Again, I want to share another letter from a Filipino overseas worker. This is my only way to help other people understand the hard life of working overseas, away from their family and loved ones.
OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker)
We are not rich, if that is what you think we are. Friends, relatives and neighbors, working abroad is the only solution to give our family a decent life. We are not rich, if only we are rich, why should we stay here away from our family living in misery? You do not have any idea how we tasted our tears at night
battling with homesickness. How we keep telling ourselves not to fell ill because no one is here to take care of us once we are in bed. How we miss our kids, their laughter and their birthdays. Our only consolation is when our kids excel on their studies, that is enough to give us inspiration and wipe a bit of our loneliness. But, with few instances, bad news from our loved ones bring us depression and made us weak. Thanks for other co-workers who understands, well, who can understand us better other than our companions here who suffers the same fate.We are not complaining, we are only asking for a little consideration. OFW are also human, we are not automated machine that when you want to withdraw money, we can give instantly. We are working and paid monthly or every fifteen days and not everyday. In any case, of emergency that we need to send money, we have
to loan from our company or other friends who have a little savings. We do not have savings of our own, maybe those other OFW who are working in big countries and in better position have. But, you have to understand, most OFW are skilled workers, only a few are managers or big bosses in a company. It is not easy to work with people from different countries with different ideas, cultures and beliefs. We have no choice but to adjust with everyone, because we need our job to feed our love ones.Some of us works here for 20-30 years but still have not saved enough for a retirement. Why, because we are sending every penny we earned to our family. Lucky are those whose wife, mother or beloved who knows how to value every cent and saved some for the future. Then again, we are not complaining that is why we are still here, enduring the pain of loneliness. We love our family; they are strength and our reason to survive. Their happiness is our happiness and we can endure more pain for the sake of their smiles. Our only request is, for everyone to pray for us that we stay healthy and safe in a lonely world that we choose. Moreover, after a year, we will see each other again with God’s blessings and mercy.
lovinglyoursjuny
6-02-2012
5:27am Saturday PT
