By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

MY niece, Ashang (Maria Graciela Pasalo Crespo), is going to Hokkaido. With today’s internet everyone knows where it is. She told me the weather is freezing out there, often below-zero degrees. She is being hired as an International Specialist Communication, which entails, “help business managing all internal and external communication of a company, and represent the company to outside world.” That intimidates her, although she will eventually warm up to navigate the corporate terrain, as she had always done in her career.

To tourists, Hokkaido is known for Mount Asahi, a steaming volcano, and other caldera lakes and geothermal springs. It is famous for its ski resorts: Rusutsu, Furano and Niseko. To the Japanese, Hokkaido is referred to as “the kingdom of food”. While sushi and sashimi can be found anywhere in Japan, Hokkaido holds the best distinction in terms of freshness and taste. Hokkaido has a bounty of fertile agricultural lands and aquatic resources and the prefecture had won first place in Japan’s national prefectural attractiveness ranking consistently for ten years.

Ashang resigned from work she loved at J. P. Morgan, for very personal reasons. She wants to explore the world. She wants to experience the culture of other countries, taste, feel the textures of living, touch other human beings, and break her comfort zone. She believes in the breaking, as entry points of light.

As an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), Ashang was required to undertake the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS), a program that Women in Development (WID) Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) helped initiate with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), many years ago. I am not sure about the content of the current PDOS, but the content of the seminar under WID was specifically focused on empowering women, getting them to surmount their challenges, taking head on, the various opportunities within the countries where they are deployed, and teaching them to save and invest their financial resources. The PDOS under WID also incorporated sexuality and spirituality, a session developed by gynecologist Dr. Gloria Itchon and the late Mildred M. Yamzon, a psychologist.

In reality, Ashang does not need PDOS, per my valuation, as she was always in the meetings of NGOs handling the seminar in her growing years. In fact, most of the leaders in these NGOs were her baptismal godparents. As a result of the confluence of events in her life, she continues to practice a philosophy and a work ethic whose principles guide her professional engagements and personal life.

Ashang flies tomorrow, February 18. Last night, she called, telling me, she already misses us, and felt like crying. I told her to come and eat the camote tops (young tips of sweet potato leaves) with a sauce composed of bagoong (anchovies), kalamansi (Philippine lime), siling labuyo and (wild chili). Last night, she ate tinono nga tarong (grilled eggplant), sautéed with lots of garlic, minced wansoy (cilantro), freshly-ground peppercorns and wild chili, wrapped in scrambled eggs. She is a genuine foodie, who also loves sushi and sashimi, and the gourmet offerings of international cuisine. Then she cried, she was not chopping onions, they are still expensive these days.

Despite the heaviness in her heart, and the butterflies in her stomach, she did not waver, her decision was final. She told us, “I have to go. I have to do this, or I will regret not having done it.”

Godspeed, Ashang, the blood of Urduja flows in your bloodstream, let it flow. Sail.

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