CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS SEASON AWAY FROM HOME

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS SEASON AWAY FROM HOME

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Photo taken last Christmas 2016

Photo taken last Christmas 2016
I really missed my family this Christmas...

It is kind of hard and an awkward feeling when we are celebrating Christmas away from our family. Like for myself there are quite a number of times that I am celebrating Christmas away from my family because I am an overseas foreign worker. And I am one of the many Filipinos who are working abroad to earn a living to support the needs of my family.

There is no Christmas here in Saudi Arabia because it is an Islamic country. Because we Filipinos most of us are Christians although there are also Filipinos who are muslims, but a large number are Christians. And we are used to celebrate Christmas in our country yet here in the Middle East you can never feel Christmas. Unlike in the Philippines where every Christmas we feel much joy and happiness, even just from hearing a simple fireworks and Christmas carols rendered by the children and old ones. The Christmas decorations in the park and the Chistmas lights on the streets and the lanterns that lined the street with lights. It is really full of happiness, the expression of joy is beyond what you normally feel in the ordinary days. The Joy because the Savior was born in a manger to free us from our sins. This is the center of our celebration every Christmas that is why we can see on display the nativity scene every Christmas.

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I missed going to the mall and hearing the Christmas music. We go shopping, ate at restaurants. Buy new clothes, and buy our individual gifts for our family exchange of gifts. And we will join the parlor games that will make us very happy and delighted after receiving the prizes. We went to the town center to watch Christmas Program that includes in it Christmas Carol Contest, Christmas Choir Contest, Christmas Dance Contest. And dance presentation from each barrio and there the showcase and judging of Christmas Lantern Making Contest. It is really full of gladness as after the Program there will be Disco free for all. Oh I can only imagine and wish that time I can hire a time machine so I can join them in their merry making.

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And on the day before Christmas we will prepare food for the “Noche Buena” Christmas Eve Feast, we all in the family eat together on the table. I missed the foods like spaghetti, ham roasted chicken and others will have a roasted pig. I remember before I cooked goat meat and we called it “caldereta” and also I cooked the entrails the liver the cleaned intestines the heart of the goat and the skin cleaned, boiled until tender and chopped thinly. And cooked them after sauteing spices in oil like garlic, onion, ginger, spring onions, bell pepper. Then after sautéing the spices, pour in the thinly sliced cooked goat entrails then add soy and seasoning then pepper and salt to taste, simmer until cooked we called this recipe “paklay” in the Visayan vernacular it is really delicious. Ow, I missed the smell of cooking huge quantity of food. I cooked my favorite recipe the filipino style beefsteak. It is delicious. And one of the many recipe when filipinos love to prepare is the “pancit cantoon” egg noodles. They say it is for long life. Then after eating we will gather at the living room where the Christmas tree is placed there and underneath it are the gifts. Then we will one by pick our gifts and give them to the one who owns the name written on it. It is so fulfilling when each of us will receive our individual gifts. Then after we all go outside and lit the firecrackers and sparklers. It is really amazing and full of happiness watching your whole neighborhood making noise with their fireworks display out from their front yard. Different people kids and adults will visit you home and they will render and sing their Christmas Carol. And after they finished singing we gave them an amount of money in any amount and you receive a beautiful smile with a kind words “thank you”. We felt so much joy when we can give them something and that is the spirit of Christmas it is so fulfilling when we can give. I believe that it is better to give than to receive. Because that shows that we are blessed that is why we share our blessing to others. I remember before my mother would say to us if you have clothes that you don’t like to use anymore, take it and give to the needy and the less fortunate ones. And when you have given it to them you can see from their faces the feeling of much gratitude and happiness.

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This only happened once a year so for myself I felt and believed that this is giving back what we have received from God. The bounties of our hardwork. Thanking Him for the protection and the blessings that we have receive from Him. That is why for me Christmas is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. But for us who worked abroad in a country wherein Christmas is not their custom because it is not what they believe and observe, then we will really missed this experience that only happens once in a year. I think the hardest part is when the time of your scheduled flight going to the middle east is during Christmas Season. My friend sent me a message that he just arrived yesterday December 22nd in Dammam Saudi Arabia and when he arrived there nobody gave him an allowance and he is so hungry, not until he saw a filipino truck driver who gave him money to buy food. And today he will still have to travel to Albatin which is a 450 kilometers travel by bus from Dammam. And he don’t have any idea what is waiting for him there, because I searched in the google earth the city is located near the boundary of Kuwait and Iraq. I just gave him words of encouragement that he will just leave and trust everything unto the Lord. And ask for His guidance and keep him safe. Because he had mentioned that his work there will be a ten wheeler truck driver. And his route will be Kuwait and Albatin Saudi Arabia. It is hard to imagine his situation when he is now far away from his family and to days after it will be Christmas time. That will really break your heart living your family behind when you should have been at their side celebrating Christmas. But, we have to sacrifice for the sake of our family hoping that the job that is waiting for us abroad will give our family a brighter future for it support our family’s needs. Support our children's education and all the expenses that pushes us to work away from our family.

We missed so many events, reunions of family clans, friends, classmates and most of all the spirit of Christmas. Yet all of these we have sacrificed for the sake and betterment of our family. We have endured all of this because we believe that it is here abroad were we can suffice our financial needs. Our dreams are better fulfilled here. And it is true because I worked here and abroad for a total of eight long years. I have provided the financial support for my family and for my son who recently had finished and graduated college and had passed the licensure exam two weeks ago and he is now a full pledge aircraft maintenance.

And it gives myself a boost and a feeling of fulfillment because all my hard work and sacrifices have paid off. I am very proud because the goal that I have set before I decided to leave my family in order to support my their needs has come to a reality and was a success.

Because not all are successful, I heard stories from a father who was working here that his son did not finished college and he felt down and depressed for his sacrifices and hard work was a failure. And I felt pity for him and sympathize with what he had felt. Because I know how difficult our experiences here abroad, it is not a joke working outside in the intense heat of the sun.
Because temperature here in the middle east can reach 55-60°C at its peak. Good for me that I am working in the office because we have an A/C unit that will keep us cool the whole day. But for them workers, laborers who are working in the construction site added with the dust during sandstorm. I can imagine it as a test of our endurance and the test of our physical ability to cope up with the extreme and harsh weather condition in the desert under the searing heat of the sun. A number of worker has been reported who collapsed because of the heat. And days later he was sent home because he was paralyzed. And during winter we will also experience to much cold that reach sometimes to minus one degree. This country will really try and test ourselves on how strong we are physically and mentally.

Taken via android phone

Taken via android phone

The feeling of loneliness and homesickness is the feeling that we need to battle and overcome. For if one will be consumed by such emotion it will surely affect a workers focus and determination to continue and persevere. Slowly his condition will deteriorate due to the constant stress and pressure acquired from work. And definitely worn out his capability to work. I have heard workers who quit their job and was sent home because they are mentally ill. If one thinks that he is not strong enough to cope up with the negative effects of working overseas away from their own family, then better think and evaluate themselves deeper before he commit himself to pursue his dream. I am just telling the reality of the situation here abroad. Most likely happens if that person is an affectionate and too much attached with his or her family then he or she will experience the so called separation anxiety. Separation Anxiety is the inability to contain their worries about someone when they are separated from the person who matter most to them.

For myself, I believe as a Christian, that I had overcome and attained all these because I put Christ and God in the center of our life as a family. Because without our Creator's help and divine intervention we can do nothing as He is our only source of strength and wisdom. For He created us, this world and the whole universe. And we don't exist today if not because of him. My favorite verse in the Bible is Philippians 4:13 “I CAN DO ALL THINGS TROUGH CHRIST, WHO STRENGTHENS ME.” When we have Jesus on our side we don’t need to worry because Jesus came down born and became flesh and dwelt amongst us, just to die on the cross as a final offering like the sheep to cleanse our sins and ransom us from this sinful world and that we will have a place in heaven. For He said John 14:1-3 I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that u I am you may be also.
We celebrated Christmas because as Christians we are happy that Jesus was born because he died for our sins.

Thank you for taking your time in reading.
I hope this will give an inspiration to others.