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This page will be about me and stuff.  Here you´ll find things from my Christian walk to my CV (resume in North American speak).  Hey, sometimes I need a job! ;-)

11-Dec-98

Long time no see, hear, whatever, etc…

Where do I begin?  It's been about a year since I left OM (Operation Mobilisation - a Christian mission) and went back to Canada to get reacquainted with my family.  It's been a tough year but with every time of difficulty something positive always comes out of it.  Before leaving OM everyone talks about the difficulty of re-entry.  They were trying to prepare me, and all others, who have spent some time in the mission field for going back to civilian life.  I didn't think I needed that kind of preparation as I thought I was so worldly anyway but, oh-boy, was I wrong.

Culture shock?  Me?  Nahh!

Actually, I was so surprised to find out that I had to go through months of adaptation to culture in Canada.  It's so weird.  I spent 17 years in Canada but, I guess, the most impressionable years happened in my last 7 years in Europe - 6 of which was in England and 1 1/2 in France.  I didn't realise how used to the way of life I was in Europe that I had to be told that quite a lot of my mannerisms don't work in the North American culture, nor did it work in the Filipino culture (my family).

So, what did I do?

Well, since I went through OM UK, I asked them to send me a book called 'Re-Entry' and I found out that what I was experiencing was totally normal.  I worked hard at trying to adapt to this culture, my family's culture, and to not talk so much about my experiences of which they have a hard time relating to anyway.  I prayed hard, too, that I won't forget all that I've learned in my 3 years at OM.

1^st Step:  Look for a job

One of the reasons for going back to Canada was for my ambition.  I knew that North America is just a goldmine of  jobs in the computing industry and of the cutting edge sort.  I hit the pavement, so to speak.  Rather, I went to job fairs, looked through the paper, and through the internet.  It's tiring not having a job.  I had interviews but the first few were disastrous.  I had to be told that the way I was at interviews wouldn't work here - another cultural adaptation.  I had become used to the European way of doing interviews and had to adjust by being selling myself more here.  I had some opportunities but found that my lack of work experience in Canada hurt my chances.  All my work experience was in Europe.  Oh well, I kept on and had some offers but accepted a job at IBM.  You computer guys are going to laugh at what I'm doing…

The Year 2000 (non-technical people can skip this heading for their own health)

Yup.  I'm doing year 2000 work here.  I started off doing conversions meaning that I convert older applications to be year 2000 ready or re-write them.  At the moment, though, I've become an application analyst for third party vendors and writing up test plans and scripts for them.  I've actually learned quite a bit of analysis, Unix, and creating an intranet application so this job isn't as bad as I once thought.  To keep my brain from going to mush, though, I've taken up night courses which have been invaluable to get my skills up to date.  I love this biz!  I'm just a computer geek now!

Spiritually, though, how am I doing?

Ah yes, the dreaded question.  I have to admit that it's been tough here.  I don't have a fellowship or a church that I normally go to.  I've been up to my ears with work, work, work, study, study, study, work, work, work.  Not much of a life.  As for a church I like the Toronto Airport church but it's quite far to drive 40 minutes on the highway.  There are churches everywhere but I just haven't found one that I feel at home at.  In any case, I visit a local Baptist church from time to time with a Scottish pastor.  The worship isn't my style but his messages are good.  Fellowship is also hard to come by.  Why?  I don't know.  I take a shower!  Nah.  I guess I'm just too busy with night school and everything else.  I know what you're saying.  I'm busier than God intended me to be.  All in all, though, I'm hanging in there.  My relationship with Sandra has helped immensely as well as all my other friends e-mailing, writing, and phoning me to remind me that I DO have friends.  (IT'S TRUE!)

What's in store for me in the future?

That's hard to say without incriminating myself. ;-)  All I can say is that Sandra and I are working on trying to be at least in the same city together.  The Atlantic ocean is a bit too big to keep visiting each other.  Sandra's come over twice!  I'm heading over to Paris to see her in January of 1999.  I'll be seeing some of you when I head over.  Yay!   Who knows?  I could be living in Paris, or the States, or Canada.  I WILL find stability some day!

It's that time of the year again.

Yeah, it's my favorite time of the year.  It's Christmas time.  One should never forget that Jesus is the reason for the season but I also like the fact that people try to be neighborly to one another.  Whether it's sincere or not doesn't matter to me.  As long as people try, that's enough for me in this age of countless bizarre things that happen all over the world.  Oh well, keep praying for the world!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year All!

Love in Him,

Rodolfo Santos Ochangco