OFWs Are Not ATMs

People think that all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are rich. Maybe some but not all. They thought, just because we are outside the Philippines make us eligible to claim fortune. On the contrary, we are just doing fine. We can live comfortably, enjoy other perks we cannot have back home, and invest our hard-earned money to properties and income-generating business. All these are achieved because of our sweat and toil.

Photo credit: yahoo.com

It is so unfair to be stereotyped as money-spewing Automated Teller Machines where you can get  money day in and out. It does not work like that. Please remember, we are humans too. We work, we flex our muscles, lift our fingers and exert effort to earn a decent living. We won't be here in the first place if we have a better life back home and if there is a high-paying job waiting for us in the Philippines. We too, have our sacrifices. We didn't get here by sheer luck nor fate. We got where we are because we worked hard. We spend money here for our daily sustenance. We have bills to pay, kids to send to school, loans and mortgages to settle and on top of that, money to send back home. We can only stretch ourselves so much but at one point, we need a break too. So, don't get mad if our ATMs will show a sign that says "out-of-order" one day.

Household Chores

Sometimes I wish my weekend is longer than the usual 2 days. There are days when I just want to rest and not do anything at all. However, part of an expat's life abroad is to accommodate all these chores without spending exorbitantly to a maid service or cleaner jobs.

It is very expensive to have a maid in this place. The amount I will pay for a maid is good enough to send home to my family. So, I just do things on my own with my husband's help.

They Just Don't Get It

People think that when you work abroad, you earn big time or you're a money machine. They expect you to remit all the time and when you don't, they get mad,or say something nasty about you.

Don't they know that expats have to spend what they earn where they currently live? If the standard of living is high then expect that there are little chances that these poor expats will have spare to go around. Oh well...

The Tweedledums

There were two friends named Dimwit and Dimtwat who lived in the Highland. These two ninnies were known for their shady characters and unpleasant behaviour. They looked down on people as if they were slaves.

One day, these two ninnies went to a posh place to get something done and Dimwit didn't get exactly what was requested so the barrage of insults and expletives flew in every corner of the place and Dimtwat followed suit. They dropped names and told everyone they were from this and that and they would call some officials because they didn't get what they wanted. They would sue the management of the place for ruining something. The slur of inappropriate words were spoken at lightning speed causing a lot of inconvenience to the other citizens.

Well, in the real world, people like them should be hung upside down. Their brains went down to their feet and need to get back to were it should be - that mid part of their head called the skull!

These are the kind of dimwits populating this society. A lot of them are expatriates who came from nothing and when they suddenly had money, they became this proverbial fly on top of the carabao. It's such a shame because they give a very bad image of their fellowmen who are not even close to being like them at all.

The Expat's Life - Part 3 "Someone noticed!"

My eyes almost popped from their sockets when a friend forwarded a mail which is quite unusual because we, the Filipinos as overseas workers, are featured by an Arab journalist which appeared in Arab News. Read this and weep:

We are finally noticed and given the respect that we truly deserve. In this part of the world, being noticed and recognized for our value is an aberration to the idiosyncrasies. At least, someone finally told the world what Filipinos are made of - determination, perseverance, hope, and integrity. Yan ang Pinoy! (That's what a Filipino is!)

Shukran Mr. Abdulla al Maghlooth for recognizing our value in the society. I hope there are more people like you who will give us what we are due.

(Please see my other entries on the Expat's Life here, and here)

The Expat's Life - Part 2

Being an expat (short for expatriate) here is full of surprises. Some are quite pleasant but others are not. You're lucky enough if you get the good tidings but for some who are here working too hard will not agree with me when I say we are rather lucky compared to our "kababayan" (fellowmen) back home. Yes, life here is relaxed in a way with less the worry of a day to day existence back home. Most expats in this country have nice homes, own a car or two, travel extensively, earns three times as much as compared to a VP of a major company in back home, and owns more than 1 property back in their country. Although not all expats enjoy these wonderful benefits because it also depends on the kind of job you have, the company you work for and your salary scale. Most Asian expats I know are somewhere in the mid-range (earning around 6,000 to 10,000 dirhams a month) but the rest are below that. It is good if you get 3,000 dhs (dirhams - monetary unit of the UAE) as a starting salary when you're new in the country but most who do hard-labor earn a measly amount. I can't say how much per se but it's really disheartening to know that it does happen to some expats here.

Thinking of the family and friends we leave behind, the sacrifices we have to make to earn a good living and having to uproot ourselves from the country we love; it's just fair to say that we deserve the perks of life's comforts. Not only that we have to sacrifice to give our families a better future, we also bring in the "dough" to our motherland through our remittances. Our country's government even dubs us (the expats) the modern day heroes.

So, the next time you meet an expat in your own country, be happy that not only does he work for the family he left behind but he is also working for the "world."

The Expat's Life - Part 1

When I went here last 2000, there is very little information I know about it's culture, it's rich heritage, the local people, the place, the country itself. I knew about the other countries in the Middle East but not much on the place I would eventually call my second home.

I didn't, in my wildest dreams, intend to stay here. Initially, it was just a trial and error thing but I found lady luck on the corner of Street A and Street B (let’s call them that way for anonymity) in June of 2000. That was the commencement of my life as an expat.

I had culture shock during the first few months of my 'regular' stay here and eventually, as the days went by, I learned to adapt and adopt the society's norms. It was very difficult for me to adjust on the accents because this was (and still is) a melting pot of various nationalities with different accents. To top that, I had my 'supposed' interview 3 weeks after my stay and had to press the plunger because I was applying for a post that would require remarkable hearing abilities. I was so frustrated and felt like a fool. I could not get the fellow's accent at all! Nope, he was not a local, certainly not a Caucasian. Let's leave it to that. I had to watch news delivered by locals and other nationalities. The reason for that was to differentiate the way they delivered so I could catch up with their accents. I eventually succeeded and can now talk to people even with the strongest twang! My exposure in my current work place helped me a lot to develop my skills in understanding other nationalities as I handle 'pilots' in my field. Most of the pilots I meet and converse with daily are Europeans and few Asians. Having dealt with them helped me cope with the pressure of comprehending what they were actually getting across.

Next hurdle was to stave off the nagging 'homesickness' I felt (honestly, I still feel it at present in varying degrees). I had rows and rows of crying spells at night that would leave me looking like Kermit the Frog the next day. It was so painful to be away from my family having grown to a closely knit one. I had to leave my daughter for a while to my parents because my husband and I were just starting off and could not possibly afford to acquire her here. The long and painful process of obtaining her residence visa only came 2 years ago after several promotions in the office which gave way to a better pay and passing the criteria of a family status visa. I also miss my close friends back home, my support system, my 'chika' (chat mates) buddies, my office pals in DBP, my confidants, my sisters in spirit, my compadres/comadres. Oh, the days...

Living in this country is totally not an easy feat to make. An expat like me will have to constantly adjust as we all struggle to give a bright future to our family. It is a constant sacrifice, a tireless effort to strive for the best to get the best, restraining of the homesickness feeling, drowning of loneliness through other means... It's not easy. Believe me.

Although the country has many things to offer to an expat like me who wish to have a better life outside my original domicile. My husband and I are paid quite generously compared to our counterparts back home. We live a comfortable life. We have nice abodes back home. We can travel and see places we never thought we would. We meet new and interesting folks here who in a way, make our lives richer and colorful.

An expat's life is like a roller coaster ride. You feel various emotions as you go along. Your feelings peak and then drops down at lightning speed. I cannot explain why but I guess it's because we miss home so much. I don't know about the other Pinoys here but as for me, my family and my friends, we all feel that there's still no place like home. Having said that, I know the time will come when we will all go home and enjoy the fruits of our hard-earned, well-toiled, sweat-coated labour. It's just a matter of knowing when.