‘Now I understand that every experience is valuable’
Anel Jazybaeva shares her story about the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire with author Aibiike Alymova.
Anel is a 21-year-old international student studying digital journalism and communications at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. Anel moved to Canada as a 17-year-old from her hometown, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Since then, she’s become a huge part of the university community, was vice-president external for the TRU Student Union, an active member of the Journalism and Communications Club, and president of the TRUSU taxation club: a job that includes organizing free workshops that help students file their taxes. She also works part-time as a front desk receptionist at a Kamloops hotel. On one of her shifts, she confronted the impact of a fire that happened in Shuswap.
The Shuswap area is not far away from Kamloops. You could sense the smoke that’s been coming from there and it got pretty close to Kamloops. We had lots of evacuees coming into the hotel. That’s how I came to know that there is a situation that is happening. One night, about 70 people walked in at the same time into the building asking for a room.
There were lots of people with kids, lots of people who were very upset. Somebody was crying. They were putting all of their emotions on us as well. People were arguing with our front desk because they were upset about the situation. Some had never lived in a hotel before. They didn’t have a credit card, they didn’t have a piece of ID, so we couldn’t verify them. They were asking, “Why can’t we just get a room?” I would say, “I’m sorry. I understand what situation you’re in right now. There’s nothing we can do. You will have to get the province to pay for you. You have to go to these services and these services. ” They’re like, I’m not going anywhere.”
Some were seniors and these people are like, “I am 80 years old. Can you do it? Why can’t you do it for me?” I’m like, “Well, I’m not you. So I can’t really do much at this point.”
It was hard. We had people who lost their homes to the wildfire, and they were crying in the hotel lobby. That was pretty bad.
I didn’t end up having much of a conversation with them. I tried to, but I guess people were too upset, so they weren’t willing to speak to me about it too much. I spoke to some relatives of a person who lost their home, and they were saying that they had that property forever. Their grandparents also used to live on the property that they lost. There was also an Indigenous community, Little Shuswap, who got really affected. So all these people are so close to each other in that community. So basically the tragedy that one person experienced is a tragedy of the whole community.
I felt very uncomfortable. You really start to think that you have to be thankful for whatever you have because one day you can just simply lose everything. You have to really be thankful for whatever you have now and cherish it.
It was hard going to work. Not all guests were perfect. Some guests were a bit rude towards the staff because they were upset. I understand that. I get that. But some people were actually pretty mean to me. I’m not from here. I am from abroad. I remember having a conversation with one man about the history of Canada. At some point, he said: “Well, do you know enough to be here?” I didn’t know what to say. I just have to go and do my job as much as I can.
It was a feeling of relief that they were able to go back home, and their suffering had ended. I was feeling happy for them and relieved for myself that this crazy, crazy situation had more or less settled down.
It’s something that you can be ready for but at the same time, you can’t prepare for it. We had lots of theoretical knowledge on what to do in these situations. We had lots of meetings on how to address emergency situations when they occur, but we’ve never faced it really on that scale. We were so lost when it actually happened. At that moment, when 100 people showed up at our doors, we didn’t know what to do. Imagine 100 upset people showing up one day to your property. We did try to be prepared as much as possible. We held some rooms for evacuees just in case.
Now we know what to do. When we had a wildfire in Jasper in 2024 we had almost the same situation where people just were showing up asking if they have room for them. We were more prepared for it. The B.C. emergency services were also more prepared. They created a special software where we could find out information about people in the region, their contact information, and stuff. So the situation wasn’t as tough as it was in 2023.
I wish I talked to someone at that moment. I thought that my experience wasn’t as valuable as those people who had to evacuate from Shuswap, since I wasn’t directly affected. But now I understand that every experience is valuable. If I knew I would’ve taken better care of myself at that moment.
I like to take an infantile, childish position. That one is just blaming people around me for being, not self-sustainable. But one thing that could be done is for every single person to watch after themselves and try to make their lifestyle a bit more sustainable, even if they just make it a little bit sustainable.
For example, if they stop washing a small load of clothes in the washing machine they decrease the frequency of washing their clothes and wash them on a cold temperature. There is tons and tons of energy that could be saved from just that one action. I truly believe that changing one single thing in their lifestyle could have a big impact on our planet. This is one of the things that I’m fighting with my not-so-not-sustainable roommates.
I am trying to use sustainable cleaning supplies. I have put a restriction on the amount of water that I use in the shower, so it saves water and energy. I try to recycle as much as I can. Again, it’s hard sometimes when you have a household which is not used to sustainable practices. However, it’s still a good thing that I feel good about myself and I’m doing it.
I have no hope for the future, unfortunately. Nothing can be done. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. Our kids will probably be the most affected by the situation. A couple weeks ago, I saw a person from the baby boomers generation, just like old men dumping a bunch of car oil in the water reservoir and I was like we are fucked.
I believe that by sharing this story, I could open up, and open people’s eyes to so many things that are happening in the world caused by climate change. I really hope that people will understand that the planet is dying, that in a few more years from now, we will probably all die from some climate disaster or will choke from the smoke coming from the fire.
link to the original: https://thewrennews.ca/now-i-understand-that-every-experience-is-valuable/