- RHEA SOL HIBALLES-VAN MULLIGEN
The writer is a native of Talisay City. She is the daughter of former Councilor Reynaldo Hiballes (deceased) and wife, the former Denial Ferarren, a public health educator. She was active in theatrical productions during her student days at Colegio San Agustin Bacolod.
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Many Negrenses will initially find it difficult to read this word: Wildervankstrdallen. That’s understandable considering the length and the strangeness of the word. In reality, Wildervankstrdallen is a village in the Province of Groningen, located in the northeastern part of The Netherlands.
Life in Wildervankstrdallen, my village, is actually simple and easy, uncomplicated. It is located in the municipality of Veendam, about 35 kms. from Groningen City. My village has about 25,000 people.
How did I end up in this distant place located near the border with Germany? I fell in love with a Dutch man. Hahaha… I met my husband, Vincent, in the Philippines in 2007. He was helping Anak Foundation, an organization assisting children of poor families in Negros Occidental so that they can go to school.
The founder of Anak is a Dutch man. I was a volunteer at Binhi Creative Arts and Crafts workshop. Anak Foundation was helping Binhi at that time and that’s how I met Vincent.
We talked and we had a spark, but he was married and I had a boyfriend. So, he went back to The Netherlands and for three years we never had any contact until we emailed each other. He told me he was no longer married and I told him I was also single, and then we talked and talked and talked and fell in love.
Early Impressions
It was in March 2011 when I arrived in The Netherlands. It was the end of winter. When I went out of the airport, it was soooooo cold, like the feeling you have when you put your hands in the freezer. The cold temperature gets into your brain. It was super, duper crazy cold. Today, toward the end of winter, the temperature hits 0o.
The buildings here are not as modern as I expected. The place is not as busy as Manila.
Life in this country is very simple. We don’t have very tall buildings. The tallest building in my place is 541 ft. Food is very affordable. If you don’t have work or you don’t have a home, the government is going to help you financially. Taxes here are very high. But if you lose your job, the government helps you. Everybody is required to pay health insurance, house insurance and car insurance. Simple and comfortable life, indeed.
Finding a Job
It was very difficult to look for work because of the language here, which is Dutch. You need to learn a certain level of their language before they accept you in school. You may have a good diploma, but you’ll need to learn the language first and then have additional education to work on the same level.
If you‘d like to have a job that you like or you know you are going to be happy about it, then you need to go to school and get e diploma. Our diploma in the Philippines isn’t worth a lot here, well, a bit.
I was in school here for six years. I’ve been living in the Netherlands for almost 10 years. Half of my life here I was studying – three years for the language and another three years in culinary school.
Adjustments
I made a lot of adjustments. First, I had to deal with the weather, it is very cold. Second, because I don’t know how to drive a car, I had to rely on my bicycle, which is a popular means of transportation here.
Going to work, buying groceries, bringing children to school, and other tasks, are done through the bicycle. It is very difficult to go on biking when it’s very cold.
My husband was very supportive and lovable. But I was used to be independent and suddenly I have nothing. It was a sacrifice. It was a bit depressing during my first few years here.
Fellow Filipinos
Another problem I had to deal with is I had no work. I had no work for many years and I am not used to it. Back home, I worked for television, films, events and commercials. Then suddenly, I came here with nothing.
I used to have a lot of Filipina friends, almost everybody living near our village. There are also Ilonggo from Negros. But as time goes by, we separated because we have different characters and different choices in life.
I still have few Filipina friends here and one real good friend from Negros Oriental. Many Filipinas here are married to Dutch men. A number of them were former Au Pair (nannies) in Europe who meet and married Dutch guys and settled down here.
Present Job & Free Time
I work as a Sous Chef in a restaurant called Harbour Club Winschoten. We have live jazz music. Our kitchen is Oriental and I am the one who cooks Thai, Indian and Indonesian food for our guests.
I have also been to a lot of European countries. What is nice here is that you can just travel by land or train to go to other countries.
I have been to Germany (Berlin), France (Paris), England (London), Italy (Venice), Greece, Denmark, Belgium, Belarus, Ukraine, Czech Republic (Prague) and Poland. I have also seen all the biggest cities in The Netherlands – Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
Food & Theater Performances
Dutch food is not so good. They don’t have an outstanding cuisine, so they adopted cuisines from lots of other countries. There is one traditional Dutch food, however, that I like. It’s called Hutspot, a dish of boiled and mashed potatoes, carrots, onions and ground beef or pork. Hutspot can also be found in Indonesian cuisine due to their colonial ties.
I swim, paint and bike during my free time. My husband and I like to go to a camping area to relax. We bring our caravan and would stay in a camping place for three to four days. We would bike inside the forest. Oh, how we love traveling. I like going to the city because we live very far from it.
Somehow, I have also pursued my interest in theatrical performances. I went to a musical concert. I even went to a school called USVA in university in Groningen and did an acting training called Improvisation Workshop. I also performed in an improvisation act.
COVID-19
Our first lockdown was not so heavy because it was summer. I was busy making videos for my vlog and experimenting with recipes (please subscribe to my channel Rhea Sol Hiballes).
I also stared a small business selling Filipino food like longganisa, tocino, tapa, pan de sal and others (check out my “menu” in the photo on this page.)
The second lockdown is now, winter time. This is really bad because it is dark and cold. It is so depressing. I am trying my best to stay sane. Every day I call my sister and my best friend so I have somebody to talk to and share my daily life. I still go to work three times a week.
Missing Home
The last time I return to the Philippine was in November 2019, few months before COVID-19 surfaced. Before the pandemic, we used to visit the Philippines every year.
In 2020, we also planned that we decided to invite, instead, my mother to come to the Netherlands. This, however, did not materialize because of the virus.
Once we get the vaccine and we are allowed to travel, surely we will fly to the Philippines. – NWI
