This is a take-off from Betchay's Professional Pinoys in Korea. I like reading her blog and I emailed her one time so we met around three weeks ago.
I have to confess that before meeting her and reading the above entry, I used to be cautious meeting Pinoys here as I was frequently told that most are undocumented. An experience from Hyewa where my husband and I attended a Tagalog mass proved this. I laughed at the man who asked me if we were illegal only to be told that he and his family had been staying here in Kora for seven years and they were undocumented. If they are still here to this day, they would be on their ninth year already. My husband was quick to remind me to be more careful with my reactions. We never went back to Hyewa after that. We attended English mass at the Catholic Hanam-dong Church since then. The area is attended by embassy people from different embassies, mostly Caucasians and Africans.
I'm glad to have read Betchay's entry and I would like to add a few (just three, hehehe) I know. There's Sister Angel Libron who has been very accommodating since my pregnancy days. She used to work in Hyewa with Fr. Glenn Jaron (the man most Filipino workers trust, more than they trust the embassy people). She moved on to a different vocation since last year and she is currently working with women, AIDS victim. She is so busy you can call her in the middle of the night and she is still working. Sister Angel inroduced me to Professor Emely Abagat. She serves as the Chairperson for the Education Committee of the Archdiocese of Hyewa-dong. She's currently teaching English for seminarians in a seminary outside of Seoul. She was a College Dean back in the Philippines.
Just two Sundays ago, I met Reschiel Fernandez. She is a medical representative in the Philippines who is currently on a three-month training here in Seoul. She had been covering in the hospital where Eunice works so Eunice took the opportunity to send more Barney tapes for LeRuof. She spent another Sunday with us yesterday at the Children's Grand Park. The company provides for her apartment near their office in Garak. She's learning the subway and I'm sure she'll enjoy her stay here. I told her, when the three months is over, you might wish for an extension. I think living out of the country as a single and unattached person is great fun...
Through Betchay's blog (isn't she informative?), I got in touch with another Filipina. Like Betchay, she's married to a Korean. She is teaching English in a city just outside of Seoul. Interestingly, she also worked with ACCRALAW before. She was Corporate paralegal a year after I left ACCRA. I worked as a paralegal with ACCRA from 1997-1999.
After two years amidst Koreans here, I think it would be great to see more of the Pinoys living here in Korea...
