Jose Christian Santos is originally from San Rafael, an urban municipality in the Philippines. For some time now, he has been living in Jena with his wife and working in a care facility. In the blog post he tells us how he came here, what makes Jena his “home away from home” and why the JenTower is a romantic place for him.

Mr Santos, tell us a little about yourself. Where do you come from? And what brought you to Jena?

Jose Christian Santos:

Hello and thank you for having me here. I am Jose Christian Santos, a Filipino nurse from our province of Bulacan, which is near the capital Manila in the Philippines. We arrived here as a group and stayed in Offenburg and Bad Peterstal during the COVID situation because of the quarantine procedures. After checking and preparing for the nursing exam (and also proving that we don’t have the virus), we were split up and I was assigned to Mainz, where I worked at Pflegezeit Intensiv GmbH, a sister company of Linimed GmbH, where I now work here in Jena. I find Linimed and its partner companies reliable and trustworthy when it comes to looking after foreign care workers like me.

You moved here from Mainz. What makes your life in Jena different from your time at the Rhine?

Jose Christian Santos:

I can’t deny that I liked working and living in Mainz, especially because I like the river and the view of a wide river (concerning the Rhine) where ships and ferries sail a lot. Also, it’s wonderful to be close to three big cities: Frankfurt, Mannheim and Wiesbaden. But there’s also this appeal that the noise and bustle of the city can sometimes make you opt for a slightly quieter trip. Jena is this subtle city that surprisingly has the same feeling as Mainz, but compressed into a smaller, more peaceful area in Germany. That same feeling means everything feels familiar, the students laughing in the street as you pass. The old people holding hands and walking together. The families walking through the city centre and the different ethnicities and foreigners all working and living together on the campus. Somehow it feels the same, but there is this feeling that you can’t really explain, but it is there.

 

You work at a care facility. What do you do there exactly? Is there anything that is different from the facilities you have worked at so far?

Jose Christian Santos:

Yes, I work for Linimed GmbH as a health care nurse in their facility. Since I passed this DIGAB examination (German Interdisciplinary Society for Out-of-Hospital Ventilation), I am authorised to take care of patients with ventilators at external clinics, as stipulated in my further training. A clear distinction is how patients are treated here. I can say that the patients or clients or residents, whatever we call them in different regions, come closer to a lifestyle similar to that of living in a flat. There, they receive accurate clinical care and attention according to a medical diagnosis, but with the warmth and discreet feeling of a flat, so that they feel at home with us. Honestly, this type of care is much more personal and individualised to meet the needs of the patients, no matter how small their specifics are. As a nurse, I sometimes find this comforting and reassuring.

What are the biggest differences in everyday life between your home and Jena?

Jose Christian Santos:

Thank you very much for this wonderful question. I made a comparison between Jena and my home, using only two quotes. Jena is “regular and predictable like clockwork”. Our place in San Rafael, on the other hand, is a “beautiful chaos”. This means that I like both places differently and yet they feel the same. So Jena is my “home away from home”. Part of me likes the regularity and familiarity of life in Jena. For example, when the news anounce the weather for the day, it’s almost always true. Or if you have plans with someone, you can be sure that you’ll get the right information most of the time. With us, it’s just the opposite. In public transport, the irregularity between journeys is unpredictable. Sometimes you have to wait 30 minutes or even longer for the next ride. And the weather never really matches the forecast, as our town is located between mountains where the winds can be quite capricious. But as I mentioned before, I have fallen in love with life here in Jena as well as San Rafael. Just as I have learned that people are not perfect, but we learn to accept them and love them for who they are.

After work, we’ll find you where…?

Jose Christian Santos:

Normally, I am a person who likes being at home. After work, I stay in our house and use the computer to keep up with my family and extended family in the Philippines. Yes, I may not be out, but my presence extends further than my physical body can, thanks to the internet. Sometimes, when I’m off, you’ll find me simply sitting on a bench in the middle of an open park or in front of a flowing body of water. I find peace in these places, especially around the park near the university hospital.

Last but not least, three quick questions: