With 11 million Overseas Filipino Workers, representing about 11 percent of the population of the country, various accounts – happy or otherwise – are told to families and friend, especially at this time of the year, when tens and thousands of them come home to spend their holiday with their loved ones.

The following are among the stories shared by StarLife reader Revie Nandan Vaidya, who worked as a domestic helper in Hong Kong and wrote part-time for The SUN, the Filipino newspaper there until she got married to a resident of Mumbai,India, where she now lives.

No Longer Afraid

It's been almost a hide-and-seek life for some time for Vida (not her real name), 32,  a Filipina from La Union, who is now a resident of Mumbai , India . The reason: her visa has expired and she has failed to apply for a residency status.

Vida used to work as a domestic helper in the Middle East . In the household she served, she met her eventual husband who works as a driver in her employer's company. The couple left their employer with her husband deciding to go home to India , his wife traveling on a tourist's.

Despite here seven year's stay in the country, she has not been granted the immigration status that will eventually give her peace of mind. Lately, she has developed the I-don-t-care attitude after moving from place to place, avoiding a brush with immigration personnel. She knows the laws of the country against illegal residents are stringent but “what can I do now if I keep on hiding?” she asks. If they do, she added, then I might go home to my country.

Dowry Demand

Nelia, at 52, was in tears as she recounted her sad experiences in the household of her Indian  husband. She was driven away from their home and worse, she was asked to give dowry before she left. Unlike in the Philippines , where if ever a dowry is given, it should come from the prospective groom, dowry in India is demanded from the woman's family.

Nelia and her husband had good business in Dubai but their promising life took a turn when he suffered from a heart attack. She brought home his cremated remains but when she got there, she was shocked at the treatment of her husban's family. “They packed up my things and almost stripped me of my jewelry  to compensate for the dowry which I could not give,” she said.

Finally, she managed to get a ticket for her hometown in Iloilo .

Mean Mother-in-Law

Myrna, 34, was looking forward to a blissful life until she realized the truth of the saying, “Nasa huli ang pagsisisi.”  She met her boyfriend and eventual husband, Rajed, an Indian national, through the internet, while she was working in Dubai . She though that life with Rajed will be the answer to her longing for a comfortable life. Off she went to Dubai and the two got married.

Her problem started when her mother-in-law started demanding from her to serve her since her husband is the only child and by custom, shehas now the responsibility to serve her, too. The mother-in-law, obviously not liking her, started to be cruel to her and made up stories discrediting her to her husband. Myrna is often in tears not only because of the bad words she gets from her mother-in-law, who also slaps her now and then when she is mad. “All Iwish now is to have money  so I can buy an airplane ticket for home to thePhilippines,” she says.