The Balikbayan Box is already a symbol for the hard work of many Pilipinos working abroad or outside the Philippines just to earn a decent income for their families in the Philippines. It is a package box filled with variety of stuffs from garments to household needs to personal stuffs like soaps, shampoos and towels, wrapped and compressed into a one large box, either sent prior to the homecoming of a Pilipino worker outside the Philippines to their respective families in the Philippines or it is together with the cargo of a Pilipino worker when he comes home as a “pasalubong” (a present or gift) which signifies his or her hard work outside the Philippines.
The word Balikbayan is equivalent to the English words “back home”, thus a Balikbayan box represents a present to their respective families in the Philippines when they come back home.However, not all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are fortunate to send or to bring a Balikbayan box when they got home in the Philippines because some experience maltreatment and abuses from their foreign employers and the worse sometimes some Overseas Filipino Workers end up being jailed abroad or even killed unjustly, which brings greater bitterness, tears, and sorrows to their respective families in the Philippines rather than a Balikbayan box that brings smile and joy.
The desire to find a better pasture outside the Philippines results into finding hungry wolves that devours joy and Hope. Only few Pilipinos outside the Philippines are fortunate to found a greener pasture or a Balikbayan Box that they could send or bring home to their loves ones in the Philippines.
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