‘The Hopefuls’

At this time and till the next couple of months, many young people (and some ‘mature’ folks who willed to finish the dream, too) will be cheering after successfully hurdling the challenges of finishing a course, high school, and elementary school. The number of cheerers may double or triple as the graduation occasion is inherently a family affair in the Filipino household.
For us Pinoys, getting that diploma becomes our vehicle to our dreams for a better life (i.e. kumita ng maayus- ayos to be able to buy ourselves our own home, car, send family to school, etc).
I am today reminded of a dear niece who had that dream and is achieving it in Red Deer, Alberta.
Dina is Ilocana from Sinait, Ilocos Sur, daughter of my eldest first cousin Estong who worked in the munisipyo for years. I remember her making ‘salta’ in our home in Cubao some twenty years ago as a very young woman who finished a course in Criminology back in her hometown- she said she wanted to be a policewoman. Full of dreams, she prepared her curriculum vitae and armed with this, scoured the city for possible jobs that may make use of what she learned in school. A couple of months of looking and she realized that she might as well try other opportunities-her scant budget from her lowly- paid father was running out , most of these spent for jeepneys and busses boarded as she went job- hunting(she didn’t have problems with board and lodging as she had these for free in our home).
My hardy relative took on sales jobs- one day, we saw her plying some promo detergents in the neighborhood…the next month, mga kaldero naman were what she was lugging in a big bag…selling these to bahay- bahays. Always wearing that big smile, Dina went through all these, a testimony to the dignity of labor, patience and perseverance.
…Till one day, she announced that she was going back to Sinait to be in school again. I think she said she has earned some amount and this she will use to go to nursing school.
Some years…
Then she reappeared in the house in Cubao. Aba, she has become a private nurse to one of the senior family members of the Run Run Shaw family of film production fame in Hongkong na!
…A few years came and went till we got news that Dina was in Canada. This she confirmed when she went balikbayan the first time. She visited us and she told us of her new life as a nanny and househelp to the family of an Indian- Canadian immigrant. ‘Naku,” she related, ‘hirap umalis from Hongkong!’ She became such friends with her boss that he refused to approve her letters of resignation (to try new and greener pastures, she says) until Dina sent for elder sis Alma to take over her job. ‘Pumayag na rin ang matanda kong pasyente.’
Many were the things Dina had to give up to be able to find that better life- being away from her most loved mother ( she who was sickly and with a weak heart) and the father she adored and Sinait, the place of her youth. But move on she did to find solutions that would help the whole family reach a life with more meaning and quality. Foremost of this was the commitment to send the younger siblings to school.
In Canada she said, her sipag, tyaga ang loquaciousness were taking her closer to her dreams- seems that her boss was connected with an immigration office and was teaching her how to go about the legal procedures for resettling in that country. She said she doubled her sipag in her boss’s home (‘wen, auntie, nagpintura din ako ng bahay nya, ako naglinis, nagtapon ng basura, nagluto, at kung anu ano pa’) in return for his and his family’s kindness to her and her friend, Santy (from Pangasinan naman) who also worked in the household.
More years, some communication, and then an overseas call from Dina. She and special friend, now partner in life, Santy are now in Red Deer. Canadians na sila!!!They have also put up a small agency that provides care services to seniors, the sick and babies whose parents are out at work the whole day. Dina, in addition, holds a second job- this she does to be able to send some more Canadian dollars to brothers and nieces and nephews still in school in the Philippines.
She and Santy now in their late 40s are making it- and am happy to note that Dina has not changed a bit from that young Ilocano hopeful that I first knew many years ago…a champion talkathoner, very warm and caring, and raring for more action that could take her to the heights of her ambition. She has made her dreams bigger- this time, she said, she wishes to lend a hand to those who, like her, dreamed of better things. Santy (Arciaga) naman has also become as close to me. Though I have met her just once here in Manila, we shared a mutual liking to each other and she has repeatedly invited me to visit their home in Red Deer. One of these days I will.
Recently, the local government has approved their office’s request to import care services personnel to meet the growing demand that the agency provides to the Red Deer community. . This business move of importing qualified personnel to take on the responsibility of caring for people at Red Deer was acknowledged as a good and acceptable proposition by the local administration authorities, hence its approval for their company, D’Sant Direct Care Services proceed with the process.
She is now looking from among Pinoys and Pinoys in the Philippines which will compose the first batch of hopefuls to be taken in by Canada as workers for the agency that she and Santy established.
I am aware that many of you reading this column are still on your way to finally fulfilling your dreams in Canada- Baka naman it will take a long time to realize this. Kasi naman, as you go up the ladder of success, somehow, you get the tendency to add more things to achieve.
But for now, my niece Dina and now- adopted relative Santy (she has adopted me as auntie) are just so fulfilled in knowing that they can give back something to people from their roots while nurturing an enterprise that they are building from their sweat and tears.
THANK YOU PO, TORONTO!