It Takes a Village | Growing Up With American Missionary Parents in The Philippines feat. Becca

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Hello and welcome to Culture In Between, a podcast all about exploring the unique experiences

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of people who grew up in a culture outside of their parents' culture. We're your hosts, Alyssa

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and Brianna, and in today's episode we have Becca, who grew up in the Philippines with

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American missionary parents. Welcome to the show, Becca. It's great to have you. Thank

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you. I'm so excited. It's going to be fun. Thank you. Yes, we are very excited to talk to you

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because this is definitely different from... pretty much all of the guests that we have

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planned for the podcast, at least for this season. So can we start by having you tell us where

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exactly in the US your parents are from and then where you all lived in the Philippines?

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Okay, well, my dad, he was born in a tiny, tiny town in Tennessee, like his parents owned a

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farm. His dad wasn't a good farmer, but he, so he worked at like a local factory. and he's

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the only one who went to college in his family and he had a passion for mission, so he got

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a master's in theology and then he became a pastor in Montana and met my mom, it was just

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really random. My mom was a speech therapist. She grew up all over. My grandpa was a pastor,

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but she grew up mostly in the West Coast, like Seattle area. And then I grew up in the Philippines

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in the Northern Island of Lausanne. We moved a lot, my parents were like Mrs. and Mr. Flexible

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of the missionaries, so they just kind of went where they were told, but we were always in

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that one area which is like the northern, it's a big island. And can you tell us a little

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bit about like the missionaries, like what maybe organization they were with or like, yeah,

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what was their purpose going to the Philippines? They were with the Southern Baptist, they have

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very strong belief that Jesus is a Savior and they wanted to share Jesus with others. And

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they weren't there to change culture, they were there to just teach Bible. That was their goal.

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Yeah, just assimilate with them. Yeah, we weren't expected. My parents had the goal of living

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like the people as much as possible and just sharing Jesus with them that way. That's awesome.

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Well, that's really fascinating. So, can you tell us how many years did you live in the

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Philippines? So I was born there and when I was 19, I went to college. So I lived there

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pretty much that whole time, except when we'd come to the states for what we called state-side

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assignments. So a total of 16 out of 19 years of my formative years, I lived in the Philippines.

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And did you go to school with other Filipino kids or did you go to international schools?

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What was your school experience like? So I had a very mixed experience. I went to like...

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Like in preschool, I went to like a little local church and then we would come back to the states

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for like a year here and there. So like first grade, sixth grade, half of 10th grade, I went

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to public school in the states. And then my parents did put me in a private like school

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in the Philippines, but it was terrible. It just did not work. I was like a freak. I don't

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know how else to word it. Like they had not seen white people ever. And literally they

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would all, the kids would touch me and would not like listen to the teacher. And like, I

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couldn't move. It was like a very, it was just horrible. So then my mom started homeschooling

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us. Plus when they teach English, like whatever the grammar rules are for their language, they

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teach it, they use it for English. That's not the right grammar. So it's just not, it didn't

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work. So my mom ended up homeschooling us. And then in high school, I went to a boarding school

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for, which was an international school. You've kind of been in a lot of different experiences.

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It sounds like you have siblings. Can you maybe list how many siblings you have? And were they

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also born in the Philippines or were some born in the States? So my brother was born in Texas.

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He was a year old when he went to the Philippines and my sister was also born in the Philippines

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and I'm in the middle. So there's three of us. Gotcha. And so that was really interesting

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that you talked about how you kind of felt like a freak in school because that was going to

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be like my next question is just... How were you and I guess your family as well received

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in the Philippines? Like, I mean, were people used to seeing American missionaries or was

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it still kind of a novelty? Like, how were you treated, I guess, as people who obviously weren't

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Filipino but entrenched in the culture like that? We were definitely interesting. And also

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the Philippines, it was during World War II when the Japanese took over, the United States

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went back and freed them basically. And so they have a deep respect for Americans. Like Americans

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are considered like good to them. Like they freed us. They were a colony. So, you know,

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that's a whole other thing. Yeah. But like they have, they just love Americans in general.

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They think we have a lot of money. So then poor people are like, Hey, give us money all the

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time, which we want to help people, but you can only do what you have the ability to do,

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of course. So that makes it difficult. Um, yeah. So, so you mentioned that you came back to

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the U S here and there during your time in the Philippines. So can you tell us what that experience

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was like coming back to the US after living in the Philippines for a time and kind of going

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back and forth like that? When you were in the US, did you have like reverse culture shock?

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Were you having to get used to the culture here? What was that like? Oh, it was definitely like

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a culture shock. I remember walking to Walmart and being like, holy cow, this is like the

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biggest story I've ever seen. Like, we had a market, you know, an open market with like...

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fish swimming, like essentially from the local like beach. Like that's what I grew up with.

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And that was just, it was a lot. It was very awkward because people expect you because you,

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I spoke English like my parents. So I had an American accent and I look like an American

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cause I am American, but inside I don't feel like culturally like they're just little things

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that I do that are not American, but it's hard to explain because I don't realize I'm doing

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it cause they're subconscious. My grandma was German and she was very strict. So mom would

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have us for six months before we weren't allowed to eat with our hands. We had to use silverware.

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It sounds like silly stuff, but she would make us train us because otherwise my grandma would

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be like, what are you teaching your kids over there? But normally when parents are chilled,

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they're like, yeah, let's do it like the people. It's all good. Yeah. So your relatives, they

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live in the States, so they probably getting that you picked up in the Philippines. So that's

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really interesting. You told us where you lived, but like you tell us a little bit about, did

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you move around within the Philippines? We did move around. We always lived not in the city.

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We always lived what we call in the barangay, like in the very rural areas. We didn't have

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like a phone line till like 1996. There was no phone line going through the town. Like

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my parents went to the Philippines in say 1984, I believe is when they went. they decided to

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move into a house in a Filipino. Like they just rented a room in a house and they had to learn

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how to cook on a wood stove. It was like learned by fire, literally, because there was no telephone,

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there was no way to contact anyone. My mom said it was the hardest thing she ever did, but

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they were the only missionaries brave enough to do it in our mission. So that's how my parents

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raised us. So we had a nice house compared to the locals, but we had a very basic furniture

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and like we just kind of assimilated that way. That's awesome. That's such a unique experience.

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Like, I feel like that's so cool that they really wanted to engulf themselves and their children

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in the culture. Did you end up picking up the language Tagalog, right? Is that how? Yes.

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I spoke it. I still speak it fluently. I'm a little rusty. But once I get like 30 minutes

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into a conversation, I'm good to go. When I was little, we lived in a different place and

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I lived, I spoke another language called Ilocano. So I was like, trilingual. But when we moved

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to another place, I lost it because kids gain and lose things easily. And that also like

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put me behind, I guess, with schooling because I couldn't, when we came to the States in first

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grade, I was, my English wasn't that good. Oh, wow. That's funny. That's crazy. So do they

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have multiple like different dialects and stuff throughout the thing? They have like over a

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thousand. Wow, really? I did not know that. Cause Tagalog is the only one I'm familiar

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with. I have a best friend who's Filipino, so I know of that one, but I guess that's probably

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the main language. That is the national language. Yep. Okay. But then there's little pockets.

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Okay. Yeah. I was not aware of that. And variations of each language. There's all kinds of stuff.

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I don't even know all of them for sure. But Tagalog was almost probably maybe the first

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language you learned. I don't know, I guess you spoke it probably as good as you did English

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or maybe even. I think it just happened simultaneously. Yeah. Like my parents spoke to us in English,

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but then everybody else spoke to us in Tagalog. When I was born, I think they spoke Ilocano

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there. But yeah, it was just all simultaneous at the same time. Okay. Can you tell us, like

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kind of walk us through... your elementary school experience, middle school experience, high

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school experience. I know you were like homeschooled for part of that, but can you kind of tell

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us what it was like growing up there as school age, like in your school experience and how

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it differs from like a typical American school experience? Well my curriculum, our curriculum

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came from the States. So as far as like academics, I feel like we probably had a very similar

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experience to a lot of homeschooled kids in the US because they use the same curriculum.

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I was actually a really good kid, not to brag, but mom would wake me up at like seven. She

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would give me like my assignments and I would just do them. And then when I got done, I would

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go and play with the, you know, the local, the local kids that I would play with. My brother

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and sister were another story, but, but that's how I did homeschooling. And then public schools

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in the U S is just like, it would be here. High school was a little rough. It was like a really

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ghetto school. It was a shock to the system. There was like a daycare for the students in

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the school. I was like, I don't know where I've come from. To come from a very conservative,

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rural area. It was a little shocking. So it sounds like, okay, so you grew up kind of in

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a more rural... Like most of the places, even though you traveled around quite a bit, you

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grew up mostly in rural areas. And did your siblings assimilate as much as... You did,

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you think? Or did they? Or I don't know, I guess maybe you can't speak for them, but how did

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you observe them? Oh, we were all the same, I feel like. We all have different personalities

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in how we deal with things. My sister has a learning disability, so I feel like her language

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skills weren't as good as mine. That's about it. Cool, cool. Yeah. So how was it coming

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back to the US in a more permanent fashion after growing up in the Philippines? Was there ever

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any... talk of maybe staying in the Philippines or moving elsewhere. How did you decide to

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move back to the US and to stay here permanently? And just what was that like? I think it was

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always the expectation. I was born in the Philippines, but in the Philippines, the law is that if

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your parents are American, you're automatically American. So I didn't have the citizenship

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to work in the Philippines legally. So I guess my thought was always that that's how we were

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raised. There's not really options there. But when I did come to the US. It was a big adjustment

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because I did feel inside very different than people around me. And like, I remember kids

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would be talking and telling their stories. And my stories would always start with in the

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Philippines. And because I literally have nowhere else to talk about and I'm a talker, so I had

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to join in the conversation. And after a while, people got annoyed with me because they felt

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like I was trying to show off that I was different. I wasn't trying to show off. That's just literally

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all I had to go by. But one experience that I had that really made a big difference defining

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in my life is when I was in high school, I went to the States in sixth grade and it was really

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hard. I was bullied a lot. I was just very different. My parents didn't really dress me cool. I didn't

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really know it was cool. It was just bad. And then we left and I finally at the end of that

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year, I made friends and then we left again. So then in 10th grade, we were only going to

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be in the States for six months. And so I vowed not to make a single friend because I didn't

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want to deal with the hurt of moving again and losing that friend. So during that year I was

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kind of depressed because I'm an extrovert, did not work out for me. And so when I went

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back to the Philippines, I went to my boarding school and there I had lots of friends. So

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I remember in college, I vowed that I would never let myself do that again. And I kind

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of vowed that like, if someone invites me, I'm gonna go because You just don't know unless

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you experience it, which sounds really dangerous. I may have not made all the best decisions

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in college, but I felt like unless you go and put yourself out there when you're alone, you're

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not gonna make friends. You're not gonna make the best of the situation if nothing else learned

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from those people and that experience that you had. So I'm very passionate about doing that

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and living fully that way. That makes sense. That could be, I can see how that'd be difficult.

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And like, I mean, even... I'm sure just like culturally, there are probably things that

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like music and things. I don't know how much you were keeping up with that kind of stuff.

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Oh, it's not. Yeah, you know, things that would have maybe been popular in the States, like

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when you come over, because I think you said you come over every, was it every four years

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or so you come over for? So it was four and then in between there was three. Yeah, like

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every, you know, Britney Spears, whoever I'm trying to think, you know, is popular at the

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time. Like, I don't know if you are you listening to all the music. So like if kids are saying

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whatever slang or whatever is cool at the time, like. you're probably not up to date on that.

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So that probably was hard too, right? Cause I feel that now is like a person without children

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and trying to keep track of what the cool, what the words are now. So I'm just kind of relating

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it to that. So yeah. Oh, for sure. It was really hard to connect with people when you don't,

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like people are in, cause you're not really interested in what people are interested in.

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Yeah. Right. Yeah. Do you have any like specific stories of times when like someone would make

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some sort of cultural reference? that only like Americans would understand and you just like

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didn't get it? Oh, I can't think of anything. I know it happened all the time. It's probably

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because I really didn't know what was going on. Do you even remember what they were saying?

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It was too painful. You just walked it out. I was like, I don't know. This is awkward kid

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in the corner over here trying to make the best of the situation. I mean, there are experiences

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like this one girl I met in college. I'm like, oh, she seems like a nice Christian girl. You

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know, I came from a conservative environment. So she's like, come to a birthday party with

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me. I'm like, cool. So we start driving there and I'm like, so what are we gonna do, play

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board games or something? She laughed so hard. There was definitely like drugs and all kinds

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of stuff at this party. And I was like, I stood on the wall. Like I was like, not what I expected,

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but I was all in, you know, I had this motto that I was gonna enjoy life, whatever. And

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she knew I was uncomfortable. So she left within like half an hour. We didn't really hang out

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after that, but it's all good. Yeah. You put yourself out there. I sure did. Yeah. All the

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way. I was not ready for it at that time. Oh my gosh. I must have been like, welcome to

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America. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Oh my gosh. People are funny that way. Wow. Yeah. So I guess taking

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it into kind of the present, looking back on all those experiences and just how your life

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has been kind of divided between these two countries.

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Do you feel like you don't fully belong in any one culture? Because that must be a little

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bit, And then I didn't grow up in this other place, And everyone, if you just hear me, you

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think I'm American.

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belong in any one culture and how do you kind of deal with that? All the time. I feel that

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way. You know, I go back and forth. Like, I always find people that I connect with and

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there's always people out there who genuinely enjoy that you're different. And there's always

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people out there who kind of think you're showing off again. It happens in adulthood. It happened

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more like, you know, in college days. But I just feel like I just find the people who are

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okay with who I am and... That's how I operate, but sometimes I do feel kind of lonely. Like,

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okay, I don't belong anywhere and this is kind of lonely. Yeah, because most of your formative

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years were in the Philippines. So it's such a... Even though you've been living here for

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a good little while now too, like it's, yeah, you know, that's still made up a lot of who

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you were. And so, you know, Philippines is a third world country. What was that like and

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like how has that shaped, I don't know, your appreciation of living in America in a first

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world country? Oh, it's made a huge impact. We lived very remote, people were starving,

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people had dirt floors, people shared a hole in the ground to use the bathroom, you know,

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these were our neighbors, this is what I saw growing up. And it's hard, because you come

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here and you're like, people are just kind of more superficial, but it's easy to judge people

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too, you know, that's also like, you have to understand where they're coming from. So I

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feel like, in the beginning of college, I was kind of like, it was hard, because. I don't

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know, there'd be like a party and everyone would be like, I need to buy a new dress. I'm like,

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y'all need to buy new dresses all the time? Like, I don't get it. Like, people are starving

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in other countries, but like after a while you realize that it's okay also to enjoy the things

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that you have to a certain extent, but also just know what's important. For sure. It probably

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gives you a better appreciation. Cause I know like when Brianna and I go visit Jamaica and

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see where my parents grew up and everything, it's always, it's always a bit of a shock.

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And until like, I always come back to the States being like, wow, like I really appreciate.

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and what I grew up in. So yeah, I'm sure that really has probably helped you and not get

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so bogged down with maybe the consumerism I think it definitely makes me more content And

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that kind of leads me into my next question

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often would tell us like, oh, you don't need this and you don't need that and don't waste

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this and don't waste that, which of course was is good. But I'm wondering if you do that to

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your kids now. Like if you

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thinking that when you're saying that I was like, oh snap. How has your upbringing impacted

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how you raise your children? Growing up in the Philippines affected how you are raising your

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kids now here in the US. Oh, definitely. So this is just a random story. But. during right

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before Halloween, I took Rosalind to Disney on ice and I let her buy like they had in Kanto

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theme. So I let her get a costume for that. And Halloween was like the next month and my

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husband's from India. He's born and raised in India. So he also grew up in a, well, I guess

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it's technically second world, but a poor country. And so she wanted a tiger costume and she'd

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been talking about this tiger costume, but both of us just kind of were like, no, we already

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bought you something like you use what you got. And she was so sad, but she kind of was like

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okay with it. So she made up her own costume and then one of the kids made fun of her for

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it on Halloween which kind of made me feel bad. But it's kind of, I also want her to learn

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to be okay with what she has. So it's a struggle cause I want her to be able to choose things

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that she likes. And we just live in such an affluent community. Like I live in the suburbs

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and it's very affluent. But are there any other ways that you've kind of passed down some of

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the Filipino culture that you were raised into your kids? Like in a different way, like maybe

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just in terms of like foods or interests, that kind of thing? I think for me, just I have

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a passion for being content with material things and just knowing what's important. So that's

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something I really want to instill in my kids. I don't know if I'm... quite there, but we're

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working on it with my four and six year olds, so I still got a little time. But I don't know,

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I think that's pretty much it. I mean, I do cook Filipino food. My husband's Indian, I

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cook Indian food. So I'm sure that hopefully they have a varied palette going up. And I'm

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sure there's a lot of subtle things that I do, but when I get around Filipinos, they'll tell

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me things that I do that I don't realize I'm doing that are very Filipino. Unless you're

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Filipino, you wouldn't realize that. Making sure your kids eat, that's like a very like,

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you know, they better eat. I'm sure your parents did that to you. Yeah. Very important. Yeah,

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that's very true. Yes. That's funny. My husband does similar stuff too. Like, don't waste your

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food. People are starving. Like you're so privileged and you don't like the food. Yeah. You're not

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gonna eat this? Then too bad. Like that's kind of like, you know, getting another option.

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Yeah. No, that's so true. I think that there's a certain universality amongst like immigrant.

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parents with that, with the food and not wasting it. Yeah, it's a big thing, which I fully understand.

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I get it. But yeah, I think that's pretty widespread amongst, no matter where your parents come

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from. What do you miss the most from living in the Philippines? You know, Filipinos, they're

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really great at just loving you for who you are. They're the most accepting culture. If

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you go to a potluck, there'll be all these mixed kids. They just love everybody. Everybody's

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welcome. When they move to a country, they just find the good in that culture. And that's one

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thing my mom always taught me is like every culture has good and things that maybe aren't

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so good. So take the good and run with it and the stuff that's not so good in your own culture,

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like let it go and take on the stuff with the other culture. You don't have to be stuck in

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one thing. Do what's good in both the cultures. And have you been back to the Philippines since

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you moved to the U S? So when I first went to college, when I was 19, my parents were still

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living in the Philippines. They live there from, that would have been 2005 until 2014. So what

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is that? Nine years later, they retired. But when I first went, my dad came for like two

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months with me, got my driver's license. Two days later, I drove him to the airport in Atlanta.

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It was like the scariest thing I think I've ever done. You're driving in Atlanta, a scary

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thing. That was fun, that was fun. Then I moved myself in my dorm like two days later. So dad

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just kind of left me. Mom says that to this day, he was the craziest, scaredest person

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in the world. Like he was so scared leaving me because it's a lot to leave your little

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girl like that. Yeah. Okay, so now I wanna kind of transition into talking more about the culture

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as a whole, Filipino culture. So I think a good place to start is always with food. What is

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your favorite Filipino dishes? And after that, I wanna ask you about a specific. food that

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I've heard about, but we'll start there. What are some of your favorite Filipino dishes?

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Chicken adobo, which is like a soy sauce and vinegar based sauce. I love eggplant. They

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make this omelet with eggplant. You like grill it and then you make like, you fry it with

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an egg, it's so good. And you dip it in fish sauce. They also have like this calabasas,

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basically they're pumpkin. I think they sell it here like that in certain international

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stores, but. I just like all the veggies and stuff. All the fish fresh from the beach. Oh

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my word. A fisherman caught this morning. Nice. Okay. So we've heard about the infamous balut.

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Oh yeah. Balut. Yeah. Can you tell our listeners what that is and do you like that or? It's

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funny because Filipinos, they eat every part of, you know, the chicken and everything except

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for the bone, but pretty much every part. But balut is basically an egg with a chicken in

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it, a baby chicken, and they boil it and they eat it, and they consider it really good for

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your brain to be really good for your brain basically, and you have to eat it in the evening.

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So these guys will come around these vendors and they just hold on their back like these

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boiled eggs of chicken and they scream balut, every time they go. And as a kid, I ate it.

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I love that stuff. But now as an adult, it's so funny because I came to the States and I

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was like, I can't eat that stuff. You tell people what it is, they're like, what? Yeah, people

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just look at you. Yeah, I'm like, even I think that. And I'm like, but I used to eat this

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stuff. Like, I remember eating chicken intestines. It was like grilled and it was my favorite.

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I used to beg my dad for this stuff and now I'm like, I'm good, I'll pass. Like, I know

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better now. You've become Americanized in that way now. Oh my gosh, well, how did that happen?

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I don't know, I could eat it. I'm sure I could swallow it some way somehow. I don't know.

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Yeah. Another food-related thing I've heard a lot about from the Philippines is Jollibee.

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People say that it's better than fast food here in the US. Do you have an opinion on Jollibee?

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What do you think of it? The thing is, we lived really remote. There was no Jollibee where

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we lived. We used to go to these mission conferences twice a year, and we would drive to the city,

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and it was a big deal because you'd finally have McDonald's and all this other stuff. But

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they had everything there and Jollibee, we used to do American stuff because we just didn't

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have it at all because we ate Filipino food. So I didn't really eat it a lot growing up,

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honestly. It just wasn't available. Gotcha. And when it was, it wasn't the first choice.

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Got you. It was with my parents and that's fine, I understand. Yeah, that makes sense. Cool,

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cool. So that kind of like a bit of a negative question and then a positive question. So first,

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is there anything that you kind of disliked about Filipino culture at all? Ooh, I don't

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know if I can answer that. Or living in the Philippines in general. Yeah. That's a tricky

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one. I'm on the fence about that question for a guess. No, no, that's fine. No, it's tricky

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because honestly I loved it there. Like, of course there's things you don't like, but I

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can't think of anything, you know, that I experienced really truly negatively. I think it was awkward

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being like this white kid. Because where we live, there were missionaries, but usually

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it was young guys. There wasn't families with kids. That was bizarre. Or there would be American

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men who married Filipinas and would go and visit with their mixed kids, but there was never

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blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids running around the village. That was really odd. Gotcha. Yeah.

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And then on the positive side, what do you love the most about Filipino culture? They're very

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people-oriented. And so I feel like, so I'm... by profession and RN too. And one thing that

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I found through working with people who are in the dying process is at the end of the life

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you realize what's important. It's really people. And I feel like Americans miss that. They worry

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about their career and other things and like they become lonely. But the most beautiful

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thing is seeing someone who's surrounded by their loved ones at the end of their life.

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It's just the saddest when they're not. And I feel like Filipinos, they're just so people

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oriented. There's always people around. They value that. They take time with that. And they

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just... They just make it a priority. Makes them late to stuff, but you know, but they

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got their friends. So, you know, they're living life fully. And I feel like that's something

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that we're just blessed to do in life. Yeah. Yeah, that's really beautiful. Yeah, it is.

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Do you find that people were actually more content and happy over there, even though their, you

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know, surroundings are, you know, not very great, like, than like what you've seen over here?

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Yeah, 100 percent. It's amazing how someone in a village, they all live and they're worth

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people always that were mean to other people to their advantage. There's always people in

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every culture and then you hear stories, but in general people just kind of work together

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to help each other. If there, I remember if we ever had no electricity, which happened

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quite a lot, everyone would go to like one house and have a candle. And we... us kids would

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play with a candle. Like we were completely and utterly having the time of our life, putting

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our finger over a candle. Like don't tell my mom I did that. No, just kidding. But you know,

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we just, it was just crazy how like the things that we enjoy are just different. And like

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you just stop and like literally smell the roses is what you do. And that's something that we

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miss sometimes here when we live in this affluent. We have to plan everything. There's no like,

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show up. Yeah. Work, hustle culture, anything. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard similar sentiments from

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other people who have traveled to kind of locate their real countries like that. And it seems

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something that's hold true because you think like, well, how would they be so happy with

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having less? But sometimes, yeah, when you have more, you realize you don't need it. So another

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thing that we like to do on the podcast is kind of dispel stereotypes or just talk about stereotypes.

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And they're type MythBusters. Yeah. Oh, that's kind of fun. We're not tied to that name yet,

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but we'll see. I like it. We'll see. But I just think it's always interesting to kind of talk

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about stereotypes. I actually, I don't, like I tried to do some research, and I don't necessarily

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have a lot of stereotypes about the Philippines, per se. But one, and this kind of goes back

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to you mentioning that you were an RN, one in particular that I've seen in my. Oh, yeah.

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It's true! in our own lives, because like Alyssa said, So that is a huge stereotype about Filipinos,

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they move to the US and become nurses,

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Can you give some rationale behind it if you might happen to know? You know, I don't know

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if it really has to do with why I became. just, you know, if you get a little cut, if you wash

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it and you put Neosporin on,

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it becomes big and if they don't have money to pay for it, then the kids are just literally

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hanging around crying because they have big open wounds with flies in it. This sounds really

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gross, but like this is the reality that happens. I remember seeing that growing up. So I had

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a passion that like, this stuff is easy to fix. This isn't hard. I mean, I was like in sixth

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grade, I came to the States for a year and I like collected like a hundred dollars from

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my church and I went back and bought bandages and I was like. I bandaged all the kids that

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had little booboos. Because those booboos can turn into something if you don't take care

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of it. So that was like my mantra. So that's how I started. I just want to be a nurse. I

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read everything about Florence Nightingale, like Mother Teresa, like they were my people.

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But with the Philippines, with the nursing thing, so the Philippines was actually, there's actually

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a history behind that. So the Philippines was actually a US colony before World War II. They

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purchased the US sorry, the Philippines from Spain. So they used to help countries get freed

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from the colonists, but in this case, they actually went behind the back. It was not a beautiful

31:33 → 31:38
part of history, and they purchased it. But anyway, and they built an infrastructure, but

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they have a deep-seated relationship with the Philippines, so they speak English really well.

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Most Filipinos, I mean, they still have their accent and stuff, but they speak English better

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than most other countries and stuff. And so there's been, I think, since then, they've

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always recruited nurses. There's always been a need. And Filipino culture is very like service

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oriented. They're really good in like, just, they're just very patient. They're very kind.

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Their culture is just kind of accepting. They're there to help each other. That's how their

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culture is. So they're just really good at it. Um, but yeah, some of the recruiting is not

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so beautiful in reality. Some of the articles and you hear stories, but honestly, when you

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live in a starving place, you're just happy to get a job. It's not that bad. Yeah, being

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a nurse is an important job. And it tracks well with what you've been kind of like echoing

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throughout the interviews So that aligns very well then with that type of career.

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So no Mythbusters here today. That one's true. Come on, Brianna. I expected that one to be

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true. Honestly, that was the main one that I had. I don't know if you have any more, Alyssa.

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I'm trying to think. So like I said, my husband went over to the Philippines and he is about

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6'2". And he said he was towering over people. What is the average height over anything? I

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have no idea, but my dad is like 5'8", and he was definitely a giant over there. Okay. Yeah,

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they're not very tall for the most part. There's always those token people, you know, that are

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taller, probably mixed, like maybe when the Spanish were there, whatever, who knows what,

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what. Yeah. I mean, can you think of any stereotypes or misunderstandings that maybe you've heard

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over time about the Philippines that you wish people would understand? It's like not true.

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Hmm.

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That's a hard question. but I don't know. they have a pretty positive view of the Philippines.

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I'm not sure what people know about the Philippines, actually.

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Florida, so a lot of different cultures and things. So I don't know if I wasn't exposed

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to a best friend who was Filipino, and I had lots of other friends in school who were Filipino,

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so I kind of learned about the culture that way. But I don't know what America's overall

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viewpoint of- Filipinos kind of, wherever they go, they just become. They're not the type

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of culture that goes and it becomes a little village of their own. So I think that's why

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when they come to the States, you don't really hear of a stereotype or- besides the nurses

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thing, which is true. But they just kind of join in everywhere they go. They almost like

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to copy, that sounds kind of negative, but they are their own people in that way. But it's

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really beautiful how they do it. I'm not looking to like shake things up, I'm just trying to

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like blend in. Just trying to join in. Yeah, I got you. Just trying to like have a little

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fun here and there, get a job, feed themselves, like nothing major. Gotcha, gotcha. Hardworking,

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yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's true. I feel like, yeah, they do just kind of assimilate

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really well into any culture. Yeah. I mean, I think those are all our questions. Do you

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have any more questions, Alyssa? I think I'm good. You're going to make fun of me about

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saying that again? I did a good job this time. No, you did a very good job. Yeah, no, I think

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that's about it. Thank you so much, Becca, for joining us. It was so amazing to hear your

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experience, a very unique experience. And, you know, you did a great job of really like telling

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us about all the, all the things you did growing up. Things that I never would imagine growing

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up in a village in the Philippines. So yeah, thank you so much for coming. Thank you for

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sharing your story. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, guys.

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We'd like to thank Becca for taking the time to share her story. It was fascinating to hear

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about her experience of growing up in the Philippines as a daughter of American missionary parents.

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We would like to thank you listeners for tuning in for another interview. Your support means

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the world to us. And if you like what you hear, we would greatly appreciate it if you helped

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us spread the word even further by leaving us a rating on your podcast player of choice.

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Thank you again and see you next time.