DIFFERENT VOICE/FILIPINOS: Amado Abalos gets two sets of mobile phone text messages from his children in the Philippines. His nine-year-old daughter tells him, "Pappa, I miss you a lot," while his seven-year-old son writes, "Pappa, buy me this, buy me that," he says.
The 42-year-old gentle-mannered nurse in St James's Hospital in Dublin chuckles as he recounts the different responses of his children to his absence.
Amado, who calls himself Andy, dearly misses his family and hopes to bring them to Ireland next year.
He spent the early years of his children's lives caring for them on his own while his wife, a medical technologist, worked in Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Rome.
Now it's his turn to work overseas, first in Abu Dhabi and, since last January, in Ireland.
Andy's gross annual salary of €32,000 is at least two-thirds more than he would make at home. He plans to bring his family to join him in Ireland, where he says he has received a warm welcome.
"At first when I was working in Abu Dhabi it was really hard for me to stay away from my children, but now that I'm here there are a lot of Filipinos and I don't find it so hard as when I was working in the UAE [United Arab Emirates]. I'm thinking that now I have the chance to take my family here so I no longer feel so sad."
Unusually for a member of the Filipino community which tends to share accommodation to keep living costs down, Andy lives alone in a flat in Rialto, south Dublin. There are other Filipino nurses in the same building.
He says that apart from an initial feeling of disorientation, he has had little trouble adjusting to life in Ireland, focusing on similarities between the Irish and Filipinos.
"The Irish are almost the same as us, they are conservative and don't like abortion and care for the old people, giving them respect on the buses. In the Philippines we do the same. You also love music. I grew up with my grandparents who love music also."
St James's, which has long had a multicultural workforce, began recruiting Filipino nurses last October.
A two-week orientation programme is followed by ongoing professional development as well as a "buddy" or mentor system.
This is aimed at allowing the nurses to build confidence and adapt to a team-orientated working structure where assertiveness is valued, rather than the hierarchical structure to which many are used.
The hospital's director of nursing, Ms Eilish Hardiman, said staff and patients alike praise the abilities and caring nature of the Filipino nurses.
Andy says he and his colleagues work harmoniously and he would like to work and live in Ireland for as long as he can.
"I have asked cousins and friends in the Philippines to come over here," he adds, "because I think it's really good for them."