For the month of April I will be blogging alphabetically with the theme of Winnipeg versus Davao City. Not to prove a winner but simply to explore the differences and similarities between my home town and my current location.
X is for Xenophilia!
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| International Day! |
Xenophilia is the love of foreigners. Many people have probably heard of Xenophobia which is the fear of foreigners. In this case 'foreigners' refers to people of a different racial heritage. I am so thankful to have grown up and now live in cities where immigration and multiculturalism are celebrated!
I already mentioned that Winnipeg has a lot of Filipinos in my blurb on Language. It also has large populations of Native Canadians, German, Dutch, Ukrainian, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Greek, Italian, Icelandic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Eritrean... and little pockets of many others! Folklorama is one of our most popular festivals. This is a two week expo on the rich cultural diversity of our city. (It is the largest and longest running of it's kind in the world.)
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| Pool of Black Star ceiling in the Manitoba Legislative building. |
Davaoeños are already a beautiful mix of ethnicity! Traditionally they are a blend of Filipino (duh!), Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. Filipinos are big on mixing up the gene pool. I think this is a very healthy attitude to have. And it makes for beautiful people! Filipinos love talking to strangers and pretty much everyone we've meet has either travelled or dreams of travelling to different countries. The airport has special "OFW" lines that are always packed. (OFW = Overseas Foreign Workers) Many young Filipinos will spend a few years working in different parts of the world. It's a great experience for them and the extra income they can earn helps their family.
To be perfectly honest, I would have to admit that one of my personal favourite things about immigration is the food. Is that horrible? I love being able to go for really good, authentic Indian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese... Such diverse and delicious flavours!
Cheers for Xenophilia!
Hey, Bonnie! I enjoyed reading about the multi-ethnicity of your city. I live near Dallas, Texas, and we enjoy quite a mixture of nationalities here as well. As for talking to people, I've never met anyone I didn't enjoy talking to, and will quite often initiate a conversation with complete strangers. I just happen to love people. Thanks for your very interesting and informative post. I love the picture of the flags. Best regards to you, my friend. Ruby
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words. I got to visit Dallas recently for a work conference. We were in Duncanville but got to see some of Fort Worth and Dallas downtown as well. It was a very interesting experience! I think diversity adds to the vibrancy of a city!
DeleteI've never been to the Philippines, but have been to Winnipeg several times. We hope to get the kids up there this summer sometimes. We haven't taken a trip there yet. I gotta get their passports though. I had kinda forgotten about that, so thanks for the reminder. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are from North Dakota? We would often head down to Grand Forks or Fargo for the weekend. One time we drove down just for dinner at Paradiso! The border guard must have thought we were crazy. :P
DeleteI'm with ya. I'm all about the food too!
ReplyDeleteOh, good, I'm not the only one!
DeleteThe food is the best part of other cultures. I guess that if I visit that festival, I would sort of be visiting a bunch of places at once!
ReplyDeleteYou can hit 3-4 pavilions a night if you do it right. And they all have samples of ethnic food! It's awesome!
DeleteLovely to read your posts - I must come by more often :)
ReplyDeleteHope you've enjoyed your A to Z-ing
Jemima at Jemima's blog
Thank you! Yes, it has been fun!
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