Pakikisama: The spoken and unspoken rules and culture for living in the Philippine

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

The only benefit I've seen is the OFW gets to work so the others don't have to. 

In many cases this is the case, but there are plenty of others where the OFW is working to fund education for their siblings etc etc.  My wife, and her younger sister, were examples of the latter - my wife funding her younger sister who then worked overseas to fund the youngest brother.  That said, as well as funding their siblings they were also funding the other 3 brothers and parents as far as I can see!

[Explorer]

3 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

The only benefit I've seen is the OFW gets to work so the others don't have to. 

Can they at least reserve me a spot in one of those OFW repatriation flights leaving the US?  

[Shady]

On 5/8/2021 at 3:27 PM, Explorer said:

So what you are saying is that the 4.1 millions Filipinos living in the US are OFWs? 

Are you saying Filipinos when you should be saying Filipino-Americans?  

[GeoffH]

13 hours ago, hk blues said:

In many cases this is the case, but there are plenty of others where the OFW is working to fund education for their siblings etc etc. 

That is the case in SWMBO family, and even when the recipients of the education are not OFW they send back money. 

One daughter is a teacher in Manilla, one aunt works as an OFW... both 'sponsor' the education of a student in the family (as do two aunts with regular employment but who are living near home).

It has been my observation that only the brightest of the family children are given this chance (which makes sense given the limited funding available).

I've contributed sometimes myself at times, I see it as 'investing in the future of the family'.  

Edited May 10, 2021 by GeoffH

[Snowy79]

There seams to be a mix of those that work and help out to those that sit back and let others work. My partner's family have one OFW and the family is quite large, about 9 siblings. Her family are a family of workers but she tells me there are plenty of cousins etc that sit back and expect the workers to take care of everyone even though they don't go out looking for work.

My ex was earning about 7k per month and giving anything spare to her sister for her schooling yet when she had graduated and she asked her sister to help out at work and she refused.  Another friend had a hotel in Angeles and he told me he noticed the chef was taking bags of waste out to the bin area every day just before he finished work but he wasn't putting the bags in the bin.  He followed him one day with security and found the chef had filled the bags with good food, steaks, vegetables etc.  He fired him on the spot and the chef had the neck to thank him.  He explained he lived with other adults who never worked or looked for work as he made enough to feed them, he said now he will sit at home and drink Red Horse while one of the others finds work to provide for them.