Keeping Life in Balance – Patti Garrido

By Barbara Healy

From our archives, Compass Magazine, May. 1999:

What does a mother of two active school age kids and wife of a development director of a leading shoe company do with her spare time? For Patti Garrido, newly appointed president of International Women’s Association of Taichung (IWAT), the answer is get involved and enjoy life.
Arriving in Taichung in January, 1998, as a result of her husband, Mike’s work with Nike, Inc., Patti wasted no time getting involved in the community. She became hotel coordinator for the Christian Women’s Club in Taichung. After having moved a total of eight times in the past eight years, she is well accustomed to setting up a home and a life in new territory.
Born in Texas and raised mostly in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Patti hadn’t any idea that she’d be leading the nomadic life of an expatriate spouse. She met Mike, her Peruvian husband early on when they both worked at a sporting goods store in Baton Rouge. A year and a half out of high school they married and the adventure began.
How did Patti feel about jumping cold turkey into the depths of Chinese culture in 1989 when the family moved to Guangzhou, China after never living outside the United States? According to Patti, the community there was awesome. She made lifetime friendships and even though it was a large city, expatriates from all over the world were well bonded to each other.
Patti sees IWAT’s focus as offering support and guidance, providing useful information to help people get settled, and as a place for fellowship. In her years overseas, Patti has learned that, for the expatriate spouse, volunteer work can be the primary work-related focus.
Although she is out there within the community, Patti admits her most rewarding experiences are spent at home and with family. From 2:45 p.m. on, she is at home helping daughter Erica, 11, and son Adrian, 6, with homework, and sports activities. The family ritual is to have dinner together every evening around the dining table — not an easy goal to reach for a group of such active individuals.
“Love unconditionally, discipline so they know the boundaries but still feel special and loved, do things to build their self-esteem, encourage them to respect adults, and let them make some decisions involving the family,” she said.
But as with anyone who has shared the overseas experience, there are times where things don’t run so smoothly. Patti laughed as she described the family’s first R & R (Rest and Relaxation) leave. They were still new to China but had been to Hong Kong and knew the ferry and flight schedules. However, how could they have known that Hong Kong changed times, whereas the rest of China did not?
“Heading from Guangzhou, we proceeded to the ferry terminal for the overnight boat ride that left at 9:00 p.m. arriving in Hong Kong the next morning at 7 a.m.,” said Patti. When they got to the ferry terminal, though, they found that the boat schedule was on Hong Kong time, not Beijing time. The boat had already left.
“Through a little Chinese and a lot of sign language,” Patti continued, “we managed to hire a taxi which took us to the Shenzhen border, the entryway to Hong Kong.” The Garrido’s adventure was not finished, however. Twenty-four hour construction on the road to the border transformed a two hour drive in to a dusty, smoldering five hour excursion. “There was no air conditioning in the car,” recalled Patti, “and there were numerous bumps. Windows down, hot wind in our faces, we arrived at 3 a.m. at the border. We wondered what the rest of the vacation would hold. But crossing the border that morning put us back on schedule and en route to a beautiful island and an unforgettable vacation,” she said.
After this initiation, Patti and family found they could weather all sorts of unusual and interesting experiences and as many of us admit, some of the best times of her life

Patti’s top five favorite types of music:

1. Country Western
2. Christian Contemporary
3. Jazz and Blues
4. Folk Rock
   (i.e. Jimmy Buffet, James Taylor, Van Morrison)