The Family Back Home

I am sure every person in the Philippines knows a friend or a family member working as an OFW somewhere around the globe. Being an OFW comes with a connotation that whoever it is that is abroad is living comfortably and luxuriously and when they get home they are awash in cash, ready to treat the whole barangay to lechon and a massive feast.

But please take heed and let me tell you the facts.

- Most of the time they are promised comfortable accommodations and all the creature comforts they can imagine. However, these are usually just empty promises, with the OFW having to fend for themselves upon arrival. A strange place, strange customs, strange food, not knowing where to go for this and that. It can be quite daunting.

- Employers sometimes think of their hired help as their property, not thinking about their well being but constantly having them do work above and beyond what they were hired to do. It is very common for employers to not even think about basic needs like, eating or sleeping.

- Very common that an OFW would send all his earnings back home and just figure out a way for him/her to survive. Sometimes surviving on instant noodles, or boiled eggs day in and day out.

- Very common that an OFW would sacrifice being able to complete their grocery list just to make sure that he/she can slowly fill up their balikbayan boxes that are so eagerly awaited back home.

- Very common that families back home slowly stop texting or communicating even just a month after their deployment. However 2 days before salaries are due that's when the texts and requests start coming in. Requests for extra money for this and that would be welcomed by the OFW always thinking, maybe I can do without detergent or soap or other essentials just to give the family back home whatever they need, always thinking about their families before themselves. If their family is happy and content so are they.

- Vacations don't necessarily mean that the OFW is overflowing with cash and ready to buy everything their families desire and go on expensive vacations. Not having saved anything, there's really not much to show for, so the OFW takes out a loan before going home just to make everyone happy, but that loan adds up to the next loan, and before he knows it, most of his salary is used up for paying loans.

- It's a never ending story, initially planned for just 3 to 5 years to get a leg up, OFW's usually end up staying as long as 20 years away from their families till they're too old to work abroad.

- Going home gets harder as the longer they stay away the less connected they feel to their families. Sometimes, they'd feel more of a stranger being home rather than being in the place where they work.

- What do they have to show for after all those years of hardship? Missing all things important in life and eventually going home to an empty nest as their children who were still babies when they left have now started their own families and have gone their own way.

So, if you know an OFW, send him/her some love. Show them you appreciate them. Do not take them for granted. They are out there for you, willing to give it all up, just so you may have what they didn't, a better opportunity for a better life.

Hug an OFW today! Bring us home Pdutz, you're the only one that wants to.

Please feel free to share and spread awareness about our Filipino brothers and sisters who are longing to be home with their loved ones.

For all you yellows, eat shit, you couldn't care less anyway!

This post was taken from the Facebook page of Jovybev Aquino. To follow him, click on the image above.