A Filipino in Bangladesh

I had a colleague from Pakistan who mentioned to me a certain Filipino she met while vacationing in Bangladesh. This could have been any other story of an overseas Filipino worker but what struck me most about him was the fact that he was not an OFW there but also a tourist like her. One might normally ask what the hell (or in heaven’s name, depending on your character…) this Filipino and my colleague were doing spending their holiday in Bangladesh, of all places.

But I just came from there myself and inasmuch as it is overshadowed by India and Nepal in terms of tourism, I must say that this country is as ancient and as exotic as its neighbors. What Bangladesh lacks in economic wealth, it more than makes up for in its myriads of historical, religious, and natural places to visit. (FYI, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to UNDP statistics from 1990-2002, its population living below $2 a day is more than 80 percent.)

So as not to be read like a page in a guidebook, Bangladesh boasts of the village of Paharpur, a World Cultural Heritage Site, where ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery can still be found. Another place recognized by UNESCO is Bagerhat with its most famous mosque being one of the biggest and oldest multi-domed structures in the world. The country is also home to the world’s largest mangrove forest, in Sundarban, and the longest unbroken sea beach called Cox’s Bazar.

But what really makes this country worth visiting is that everything is dirt cheap. I can still remember having a hearty meal of rice, meat, vegetable, and half-a-liter of Pepsi, oops, cola (there’s no such thing as free advertising) for only less than a dollar. A ride in one of their tuk tuks (or rickshaws, like our “pedicab” but the bicycle is in front – the country reputedly has the most number of tuk tuks per capita in the whole world) was a mere 15 US cents (of which I later on felt guilty especially if the malnourished driver had to transport three passengers…) And the latest mobile phone is being sold for almost half the regular price in America!

Alas, it makes sense why this Filipino went on vacation here. My colleague told me that he told her he is a hairdresser in Indonesia. He has been working there for several years now and has saved enough money to buy himself the gift of travel. His savings couldn’t let him fly all the way to America or Europe, and the touristy places in Asia were too expensive for him to go to, so he decided on a trip to Bangladesh instead. (As a matter of fact, the tag line of Bangladesh’s National Tourism Organization is: “Come to Bangladesh before the tourists do.”)

Yes, he is one of millions of Filipino contract workers around the world but what sets him apart is that he is still single and yet he chose to work overseas and overcome homesickness to send his parents and siblings the much required dollars back home. He is not typical of the modern hero who is abroad to help support his/her spouse and children. But ironically, he is an epitome of a hero because he forgot himself to take good care of his immediate family.

And he is not the only one. More and more single Filipinos nowadays have jobs outside the Philippines even though they aren’t really faced by the need to do so. I have encountered a number of them who send their nephews and nieces to school. When asked why they take on such a responsibility that is not theirs but their brother’s or sister’s, they said the family is very important and that if they could help them while they don’t have their own spouse and children yet, then why not?

I also met a single Filipino flight attendant en route to Stockholm, Sweden who I chatted with during the flight and perchance said that as soon as she started working for an international airline company, she asked her mother to stop working (her father died and her mother never remarried). She regularly wires her money and, oftentimes, something extra for shopping. In Seoul, South Korea, I came across a Filipino singer who is also single and has recently bought her parents a house in the Philippines so that they don’t have to struggle in paying the rent monthly.

In my circle of single best friends (three of them as two are already married) one was a doctor in the Philippines who was already quite comfortable earning enough for himself. But he wanted a better future for his immediate family so he became a nurse in America and is now paying for his sister’s education in New York, among other things. Again, he is one of the atypical and, at the same time, epitomic modern Filipino hero who puts his parents and siblings first before him.

As an aside, a number of these selfless, dutiful, and hardworking single OFWs are either lesbian or gay (which partly explains why they are still single). In fact, of the four people I mentioned in this article, three are homosexual. So to all those narrow-minded homophobes out there, how can you be afraid of and hateful of these kind-hearted, good-natured, and generous-minded individuals?    

I, too, am … am a single OFW. But I am lucky though because my brother and sisters are also single and are now working. My father is in heaven (I would like to believe) and my mother is in good hands with her second husband who happens to be American. In short, I don’t have to send money to them so I am able to spend my salary on myself such as in my travels. But for most single OFWs who have to remit a huge part, if not all, of their income to the bank accounts of their parent/s and/or sibling/s, it is their family who are very lucky to have them and benefit from their sacrifices and generosity.

My Pakistani colleague spoke of a Filipino tourist she met in Bangladesh. When I went there, I was hoping to meet one or two but didn’t. Nor did I meet OFWs. I did hear that there are indeed a few Filipinos working there as telecommunications engineers, English teachers, and NGO workers. There was no way for me to know but I am pretty sure that there is at least one of them who is single and helping his/her immediately family back home.