Tuesday, October 10, 2006 Viray: Sketches of life in America By Atlee Viray In and Out of Court
I HEARD a balikbayan from California boasting in this manner: "If there is a paradise on earth, it must be America. There is plenty of food. Steak is affordable. Fruits like apples and oranges ripen in the trees without pickers. The people are beautiful. The ladies are pretty. The gents are handsome. Every family has a car. Every house has a television set and ref. Their dogs and cats eat better food than most of the Filipinos."
America is a blessed land. Almost all its people are employed. You walk by the department store, almost all of them are hiring new employees.
The US Navy and Army advertise for young people to enlist. Medical and other food outlets offer job opportunities even for senior citizens. If you want to work, there is a job waiting for you. You can eat steak everyday if you want. It is available within the reach of the average wage earner. And it is thick, not the razor thin slice that we know. You can fry it. You can grill it. Wow! It tastes great. You find a variety of fruits in full color and splendor -- red apples, green grapes, yellow papayas, watermelons of all shapes and hues. You name it they have it.
Mangosteens, strawberry, mangoes, almost anything under the sun.
You stroll and meet its people. The waitress is movie star material. The shoeshine girl looks like Dina Bonnevie. The salesgirl is a Blondie, a combination of the looks of Jackie Lou Blanco and the young Pilita Corrales. The garbage collector is a tall hunk of a man -- ala Orlando Bloom.
You visit the houses of our Filipinos who are in the mainstream of the American life. They have more than two television sets. Most likely, the other set is a flat screen type that is as large as a movie screen.
It is tuned in to the Filipino Channel (TFC). Our kababayans earn their daily bread (dollars) at a rate of an average of US$20 per hour.
It's not all roses however. American households do not have what we enjoy - the ever reliable yaya, the domestic servant, the driver and the laundrywoman.
People in the States wash their own dishes. They iron their clothes. They clean their houses. They mow their lawns. They drive their children to school. All by themselves. Walang alalay.
Homesickness is the number one disease. Filipinos in America long for the laidback/lazy pose if you may, a lifestyle that we luxuriously take for granted.
There is a word for it -- compensation. Are you willing to trade your comfort for the American dream? Does the color of green bucks compensate for the loneliness of longing for our beloved Philippines?
There is no place like home.
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