Visiting Filipinos marvel at North Fork

Suffolk Times photo by Barbaraellen Koch Filipino exchange students (from left) Judd Nazareno, Andrew DeGuzman, Annabelle Gaddi, Febe Marl Paat and Louella Tomas visit Atlantic Marine World aquarium in downtown Riverhead. Not pictured: Janet Belarmino-Sardena.

It's an opportunity to "truly experience the real lifestyle of the people who live in the land of the Stars and Stripes," says Febe Paat, a guidance director at Cagayan State University in the Philippines. Staying with local residents provides a "home away from home," she said.

The six, who arrived on May 8, spent their first week on the North Fork with plans to travel to Westhampton this week and to other parts of Long Island, such as Fire Island, Hauppauge and Smithtown, the following week, before they depart for home June 7.

Although three of the team members have previously visited the United States, this trip differs in that they're not staying at hotels. Instead, they're getting to see the areas they visit through the eyes of those who live here.

In their initial week, they visited Cornell Horticulture, Palmer Vineyards, the Cornell Marine Center, Atlantis Aquarium and the Culinary Institute in Riverhead, with special invitations for meals at the homes of various Rotary members, from a lobster bake dinner at the home of George and Eileen Solomon in Mattituck to a potluck dinner with Riverhead Rotarians. They'll also get to spend at least a day in Manhattan.

The six were chosen by a committee that selected applicants from various Rotary Clubs in the Philippines.

Janet Belarmino-Sardena, a member of the Philippines Coast Guard, is part of a team of young women who last year traveled to the summit of Mt. Everest, going through China on the way up and becoming the first team to come back through Nepal. She and her teammates trained for three years and have plans to scale all seven of the world's great summits, she said.

"It was our way of showing to the world what the Philippines can do," she said. It wasn't about self-worth, but rather a statement of achievement for the whole country, she said. "It's a very proud moment for the Philippines."

Since completing the climb, she and her teammates have been touring, telling their story and making plans for their next climb, perhaps Mt. McKinley, she said. Although she had visited the United States before, that was on the West Coast, and she said this trip is proving to be very educational. Among her other activities here, she got to ride along with a North Fork ambulance corps one afternoon.

"I'm very excited to be here," said LaLa Tomas, who works with the Philippines National Police Department.

"Everybody wants to have a bite of the Big Apple," she said.

Aside from missing family and food back home, they said they really liked visiting the North Fork, where everything is "very peaceful and houses don't need to be fenced in," according to Annabelle Gaddi, a fifth-grade teacher in the Philippines. She's looking forward to telling her students and colleagues back home how different schools are here. On her visit to Cutchogue East Elementary School, she found much smaller classes -- she has as many as 50 students in her class, with no aides, she said. The education that students receive here is much more advanced than what she teaches back home, she said.

Andrew De Guzman, a visual artist and designer, has been meeting gallery owners and artists on the North Fork and finding a lot of similarities. They all talk about the importance of government grants, the problems of finding good space for exhibitions and the desire to attract more art collectors, he said.

What surprised the visitors most about the North Fork were the beautiful beaches, according to group leader Judd Nazaremo Dimalanta. He had previously seen beaches in Florida, but said he thought the North Fork was much prettier. His home area is known for its cornfields and rice and tobacco crops, so visiting an agricultural area felt very familiar, he said.