It’s OK to clap when the plane lands

Didi Paterno-Magpali

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It’s OK to clap when the plane lands
There's nothing wrong when someone claps or even cheers when the plane screeches, shakes, creaks and finally stops to complete the landing

I didn’t think that riding an airplane was such a privilege. Since I did travel quite often – whether for business or for pleasure – experiencing plane landings were as normal as my favorite bus line stopping in the middle of Ortigas Avenue Extension for me to get off.

I used to roll my eyes and scoff at my kababayan, who would clap and cheer as the plane landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I thought “How OA (Overacting)! What was the fuss all about? It’s just a plane landing. Duh.”

But I eventually began to understand.

Because there are thousands like me… No, let me correct that. There are millions of other overseas Filipinos workers and migrants who clap and even cheer when the captain announces that the plane is approaching the Manila airport. The decibel levels of glee increase by a hundred fold, especially when the plane screeches, shakes, creaks and finally stops to complete the landing.

I’m sure that they also restrain themselves from giving a standing ovation, averting a possibly disastrous reprimand from the seatbelt tyrants.

OK TO CLAP. The author defends passengers who clap when the plane lands.  AFP photo

Like them, I have left the comforts of my country, my home, to join my husband, start our life together and pursue greener pastures to help provide a better future for ourselves and our families back home.

And because the Philippines is 8,316 miles across the Pacific Ocean from my current home in Dallas-Fort Worth, USA, these airplane fares do not come cheap. At best, a roudtrip plane ticket back home would cost $1,000 per person, but, at peak travel season, during the Christmas holidays, when all Filipinos – from far and wide – must gather around the noche buena table, plane ticket costs shoot up to $2,500 per person. And I don’t know about you, maybe you are rolling in the dough or are pretty liberal about spending money, but to me that is a LOT of money.

Though there are days when family and friends beckon me and my husband to come home for a visit, I cannot. We have to consider the first world cost of living, adjusting to the 4 seasons (which we have never prepared for), the work situation, which still does not include paid time off (i.e. paid vacation leaves), plus the state of our financial goals: paying off our real estate investment and building our savings. The homecoming to the Philippines is still indefinite. The last time I was home was in October 2012.

Do I miss home?

I indulge in one out of the 365 days of the year to give myself a good cry because I do miss my family and friends back home. But for the rest of the year, I stay strong. I smile, count my blessings, work hard to make my current location a home and remember the very reason why I am abroad in the first place: my husband. I am more than blessed, privileged, to be with him in the same place, at the same time.

But not all Filipino expats are as blessed as I am. Watch this video: 

You may say that this video is a product of carefully crafted evil marketing people, who just want to sell more soda to the world. I won’t deny that it is. BUT these stories are true.

What we give up

One story close to home, apart from mine, is my mama’s. She left us: my father and 6 children, including my then 4-year old, 8-year old and 11-year old sisters, to take care of someone else’s children. She missed my youngest sister’s first day in the big school and other milestones because she was away. She was even lucky to have been away only for 6 months at a time, while others are away for years, or, at worst, decades or even worse than that, a lifetime.

There are parents who have not gotten the chance to see their children grow up. There are children, whose roles have topsy-turvied, who have left to provide for their parents, siblings and even extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Okay, sometimes even the entire barrio. All in the name of providing them with a better life: ample food on the table, clothes on their backs, a house they can call their own, better education in private schools, eliminated debt that has haunted their family for years and maybe small luxuries here and there – a television set, a DVD player, a videoke machine, a mobile phone, a tablet or a computer.

While families back home enjoy all these life upgrades, they almost are oblivious to the challenges we face being aliens with only a piece of paper as proof that we belong… or, for some, even risking having nothing to show at all. I spent moments, shaking to the core, inside my former employer’s kitchen pantry to hide from visiting labor authorities because I was legally not allowed to work.

We Filipino expats work so hard to assimilate into the local scene of the countries, where our fates are shaped, where we earn our keep, which is often, if not always, sent back home. At times, we do this not leaving anything for ourselves, not leaving anything for travels around the world. Despite that, some have been mocked, called “brown monkeys” or, worse, even tortured.

This is the price we pay for leaving our home country.

Though these people may not have been as well-travelled as I am, I know and believe they have travelled much in life, sacrificing their own well-being to nurse the sick back to health, to care for the elderly, to serve at restaurants, to pamper others in hotels, to cook food, to make sure people have the best mobile phone service, to babysit or teach other people’s children, to help drive others’ businesses, and more. They do this to provide better opportunities for their families back home.

They clap because they are unbelievably happy to be home – safe and sound and, more importantly, not dead. They clap because they finally get the chance to kiss their wives, to hug their parents and grandparents, to hold their children close, and to actually see the fruits of their labor.

So to my kababayan, my fellow OFWs, clap and cheer away as the plane lands…as loud as you possibly can. – Rappler.com

Didi Paterno-Magpali is an OFW, writer and blogger. In 2011, she left the Philippines, her family, her friends, and her advertising career for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the name of love. She currently resides in the US with her husband, taking care of domestic matters, loving her time in the kitchen and writing about her bite-sized expat stories and food adventures on D for Delicious.

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