Translated…
A member of the migrant workers who is a part of the sponsors of the gathering told me, because this is the hot spot, since five or six in the morning, they’d already come here, to get a spot, and the night before, everybody cooked their own separate Filipino specialty items, to bring to share with everybody else.
At the end of every single year, because of the two major holidays, Christmas and New Year’s, it’s usually a time, to gather with friends and families, to dine together, to hang out with each other, a time, to be shared with loved ones, for those who live here, as well as those who’d come here to work too.
picture from the papers…
The foreigners—the migrant workers from Southeast Asia would do the same. Especially for the Filipino workers, nurses’ aides who are Catholics, they would work hard, to take their miniscule number of days of vacation around this time, to celebrate Christmas, and, they would gather together with their parted friends whom they’d not gotten the time to hang out with, to treat themselves to something special.
The Year-End Gathering at the Flower Expo
At the end of 2015, I was invited to two separate such gatherings, and all the gatherings are of the same concepts, gathering together, music, dancing, and eating great foods, and yet, the gathering that’d left a deep impression with me was the happening at the Floral Expo Park in Zhongshan District, Taipei.
As everybody knows, the church with the migrant worker community on Zhongshan N. Road was way too small for the gathering, so, the workers started moving their gatherings to the Floral Expo Park, and the Floral Expo Park offered these migrant workers three benefits: first, it had umbrellas to shelter people from the rain, and the umbrellas are great, for blocking out the scorching sun too. Secondly, the space is huge, with public restrooms, great for group activities. Thirdly, the space is free of charge, the people who’d gathered here wouldn’t have to pay anything, after all, money IS precious, for these, migrant workers.
And, by the words of mouth, the popularity of the Floral Expo was on the rise, just like how the Filipino Presidential candidate, Rodrigo Duterte, when he’d visited here on January 10th, he’d paid the Floral Expo a visit himself too, to tell his people, to head home on election day, to vote for him.
On the morning of the 27th, there’s a slight drizzle, I’d gone, alone, to the Floral Expo, and, as I arrived, I’d found, that there wasn’t just the organization that invited me there, there were, also, seven, to eight total Filipino organizations, close to two hundred members, cramping the place up. But, they’re not there, to have a huge party together, instead, they’d, separated into cliques, to host their own separate celebrations; but, among the different groups, there were those who knew one another, and, as I’d watched the people interact, I’d found, that every now and then, there would be members of two different groups who’d recognized one another, they’d screamed aloud, upon recognizing one another, then, they’d, hugged each other, and, I could tell, that it’s a, very rare occasion every single year, that the two women got to meet up.
The group that invited me along was a Filipino martial arts group, with the various ages of the members, of both genders too. They are, all students of a Filipino martial arts coach, Fray (and, I’d needed a brand new article if I wanted to tell you all his story), and so, on that day, for the group photo, the Filipino migrant workers all posed in martial arts fighting poses, even an aunt of over fifty had carried herself extremely well too, it was, fun to watch. A migrant worker who’s with the sponsors told me, that because of how hot this spot was, they’d arrived at five, six in the morning, to get the spot, and that on the previous evening, they’d gotten together, to make the Filipino specialty foods too, and had, brought the items from their separate households on the morning. I got to the scene by ten that morn, and already saw the Filipino dishes being put on already. The drinks, as well as the gifts for exchange were, all set up too, and, from this you could see, how time-efficient and cost-effective the Filipinos’ ways of setting up these kinds of functions are.
Especially Missing the Families Around the Holiday Season
Waited until the leader, Coach Fray and his wife had arrived, the little over twenty members of this small community of Filipinos lead the prayers before the meals, then, food was served. And, because of how low the outside temperature got, the food was already getting colder half an hour after being put out, but the Filipino migrant workers didn’t mind at all, they’d still, hollered out at their friends, gotten into, a very celebratory mood, which had caused, many of the Taiwanese people to roll their eyes at them, but they’d not cared at all.
After everybody was full, the Filipino migrant workers had, prepared a series of games to play, include a game of charades, to guess a vocabulary word, and the person charading had to first sign that either they’re giving a word in English (E), or Tagalong (T), the language of the Philippines; there was also a game similar to Bo-peep—with the teams of males and females, with a team, playing the music first, and the other start dancing along, and when the music stopped the team on the floor would all stop moving, at this time, the team that’s playing the music must get the team on the floor to move (because you move, you lose!), it was, so very hilarious; there was also, the soda drinking relay, as well as other games to play too. Especially, there is a wide age group at the gathering, people from twenties, to fifties, but the Filipinos wouldn’t care about their external appearances at all, so long as they’re all, having fun.
All good times, must come to an end, as the skies turned darker, all of the groups started, picking up after themselves, readied to leave, and, looking forward to their next get-together.
There’s very little time off for the Southeast Asian migrant workers, the migrant workers who worked in the factories only get four to five days off a month, and the nurses’ aides had even less, just one, to two days off, plus, the places for the gatherings are hard to find. After a lot of the workers met up, they’d not known, when they will see one another again the next time, besides, every one of these workers had, drifted far from home to work here, and on these holidays occasions, their senses of homesick are, exacerbated, the foreigners are connected by the friendships that they have with one another, and so, although they would get very rowdy and raucous when they gathered, but, that sense of loss, that sense of missing home that’s behind it is hard for us to know.
And so, if the next time you’d walked by the Floral Expo Park, and see a gathering of this size, if they’d gotten louder, do have some empathy, because they may have just that ONE opportunity to get together every year.
And so, this, is how you ease your homesickness, when you’re away from home, by being together with those from the same countries as you, and, because there’s this influx of migrant workers, because let’s face it, we’re needing them, so, the migrant workers are making up a large sector of the population right now, and, they would get loud, at gatherings, but, it’s still NOT because they’re INCONSIDERATE of others, it’s just, that it would be a once-in-a-year event, where they’d gotten the chance, to catch up with one another, to have some fun with people they’d shared the same cultures with, so, DO have some heart toward that, and, don’t judge them, for getting TOO L-O-U-D!
Life, the Obstacle Course 