Pinay nurse in England shares her story

Greetings to all online readers! I always make it a point to read GMANews and Kwentong Kapuso every day, after work, and on my days off. The stories inspire me and sometimes depress me. I am a nurse here in England for nearly 5 years now. My husband was fortunately able to come and work here as well. We came here in 2002. Luckily, our batch of nurses who came here was the last one to be able to come here with full sponsorship from our employer. On the day of our arrival at the hospital, where we are contracted to work, gave us a big box of food which was good for a week's consumption and £500 worth of spending money. We were so elated and grateful. But it did not end there. On our first Sunday mass, the community, through the Catholic church, gave us a warm welcome party. The community people wished us a good stay and thanked us for coming to England. After one month the hospital gave us a big night ball party and introduced us to all other employees. I am very thankful that God gave me the opportunity not just to work but live here as well. When I decided to work abroad, I promised to myself that I will not just kill myself at work but I will work, enjoy and live there as well. I first worked as a medical representative for 4 years right after graduating college (because that time, year 1995, there's just no work for nurses). My parents worked hard for my education and I cannot afford to do volunteer jobs anywhere with allowance that can barely reach my pocket or maybe no pocket allowance at all. I had a car and a good salary, but I realized I am making a huge amount of money for the company and the more money I gave them, the more pressure they will give me. So I resigned and applied in our local private hospital to gain enough experience as a nurse so that I can apply abroad. That was the peak of (the recruitment for) nurses for UK and US, year 2000. Ashamed to admit but it’s true. While I was working as a staff nurse, I received less than 4,000 pesos of salary monthly. The discrimination between doctors and nurses were so tight that they acted as if they were gods. Some of my colleagues got shouted and humiliated at publicly by doctors and some rich (they thought they are) relatives of patients. And in the hospital where I used to worked, they charge the patient even for a cotton ball (I think 2 pesos per cotton ball). Working here in a foreign country, I realized the difference not just because it’s a first world country, but nurses here have more independence and are highly respected. They have high regard for Filipino nurses as well. The doctors don’t treat us rubbish. They respect our decisions and we can reason out with our dignity still intact. They said working here in England is difficult because we pay higher taxes but even if I work in the Philippines, we pay taxes and half of it goes to the politicians’ pocket, anyway. Working here, I got the chance to send money to my parents for their monthly allowance. It makes me wonder why the Philippines is still a poor country when we have more and more people working abroad and sending money back. I mean, that’s free money for the government, is it not? Isn’t it that half of the money we send goes to the government, half goes to the politicians’ pocket? I don’t know the answer. I am not an economist, just my theory. Anyway, I said earlier that I am not only working here but enjoying our life here as well. It is because we got the chance to travel and have our vacation abroad every year, sometimes twice a year. We got the chance to choose where we would like to go (as I love traveling, experiencing other culture, other country's food, mingling with different people). We have enough savings. I can buy what I want, eat what I want, go where I want (because when I was still in the Philippines, I have to save my salary for several months before I could afford anything. I still love the Philippines and we go home every two years. I love our 'good' culture (as there are some bad ones), our food, our attitude in life, but I believe when you are living abroad we have to enjoy where we are and what we've got, adapt to our new culture, but keep in mind where you are from, and just enjoy life. When we get tired at work, we keep saying it is still better at home in the Philippines, but we are not there. We are somewhere else. I hope you enjoy my short story. Thank you very much. Pilipina East Grinstead West Sussex, United Kingdom