You May or You May Not

I am posting this to correct myself and I do not want to be associated anymore to a community here in NB. Also, I know many Filipinos are reading my blog because of NBPNP EELMS program so to avoid misleading them all, I am blogging this.

As your Filipino NBPNP (EELMS) to first land here in NB, we are your guinea pigs. I do not ask anyone to believe me but all I can say is all that I have posted here are all based on our own experience. Your choice not mine. You may or you may not. We have our own minds and we can think and decide to ourselves which is good or not. I just do not want anymore of my fellow Filipino NBPNP to experience what we experienced.

Okay, so my husband and I reported to a Filipino community here in NB. If I were given the chance to rewind everything from packing, to our landing, and to our most coveted integration to Canada, I will choose not to report with the community. Why? Because at landing we were obliged to do practice and dance right away. Not to mention the so many activities that we have to go through even if we do not like to plus some bad experiences that I chose not to detail. And, let me not forget the pictures they posted on facebook without our consents which later on we found out that they used it for funding. That's explain why Ashraf does not want to have picture with us when we reported to Population Growth because we have a companion who is from the community.

If you are reading my blog, you will know that we transferred to our apartment almost 2 weeks after landing and started to apply for a job only on the 3rd week. Why? Because of the so many unwanted activities that we have to go through. So many time were wasted but God is still good and guided us to the right path. As CIIP says during our seminar with them, learn to say NO, after all, this is Canada and no longer Philippines. We brought with us our CIIP seminar who really helped us in our integration here. With the many offices they have linked us with, my husband and I will forever be grateful with CIIP.

It is just sad that there are really Filipinos who will take advantage of you. They will even take credit of what we accomplished. Did they even know the struggles we had? The so many sleepless nights of waiting and depression. It is up to us to stop it and fight for our own rights. And yes, we do not owe them anything because we came here in NB as permanent residents. Whatever they used to picked us up in the airport, our accommodation and also the food were all paid up through that funding.

So, we did our last practice and last dance for the community. Sad and bad experience it is but we have chosen to charged it all to experience. We came here for a dream of having our little R and not to practice and dance with the community nor do tiring activities. We struggled to come here for our little R and there is no way they can let us down. My husband and I are just so thankful that we both now have work so we can divert our attentions to what our real purpose of coming here in the maple leaf country.

In the next few days and months, many first batch Filipino NBPNPs are doing their landing here in NB. Some will opt to report to them but most of them will not. It is for us to know and for you Filipino NBPNP to find out. Your choice not us but please bare in mind that as newcomers here in NB, we need to settle down first before anything. You will all come here with your settlement fund on hand but remember that money that we all have will slowly depreciate. You will buy your own things, groceries, rent and utilities will take much of your settlement fund. Mind you, settling and integrating to a new world is not easy. Yes, we do also need a community here, after all, we are all Filipinos but not to the extent of eating a lot of your time. A community will always be here for you but settling first is another story.

Leave with you the politics in the Philippines (which is also here in Canada with fellow Filipinos, tsk, tsk, tsk) plus the crab mentality and start a new life here as a Canadian. In that way, you will learn little by little, how smoothly integration to a new world will come to each one of us.

I also want to emphasize that not all Filipinos here are the same. We just reported to 2 wrong persons and maybe to a wrong community. We just found out that there are 2 Filipino communities here. Why? That I do not know also but you can ask yourselves why then get an answer from there. And for as long as they are the leaders in the community where we reported then it is okay for us not to have a community at all. Anyway, this is Canada. Settle first before anything and do not let anyone take advantage of you just because you are a newcomer.

"Saying yes to happiness, means learning to say no to the things and people, that stress you out." - Anonymous.