Feeling  at home while  living in Toronto

By Willie Jose
Toronto-Canada
July 19, 2015



Though, we’re  thousands  of miles away from the Philippines, we—Filipinos--  who live  in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada feel as if we’ve not left  our  home after all-- and  the country of our birth.

Why?

Well, let me tell you how most of us spend our days making a  living in this newly-adopted country.

For example, every morning, we watch TV Patrol newscast, thereby keeping abreast of whatever big happenings back home; we don’t miss  the  episodes in the ABS-CBN’s TV series Bridge of Love, Pangako Sa Iyo, Passion de Amor and the weekly “ Maalaala Mo Kaya. And  for our breakfast, we usually have  pandesal, with the matching Ligo sardines or Lily’s Peanut butter spread. And for lunch, we normally prepare dishes such as Adobo, siningang na baboy, pritong Tilapia and as we begin eating, the  ubiquitous  Patis,  Marca Pina soy sauce, Jufran or UFC Ketsup   will always be on our tabletops as dips.

If we are not in the mood to prepare our own foods, the places to go to are Max’s Restaurant , Barrio Fiesta or Aristocrat.

 We are slowly adapting to our  new environment—and being  homesick is now a thing of the past because we’re at present living in a real home settings where we are surrounded by familiar things that always remind us about the homeland.

With today’s technology and fast mode of transportation, we’ve  remained connected with some  familiar things back home such as  the  airing of popular ABS-CBN and GMA’s TV shows right in the comfort of our homes, the flooding of the Filipino brand products in grocery stores and even the staging of live entertainment shows and concerts, with all the popular singers, performers, actor and actresses being flown in to town to rub elbows with their fans.

 Certainly, these all-familiar things are  virtually our support system that  makes our living in this part of the world a much easier to bear though we are  far away  from our friends and relatives.

For those kababayans who decide to stay at homes to watch  movies, they can  easily get hold of  Filipino CD movies sold at  $10 for 3 pieces in some malls in the city.

In the next few years, Canada will be the haven of  more Filipinos immigrating here. The Statistics Canada has projected that  by  2017, as the  nation  celebrates its 150th anniversary, at least 540,000 Filipinos are expected to be settled in various provinces of the country.

With the  expected rise  in the number of Pinoys in this country, the chance of seeing them is great--we’ll  encounter  them  in the subway trains, bus stations, grocery stores; we will meet them  in the malls while they line up at either Tim Horton’s or Starbucks coffee shops. And  there will be more chances of having little chats and greetings with them, together with our infectious smiles,“ Kamusta na kayo. Saan kayo sa atin ? “

On the business side, we’ll be seeing more  restaurants catering to our  kababayans  being  set up, more entertainment shows will be launched,  more remittance centers will be established , thus, sending money to our relatives is just a phone/fax away and more real estate agents will be  flooding the community to entice Pinoys to buy  condos  in Makati, Taguig, Manila or Quezon City.

One time, my wife, Lilia and I  had a lunch at Barrio Fiesta on Sheppard Ave. in Toronto And we had kare-kare, giniling na karne with some potatoes, bitter melon with scrimps and scramble eggs .While eating, we were also watching GMA’s noontime show Eat Bulaga on the restaurant TV screen .

This restaurant with mini-grocery store is stacked with products that come from the Philippines: Rufina Patis, Marca Pina Soy Sauce, Mang Tomas lechon sauce, Jufran catsup, corned beef, Del Monte products, Skyflakes biscuits, Star margarine, Kropec, Ligo and Pito Pito tea. There are some bakery products too, such as  pandesal,  monay, empanada, ensaymada and  desserts such as  bibingka, biko, puto and kutsinta.

And to whet your taste buds, the eatery counter has  different viands to choose from: bopis, caldereta, mongo, paksiw, tinola, menudo crispy pata pritong tilapia, galungong and pansit.

Some common  households’ items such as walis tingting, walis tambo and tabo have  found their way in some Filipino convenience stores in the city.

While we’re  adjusting to the Canadian way of life, we can also  stay connected with our close friends and relatives back home anytime we want to by  using today’s technology such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Skype and Facetime. Keeping in touch  and chatting with these people is something we  all need to  stabilize us emotionally.

But if we are both emotionally and physically tired after a hard day’s  work,  our  kababayan massage therapists are now  doing home services or if we feel some  aches and pains in our body, the so-called  hilot, our traditional therapeutic massage is a good option.

With all these life’s amenities, what more could I say ,except “what a  good life we’re now enjoying living in Toronto .”