an ode to the spring past

a maori congregation performed tribal songs praising God last sunday. it was a cold day but they wore their traditional costumes. their chants and antics moved me. i asked myself, "who am i?"

i use australian-made toiletries. i wear a shirt that's made in china. my boots are made in spain. i patronize a swiss-made watch. i drink japanese green tea and live for a monthly ramen meal. i love the italians for pasta and pizza. i hail the americans for french fries and potato chips.

i am pinoy and i am in sydney.

in 3 months, i represented different countries in asia: "have you heard of chang?", a product promoter asked me and without waiting for my answer, he looked at my face and exclaimed "of course you do, you're thai!". a friend of my boss came to the office the other day and asked, "where are you from? indonesia?" [i still wonder why people ask and not wait for answers.] then there's a tourist who requested to have her picture taken, and thanked me in mandarin afterwards. good thing i still remember "you're welcome" in mandarin. then there's this one time during a trip in hongkong when an officemate and i had difficulty getting our order of siomai dim sum across to the waiter only to find out that she was refusing to serve us pork dumplings thinking we were malaysians.

i am pinoy. tsinoy. filo. only globalised as one can possibly be.

i long to share filipino christmas songs to the community, but i can't sing. i speak fookien so poorly even my mother can't understand me. i speak english with an american accent as what the locals here say.

i am made in the philippines. i may not look it, or speak it, or eat it. but my smile is definitely it.

i am proud to be pinoy. i attribute the resiliency, the warmth, the sincerity, the kindness, that no-fuss and enduring attitude to having been made from there. [i am thinking out loud as i have been asking for a long time what sets the philippines apart?]

so what am i doing in a foreign country, you might ask. [i ask that too. so no need to apologize for it.] have i forsaken my motherland by coming here? ah, flight versus fight. i can always say that i earn dollars to fund education of children back home. or this or that. however, i don't think it really matters. what matters is knowing where i came from, continuing in growing and loving accordingly.

only time and choices will reveal who one is. and where God puts me, i'd be there. in the meantime, i don't think there is such a thing as forgetting my phillipines.