How Filipino Overseas Workers (OFW) in Hong Kong Combats Homesickness

According to the survey, the number of Filipino workers abroad are estimated at 2.2 million. And in Hong Kong, Filipinos considered as the largest ethnic minority with more than 140,000 population or 48% from the total number of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong territory. Mostly of them are women, working as foreign domestic helpers.

Homesickness always afflict Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) throughout the years. It's a manifestation of OFW's affinity with his/her family. Through the help of technology, it improves the means of communication, help ease the feeling of homesickness and virtually brought OFW closer to their families back in the Philippines.

It takes time to adjust the new surroundings and climate, deal with the new culture and tradition and adopt with the new foods and language, until that happens, homesickness arise. And throughout the world, there are several incidents involving worker mistreatment surfaced, often neglect workers' rights or complicit in a series of abuse. And all these things gives negative impact to OFW's life which attributes to feel homesickness.

But Filipinos are resilient. Despite enduring pains and sufferings, OFW have always overcome them through faith and love to their families back home.

Here are some ways how OFW in Hong Kong overcome homesickness and relieves stress from exhausting job.

1. CHURCH VISIT

Majority of OFW in Hong Kong are Roman Catholic. Large number of Filipinos spend a part of their Sunday's free time attending Mass and various church services. Many Catholic parishes in Hong Kong offer Masses in Tagalog or English intended for the Filipinos. Prayer is one the strongest weapon to beat homesickness. Through asking guidance and strength, we can beat that feeling along with the resistance to bad temptation, to keep away from trouble and carry out work throughout the day.

2. GROUP PICNIC AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

Every Sunday, some roads in Central Hong Kong are closed. It's a typical view every weekend where large groups of Filipinos spotted at those roads which offers foreign workers to pitch camp, lay mats, tents or anything. The public ground transformed into a temporary venues for their social interactions and group gatherings.

It's not only in Central, but OFW held picnic at different places in Hong Kong. Usually at urban parks where they can enjoy more and perform several things like games and events. Some also held their picnic at different underpass and overpass, bridges and country parks. And here in Hong Kong, it's free to stay at any corner and do anything you wanted to do - dance, sing, chit-chat, for as long as you're not making public disturbances and blocking the public pathways.

3. MUSIC AS ENTERTAINMENT

Singing is nature to Filipinos and Philippines is a house of powerful voices. Music and entertainment bind our nation together. It's one of the reasons which makes Filipinos happy. However, many Chinese employers doesn't want their foreign workers to sing, so during holidays, carrying their own mini speakers, microphones and phones, Filipinos will find their possible way so they can sing.

It's their one way to release their emotions and to relieve from stressful work. Music soothes our aching mind and soul. And through music, OFW temporarily forget their problems at work, gives energy to their exhausted body and makes them happy even just for a while before going back to work again.

4. JOINING BEAUTY PAGEANT AND VARIOUS CONTEST

Filipino community usually have series of events to give entertainment to Filipinos. Sometimes, a group of women will host a beauty pageant, showcasing the beauty of Filipinas in Hong Kong. There's no qualifications and standards for this event, all they need to have is that confidence to face the crowd, and as long as you have that quality, you can able to join and be entertained. As what they've said, they're more confident to flaunt their flaws abroad than in their own country. There's no discrimination and judgement, and through this kind of event, they can be themselves without any shame.

What funny in this kind of event are the pop fanclub carrying brightly coloured banners, proclaiming their appreciation for the affiliated act with screams and laughters and showing their full supports to the participants. OFW activities and performances helps to boost their confidence and show to people that they're talented and skillful Filipino away from their stereotype as ordinary domestic workers in Hong Kong.

5. CULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND PERFORMANCES

To introduce the Filipino culture and enhance good-natured between Filipino workers and local residents, Kapangyawan Festival has been made along with the celebration of Philippine Independence Day every June. Kapangyawan is a tagalog term adapted from the term "pang jau" meaning "friend" in Cantonese. This festival is held yearly at Charter Garden in Central Hong Kong.

Charter Garden became the most popular venue for Filipino communal events after it has been pedestrianized in 1980s. Some Philippines Fiesta has been organized by Filipino community in Hong Kong to showcase Philippines natural, religious ethnic and cultural diversity and pride of the Philippines. At fiesta, various Filipino groups join the street parades and shows religious piety through self-designed costumes, props and dances.

Examples of Filipino Fiestas in Hong Kong are:

• Sinulog Festival - stages every third Sunday of January and has been organized by the Visayans. Sinulog Festival is a Cebu fiesta that honours Santo Niño (Holy Child)

• Philippines Tourism Day in May organized by Philippines business communities and promoting Philippine tourism. They held beauty pageant that interweaved Philippine ethnic and cultural diversity in its competition categories and emphasized the beauty of traditionak Filipina dresses.

• Independence Day communal celebration in June organized by Philippine Consulate General. Starting with prayer and a Catholic Mass, singing the national anthem followed by the speeches of state officials. Similar to other fiesta celebration, it also includes street parade and stage performance and competition.

• Kalilang Festival in September hosted by the Filipinos from Mindanao. Kalilang means "festival" in Maguindanao language. The participants of this festival presents the richest and vibrant mixture of colors, music and dances. The aim of this festival is to offset the impression of Mindanao as suffering from religious conflict and chaos.

These street parades and stage performances demonstrates Philippines rich divesrity showcasing their creativity and artistry. Other than stage performances, their are various talents for theatric productions, vocal performances, individual and group dance, catwalk, make-up and costume design competition staged elsewhere. Professional singers and dancers working in Hong Kong gives vibrant performance in these events. http://anthrocuhk.blogspot.com/2016/08/multicultural-hong-kong-in-celebration.html?m=1

6. ROAMING AROUND THE CITY WITH FRIENDS

Being in a country with advance technology and great architecture, who doesn't want to roam around the city? Filipinos loves to travel along with their hobby of taking photos. And once for a while, they want to reward themselves through exploring the beauty of the city, posing on different landmarks, buying something for themselves, and visiting some restaurants to taste authentic Hong Kong cuisine. Many aren't contented with their foods given by their employers at home, so during their holiday, they want to spoil themselves with yummy foods and at the same time, they want to taste a new set of foods different from their food at home. Along with their phones, Filipinos loves capturing every places they've been to as a remembrance to their visit in that certain place.

7. BEACH PARTY AND HIKING

One way to overcome stress and homesickness and forget the toxic work is through various beach parties and mountain hiking. Filipinos in Hong Kong doesn't know each other, but through social interaction, they able to form groups and became friends with each other.

And usually, they do meet ups at the beaches where they can play games, team building activities with their own home-cooked filipino foods along with some alcohol. But mostly have curfews, so Filipinos drinks moderately and manage their time during their day off.

Another way to disconnect from toxic work is to do hiking. Through hiking, they will able to see the beauty of nature and it's fascinating view of Hong Kong city. It clears up their mind, breathe fresh air and feel relaxed on top of the mountain. There is also a group of filipino hikers named "Extreme Filipina Hikers", although carry the name of Filipinos, they proudly noted that some members are Indonesian. This group is setting an example for the rest as they hike with a heart. While hiking, they carry a bag then filling it up with trash they found on the mountain.

And last May 2019 a group or filipino workers has been featured South China Morning Post where they volunteered to spend their day off cleaning the beach near the city's popular surfing destination Big Wave Bay. The group as sign up for the "Adventure Clean-up Challenge" to encourage efforts to remove trash from Hong Kong island coastal areas that are difficult to access.

Being an OFW is a challenge and homesickness is something that many OFW try to overcome. As we struggle to adapt the new environment while missing families back home, we always try to put in mind the goal of working abroad. Through prayers that gives us strengths, technology that virtually brought us closer to our family back home, and some sort of adventure and entertainment, we can show to the world that, OFW are reliable, resilient, and can withstand the toughest challenges of life abroad.

I am proud to be a Filipino. I am proud to be an OFW.