Go Out

Photo last Aug 14, 2016.

Most people would be excited to travel to a different country. For a Filipino, aside from the food and the customs, going abroad is a great opportunity see beautiful places and, of course, have his or her picture taken there. But there’s a great difference between visiting a country for some days and actually living in it for a longer period. In my case, I lived in France for about three years.

I went abroad because my formation as a ‘consecrated lay’ requires me to live away from the world for a certain period of time. Though some may stay abroad for work or familial reasons, my reason for was particular since I did it in response to my vocation. I lived a ‘community life’ in a small town of Venasque in the region of Provence in southern France. Others may have thought that the Eiffel Tower, or the Louvre Museum, or the Arc de Triomphe was just a couple of blocks away from where I live but I was actually hundreds of kilometers away from them!

I lived in a so called ‘desert’. It is not place of sand dunes of course. It simply means that all other things are absent except for what is ‘essential’ in life. For me who was in formation, there were no cellphones, no internet, no TV, no malling, movie-going or shopping, etc. just the essential. The goal was to get myself anchored in God. Everything else was secondary. In short, the life was simple but the joy was profound. My vocation is another different story.

Summer 2015. Souvenir of volunteer work at the Basilca of Lisieux. Here with the Pilgrimage Team. ( Bro.James Villanueva Facebook)

I wouldn’t lie and say that every day was like heaven. O no! Meeting another culture is an experience of discovery. The European culture is very different from ours here in Southeast Asia. Their culture is marked by their own lived history. Their philosophy is influenced greatly by Greek philosophy. They survived two World Wars. They went through a trial of faith during the Church Reformation. Many other things contributed to what they are now at present. So living with this culture is more than just a discovery; it is actually a kind of self-discovery: knowing that I am just a speck of dust in vast universe unknown to me.

There more people I meet, the more activities we do together, and the more I get to know myself: how my difference is as equally important as theirs. From the crucial things such as way of thinking, way of doing things, belief, humor, motivation, to the most obvious such as language, food and climate, everything is different. And so, everything has to be learned little by little. It is not always easy. Some people find it hard to understand Filipino culture. We, Filipinos, are more free-flowing, group-oriented and more flexible. We laugh easily, we are more comfortable expressing ourselves with our bodies, we have lots of non-verbal gestures, etc. In a particular experience, some people were actually uncomfortable with my smiling nature. They thought I was making fun out of them when actually it is very natural for me to smile when I meet someone. There are, of course, many more other stories about these ‘cultural differences’.

But while one’s experience in a foreign land may be both challenging and joyful at the same time, one must always remember to look beyond. Meeting another culture is like meeting a person completely different from me. Should I judge him, quit, and remain in my comfort zone, or should I stay a while longer and get to know his world through his own eyes. If I choose the latter, then I will learn a great deal from this experience. (James Villanueva)