WEST POINT — As she glided into the room in her handmade, multi-colored patadyong, Cristina Mercer beamed. And she wasn”t the only one.
The spouses of airmen and women, some dressed in ethnic garb, congregated Tuesday at Old Waverly Golf Club for the annual Columbus Air Force Base luncheon honoring international residents.
Mercer, who is from Tarlac in the Philippines, said she was excited to meet and eat with those of different cultures who shared the same experience: Being a stranger in a strange land.
“We tell each other our experiences,” she said before taking her seat at one of seven tables. “How we enjoy each other”s cultures.”
Mercer, who makes a new patadyong, or wrap-around dress, every year, came to the U.S. in 1973.
She and her husband, now-retired Sgt. Jack Mercer, met on a base in the Philippines, where she worked and he was stationed. Since then, the couple have been stationed in Japan, Arkansas, Alabama and finally Mississippi in 1988.
About 56 spouses attended the luncheon, which is co-sponsored by the CAFB and East Mississippi Community College, said Linda “L.L.” Gates, who organized the event along with others.
Besides honoring internationals” culture, Gates said, the event lets the community show a little southern hospitality.
“It shows we”re a very warm, welcoming, friendly community,” she continued.
A community staple since 2004, the event is just one of many each year that brings together the community and the spouses of allied and U.S. military personnel.
“It”s become the highlight of the year for many of them,” Gates said of the luncheon and its attendees. “They come to the base and some are unsure about going into the community in a foreign land.”
One woman in the spouses group, which now meets regularly, stayed in her house a year because she did not know English well and did not know anyone, Gates continued.
Now, the woman is an active member of the group.
“Once they get into this group, they have friends,” she said.
For retired Master Sgt. Andrea Sanders, who spent the first 13 years of her life in Erlangen, Bavaria, in Germany, the luncheon is about remembering her roots.
“I love being in America, but it”s nice to have culture that I know and love well,” said Sanders, whose husband, Maj. Chuck Sanders, is a flight instructor.
“I feel like I have a common bond with (other internationals),” she added, looking around the room.
The event is especially important because it connects people, said Perla Hopkins, whose husband was recently stationed in Maryland.
And people with similar experiences can be anchors in the sometimes unstable world of the military spouse.
“It”s wonderful to bring together a melting pot of cultures, which is what Air Force family means to me,” continued Hopkins, a Californian whose parents were born in Mexico and Guatemala.
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