“Filipino migrant workers, estimated to be 1.2 million, are coping very well with life in the Kingdom. They go to work, get along well with fellow workers, including other expats, and go home satisfied,” said Philippine Ambassador Ezzedin H. Tago.
At the end of the month after payday, they head toward the different remittance centers to send money to their respective families in the Philippines and for whom they left the country.
For those lucky enough to have signed a contract in the Philippines providing a family status and have brought their families to the Kingdom, the situation is a little bit different. For many they need to take and fetch their wives to and from the office while some do a similar to and fro for their kids’ school. Others pay a limo or minibus to do this or in many cases use pay for the school transportation.
At night after supper when they have time, they go out and visit the malls and parks. “In this case, we spend quality time, something that would be probably difficult to do once we go home for good in the Philippines,” said Eric P. Asi, an electrical engineer at Nardeen Lighting. His wife, the former Jannette Arenque, is a teacher while their two kids, EJ and JM, are studying in one of the schools for Filipino children in Riyadh.
On weekends, all roads lead to Batha, the city center, if they are in the Saudi capital. This is particularly true among those expats who are longing for their families back home. “In Batha, I spend the day meeting friends and eat lunch or dinner at one of the Filipino restaurants,” said 50-year-old Raul Cabuso, liaison officer at Quinnat Fanar. His wife Carmencita and two daughters, aged 12 and 10, are staying in Atimonan, Quezon, south of Manila.
The loneliness gripping Cabuso, who has been working in Riyadh for the last 16 years and in Khamis Mushayt in the 1980s for five years, is also being felt by other Filipinos whose families are in the Philippines.
In Buraidah, Qassim, Dionisio P. Tabuco Jr., senior mechanical engineer at Saudi Pharmaceutical Appliances Corporation (SPIMACO), said that to avoid loneliness caused by being away from his family — wife Merlyn, son Lyndon and daughters Donnalyn and Dionelyn — he has involved himself in community activities.
He is the president of the Samahan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Gassim or Organization of Filipino Workers in Qassim (SAMPIGA), which has over 1,000 members. “Our group has been conducting various activities for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in various parts of Qassim Region. We hold sports activities to engender sports-mindedness among the members so that they stay healthy. It’s one way of making them happy and counter their pining for their families,” he said.
His group also conducts medical missions in which OFWs receive free medical and dental services and for which Tabuco thanked the volunteer doctors and nurses working in different hospitals and clinics in Buraidah and adjoining areas.
On Dec. 2, 2011, his group is scheduled to hold in Al Rass a medical mission called “18th Health Awareness and Outreach Program.” Expected guest is Mohamed A. Khalifa, mayor of Sinanah District.
In Alkhobar in the Eastern Province, Eduardo R. Rodriguez, spare parts manager at Arab Equipment Est., has also involved himself in community activities to preoccupy him.
He had been working in Saudi Arabia for the last 28 years but “I have not been fully adopted to living away from my loved ones.”
“I still miss my family and I have asked my better half Remedios to join me here but she had always invoked the fact that nobody would look after our three kids. So, I have involved myself in tennis,” said Rodriguez, who comes from San Juan, La Union. Rodriguez was the president of the Eastern Region Lawn Tennis Association in 2010.
In nearby Jubail, 51-year-old Delfin B. Legarda, has found other means of keeping occupied. On Fridays when he’s off, he goes to work as manager of IT & Engineering Service Co. “My sponsor has been very nice to me in entrusting his company to me to manage. So, I’d report for work even on Fridays instead of doing nothing,” he said.
He said that he still misses his family — wife Richel and grown-up daughters Bea Dana, Edina and son Dean —although they were with him for ten years when the kids were still in the elementary grades and high school. His eldest Bea Dana, now 22 years old, had earned a nursing degree from St. Jude College in Manila; Edina, 20, is a fourth year political science student at University of the Philippines – Visayas and Dean, 20, is in first year of civil engineering at Central Philippine University in Iloilo.
“If I don’t go to work, then I search the Internet for news and other information of interest to me and other OFWs. That way, I am busy,” he said. Otherwise, he said, he had adjusted to the way of life in Saudi Arabia despite the fact that his family is in the Philippines.
In Jeddah, July A. Palomar, 43, has found a way of avoiding longing for home by involving himself in community activities by being the vice president of external affairs of the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers (IIEE) and president of the IIEE-WR Toastmasters Club.
“When my wife, the former Christine Arricidita of Bacolod, in southern Philippines, was still here, I was focused as a family man. But when she left for Canada, I started my community work,” he said.
However, he keeps in constant communication through Yahoo Messenger, chatting through Skype, sending message through Facebook or sending tweets through Twitter.
“Modern technology has really helped a lot to get connected with our loved ones,” he said.
