Hi there! I’m Manisha, the name behind the blog. I am a Luxembourger-Filipino born in Luxembourg and 3 weeks later, I was already on a plane to La Paz, Bolivia where my parents were living for a few months before I came along. Something I do not think you are allowed to do anymore these days, I believe you have to be at least one month old. Having started my early life in La Paz, I was known by my parents and family friends as a paceña (native of La Paz). And funnily, the first 6 years of my life had been a bit of a mystery for me up until three years ago when I checked my dad’s CV to get a better understanding of his career and put together my own timeline because all my moving has been tied to him.

We then moved to Vietnam when I was 2 but I do not remember much about living there except for how big the house we lived in was (or is that because I was small?); it had high ceilings and I have this vivid memory of being taunted by a lizard ‘watching’ me as I tried to fall asleep. After Vietnam, we stayed in Luxembourg for a bit and then headed back to La Paz. Returning to Bolivia, my sister was with us this time and I have a lot more memories, having also gone to kindergarten and elementary school there. During our time in Bolivia, I got to see places around Latin America but being so young, I did not get to appreciate nor absorb it as well and it is definitely a region I want to go back to. Next up; Guinea-Bissau.

Heading over to the African continent, we lived in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa. Looking back now, I also realize what a difficult country it was to live in. When we first arrived, the country was facing political instability and I remember having to go to a party super early (before it was even meant to start) because my mom did not want us getting caught up in anything that was going to unfold in the streets. Of course when you are young, you are not fully aware of the hardships and my memories are mainly filled with fun and adventurous times. On the other hand, I am certain that all the moving made my sister and I the resilient people we are now.

We also went to a French school where we learnt French for the first time. It felt as though it did not take too long to learn and I am a firm believer that children are fast learners especially in languages; the younger the better. Our education as a whole was not the easiest because all of our assignments were sent to France to be marked. The amount of recordings we had to send is kind of comical. We still have tapes of us singing songs for music or reciting poems for French class. The infrastructure of the school was also not the greatest and the gender balance was a bit off. One year, there were only 3 of us in a class and I was the only girl. At the end of the day, I adapted and I accepted the environment I was in. Like I said despite these difficulties, I had a lot of fun living there and my priority at that age anyway was finding new ways and places to play. I got to know some of the region as well when we would visit Senegal and the Gambia.

Our time in Africa was far from over as we headed south to Gaborone, Botswana. We switched to the British education system, another adjustment for my sister and I. One example that stands out clearly to me is that regardless of my decent strength in maths, they put me in the lowest group and I had to work my way up. I remember a classmate telling me that they did not know of anyone starting from the bottom maths group and making it to the top one. While I was generally involved in school activities, yuh gyal was very reserved and known as the quiet one. This was also a time in my life where I first got exposed to mainstream society, possibly sooner than I wanted to because I did not want to ‘grow up’. Instead, I wanted to hold onto my innocence for as long as I could, but it pushed me to get to know the real world a bit better. Like previous countries, we visited the region and some of the road trips we did across Southern Africa were incredible, that being an understatement.

Up to this point, Luxembourg (and Europe as a whole) was the place I would go back to about once a year to touch base since we have a home in Luxembourg; the one constant in our lives. Other than visiting, I did not know what it was like living in the northern hemisphere. But this came when we had to move back to Europe, more specifically to Brussels, Belgium. As with every new country, I had to learn how to adapt to my new environment but Brussels was more difficult than I expected. I remember feeling intimidated being in a really big school with so many people of all ages and nationalities. I really had to find my foothold, my place and to be honest, it was the first time I can truly say I stepped out of my comfort zone socially.

We made our last move as a family to my sweet island Barbados. It is difficult to find the right words to describe what Barbados means to me; it is really a special place and I think a lot of people can relate. With the difficulties I was facing personally in the last 3 years before we moved, I firmly believe that being in Barbados played a huge role in pulling myself out of the hole I dug myself in, leading to a lot of personal growth and development. My last years of high school were spent in an international school. In a tragic yet funny way, I had no idea what the international baccalaureate (IB) program was until it was too late. While I clearly survived as a current graduate of university, it was a painful experience of endless work, ticking off every required assignment that had to be completed and a few breakdowns along the way. After graduating I headed to the UK for university but any time the semester was nearing the end, I was already counting down the days until I was back home in Barbados, emphasizing the island’s pull.

2017 was a notable moving year for my family because we all headed in different directions; I did my study year abroad in Canada, my sister went to the UK to start university and my parents headed back to Belgium for work. Since then, my life has been in a bit of limbo like everyone else but I did manage to complete my education including a second Master’s. In 2021, I moved to Cabo Verde for work for a year and at the end of summer 2023, I am returning to West Africa. Stay tuned to find out where and to follow along the moving process and the adventures to come!