My Filipino-ness

Sometimes I wish I live in California - or Cali, if you wanna call it the hip way. Why ? well, it is a haven for Filipinos. And here's a proof that verify that: Asian Explosion . The figure is just astounding but I'm not surprised since Cali is the closest US state to the Philippines, globally speaking. I have lived in NC for about 5 years now and meeting or even seeing Filipinos in this area is a miracle! Ewan ko ba, mukhang di yata kaya ng powers ng aking kapwa pilipino ang tumira dito. Dahil kaya sa malamig dito ? My mom lives in Cali (thrives in the warm (or hot) weather in the west ) and visited me this year during Spring. As you guessed, her body did not totally appreciate the cooler weather here down east. Nagkasakit si Lola. Wawa! but she recovered and is now back to her home sweet home enjoying the warm weather of the west coast again ( hindi ko sya makumbinsi tumira dito ever! )

Charlotte only have .7% Filipinos in the entire population. Which is why most of the time, I feel like a filipino from a lonely planet (hikbi). But somehow luck was in my favor since the past 2 weeks. Lo and behold! Filipino presence has flocked into my domain- not this domain- I mean at work ! (",) But hey, I would be so flattered if I do get Filipinos to drop by my site and actually say Hi !

So anyway, I was pretty ecstatic including people who know me at work. Like I said, Filipino encounters are very rare and you just learn to appreciate it when they do come along. I met Mimi, a filipina doctor married to an american, who lives in Fort Mill SC and currently enrolled in TaiChi . Then there's the Filipino teenager, Kenneth who was born in Mindanao and was adopted by her american parents when he was 9 months old. His mom is just so hungry to connect to his heritage that she was so happy to meet me (so do I ). He now takes Shaolin. Good for him! Then just today, I got a phone call from someone whose adoptive father is a filipino who lives just outside of Charlotte's City limits. Talk about encounters! I do hope to meet more. The only filipino friend I have unfortunately is not even as fluent with her native language anymore and has sort of lost touch with her "Filipino-ness". In her defense, she's almost old enough to be my mom and have lived here like forever! My daughter adores her, she's a filipino and that's all that matters!

Kumusta na mga kababayan ko ?

Originally posted in Zenventures of a working mom