A nurse by profession, I joined the rank of overseas Filipino workers when recruited in 1987 to work in Kuwait. Prior to leaving the Philippines, I was doing good in the field of Journalism - became a news reporter, an associate editor and executive editor of a provincial newspaper in a span of five and a half years - but was lured to work abroad because of family need. Having had the writing experience, I took the courage of submitting stories to the only two English dailies in Kuwait. I was then offered a part time job by Kuwait Times. Seeing a chance for the nearly 65,000 Filipino workers in Kuwait to shine, I suggested a special section, and just over a month of joining KT, the first 2-page "PINOY News" came out. For nearly two years, I became the writer, editor,photographer, typesetter and lay-out artist of the paper. Sad to say, an unresolved conflict with a lady KT official ended that special section for Filipinos.
In less than a year an offer came to establish an independent newspaper for Filipinos. In spite of a previous bad experience, I grabbed the opportunity, and the first issue of the 16-page 'Pinoy Expat News' (PEN) came off the press three weeks after. With only one field reporter and two contributors, I managed to run the paper (aside from a fulltime nursing job and a regular writing contributions to a weekly magazine). Unfortunately, after a long and tedious battle of acquiring a license from the Ministry of Information, the Kuwaiti sponsor did not make it. PEN lasted for only 10 weekly issues.
Not fully recovered yet from that failed attempt of giving something special to the Filipinos in Kuwait, I accepted another offer and "PINOY News" saw print again, first as a special 4-page supplement of the weekly "Eye Catchers" ad paper and later as a separate 16-page full color newspaper. Alas, because of the much publicized Iraq-UN tension in the early months of 1998, the paper lasted only three issues!
I still dream of putting up an independent paper for Filipinos in Kuwait and the Gulf. When this could be realized, only God knows! I may not have the financial resources now, but I do have a very strong faith and I am one person who doesn't easily give up so I know, and I believe in my heart, that one day my dream will be fulfilled!
I am an avid reader and I would say I learned how to write because of reading. I love to do things on my own and if I really want to learn and do something I usually succeed. Playing musical instruments (piano/organ, guitar and accordion), mastering the typewriter and later the PC, designing newspapers and magazines and of course editing and writing, are just a few of the things I learned on my own because I wanted to. Living in a high storey building with two small verandas, I plant vegetables, aside from flowers and shrubs, and now am merely picking tomatoes, lettuce and beans whenever I need them for cooking. Whenever I tell this to friends and colleagues, and see their unbelieving eyes afterwards, I always smile. They may not believe it, but it's true!