Open Visa: Overview

Copyright © 2020 Print ISBN:978-1-7774589-0-4

Ebook:978-1-7774589-1-1 the hall. Parents were excited to witness their sons and daughters marching toward their assigned rows of chairs. While that heartbreaking graduation march played, Lily’s mind had nowhere to settle. The little village clinic in her hometown was on her mind, and she was visualizing the role she played there as the savior of all birthing mothers.

“Wake up, Lily,” said another graduate to her left. “Your name was called. Get up and receive your diploma.” From the stage, she clearly recognized her mom and dad in the audience way at the back of the auditorium, waving and wiping their teary eyes.

“Thank God, I made it,” were the only words uttered while she headed back to her assigned chair after taking the diploma.

“So where are you going to work?” inquired Nora as they mingled around in the midst of the zoo-like gym. “I’m not quite sure yet,” Lily replied. “Mike is urging me to work with him in the Middle East, so we can be together.” It had been three years since Mike had started working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Their short-lived high school romance had been made even shorter when Mike’s need to work abroad became apparent. His family was dependent on the money he would earn, and supporting a family of nine was a big task for him. He was the eldest of the seven kids.

“I suppose a month-long rest is enough time for me to settle down and focus on what to do next,” Lily said with a sigh. “A friend of mine was telling me of a job opportunity working with kids in Mindanao,” Nora said. “These kids have been media influencers in Calgary. Not only does he share professional skills and advice, he also shares his passion for home cooking through a social media account that features authentic Filipino dishes, aptly called ‘Pinoy Kitchen Abroad”. Despite his considerably prominent social media status, Jerry has maintained his account private and independent so as to keep the unbiased and spontaneous nature of his features. This is so that he can freely share his home-cooking, and where he sources his ingredients, even the tools and utensils that he uses. By doing so, he supports and independently endorses local businesses, big and orphaned by the never-ending struggle between the Muslim separatists and the government. I suppose this is my big break.”

Nora’s family couldn’t do anything about her decision. They had no choice but to allow Nora to hit the road. Her family depended on farming. Their three hectares of rice paddy was not enough to pay for her education. Opportunities were out there, but she had to be swift in claiming them.

As they entered the Bake Shoppe along Paco Roman Street, one of the city’s best restaurants, tables were ready, and waiters were on hand to take their orders. Coming from a religious family, Ka Oscar, Lily’s dad, said grace over the food and everyone around the table started excitedly talking about everything under the sun. Only the arrival of the food was enough to slow down the conversation.

“Mike sent me an open-dated ticket to Jeddah,” Lily said as her mom took a sip of iced tea. “When I’m ready, I can fly to Saudi Arabia to be with him anytime. He told me about an opportunity there to work in a hospital near his workplace. I applied for the job.”

“He’s from a good family,” her mom said in a persuasive voice. “Your tatay and I have no objection to your plan to work together abroad. However, wouldn’t it be nice if Mike could take a holiday here before setting your wedding date?”

“I’ll call him tonight and discuss the matter,” Lily commented.

--------- to be continued ----------

Open Visa

Copyright © 2011 by Romeo Honorio small alike. In 2020, he was tapped by top Management of the popular Asian Supermarket chain in the United States, Seafood City, when it opened its 1st store in Calgary and invited him to a pre-Opening event to welcome the people of Calgary to Seafood City’s presence in their community. Not surprisingly, the Opening was a success, with people lining up for 2-3 hours in its first weeks of operation. Happily, the market support and patronage has been sustained, much thanks to Jerry’s good word and personal support.

Again, let us express our heartfelt Congratulations to Jerry, and wish him well as he continues his advocacies

Living in Alberta for over 30 years and travelled almost all the major cities in Canada, Romeo listened, interviewed, and recorded the stories and experiences of many Filipino organizations and Overseas Foreign Workers.

He has worked at many jobs over the years as a researcher, speaker, facilitator, consultant, and editorial writer to two local community papers - Diaryo Filipino in Calgary, Alberta and Taliba Newspaper in Toronto, Ontario.

As the current Chair of Diaryo Alberta Society, Romeo conceived and directed the Society’s publication of a monthly newsletter called “Miscellanews” and an occasion-specific magazine called “Allbertans”. During the pandemic he initiated the declaration of Covid-19 Pandemic Heroes Day on Dec. 21, 2020, in Alberta. Since then, with the generous support of Filipino businesses and organizations, over 3,000 Covid Heroes received certificate of recognition/appreciation and gift bags.

It was also in December of 2020 his second book, “Covid-19 Fundemic” was published. Both Open Visa and Covid-19 Fundemic are available at Amazon.ca This year, Romeo is hoping to publish his third book “Fundemic Moments”.

Published by WordALive Press. Winnipeg, MB in the different Filipino-Canadian socio-economic circles. To use his own words, what I have achieved so far is a beautiful “story of shattering the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’, a success story of ‘breaking down barriers’ in the Canadian workplace, from the perspective of an internationallytrained professional immigrant.” His story still has several chapters coming, it is far from over.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

“As Filipino-Canadians, we can proudly say that we have come a long way, since the first documented Filipinos’ arrival in Canada in 1931. Let’s share a big toast to our collective success as a growing community. Let us keep the Filipino-Canadian light brightly shining,” says Jerry.