Filipino-Canadian

We took our oath as Canadian citizens in 2005. Not that we were excited to renounce our Filipino citizenship. I must admit that our primary reason for applying for citizenship was to be able to cross the border to the USA without any visa. As permanent residents, we were already enjoying the benefits that citizens had, except the right to vote.

Still, the oath taking was an emotional ceremony. We had been in Canada for four years, had reviewed for, taken and passed the citizenship test. There we were, in front of a judge, together with about a hundred immigrants from different countries, taking our oath to Canada, our new country. You can’t help but feel a sense of pride and belonging as you individually receive your certificate of citizenship and a Canadian flag.

Citizens or not, we are still Filipinos at heart. Our daily diet has not changed. We still eat rice and Filipino food everyday. We cook sinigang, adobo, munggo, kare-kare. The two younger kids love daing and tuyo. Jojo and I still speak in Tagalog at home and the kids understand, even if they reply in English. Our hearts still ache when we think of family and friends in the Philippines. We watch and read Filipino news all the time. We also feel pain and anger when we hear about how the political and economic landscape has not really changed since we left.

But Canada has been good to us. Despite the initial challenges, we’ve had a lot of opportunities. Here, we enjoy education and medical services for free, two of our major expenses had we stayed in the Philippines. In the midst of the worldwide recession, we have a comfortable life. There isn’t a day that I don’t thank the Lord for the blessing of this country that we’re in. I’d like to think that God has graciously given us not a new country, but two countries that we can call our home.

If you live in accordance with my precepts and are careful to observe my commandments, I will give you rain in due season, so that the land will bear its crops, and the trees their fruit; your threshing will last till vintage time, and your vintage till the time for sowing, and you will have food to eat in abundance, so that you may dwell securely in your land. (Leviticus 26:3-5)