Account of Lucy Bagunu: Story of a live-in caregiver

Account of Lucy Bagunu: Story of a live-in caregiver

By Lucy Bagunu

(Delivered at the SIKLAB Conference of migrant workers in Canada, “Mura Na, Pang-Export Pa!” held Oct. 22-23, 2005 in Toronto.)

I am Lucy Bagunu from Isabela , Philippines, a mother of 3, ages 19, 8, and 4 years old. I am the youngest in the family, I have four brothers and a sister. They are the ones who helped me take care of my children in the Philippines while my husband and myself were working overseas. I want to share how difficult it was for me not to be close to my children while they were growing. After a long absence toiling abroad and suffering so many hardships there was no love I felt from them, and my kids have become materialistic.

Well, the reason why I’m here with you is to share with each and everyone how to tackle our problems in times of difficulty and happiness in our daily undertakings. Actually, I’ve tried not to think again and again about my past experiences especially the sad memories of working abroad but this is also one way that keeps me going or a means of helping me heal the pain I’ve encountered in my life and those people who are in pain right now- huwag silang mawawalan ng pag-asa sa buhay. Face it and you can deal with it with courage and strong determination.

Here is my story. From the year 1982 to 1985 I was working at a government institution – a reforestation project in my hometown. I was doing the research work and was satisfied though hindi mataas ang suweldo but then, my family was intact. Kahit paano nabuhay naman at least we can survive in a normal way. But then, one day I received a letter from my kapitabahay who was working at that time in Bahrain where she encountered an Iranian who had a shop and that they wanted to hire someone from the Philippines. So she recommended me and I accepted the offer.

I worked for over two years in Bahrain from 1985 to 1988. My first employer was an Iranian. I worked for only three months with this employer because he treated me badly. He was an old man who, at one time, was nude when he asked me for a cup of tea one afternoon. I just ignored his nudity as if I was looking at a statue tucked in the corner of the wall. He offered me marriage and be his wife and he said money would be sent to my family in the Philippines as payment if I agreed with it. I was overwhelmed and I started to be afraid everytime I was facing him. One night, he started knocking at my door but I was not stupid to open it. He tried to open the door with his key so I quickly pushed my bed to the door to block it.

The next day I was punished for this. During the daytime when I was hanging clothes outside the house, I found out that I could not go back to continue my work because I was locked out the entire afternoon. Ang tindi ng init ng araw ay tiniis ko at nakakasukang manyakis when within three months he did not give me my salary and my incoming letters.

Those days of punishment and sacrifices ended when I was lucky to meet a lady married to Bahraini named Senense who had a tailoring shop. We used to see each other every time when I buy cubos (chapati) before dinner time. Being a first timer abroad marami ka pang dapat matutunan. So at the time of my punishment they would throw a stone with a paper note around it on top of the roof of my employer’s house to help me escape from the house and to set the time and place to meet them and what to do.

Lumakas ang loob ko because of their help, I was able to escape without carrying anything but just the clothes I wore and no money at all.

During this time , I saw my employer at the agency who transferred me to the head of state- Royal Highness Yussif Rahman Aldosorie where I worked for two years. In those years, I was surrounded by people with different nationalities. I was beginning to regain my strength to face my circumstances and the reality of living abroad.

Imagine, I was just 24 years old at the time and miles away from my loved ones. I started to understand the love and care of my family, and all my mistakes I made towards them. Because when I was a kid I was a bit of a spoiled brat. I was hurting my parents through my stubborn behaviour. When I came home for good there were a lot of changes. I came to love and respect my family for the rest of my life.

Sa awa ng Diyos naman , back to work na naman ako but this time in Batangas City similar to my work in the 1982. This time the company that I worked for was owned by Philippine Coconut Authority. I worked there for just over six months and I found another job to work for. It was the Philtrade Company based in Pasay City and I worked as secretary.

Again in 1990 I was surprised by my colleague who visited me at home. She said that she has been working in Hongkong for quite a while and she encouraged me again to work abroad and, through her help, she found one for me. So I started working in Hongkong in November 1990 until 2003 with employers from different nationalities.

Luckily, all my employers treated me well with relatively good salary so I enjoyed my stay there for a decade. My two kids were born in Hongkong. Since I was getting old , my husband and I decided for me to go back for good. But again and suddenly, opportunity knocked on me when my husband’s employer offered me a job here in Canada as live-in caregiver.

Tinanggihan ko dahil I wanted to live peacefully and live a normal life with my children around me to take care of them personally. Pero ang amo ng asawa ko makulit din.

In short, I accepted and my husband dealt with them about the law in Canada. Ang sabi nila walang problema mas mataas pa raw ang magiging sweldo ko dito sa Canada. And they offered to shoulder all the expenses.

When they’ve learned I got my multiple visa they asked me to meet them first before going to work in Canada. I met them in their Hongkong residence and, to my surprise, they would not shoulder my air ticket. I was angry with them maysadong kuripot pero wala na akong magagawa as I already lost my working permit in Hongkong because the Canadian embassy there would approve your visa only after you give up your present job.

Anyway, they were a rich Chinese family and this was my first time working for a Chinese family so malaking pag-adjust ko ng nagawa ko compare sa naging karanasan ko sa naging employer ko sa Hongkong. Maraming bawal at maraming taong dapat kong pakisamahan at pagsilbihan. Because of these working condition fighting began between me and my husband. Sinisi ko siya sa kalagayan ko. In 25 months of working there, dugo at pawis ang puhunan ko. I have worked long hours from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 midnight normal six days a week. But malimit kaming magkakabisita where I would end up working till 3:00 a.m. Kaya thanks God sa Tylenol, iyan ang panlaban ko pag iba na ang pakiramdam ko. I served two families and extended grandparents. Plus on the day of my time off on Sundays, I had to tidy up their mess first before I left their house.

During the weekends there are lots of students who are friends of their children. They would watch movies in the family theatre room, some playing at the station, playing band music, swimming , video games and films until early in the morning. It was so noisy and they don’t even bother to knock at your door if they asked for something. This pissed me off because my room was in the basement and they are roaming around the entire basement.

The house was so big with 11 bathrooms, seven bedrooms and other different entertainment rooms. My working activities included cleaning five expensive cars like van size, I did the power washing outside the house once a month. During summer almost everyday, except on rainy days, I swept the dried leaves outside the house. I put water in the front and the back fountain in summer time and applied chlorine once a week. I watered the flowers in the pots outside the house. I served the child-ren different breakfasts and cooked their packed lunch for school. They were all lazy as they could not even manage to get water for themselves.

My salary was only a measly $806.04 a month for six days a week of work and long hours of overtime as I mentioned earlier.

Yes, food was not a problem. You could eat as much as you can but my body was already beginning to give up. I fed myself fully to replenish the tiredness of long hours of working including full time nanny work to a two- and-a-half year old daughter who had so called High Active Syndrome. You can imagine how difficult it was to look after a kid that age.

After all the hardships, I finally finished the 24 months mandatory requirement as a live-in caregiver. I’ve no regrets leaving them because when my mother passed away I did not feel their sympathy and I got no financial help from them. They treated me like a machine. I went home to attend my mother’s funeral and when I came back they said that my bereavement leave was my annual holiday. I was stuck with them for 25 months at parati nilang sinusumbat pag magreklamo ako that I was here in Canada because waiting for another working permit takes quite a while and I needed the money for my children’s school fees and necessities.

I came to know SIKLAB after I met some members who were doing outreach in the downtown core selling fundraising tickets. I had been in Canada for two months when I got involved with El Shaddai. I attended the cultural show of SIKLAB and I was truly impressed with the presentation and the outcome of the show. A member of SILAB asked me if I was interested in joining them. I immediately said yes, and then signed up for membership after a week and I committed myself to be part of this volunteer program.

I learned lots of things such as knowing my rights while working in Canada and also basic computer skills. SIKLAB facilitators sharing their experiences make us become aware of our rights, and taught and educated us as newcomers on how to bring back one’s self-esteem, how to struggle to fight depression when I lost my beloved mother. All SIKLAB members gave me strength to tackle the problems I was facing in my day-to-day life.

I found out there are no bosses or superior at the Kalayaan Centre and I was able to share experiences good or bad. I can also feel the love and compassion of one another. Of course there is Glecy that I can turn to and even lawyers asked for her opinion. I recall the times when I had arguments with my husband because I was too tired and exhausted and I always blamed my husband for my working conditions. But I realized that the more I talked to Glecy or during SIKLAB meetings, I came to realize that I’m not supposed to blame my husband and came to understand. Now I realize that the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Canadian immigration policy are partly responsible for all of these problems happening within my community or fellow nannies.

I am proud to be a part of this organization and SIKLAB for me is a family away from home .
When I sponsored my family months ago. I ended up spending $4,000 in preparing the papers for my family. This did not include their medical exam and plane tickets which would be in the thousands of dollars.

Now, I don’t know when Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will approve my application for landed immigrant, but until now I’m still working as live-in caregiver, even though I finished the 24 months already. I have no choice because of my status. I support the campaign calling for the scrapping of the Live-in Caregiver Program ( LCP). Thank you.