Our personal story:
THIERRY:
In a previous life and longtime ago I worked as a Flight Attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, flying around the world visiting different places and discovering that it wasn't all glitter and glamour. 14 years and 7500 flying hours later, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, bye bye KLM and bye bye right kidney.
What's next? a question that regularly came up during my revalidation period and actually not that difficult to answer. I have always been intrigued by excellent service and the Butler profession, half a year later I started my Butler career as a student at The International Butler Academy in the Netherlands.
Long story short and 12 years later, with a bag of wisdom and realism gained from working for the super rich in China, Belgium and Switzerland, I discovered that money can't buy love, happiness, inner peace or health, 4 ingredients needed for a wonderful life.
A simple smile on people's faces, gives me the energy to continue helping others,..... it's an addiction, a way of life!
To be continued.....
LEAH:
Born in the rural Municipality of Mabinay, Negros Oriental Province, Philippines in 1987.
My life has not always been easy, we had no running water, no electricity, no bicycle, telephone or tv,... Everyday I walked 45 min. to school and back, sometimes crossing flooded rivers on the back of volunteers helping people going to the other side. But not before my mother woke me up at 4:30 in the morning to make homemade food prepared on a firewood stove outside our bamboo house, which I then needed to sell on the streets and door to door in our village, starting at age 6. After all the food was sold, I rushed to school to not get late for classes.
All in all, my youth wasn't that bad, I kept myself busy helping in the household, collecting firewood in the forest for cooking, taking care of our goat and chicken,... and in my spare time, I played together with friends in our street or visit family.
We never went on vacation, the village was our world, the center of my childhood. I was a happy child with a positive attitude, always eager to learn something new and to gather knowledge in school and from the people I met in the village. Luckily, I wasn't shy talking to strangers and so, I began to know about the world, about the good things but also about the less good things which I quickly want to forget because I like to see the positive side of life.
I always have had a weak spot for people in need and for the less fortunate and elderly in our society. It was no surprise that after my graduation from High school, I found work as a nanny for an 8 year old blind boy. I worked there for 1 year, I even studied braille to improve my capacity to help him even better.
To be continued....