News from the Philippines
I have been having various skype chats with Miss Gina in the Philippines during the last couple of weeks, and what she has been telling me, has made me realize just how lucky we all are to be living in the UK.
Now don't get me wrong, I am the first to openly criticise my country and its many faults, but after hearing what Miss Gina had to say about the state of the cost of living in the Philippines it made me think twice about my criticisms.
She tells me tales of rising costs, well thats true enough, here we have rising costs, which sometimes we feel are getting out of control, thats also true enough.
But the difference between here and the Philippines, is that at least we have the chance to make money, whereas there, they don't, Gina told me how shocked she was at how little money there is around the barangay's and puroks.
She told me that not only is there so little money flowing, that people have to contend with incredible high temperatures, and then with no aircon, they simply boil all day.
I know we know all this, and I am sure especially you girls who came here from the Philippines are well aware of what life is like, do we really understand just what it is like for those people there who sit around all day, because they have no job or life to look forward to.
I asked Miss Gina this morning, "So honey are you looking forward to coming back to the UK this weekend"
Her answer surprised me as I know she loves her family and the Philippines so much.
She said "Yes please honey, I don't like it here, its so hot, and there is no money at all"
"I do not know how people survive here"
The above is a very interesting statement, since in truth, she as one of those ones who struggled in the same predicament, although having a reasonably paid job by Philippine standards, she still strugled from one month to the next.
We also discussed the looks on peoples faces when she went to see her parents, a sense of hopelesness, a sense of no future, living out an existance from day to day with no end in sight.
Her words will resonate with me forever when she said
"I am so happy I live in UK - I am one of the lucky ones, I don't know how they survive"
Of course we also have to remember, that after one lives in the UK for 2 or 3 years, that person becomes de sensitized to the life back home, and the social and ecnomic environment that those ones live in, then give them rise to make immediate comparisons between what they have and what they left behind.
So, I think when we are quick about complaining here in the UK, we have much to be thankful for, its not perfect, no one said it would be, but its got to be much better than the life relatives and friends who are in the Philippines have to endure.
