Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Balikbayan box

Do you know what one of those is?  I didn't either.

As per Wikipedia:

"A balikbayan box (literally "repatriate box") is a corrugated box containing items sent by overseas Filipinos (known as "balikbayan's"). Though often shipped by freight forwarders specializing in balikbayan boxes by sea, such boxes can be brought by Filipinos returning to the Philippines by air."



As per this image this is what could be inside of one:

I was reading an article in our newspaper about how there is a new school curriculum that engages Filipiono-Canadian students with lessons on immigrant life and culture.  They watched a documentary by Alex Humilde entitled "Balikbayans."  I tried to find information on this documentary but came up empty handed.

I know many immigrants send money back to their home countries to support relatives, but didn't realize there were businesses set up especially for sending boxes back.

When we first came to Canada we used to send gifts via mail for all special occasions.  However due to the rising price of shipping I don't do that very often now, I tend to order online and ship directly from the UK.  However I did send a package over to my mother last Wednesday and she got it in Britain on Saturday morning.  Fast or what!

So this was my new thing I learned about on Monday.  Always good to start your week off by learning something new, right?

3 comments:

William Kendall said...

I had never heard the term before.

50 and counting said...

The hospital I work in is awash in posters from the shipping companies. There are also companies that send "barrels" to the Caribbean.

Some of the staff from the Phillipines at work put far too much in those barrels. They need to look good back home. We have one nurse that tells everyone she will take all the gwp from make up companies that we don't want for her boxes! Factor in the shipping costs, I really don't know why they just don't transfer the cash. But it's about prestige items, one guy told me. The family can sell them on.

Jackie said...

Never heard of that before. It sure is nice to learn something new. Thank you.

God bless.

Hotel Stay - Dinner

As part of our hotel stay the kids had booked us dinner, breakfast and afternoon tea. Here is what we ate at dinner.  Everything was spot on...