Roselle G.

Malabanan MEC11

Overview of a film

The story is all about the mother who left her son in the Philippines and also a
teacher who relinquished her profession in lieu of caregiving in London, in hopes of
augmenting her salary. Sarah, a grade school English teacher joins the 150,000 Pinoy
OFWs working in the United Kingdom to support her husband, Teddy, in making a
better living for their family. More than just a chronicle of the Filipinos' experience
working as nurses and caregivers in the UK, this story also charts Sarah's journey to
self-discovery from a submissive wife who makes sacrifices to make way for her
Teddy's aspirations to an empowered woman who finds dignity and pride in a humbling
job as a caregiver in London
Reflection

Happiness and sadness, success and failure, are centered on the Filipino Family.
Filipino give so much value to the family that they labor so hard and sacrifice so much if
only to maintain an orderly, peaceful, successful and happy family.

I was raised with a poor family, I grew up with my mother and father are on my side,
but they can’t support all my needs. My father is a jeepney driver and my mother is a
housewife that not able to provide all our needs. The income is not enough for all the
expenses. We’re six siblings included them, we’re eight in the family but due to financial
constraint we just eat twice a day. I’m second to the eldest and our eldest choose to
continue to study in college because it’s my parent's decision. When I was a kid I never
experienced to have new clothes, I just used three notebooks with one set of uniform
when I was elementary and used it until I graduated. I started to work at the age of 16,
I’ll choose to go to Manila to help my parents to save my siblings' studies. I live in
Manila alone and I’ve realized more how hard life is. I’ve encountered a toxic
environment which has a big difference in the province. I’ve met a lot of people and
some of them treat me like a family, but most are not.

I can relate it to my life, even though I don’t have my own child to support, but I treat
my siblings as my own child too, I can do everything for my family. I’ve seen all the
sacrifice of my mother just to raise us. She gave her best and I know that it’s my turn to
return all of these. I want to pursue my studies in college because I’ve experienced how
hard to find a work without a degree, also I don’t want to live my life as how I’m living it
today cause my parents featuring the life without Education. They always remind us that
education is the real key for everything. I’d choose to help them while studying, I applied
full scholarship at DLSU-D and to support my family of all their needs I am working as a
full-time call center agent at the same time. It’s so hard to balance this situation, I just
sleep 4-5 hours daily. It’s not easy to balance school and work but God is giving me
many reasons to go with it. Even though I can’t support myself for all I want, seeing my
family in good condition is a kind of pleasure for me. Like Sarah, she sacrificed for her
family while she’s doing her passion at the same time.