Leaving his life behind in southern Manitoba to move to Paraguay was not what Dan Giesbrecht had in mind at age 15, but when his father decided the family was moving, he had to go too.

It was 1948. The Second World War was over and, while much of Canada was still sighing in relief, thousands of pacifist Mennonites were moving to South America to escape Canadian government policies.

Mennonites are a Christian group with a firm belief in pacifism. In the 1870s, around 7,500 of them moved from Russia to Manitoba to escape the threat of forced military service in the Russian army.

But with their pacifist religious beliefs and German language, the World Wars also created a disagreement between this group and the Canadian government. Some Mennonites were drafted into the army. The government also banned German from being taught in schools and religious teachings were eliminated from public schools.

Giesbrecht was one of thousands who boarded a boat for Paraguay because of this disagreement.

“Really I didn’t want to leave Manitoba,” said now 86-year-old Giesbrecht, thinking back. “I was going to stay and work for my uncle.”

Giesbrecht was born and raised on a farm only a few kilometres from the small community of Gretna in southern Manitoba. He is the middle child of nine. But when Giesbrecht’s older brother was drafted to the army in the Second World War, his father began to look for a new home.

His family wasn’t the only one having second thoughts about Canada. Other families were also upset at how the government had pushed them into military service against their beliefs.

Delegates from the Mennonite Central Committee were sent to scout out South America and bring back a report on favourable countries. Paraguay made the cut and Giesbrecht’s father saw his chance.

He sold the family farm and in late April, 1948, Giesbrecht boarded the SS Volendam in Halifax with his parents and seven of his siblings, leaving behind only his eldest brother who was already married. They set sail for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil along with around 1,100 others, most of whom were also Mennonites leaving Canada for similar reasons.

They were at sea for five weeks and Giesbrecht made use of the time working on board.

“I started with dish washing for a few days and then drying dishes for a few days, and then one of the crew guys got sick and then I was at the table serving,” he said.

But not everyone was lucky enough to pass the time this way.

“My youngest brother, he was quarantined with my mom most of the way because of measles,” he said.

“I basically hardly saw my mom the time we were on the ship because of that.”

After docking in Brazil and travelling the nearly 1,800 kilometres to neighbouring Paraguay by train, Giesbrecht finally found himself in the land that was to become his new home. It was not what the family had been expecting.

“It was not what the delegates had told my mom and dad (about) how good it was over there … There was actually no road to the property that Dad had purchased, so then they had to make a road first,” he said.

“Every week there would be a number of people going out and working on the road. There was not equipment like we have here to build a road.”

Thousands more had a similar experience. By 1953, an estimated 16,000 Mennonites had exchanged their frosty homeland for South America, with around 12,000 of those settling in Paraguay. Many of these families had been expecting open land that could be used for grazing and wheat farming, but instead what appeared before them was wooded and swampy hills.

Not everything was bleak for a teenager exploring a new country.

Within two weeks of living in Paraguay, Giesbrecht bought a horse with the money he had earned working on the ship. Along with this new-found independence came a new friend.

“I soon met up with a person my age that also had a horse,” said Giesbrecht.

“They had a vineyard – grapes, also had bananas and some oranges and that was pretty good. Him and I could converse because he knew a little bit of German.”

Giesbrecht and his family lived in a mud hut until their belongings arrived about a month later, and then they put up tents. The goal was to eventually build a house, but they didn’t stay in Paraguay long enough for that goal to be realized.

“My dad, after he experienced how it was up there, then he decided it was better (in Canada) and so then we all came back,” said Giesbrecht.

On Dec. 31, 1948 – eight months after leaving – Giesbrecht once again stepped foot on Canadian soil.

His family was among the 600 Mennonites who returned to Canada between 1948 and 1950 after becoming disillusioned with South America.

But coming back wasn’t easy either, with no farm now to return to.

“Everything was basically lost. We started over again here, but then we didn’t have as much as we had before,” said Giesbrecht.

Although Giesbrecht now looks back fondly at the memory of his Paraguayan adventure, he is happy to have settled back into Canadian life.