Post Scripts
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Post Scripts from Luxembourg
Bobi Rodero
Luxembourg
January 5, 2010
 
 
Nobody really flies to Luxembourg in the winter when it is bitterly cold. But if you are a Filipino you do. Chances are you know another Filipino who lives there who is worth braving the elements for. Filipino tourism really is not about places. It is about the people living in the country you are going to visit. If you don’t know any Filipino there, then it is not worth the trip. We often travel to the most unlikely of places, only because a Filipino we know has settled there.
Click to enlarge image.
Click to enlarge image.

I visited Luxembourg to get reunited with Mrs. Epsy Nava Peralta, a respected educator back in our town in Isabela, Negros Occidental before she retired and moved to Luxembourg about eight years ago. I have previously met her daughter Gazelle Peralta Weber in her recent visit to New York and her granddaughter Krishelle was my house guest in London not so long ago.
Click to enlarge image.Trier, Germany
Lunch in Trier: My train trip from Luxembourg to Utrecht was broken by a short visit to Trier where I had lunch and a tour of the historic town with a Filipino-American aviator who is stationed in a military base nearby. I have only met my Trier host once but being a friend of a friend was reason enough to invite me over. This is a section of the Porta Negra built by the Romans in about 180 AD when Trier was then known as the “second Rome.”
 
Click to enlarge image.
Click to enlarge image.

I was curious to find out what made a retired teacher leave the comfort of her home in a warm country and the company of her grandchildren to live in a foreign land where she could be potentially alone for hours on end? Ma’am Epsy’s reply was typical of many retired mothers in her situation. She is doing it for the sake of the rest of the family in the Philippines, deriving priceless satisfaction from doing occasional baby-sitting jobs so she could send some money home for her grandchildren. She would be isolated and bored in fact if she simply stayed at home all day to wait for her daughter to come home from work.
Click to enlarge image.
Click to enlarge image.

There was some drama while I was in Luxembourg. One night I was awakened by extreme pain in my left shoulder. It was so excruciating I simply had to wake up Gazelle at 3:00 am. She applied a hot compress which partly relieved the pain. At nine that morning she brought me to the hospital where I had an X-ray and received immediate treatment for calcification in my left shoulder joint. Two days later I went back for a cortisone shot and it hasn’t bothered me ever since. What really made the pain bearable and made me recover quickly was the presence and undivided attention given to me by Ma’am Epsy, always the caring Filipino mother wherever in the whole wide world she might be.
 
 

Annie Gatia
Sun 17th January 2010
Luxembourg
 

Hi Nong Bobi,

Thank you for this article regarding this rich little country Luxembourg. Yes, you are right, Tita Epsie is a mother and adviser of most pinoys in Lux especially the Couples for Christ community. She has well taken care of me and my family since Gazelle opened the door for us there. Now, we can consider ourselves very lucky to have chosen this country. The benefits and the advantages of the government are incomparable to other countries where other pinoy chose to migrate [as what I have heard of].It was a pity we didn't have much time to chat, otherwise, it could have been a funny and nostalgique vacation for you. See you soon I hope.

Best regards,

Annie