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Makibaka

[22 hours left for my Kickstarter Campaign]

Kadtong dili molingi sa gigikanan, dili makaabot sa gipadulongan. (Cebuano Version)
“He who does not look back from where he came will never reach his destination.” -Jose Rizal

Here is my interpretation of looking back at where I came from.  I edited in and faded my passport picture.  This is the earliest picture of me before my adoption.  Although adoption may not be perfect, “Binitay: Journey of a Filipino Adoptee” will be taking the darkness and shedding light on it.  

 

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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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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.  

 

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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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Binitay: The innate smells and sounds of nostalgia

Philippine St.
Philippine St.

 

[9 days to go for my Kickstarter Campaign]   This place is most unique, eye-opening, and life changing  things that had happened.  If it were not for meeting Georgiana Rose Tutay, I might not have come across this place or certain events may not have followed because of it.  My first few trips coming here brought back nostalgic memories of both the language of familiarity and tastes of the Philippines.  I could recall the tastes and say I’ve eaten the foods before.  The salty vinegar taste of chicken adobo was so foreign yet so familiar.

The voices were familiar.  I could hear people speak Tagalog and could recognize it.  But, when I just so happened to hear someone speak Cebuano, my island dialect, my body would freeze and it was as if the language with me all along.  I knew it was something familiar but I couldn’t express it.  I could make out a Cebuano dialect among a sea of Tagalog tongues as if they were calling to me.  It just was that innate.  I call it a “ping”, like a tuning fork when it resonates with another that is the same tune.

I felt home.  Yet, I felt alien.

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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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Binitay: A home away from “home”.

Philippine American Community Center of Michigan
Philippine American Community Center of Michigan

9 days to go for my Kickstarter campaign. It was not until 2007 that I had first met Filipinos since the time of my adoption.  This is one of many homes of “Little Manila” in Michigan.  It was my first culture shock, or taste of it, If put in any simplest words.  It was the first time seeing other people who looked just like me.  It was the first time looking similarly to someone else, ethnicity-wise.  This is the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan.  Although coming here, I feel at home, at the same time I have an internal struggle of belonging.  Something is missing…

From here is when the ball was set in motion for a chain reaction of events and a series of things fell into place.

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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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