||Filipinos playing volleyball in south Tel Aviv in March. Photo by Daniel Bar-On||
Andrew Esensten: In contrast to the Eritrean soccer league, the Filipino volleyball league is much more formal, with coaches, managers and team uniforms. This summer, eight women’s teams and four men’s teams are competing in a tournament organized under the auspices of the Federation of Filipino Communities in Israel, whose mission is to nurture ties among the 30,000 Filipino migrant workers in Israel.
The majority of the migrants work as live-in caregivers and receive just 24 hours off each week, which makes leisure time that much more precious. It also makes scheduling games and practices at several courts around the city a bit tricky.
“We have 13 people on the team because sometimes we don’t know if someone’s not going to be available,” says Gina Cayubit, captain of the Candelarians women’s team. “Of course, the priority is our job.”
Like many of her teammates, Cayubit left family behind in the Philippines when she moved to Israel. She says she stays in touch with her four children “by Skype, Facebook, Yahoo, Viber, every communication that I can use.” Yet even with the help of modern technology, Filipino caregivers still suffer from homesickness and boredom, according to Philippines Ambassador to Israel Generoso D.G. Calonge.
“I’ve noticed that there has been a slowly creeping number of individuals who are depressed because they spend six days within four walls,” Calonge says, adding that sports “give them some joy in their lives, at least for the moment.”
After a Saturday evening practice in Hayarkon Park, players from the Tarlakenyos women’s team gave several reasons for joining the team: They get to see their friends and gossip in their native Tagalog, they develop their volleyball skills, they raise money for causes back in the Philippines and they get much-needed exercise.
“We play not for others, we play for ourselves,” says team member Rhean Umali, 32, who started playing volleyball in the Philippines at age 14. “It allows us to express ourselves, inside and out.”
