. It's just, you know, and it's interesting because when I do see a pair of shoes, I often think about, am I ever going to see it again? Because there's a feeling that goes with it. That's right. Right. And so that's normally what attracts me to a pair of shoes. It's the story that goes with it or the story that I want to tell. I get to collect that. And then on, on a day today, they happened to be there. They kind of went
Speaker 0 00:19:00 With the look in terms of my color. So yeah, I know. And you got to, you got to see themselves. It made me excited. That's like, there's certain things. And like as humans, we're visual. Right. So, um, and certain things just make people respond in a certain way. When I saw your shoes right away. Like it's just memory. Me and Tanner actually just came back from lunch and we were talking about Michael Jordan and space jam and how LeBron James has his new movie coming out. So the fact that you walk in literally seven minutes later rocking Jordans, I was just like, what are the odds of that? So yeah. Shoes are one of those things that people like take a look and well, not everybody but me personally. I appreciate a nice white pair of air Jordans. I have this shoe that I'm trying to get right now.
Speaker 0 00:19:44 And when I say trying to get, I'm hoping somebody who's watching will purchase them for me and send them in, or maybe Nike will send them to me. I'm rocking some Nike's right now. Um, they're the Ben and Jerry dunks. So there are these Nike shoes. It's a collaboration with Ben and Jerry, the ice cream company. And they're an amazing, weird looking shoe. They're not everybody's taste, but because of sneaker culture, these shoes are valued at like $5,000 American. Yeah. So initially to buy them, it's just like any pair of Jordans or not Jordan's Nike's, um, 120 bucks, but because they're limited and people wanted them and sneaker culture, you had to get a pair of these shoes as 5k. Wow. So I'm hoping somebody at home wants to give me the shoes. I promise I'll wear them every day on the show if you send them my way. So yeah. Snoop shoes, shoes. Cool, man. But you, you got some
Speaker 2 00:20:41 Baggage. Yes. Well, it's really interesting. I only learned the affidavit back. You actually get to, um, this company that collect sneakers. Oh yeah. Um, and it's, it's quite a thing.
Speaker 0 00:20:51 Yeah. It's a big thing. And that's the, it's a gift. It's a blessing and a curse. And that's why the shoes I want are so expensive is because of these people. I've said I've, I've mentioned the air dunks by Nike, Ben and Jerry a few times now on the show. And, uh, I've said I will wear them. And people just look at me like you can't, you can't wear that. Like you have to put it on a shelf and it's a collectible, like the value will drop as soon as you wear it. And I'm like, well, I'm going to wear it. I'm going to wear it. So, yeah. There's a big thing with sneaker culture on that note though, I'm hogging the show. Tanner, you have a segment called the Mac CD minute inner man. Up with your question, sir,
Speaker 3 00:21:30 Question number one. What is one way Fort McMurray reminds you of South Africa.
Speaker 2 00:21:37 Diversity,
Speaker 3 00:21:38 Question number two. What does the mines in Canada and the mines in South Africa share in common.
Speaker 2 00:21:45 Mm, wow. Well, I've only worked in an open pit. Mine. Yeah. And underground is not Africa. So I'd say not much.
Speaker 3 00:21:52 Question number three. What is your favorite story from traveling around the world before getting to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:22:00 Uh, learning about people, cultures, question
Speaker 3 00:22:04 Number four. What was it like being part of the first class of mixed race people in university in South Africa.
Speaker 2 00:22:10 Oh, wow. Amazing.
Speaker 3 00:22:13 And your final question. What do you remember from your first time coming to Fort McMurray and being in Canada,
Speaker 2 00:22:20 Not seeing any houses, just seeing a forest, flying over forest and not knowing where I'm going.
Speaker 3 00:22:26 And those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Let's keep on that last topic. My parents come from Guyana, south America, and my mom has a story and I won't tell the story. Hopefully one day my mom will come on the show and tell it herself. But the first time she saw snow, the weather here from South Africa, obviously extremely different. How did you deal with the weather when you first got here? Why?
Speaker 2 00:22:51 It was interesting cause I eased into it. I got, I got here in the fall. Okay. Uh, so, you know, kind of easing into winter, didn't really know what to expect. Um, so the fall came and to me, four was really cold. So yeah, I was with the beanie and the bunny gloves and the big jacket and everyone's still kind of sporting like t-shirts and I'm like, what's up with this guy kind of thing. Right. So, I mean, and it's interesting cause I think your body adapt. Right. So when I first got here, the fall was really, really cold, um, getting into winter itself. Um, I found what was fascinating was just feeling snow, not, not really knowing what snow felt like. Could you normally see people ski the, but they're not getting wet and in my mind you shouldn't be getting wet. Right. So I think feeling snow and just kind of getting that experience was what was pretty unique for me. And then the other thing was the darkness. That was the piece I wasn't prepared for. And even till today, like I don't mind the cold, I actually enjoy the cold making the best of it. Like they say, there's no such thing as a bad weather day for a proud Canadian. Right. So getting out and making the best of every day. But I do struggle with the amount of sunlight or the lack of sunlight. And I think that's probably the biggest challenge. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:24:01 Yeah. On the flip side though, we get long days in the summer, we're coming up this weekend actually the longest day of the year. So I think it's this weekend I could be wrong, but uh, I got ripped off when we used to go to south America because I grew up here. So I remember my trip as a young adult, I was 14. We went to south America for the summer and I'm like, oh, this is going to be awesome. It's gonna be hot. It's going to be great. And then it gets dark at five o'clock and I was like, whoa. And then my parents in a third world country, you're not letting me out in the dark. So I'm just like, everything got locked down at five and I was behind gates and stuff. And I'm like, this is brutal. So yeah, when you travel to different countries, depending on climate and like longitude, latitude, things are very different.
Speaker 0 00:24:45 So you thought you'd be wet with the snow. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Well, we're going to end the show off on that note because I know a Tanner had his watch a little while ago, so we hit the 20 minute mark Lyon Castro. Thank you very much for coming in today. Truly, uh, is a pleasure. I have to say that. And unfortunately for the guests, we're going to be turning off the camera, but you and I are going to continue to chat, but uh, anytime you want to come back, I'll continue inviting you. I would love for you to come back and continue the conversation with us.
Speaker 2 00:25:14 And thank you for having me. It's been an absolute blast.
Speaker 0 00:25:16 Sweet. All right. Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo. Thank you very much for tuning into another episode of the Mac city morning show. Uh, hopefully you had a great day. Thank you. Once again. I know you could be doing tons of other things with your time. So it does mean the world to me that you spend it with us, have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 1 00:25:36 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
