DUBAI: If you are into the arts and culture or engaged in some hobbies, you may want to check out the Philippine Consulate General where proponents of various related activities converge.
Just recently Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes held an afternoon of get-together with the artistically inclined Filipinos – singers, poets, painters in what has been the first such gathering of its kind dubbed, “Salu-Salo.”
“Naging malalim ang usapan at malawak ang diskusyon dahil lahat ay di nag atabuling ilapat at ihayag ang kani kanilang kuro kuro kung paano natin isusulong ang kulturang Pilipino,” said Cortes.
The consulate also regularly holds cultural activities among them a stage act entitled “Lamentasyon,” the story of four OFW mothers who found themselves sharing individual stories of the daily grind.
There also are hobbyists who have taken up what they have left off back home like photography because back home, it would probably take a lifetime to save enough for a decent camera; which is why getting one while working abroad tops the list of most overseas Filipinos.
Photography clubs, too is where one could chance upon old acquaintances or someone who hails from the same province, in this case Tawpee Comeso and Mark Anthony Agtay, two Batanguenos who bumped across each other during a workshop organized by the
photography group they were both members of.
“It feels like home… knowing na may kababayan ka,” said Tawpee Comeso of Nasugbu, a photographer at the Dept. Of Urban Planning and Municipality in Abu Dhabi.
“Masaya at may kaugali kang Batangenio,” said Mark Anthony Agtay of Taysan.
Salvador Codo, who heads a Dubai-based photography club, said the hobby provides refuge for homesick OFWs. “Napakalaking tulong para malibang o mawala ang lungkot dahil kapag merong mga community events, madami kang makakasalamuha, makakakwentuhan na mga kababayan natin, habang kumukuha ng litrato,” he said.
