New home in Kempfenhausen

Created: 11/28/2022, 4:56 p.m

By: Sandra Sedlmaier

Living and working at Lake Starnberg for a year and a half: Maria de Varaz (left) and Diana Mortera come from the Philippines.

Photo: edl © edl

Diana Mortera and Maria de Varaz are two of a total of eleven Filipino nurses who work in the Kempfenhauser MS specialist clinic.

You made a conscious decision to work in Germany.

Kempfenhausen

– Nursing specialists Diana Mortera and Maria de Varaz have been working at the Marianne Strauss Clinic in Kempfenhausen for a little over a year and a half and live in the clinic's own apartments.

The two Filipinas are two of 11 registered nurses that the clinic has recruited through a local agency in the Philippines.

A deal that both sides are very happy with.

Diana Mortera and Maria de Varaz are happy about their job in Germany and the MS clinic about well-trained employees in times of nursing staff shortages.

Mortera and de Varaz met four years ago in a German course in the Philippines.

Both women are 32 years old, come from the south of the island state and have completed four years of training as health and nursing staff.

Both have decided to turn their backs on their homeland and work abroad - ultimately because of the better earnings.

The biggest hurdle for the two is the language.

"German is really difficult," says Diana Mortera and laughs.

"It's most difficult when someone speaks Bavarian," adds Maria de Varaz.

"Or with a foreign accent." What many of her colleagues do: The clinic has numerous employees from all over the world.

The two women appear self-confident and reserved at the same time.

They are friendly and willing to provide information about their new life and work situation, and their German is actually very good.

The two have been learning the foreign language since 2018.

A B2 language certificate, which they acquired in the Philippines, was a prerequisite for the job in Germany.

"In German, a word has so many meanings, that makes it difficult," explains Diana Mortera.

"I actually understand everything, but I can't answer that quickly," says Maria de Varaz.

Most of the time, the other person is patient, both colleagues and patients.

On behalf of the Kempfenhauser Klinik, an agency recruited specialists in the Philippines to counteract the shortage of staff at Lake Starnberg.

That costs the clinic a lot, as the medical director Prof. Dr.

Ingo Kleiter says.

But it's worth it.

There are eleven Filipino professionals in total, nine women and two men.

The last employee is expected in the summer.

Diana Mortera and Maria de Varaz have already earned their recognition to work as health and nursing professionals.

To do this, they attended a course lasting several weeks in Munich and passed an exam.

"In German, that was difficult," recalls Maria de Varaz.

The workflows in Kempfenhausen differ from those in Philippine hospitals.

"In the Philippines there are 30 to 40 patients and four to six nurses in twelve-hour shifts on a ward," says Maria de Varaz.

Earnings are less than 400 euros per month.

In contrast to here, the nursing staff do not take care of personal hygiene, but are also allowed to give injections and intravenous access.

Neither regret the change, just: "It's sad that we left our families."

Of course, it takes some courage to switch to a completely different culture.

There are 11,000 kilometers as the crow flies between Germany and the Southeast Asian island state.

Are the two women homesick?

"Yes!" comes the spontaneous answer from both of them.

"Thank God we can make phone calls online and see our families that way," says Maria de Varaz.

Other foreign colleagues go home once a month, for example to Poland or Slovenia.

"It would be too far and too expensive for us," she adds.

Both were already home for a vacation lasting several weeks, Mortera in the spring and de Varaz in the fall.

They are happy that they can send money to their families.

That was one of the reasons why they applied for Germany.

Both have professional experience, also abroad.

"I worked in a hospital in the Philippines for two years and in Saudi Arabia for five years," says Maria de Varaz.

The work in the delivery room and in the operating room was nice, but the living conditions in the Gulf state were difficult.

"We had to wear traditional clothes and were only allowed to talk to women in public," reports Diana Mortera, who was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for two years.

It was not possible to get a visit from the family.

Germany is much more pleasant compared to Saudi Arabia - despite the weather, which both find abhorrent.

"Much too cold," says Diana Mortera.

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The two also get along quite well with the foreign mentality and customs.

Also because they give each other support, do a lot together and cook together.

"In the Philippines we eat rice three times a day," says Maria de Varaz.

"We now also eat German bread with butter cheese," she reports, laughing.

Both appreciate social achievements such as statutory health insurance.

"In the Philippines you have to pay for a doctor's visit and almost everything when you're in the hospital." And you can travel to other European countries without a visa.

The two have already taken advantage of that.

"We were in Paris, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna, Regensburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber - thanks to the nine-euro ticket," says Diana Mortera.

Do you want to stay forever?

The two answer evasively.

At the moment they felt comfortable and enjoyed their work.