Special Feature

Valuable Insight from Balikbayan

Joy Lee Malapad was 28 years old when she left her family to travel to Australia in search of a better way of life. After four years she returned to her native Pook to visit her aging parents and re- establish a connection with her siblings and her sibling’s children.

She had always been quite timid as I recall from the early days. I was enthusiastic to meet her again, and despite her busy schedule due to a limited stay, she gave me the opportunity to ask her views and opinions, and about the different way of the life in Australia and Kalibo.

Asked why she decided to go to Australia, her reply was, “The usual – for security and financial reasons.” Asked whether it was worth her while to go out there and leave her family behind she replied that from the beginning she missed her family tremendously, but that she was then living with her aunt so the homesickness was lessened to some degree.

Although a Computer Science graduate of Garcia College in Kalibo, during her first year in Australia she was frustrated by the fact that her four years spent studying in Kalibo were useless since she could not apply her skills to the job that she was doing then. She then studied Pathology in Australia for two years, and is currently working as a Pathologist in Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. She enjoys her current job very much.

After working an eight hour day for five days a week at the hospital, she then proceeds to work at her part time job in Barista making coffee. Her hobbies are going to the movies and reading fictional novels and adventure books, but she also loves to read books about private investigations.

Her dreams are numerous, but her innermost wish is to encourage her parents to visit her in Australia to enable them to see what a success she has made of her life over there.

Here in Kalibo people sometimes annoy her, especially the ones that are working in the customer service area. She explained that many need further training in order to educate them about how to deal with customers, and teach them how to be less arrogant.

“Most of the people I have encountered in this area have attitude problems, especially the ones that are working in shops”, she said. “When you ask them questions, they frequently look at you and either they do not reply, or else they simply give you a yes or no reply, offering no other option or explanation. They must learn to organize too, especially those employees at one of the big supermarkets in town. I do not blame the workers for their ignorant behaviour but rather I blame the management for failing to provide their employees adequate training in courtesy and respect.”

She also told me that other things in need of improvement in the town are traffic congestion and tourism.” This is such a small town and yet the traffic is atrocious,” she said, and then went on to say that a successful tourism industry cannot be achieved unless the people in charge improve their outlook on life and undergo a radical change in attitude, especially those who work in an official capacity.

Joy is happy to be back to be with her parents once more. It has been four years now that she has been away but nothing much has changed around Kalibo. She summed things up by saying “If we want change to happen around us, then we have to change our own attitude first.”/TE