Overseas Foreign Workers Life

I am actually browsing the net, checking facebook and listening to Maddi Jane when i asked one of my friends what’s the next to blog... and out of nowhere, she replied... OFW Life...

I think of why not...it may be an interesting topic to talk about. But how would I start, I really don’t know. 

My life experience as an overseas foreign worker is not really enough to clearly define how it is to be an OFW. So i have to look around and see what the things that i and other OFWs are experiencing overseas...

I am working here in Singapore for almost a year now in one of the biggest local banks here. Working here is totally different than working in the Philippines because of so many things. When I and my colleagues from the Philippines came here in July, we are so full of hopes, questions and doubts. But naturally, out of being a Filipino, we still manage to smile despite the fact that we leave our loved ones and we have debts to pay because of going here. We got the employment through an agency and we have spent more or less 3000.00 SGD which covers agency fee, personal expenses, fare and buying stuffs before going here. 

I just feel the excitement of everyone...that every time i try to remember it... it makes me really smile.  We have to find places to stay and of course start tasting food. I remember, my first night, i was able to have my dinner at around 9 pm already after looking for a place to stay. And my 4 friends who are all ladies, i dont know if they were able to eat because they still have to look for a place at that time as well. 

I remember eating Chinese food as i can’t find any Filipino food that night. What a life by then...

While we are working here, our families in the philippines are hopeful as well. They think of so many things like buy this and that... but also, thinking of how is my child overseas...its just so nice to know that our loved ones are thinking of us back in the philippines...

However, there are also some painful memories which I really can’t deny. Some of us have loved ones left in the philippines... and it is not always a good story for an OFW. "Long Distance Relationship" is very hard to maintain as there could be a possibility that an OFW will find somebody overseas or his/her loved ones in the philippines can find somebody else back home. Funny but true and all i can think of now is ... thats the reality and it happened to me as well. 

Being an OFW... you can buy things like you cant buy back home... i remember the time i got here, i only have 1 phone and two shoes with me...it was scarcity. Now, abundance of these things and i got these things in less than a year time. Back home, i dont think i can get all these stuff in a year...hahaha... 

When i was working in cebu, i remember sending money to my parents as well, but it was only about 100 SGD a month...now i am able to send 3 or 4 times of that. I can see some of my friends buying DSLR and Mac Books. Some of them are travelling in and out of Singapore going to Indonesia and Malaysia. 

I can just smile and thankful of all the blessings that we have received... its a very nice experience so far for us... but i can also see other OFW suffering and experiencing hardships. To prove it, I myself have been borrowing money as well just to survive because i have been sending money to my loved ones back home. I just hope i am not going to go back into that situation again as i wanna start saving.

Being an OFW is really something that is not just a joke. Others may see it as glamorous or a progress...but life in reality doesnt really speak of happiness all the time. One thing we have to always remember is to be thankful all the time and be glad that our life is much better as before.