Balikbayan Boxes, Hopes, Dreams and Changes

I've always wanted to work in another country, for a lot of reasons, and like everyone else the main reason is to provide a better life for my family. Who doesn't dream of giving our loved ones everything they need?
There's this thought I always have that working abroad would be the only solution. The dreams of plenty pushes me to look for a better future in another land. Hope sparks in my soul and together with my Dreams, I hopped on the first opportunity I got, and flew to Saudi Arabia.
I could still remember the desert heat that welcomed me when I alighted from the airplane after a grueling 15 hour flight. But I just closed my eyes, say a little prayer, thought about my family and breathe deeply. This is it, I whispered silently, dreams will start to come true.
After a week of excitement and discovery, suddenly it hit me, missing home; my mother, my brothers and sisters, the naughtiness of my nephews and nieces, the noise, friends, food, even the "smell" of my neighborhood. I had sleepless nights and sometimes found myself crying out of melancholy. New found friends would always say I'll get by and I did try.
Hours turn into days, to weeks, to months and after four years of working, I did get by. But nothing beats going home, to see them once again, nothing can replace that feeling of great joy, so much that my heart would seem to leap out of my chest upon seeing my loved ones waving at me at the airport lounge, me drenched in sweat and sticky already which is a welcome home treat from my beloved country.
Coming home, there's a song like sound in it, I remember Gary V.'s "Babalik Ka Rin" song that become our OFW theme for a while which really emcompasses the true feeling that we have, us, working far from our family, with the sacrifices and hardships amidst everything else.
Returning home, bringing with us not only "Balikbayan" boxes of suprises but that "Hopes and Dreams"  we brought with us the first time and "Changes," that each time we return home, we are a different person, stronger, wiser and proud; each time our family's life is a little better; friends will hear our stories of successes and failures, and they get inspired and maybe they themselves change; that society will look at us, "new heroes" and say wish these heroes would come home and stay. We bring home Change that somehow our country's leaders would look upon us and provide a better opportunity and reason in staying home. We, OFWs are also delegates of good example to those who suffered the stigma of being lower than others by changing our host country's view of us and that we are at par and as skilled and hardworking as them.
Me, I will always come home, for there is no place like it, sounds a cliche' but as Paulo Coehlo wrote in his book The Alchemist, "Your treasure is where your heart is," and changes occur each time I see the people I care about smiling, my friends being inspired, my neighbors in a festive mood, and watching television and hearing news about how my country's leaders are working for the betterment of my homeland.
In retrospective, no matter where in the world we are, from Alaska to Zimbabwe, my fellow Filipino expats will always come home, for we are sentimental, strong and resilient people who welcome changes each time.

An Expat's Lament

There is an ongoing ordinance that a company should have a certain percentage of locals working with them in a call to "give a chance to the sons and daughters of this land" as one local newspaper headlined a few weeks ago. A good intention, even I, in my own country would agree on this "...ization" or giving priorities to a country's citizens instead of foreign assistance.

But my four years of stay in this country who had given me the opportunity to have a wider perspective when it comes to work and the bread and butter for my family, I have observed, witnessed and actually experience how "some" of this so-called "sons and daughters" behave and take advantage of this current issue. I am not generalizing, I am merely expressing my own opinion and first hand accounts, it is not my intention to degrade but rather to tell the other side of the story.

Observations:
- They usually come to work late, on the time they "feel" like and most probably the first they will do when they arrive is to drink tea, chat with their colleagues, read a newspaper or just go from department to department looking for their kind and have another tete-a-tete session.
- They leave work earlier than everybody else. Once they felt like they have "worked" they confidently just disappear from their work area.
- They will often say we are "locals" and we have all the rights to do what we want, whenever we want and anytime we want.
- They don't care at all at other people's situation other than their own. It is always "their situation," "their problems," "their issues," that should be given priorities.
- They want higher salaries, just because they are "locals" and then bribe others to do their work for them
- They are given positions at which they have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER on what to do, most often HIGHER posts, which is so absurd.
- They complain too much.
- They think they know everything, when in truth they rely on someone else too much and then take all the credit.

However, this ordinance is a great way to bring back a country's local's confidence and belief back to their leaders and promote patriotism, which will then urge its citizens to pursue good education and discover their capabilities. Many countries around the world is also implementing such a law. The locals I believe are a very talented bunch, however, misguided by their own self belief and pride. There are employers too that rely on their foreign workers much to their advantage, for these hard working people provide the means to make the company more stable and productive.I can only imagine if a company would use 100% of their locals who tends to do the things I just mentioned above, all working as managers and bosses, each one pointing at another to do each other's responsibilities. But, with all these lament, there are some who takes their responsibilities seriously, maybe because they are educated (abroad and already experienced and learned the value of work ethics and time), or simply know what it means to be a worthy "local" who has been given a chance to prove his worth, and that I admire.