My mother was a very very special woman. She was generous, very affectionate, friendly and hard workeing. She had a good sense of humour but at the same time she was very strict and had a strong character. She was born in another small town called Concordia not far away than my father's town. She was the oldest in her family. Her father was a judge, for that reason he met my father.

When my parents got married they decided to move to the capital city of Colombia, Bogota, because of my father's studies. Dad was 22 years old and mum was 15 years old.

While my father went to the university my mum had to start working as a dress maker in a factory. It was very hard time for them but after all, dad successfuly finished his studies and he obtained a good job so after some time their life changed. 

6 years later they gave birth to my oldest sister. She born in Bogota, 2 years after my father become a military judge, so he had to travel a lot around the country. They decided to came back to Cali where my motherís family lived for that time. Almost every one and a half years my mum gave birth another baby, all of them girls. I think they were a bit disappointed because they wanted a boy.

I was born 8 years lafter my older sister but in between us we had another sister who died when she was 5 years old. This was the saddest and most awful experience for my family, especially for my mum. She was feeling that she would go mad and did not care about my father and my sisters. They had to spend a lot of time together and offer her a great deal of love and patience to help her overcome that painful event.

I was born in Cali, that is the third largest city in Colombia. It is also very nice, modern and its people are pretty friendly, cheerful and warm. The population of Cali is about 3,500,000 and its climate is usually around 26-28 degree Celsius.

I am the youngest in my family, therefore I was very spoiled by my parents and sisters. My childhood was very happy. I had many friends and cousins who were the same age as me. We spent wonderful times together especially during the school holidays. I remember one time that I went  to the family farmhouse in the mountains, with my older sister, two of my aunties and of course my cousins. It was one of the most gorgeous times in my life. We woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning and went to the farmyard to see how the farmhand milked the cows. It was the first time that we had seen that, therefore we were very curious as is usual  in children of 10-12 years old.
We wanted to do everything as much as possible, in fact we tried that milk without any processing and finally we all got sick with diarrhoea. We milked the cows without obtaining any results. We just made the cows very angry.

In the afternoon,we sometimes went to the river to have a swin and play soccer, sometimes we went up the hill. While my aunties prepared the meal in a wood oven and played cards, we were playing on top of the hill in a fly swing made by my father. It was made with a big wooden post, that had a split on the top with four long strands of rope with strong knots tied on the split. So we ran around the post, holding onto the knots ends, one behind another, and flew above the hill. At the end of the day we were very excited, dirty and exhausted.

When I was 11 years old, dad felt sick and had to have an operation. The doctors found a very strong gastric cancer. It cost him his life. By the time that my father died all my sisters were married so my mother decided to sell the house and change to another small house in a suburb close where two of my sisters lived.

I finished my high school when I was 17 years old and immediately began my university studies. At first, I was studying to be a doctor but after my first year, I changed my mind and applied to another university to be a nurse. It was the right decision.

I enjoyed my time at the university and I found very good friends. One year before I had finished my studies my mum died. She had an emphysema caused by smoking for a long time. It was very hard for me, I felt alone, depressed and miserable. Anyway, I had to finish my studies and follow my life. Fortunately I had my sisters and my boyfriend who gave me support and company.

Gustavo was my classmate when I was studying medicine. He is an intelligent, sincere, honest, lovely and wonderful person. We have been together for about 13 years. I love and admire him very much.
I went for one year to a small town called Pradera to do my social countryside work. That was a good experience in my professional and personal life, because, I realized how important Gustavo was to me and what I really wanted from my job.

I was working for two years at a public general hospital in the I.C.U. and paediatric areas. At that time a friend of mine offered me a position as a product specialist nurse in a multinational company called Abbott Laboratories. It was a very tempting offer so I sent my resume and a week later I was doing some interviews and some tests with another 35 nurses.
I really did not believe that I could pass all of these tests because I did not have any experience in that area, but at the end I was selected. I was very happy. As soon as possible I packed my suitcases and went to Bogota to do a training course for a month. I worked for the last six years in that company.
When I had three years working with them, I started my master degree in marketing during the evening. I was very busy at that time. Fortunately, Gustavo was in Bogota studying to be a paediatrician so I had all the time in Cali just for my work and my studies. I went to Bogota to visit him every 15 days on the weekend time.

When Gustavo almost finished his studies, he met a Costa Rican doctor, who had been in Australia as a fellow in the thoracic medicine department at the Royal Children Hospital in Melbourne, so he recommended Gustavo with a professor at the Melbourne University to obtain the same opportunity. Finally they accepted Gustavo in this program.

After we considered some important things, we decided to go to Australia. So we got married in December, 17th, 1994, just when Gustavo finished his studies and sold everything that we had to start our exciting experience in Australia.

Now here we are enjoying this beautiful country, learning English, meeting different and interesting people and very happy having this wonderful opportunity.
 
 

Juliana  (1996)