THERE's a joke among us Filipinos in Jeddah that Al-Al-Balad, the commercial center on the southern side of the city, belongs to us as the neighboring Sharafiya district is to the Indians. Sa inyo ang Sarafiya, amin ang Al-Balad. The joke was inspired by the Filipino movie “Sa Iyo ang Cavite, Akin ang Tondo” (Take Cavite, Tondo is Mine). I haven't seen the movie but as the title suggests, I can guess that it's about crime and turf war. The joke about Al-Balad has nothing to do with crime and turf war. Some of our kababayans have coined it because Al-Balad has become a favorite hangout of many Filipinos to meet friends or just hang around watching people go by, as Sharafiya has been the favorite haunt of the Indians. Within the Kingdom and outside Jeddah, Al-Balad has its counterparts – Batha in Riyadh and Al-Shoula in Al-Khobar. These places teem with Filipinos, especially on Fridays. In central Jeddah, the Sarawat Supermarket, a favorite shopping center of the Filipinos who find Al-Balad quite far and where a Jolibee outlet is located, serves as a hangout mostly for the Muslim Filipinos from Mindanao. I find Al-Balad to be a stark reminder of how far we – overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) – have gone to give our families the good life, so to speak, after our economy back home faltered, thanks to the large-scale corruption among our politicians and their minions in government. Until the late 1960s, the mass migration of Filipino workers to foreign lands by hundreds of thousands was not heard of. Migration before those years was a matter of choice and not a compulsive act of sacrifice for the family's survival. I will not pick a debate on whether mass migration to other countries has done us good or harm. There are success stories among those who left for greener pastures in foreign lands as there are stories of failures like families breaking up or an OFW's children going wayward for lack of parental guidance. But there is one thing I am sure of – our migration has left a rich legacy for us and the countries where we have worked. In the Kingdom, for instance, many Saudis as well as other nationals have learned to speak the Filipino language, which is Tagalog, of course. It has become common to hear people of other races call us “pare” (pal) or a storekeeper tells us that his wares are “mura” or cheap and then pokes fun - “kuripot ka, Ilocano ka siguro” (“you're stingy, you might be an Ilocano”) – when you try to strike a bargain. In key trading centers in the Kingdom where there are concentrations of Filipino expatriates, Filipino products are on the shelves of supermarkets or even in the ‘baqalas' or small neighborhood stores. In turn, we have picked up at least a few Arabic words – not to mention those who have learned to speak the language fluently – and have learned to like a recipe or two of Arabic food. __
