I’ll be home for Christmas (I wish)…

Francis Rey Infiesto bought a “Merry Christmas” signage and a Santa Claus cardboard cutout on his first Christmas away from home.

It was 2012 and he had just arrived at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to find work.

Infiesto tacked the Santa Claus cutout on the wall facing the dining table so the jolly man in the red suit could smile at him while he eats.  It was his way of bringing the Christmas spirit into the house that he shared with his sisters.

Infiesto later found a job as operations and administration chief for a recruitment company.

In the years that followed, he no longer put up Christmas decor at home, as he had gotten used to the way that the Christian holiday was being celebrated in UAE,  a Muslim nation.

“This being an open country, we are allowed to put up Christmas lights on our balconies and decor inside our homes,” Infiesto said. “There are even dancing Santa Clauses and sections in the mall that sell Christmas decors,” he said in an interview through Skype.

But the holiday glitter didn’t make the celebration in the foreign land any warmer, nor as festive as it is in the Philippines, added Infiesto, whose parents are in Surigao City.

“People here are limited to sharing the holidays with others in their flat or villa.  Most of us have no neighbors nor families with us,” the overseas Filipino worker (OFW)  said,  adding that unlike in the Philippines where Christmas starts as early as September, in the UAE, there is no discernible “happy spirit” even days before the actual event.

There is no 4 a.m. “simbang gabi” (dawn Masses), which are instead celebrated at 8 p.m.

But the churches are always full because each of the seven emirates has only one Catholic Church, Infiesto said.

“Catholics make up only about 10 percent of the entire UAE, so Christmas isn’t celebrated the way we do back home. No fireworks, no caroling, no torotot (horns). Christmas at UAE is celebrated quietly at home during noche buena,” he said.

Lucky for him, he shares his home with two sisters and several cousins, Infiesto said.  He also had 10 high school classmates who used to live and work in the same city and often joined their celebration.

To make sure they’d still be part of the family’s Christmas celebration,  Infiesto said they’d be online by 8 p.m. on Christmas eve to wish their loved one “Merry Christmas.”   The Philippines is 4 hours ahead of UAE.

But  Christmas is definitely more fun in the Philippines, said this OFW. “We Filipinos have our own unique ways of turning our sorrows to joy, and Christmas is a great occasion for Filipinos to unleash that (gift),” he added.

Teacher in China

In China, OFW Ronald Igar, 34, learned that the best way to cope with homesickness during Christmas away from the family to is fly back home.

Igar left Davao City in August 2009 to work as a teacher in Shanghai, China.

That same year, the family learned that their matriarch, Solina, had multiple myeloma, which causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow and overwhelm the body’s healthy blood cells.

Solina was admitted to the intensive care unit a month before Christmas, so Igar went home to be with her.  But he just had started his contract in Shanghai and had to go back to work posthaste.

“It was definitely difficult to celebrate the happiest time of the year when you are still coming to terms with your Mama having cancer. I was financially depleted during that time because I had to pay the hospital bills. I couldn’t even buy anything for myself for Christmas that year,” he recalled.

In 2010, Igar surprised his mother and other family members when he came home for Christmas. His mother, who was still bravely fighting cancer, shed happy tears as she spent Christmas with her second child.

WRAPPED / NOVEMBER 2, 2015
Departing OFW’s with their wrapped baggage wait in line to check in at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal 1 on Monday, November 2, 2015.
INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

In September 2011, Solina passed away. She was only 59.

“(Christmas) was never the same after that,” Igar said.  “(Mama used to) prepare the holiday food. She would always remind us to go to church before Christmas and on Christmas Day. She would wake us up before midnight for the noche buena. All the big and small things my Mama did were gone forever,” he added.

Since then, Igar made it a point to be home every Christmas to spend time with his three siblings and extended family members.  The family would try to recreate the feast their mother used to prepare: fruit salad, pansit bam-i, humba, spaghetti, and chicken curry.

It was fortunate that the school administration of the Shanghai college he works for had changed its leave policy to enable the school staff and students to go on vacation on Christmas week, quite rare in a country where most companies do not consider Christmas a holiday.  In China, the main holiday celebration is done on Chinese New Year.