Page 31 - PR's - People & Culture

INTERNATIONALVIP
Whole Planet...
AISE A MIGRANT FAMILY
is a saying that goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. In my case, it has taken practically, planet, to raise my two children who hold Philippine passports, but were born and raised in
Thailand.
I was a Nursing grad in 1994, when Bill Clin- ton was voted into the US presidency and he decided that instead of hiring more overseas nurses, he would put up Nursing schools and cut down on overseas nurses hiring. At least that was what I thought hap- pened then. So a er passing the Philippine Nurses Licensure Examination, I packed my bags, le pre- Med courses halfway through the semester, and ew to Bangkok to reunite with my family. My mother
was working as a teacher at an international school then - the same school where my younger sister later graduated from as a high school student, and the same one where my eldest child will be graduating from this coming June.
Compared to other countries at that time, ailand was one of the better options if one wished to raise a family while working abroad. e ais share our physical attributes and our sense of family. Bangkok is just a three-hour plane ride from Manila. And except for the spicy ai dishes and the language, adjusting to ai life does not require massive para- digm shi s for a Filipino.
If asked what I would consider as my greatest takeaways living in ailand, I’d say it is these: op- portunities to raise one’s children with the best of both worlds – Western love for freedom and independence, and Eastern family and spiritual values. When bal- anced fairly in an individual, they make for a resilient, globally-aware young mind, that constantly asks, ‘what solutions can I o er the world, my home’?
My children are growing up aware, I believe, that they have choices in life. at is signi cant in this day and age, especially when at the core of their school life, is rst and foremost, service to others. Children who grow up and learned in an international school learn tolerance. eir eyes are opened to di erences
in culture, background, and in what each considers important. Most of the time, they grow up to be more caring members of their communities, and even play leadership roles in their chosen elds. Many become law or policy-makers, negotiators and mediators in countries and societies mired in con ict. But more importantly, they become initiators of change, leading the way in innovation, paving ways for solutions.
Educators from all kinds of backgrounds and cultural roots have taught and are impacting my chil- dren’s views about themselves and about the world, and about the role each one plays in this shrinking home of a planet we call Earth. My daughter is a performance artist, loves music, painting, photography and fash-
ion designing, but verbalizes that while she wishes to pursue her passions, she also does not want to become a struggling artist. My son, who is only thirteen, hopes to be selected among those who will do an exchange pro- gram with our school’s sister school in Germany, where we host a German student for ten days and he also gets hosted when he visits Bonn in June.
Now the only thing le that should ll a moth- er’s heart, is when these children grow up with pride for being Filipino remaining in them into their late adult- hood, and they choose to render service to their home country in the future. at is where they could make better use of their inquiring minds, their habits formed where they are always asked and are always asking ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. It is then, that I hope, that the sacri ces of being torn away from one’s support systems by working abroad, gets its due reward.
Hedda practicing Kali - (R) Tyra, Oscar, Hedda & Tyrone
g 2019
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