Living amidst differences resulting from migrating and working around the world has been a mainstay in my life. My global movements have spanned three continents and crossed archipelagos, allowing me to spend time in countries where the foreign culture was quite different from my bi-cultural upbringing.

I began in the Philippines, my birthplace, before making my way with my family towards Papua New Guinea. Five years after arriving in Port Moresby, we migrated once more to the United States in 1979 in search of better life opportunities. Contrary to the accusations of one CUSO-VSO health advisor, living in other countries as a child does infuse in one inter-cultural skills and gives the child the ability to navigate across cultural divides.

In my adult years, I began hopping on planes again to visit places as remote as Sarangkot Village (Nepal), popular tourist spots such as Seoul (Korea) and Heidelberg (Germany), and the home of a former colleague in the lesser-known Dutch communities of Doetinchem and Gaanderen. I later found work in Japan as an English teacher, and where I also immersed myself in learning the mystical cultural traditions of ikebana, aikido, and the tea ceremony. I even learned to speak the local language. I stayed for three years and became involved in civic work. For ten months during my final year in Japan, I volunteered for the House in Emergency of Love and Peace (HELP) shelter, which took in sex-trafficked women (many of whom came from Thailand and the Philippines) and assisted Japanese women with battling domestic abuse. And then, in my 30s I studied for a degree in Australia.

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