I haven’t posted in a while.
I’ve been working on a play at Hampstead theatre which is in the area I grew up in. There were quite a few Filipinos around when I was growing up, but I didn’t really know any of them. Mum would sometimes stop in the street and chat to Filipino strangers or there’d always been an acknowledgement, a nod, a smile if no conversation.
Some were NHS nurses, some working in other hospital departments and some were private/domestic workers.
It’s a wealthy area of NWLondon, and I knew that when some people looked at my Mum they assumed she was a domestic worker and it bothered me, I don’t know why because it’s such a hard job raising someone else’s children.
It was only when I was older I found out that so many OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) had children of their own that they’d left behind in The Philippines and that’s who they were working for.
Anthony Bourdain talked about this in one of his episodes of No Reservations.
I’m so sad about his death, he really encouraged us to explore other cultures through food and travel really championed the uniqueness of Filipino cuisine…
https://dailymotion.com/video/x4mia0y
Pearls of the NHS 