Blood, Confidentiality & Respect

 

Out of respect for my kababáyan (fellow Filipinos), barángay (municipal town), and lastly, kapamílya (biological relatives), the blog documentations as well as the film release will keep certain information kept confidential.

This will be the challenge of the film but also a learning experience of when one culture meets and learns about another.  Even though I have found many missing pieces of my puzzle, some however are incomplete and may remain that way, and I am ok with that.  But I do know that after this trip, I have a stronger sense of self and where I came from.

Anyways, welcome to my backyard!

Barrio Mabuli
Barrio Mabuli

 

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I invite you to join me on the rest of this journey to reach back as I move forward.

–> Visit my Kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/filipinoadoptee

–> Join our Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/binitaydocumentary

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Sitting in the Terminal

Awaiting my flight to MNL.
Awaiting my flight to MNL.

 

Filipino Heritage Camp is now over.  It was a successful camp like every year meeting new smiling faces as well as seeing old ones.  During the camp and even now, I’ve been hit with an array of emotions.  There are no rational meanings behind them.  I don’t know what they mean just yet.  They are however a spectrum of both positive, negative, and neutral or empty emotions.  Not empty as in depressed but they are still being unraveled I guess like a ball of yarn.  Rather than layers of an onion I’ve learned that everything is more like a ball of yarn where you unravel and unwind it, and every emotion is interconnected to others somehow.

It hasn’t hit me yet that I’m going to finally search and have a reunion as well.  I’m beyond fortunate again to have been given this opportunity.  Although I’ve wanted to go since I was younger, and especially when I was 18 years old, I feel as if a chain of events has fallen into place and certain things have to had impacted, shaped my life, and helped me grow, mature and evolve as a person for me to take on this venture.

Sulat. (to write)

My travel journal.
My travel journal.

This was a gift from a close friend of mine.  I’m thankful she bought this for me.  I’m planning on documenting anything that first comes to mind and whatever topics they may be.  Hopefully extending my thoughts through a medium of ink and paper will unravel the ball of yarn in my head and sort out every concious and subconscious spark.  I hope to include a majority if not all of these things in my documentary if they pertain to what I will be communicating and the journey that unfolds before me.

 

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I invite you to join me on the rest of this journey to reach back as I move forward.

–> Visit my Kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/filipinoadoptee

–> Join our Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/binitaydocumentary

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Umbilical Cord

[2 hours left for my Kickstarter Campaign]

“To find the umbilical cord, one must first go back into the womb.”   p. 84 BABAYLAN, (Mendoza-Strobel)

When I was found, my umbilical cord was infected.  Despite the infected umbilical cord, I was in good health condition.  A trained “hilot” named Aleja, was called to the necessary cutting of the umbilical cord.  

Taken from my adoption papers.
Taken from my adoption papers.

 

Although my umbilical cord has been infected and cut, it doesn’t sever my ties back to where I came from.  This will be my journey going “back into darkness into intervals of pain and joy, denial, discovery, and reconciliation.” (Angel Velasco Shaw)

_________

I invite you to join me on the rest of this journey to reach back as I move forward.

–> Visit my Kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/filipinoadoptee

–> Join our Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/binitaydocumentary

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Awakened.

[4 days left for my Kickstarter Campaign] My eyes were opened wide after my first  FANHS Seattle conference in 2010.

FANHS Rizal Park, Photo credits to Aldrich Sabac (I believe he took this, correct me if I'm wrong)
FANHS Rizal Park, Photo credits to Aldrich Sabac (I believe he took this, correct me if I’m wrong)

 This was the most time I’ve spent with any large group of Filipinos which may have reached at least one thousand or more attendees.  Those grouped in this photo is not even a quarter of who came.  Being only three years since I’ve kindled a relationship with my kinship and communities, FANHS has helped grow Filipino communities local and abroad, foster dialogue, and learning.  

When I first started telling my story to others at this conference, I soon found out that there was a Filipina, Lorial Crowder, who was hosting a workshop.  She had founded the Filipino Adoptees Network.  Of course, I was hunting her down the entire conference.  We met finally during her workshop panel where I had met a few other Filipino adoptees and watched a documentary film called “Left On Lockett Lane” filmed and produced by Jon Reinert.  From there was another transformation and realization.  

 

_________

I invite you to join me on the rest of this journey to reach back as I move forward.

–> Visit my Kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/filipinoadoptee

–> Join our Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/binitaydocumentary

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