My Labsters

By Jenara Regis Newman

Centuries ago, people found true love in the community they lived in, except for the adventurous who ventured out of home grounds and met the love of their lives elsewhere. These days, the whole world beckons and love may just be found in places far from home, making it harder to find the one true love from the millions of possibilities out there.

A LOVE LETTER

For Roy Abraham from Kerala, India, and Carol Danque from Makati, Philippines, it was while working for the Amman Marriott Hotel in Jordan that they met — he as the hotel’s assistant restaurant manager and she as restaurant supervisor.

A love letter from him tugged at her heartstrings and after two years of friendship, she knew he was the person she would share her life with. But first, she would have to like spicy Indian food and win over her tradition-bound mother-in-law who wanted an Indian bride for her only son to make their marriage work.

Soon enough, she learned to like Roy’s chicken curry and Biryani dishes. Eventually, she won over her mother-in-law who taught her how to cook Roy’s favorite dishes. Indian fare has really spiced up their table and bound their lives for over 20 years. Now that Roy is general manager of Cebu City Marriott Hotel, he has learned to love kare-kare with bagoong alamang.

The Abrahams have three lovely children.

PRIDE OF CULTURE

Raymond Bragg, general manager of Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, met his wife Susan (her Chinese name is Ching Lay Kheng) while they were working in China. They got married in 1991 when they moved to England, and they have been together since. The important thing about inter racial marriages, Raymond asserts, is: “You should be very proud of your partner’s race and nationality. When I introduce myself to my staff as a New Zealander, I always mention that my wife is Singaporean Chinese.”

While the two had no problems adjusting to each other’s culture, it was their families who needed convincing that their marriage would work, and does work. Since they respect each other’s culture, they celebrate religious holidays, like Christmas and festivities such as Chinese New Year. And they are making sure their only daughter, Kylie, would know both English and Mandarin. Raymond says his teenaged daughter has grown up as a UN kind of girl, what with all the places they have been to. Their home base is Singapore, but work has never taken them there, nor has it taken them to New Zealand, but they try to visit both places every year.

Susan cooks western food, but it is usually Chinese cuisine that the Braggs enjoy at home.

COSMOPOLITAN TWIST

Hotelier Hans Hauri from Switzerland met service management consultant Bo Young Chang in her home place, Korea. Now married 17 years, they have lived in various places: Switzerland, China, Malaysia, and now the Philippines, where Hans is general manager of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel Cebu.

Being both cosmopolitan, it was easy for them to appreciate each other’s culture, and to adjust to their different backgrounds. Bo loves cheese and Hans loves particularly the Korean food setting with the various kimchi dishes set along with the main course. He particularly likes bulgogi.

Bo cooks Korean and Western/Eurpopean cuisine. Their lifestyle makes them appreciate different cuisines provided they are genuine, authentic to the country: if they have Thai food, they would like it to be authentic and preferably, they would like to have that in Thailand.

The happy couple has two sons who are now learning Tagalog.

There are thousands of other interracial marriages in today’s world when travel is easy and jobs can be had in places that may be oceans away from one’s birthplace. These three are a happy example that these unions do work. After all, though one’s country and one’s color may be different from the other, the world has really only one race: the human race. (Sun.Star Cebu)