My OFW Spotlight article in Inquirer

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 15:02:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: OFW spotlight

Nickname: The Queen
Age: 37
Gender: female
Civil Status: single
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Occupation: Orthodontist
Years Spent Abroad: 5 months



I write to share the unique way of how I surprisingly left our country. Submitting resumes in the net for my fiance, I myself tried my luck by a LONE submission of my own  to Yahoojobs. The opportunity came for me and I simply grabbed it.

Barely 5 months in the kingdom and I have happily embraced their ways and culture, so very different from our ways back home. This says much of Pinoys, we adapt very well wherever we are.

More than the promise of a higher paying job, the joy of growing among people so different from you in language, in attitude, in religion, is the greatest challenge we Pinoys have to deal with. In such a short time, I realize these differences are only skin deep. We both share serving the same God (Allah, the Lord Almighty, God the Father), living in the same world and working for it to be a better place to live in (saving the resources, learning to keep up with technology, running a profitable business where everyone gains), and most especially, we may speak differently but we all say the same thing....we all need each other in love and work.

I would like to feel that we left home to continue giving hope to our countrymen back home. We have not jumped ship. Rather, we fight for our country in a different way...in a different place.... In the global arena, proving the FILIPINOS ARE WORLD CLASS.Whatever is happening in our country, we will overcome because we are all survivors.

We who are out of the Philippines, wish we could only do more for our land. In time, I know we will by the skill & resources we have gained elsewhere.

Though uprooted, the philippine mango will only taste ever sweetest in its own soil...don't you think so? I miss this terribly, hinog man o hilaw with bagoong. Lechon with crispy balat. Sisig. CHICHARON! Puto bumbong, kutsinta, ube, macapuno, SAPIN SAPIN! Tiangge, the christmas rush, simbang gabi, paputok, torotot. Baguio, Tagaytay, Boracay, Palawan. MOVIEHOUSE!!!!

I am a Filipino orthodontist working in Riyadh and proud as I will ever be.

In the kingdom, the medal I wear is of patients saying ," Kuayes Filipinni tabib asnan" (The good filipino dentist).

P.S.
By the way, if you're wondering whatever happened to my fiance? Well, we're still together.... Hamdillah (Godwilling)...planning our wedding next year and hoping he will join me in making our country proud...once again.