Longing for home

Travelling often gives me much-needed perspective and new insights into many of the things I take for granted. On a recent trip to Peru I began to reflect on what it means to be an immigrant.

Arriving in Lima my first impressions were overwhelmingly positive and romantic. I was surrounded by stunning natural beauty and amazing people. The Peruvians are great communicators, outgoing and with a tremendous affection for their fellow man. I don’t speak a word of Spanish but I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more welcome in a strange country.

The people I met were kind, warm and non-judgemental. Theirs was a culture lacking an obvious class or caste system; a melting pot of backgrounds and a place where people were accepted for who they were.

After a while I also saw the other side of the country. Many Peruvians are poor and there are high levels of crime, particularly robberies. I was warned about being followed, not to go out after dark and to avoid no-go areas.

The poverty was compounded by natural disaster. My arrival in Lima coincided with heavy rain. I’d taken over to Peru bags of t-shirt and towels. These items were to be given to an old people’s home as part of the charity work that I do. When the Peruvian Government asked for donations of clothing to support the flood victims, I decided to give the t-shirts and towels to assist with the immediate emergency relief.

This sad reality of living daily with poverty and crime was brought home to me by one of my staff members, who was born in Peru and spent his childhood in Lima. He, like so many other people around the world, was driven to look for a better and safer life away from the place where he was born.

It got me thinking about my own journey from Sri Lanka when I was a little girl. After living and working in Fiji for several years, my father eventually moved the family to Australia. Having arrived in Australia as a young teenager, I began to think about the more profound question of why people settle in other countries?

There were many reasons my own father settled in Australia and, as a first-generation Australian immigrant, my attitude has always been that one had to simply make the most of the cards you were dealt, and get on with life. I still believe that to be true.

However, I also understand that when people resettle in another country they continue to look back to where they were born with great affection as well as a sense of loss. I’m immensely proud of my own heritage and I still feel a strong connection with Sri Lanka that never leaves me no matter where I’m travelling in the world. As a migrant, when I think about visiting my original home country, one of my first thoughts is the food I will enjoy there! One can never forget the tastes, smells, sounds, spirituality and all that which feeds our soul. Surprisingly, I have heard others express the same desires when referring to their birth country.

Wherever there is crime, corruption, poverty and little opportunity, people will look elsewhere for a better life. My visit to Peru reminded me that it is possible to be both proudly Australian as well as to continue to love and cherish my homeland of Sri Lanka.

Both countries are part of who I am and who I always will be.

Anomi