DUBAI: Over the past 13 years, Rajaly hasn’t lost count of the holidays she has missed in her home country, the Philippines.
Rajaly, who asked to use a pseudonym when speaking to Arab News, arrived in the UAE in 2005 and has not visited the Philippines since then, which means she has missed out on many a Christmas with her husband and five children.
“In my long years of being an overseas Filipino worker, I have seen how many try their best to go to the Philippines for Christmas,” she said, adding that she will finally make it home for the celebration this year.
The same story is shared by millions of Filipinos around the world — people who, like Rajaly, are willing to trade important moments with loved ones for “a shot at life” abroad.
Filipinos who work or reside overseas number an estimated 10 million, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas website.
Since Christmas is a major celebration in the Catholic-dominated Philippines, many overseas Filipinos try their best to travel home.
“Generally outbound bookings look healthy across our network during the festive season and passenger loads to our three destinations in the Philippines (Manila, Clark, Cebu) are no exception. Flights have already begun to fill up,” an Emirates Airline spokesperson said in late November. Filipinos are the fourth largest expatriate community in the UAE, with the number pegged at around 600,000, so there is understandably a large proportion of Filipinos who cannot make it home for the festive season.
Jasper Ocampo, a 22-year-old recent graduate in the Philippines, is still waiting for good news from his father, who is based in Saudi Arabia.
“We are still not sure whether papa is coming home this Christmas. It’s already been three years,” he said.
“Papa wasn’t around for most of my birthdays, but we always try to send each other pictures and call if we get the chance,” he said.
Cristine Salao, also a daughter of an overseas Filipino worker, lamented the fact her father had to work abroad.
“Who would want to be separated from their parents?” she said, while also recognizing how their lives could’ve been different had her father stayed in the Philippines.
Salao said she finds comfort in the fact that there’s a huge community of Filipinos in the UAE.
“I’m thankful that my father is enjoying his stay in Dubai,” she said.
This community of Filipinos has adapted and learned to celebrate Christmas in the Middle East.
“Dubai has really opened up and become tolerant of other beliefs and practices so that Christmas can now easily be celebrated here by Christians,” Vince Ang, general manager of the UAE-based Filipino Times, told Arab News.
Various churches in the city perform Simbang Gabi, nine nights of evening mass held in the run-up to Christmas, and other Yuletide-themed activities are also hosted by diplomatic missions in the country to provide Filipinos a “feeling of being closer to home,” according to Ang.
“Filipinos do get together… here for Noche Buena, or Christmas eve dinner, and celebrate the spirit of Christmas the best way they can,” he added.
