A few days ago, a visual feast came to an end in the southern Coastal city of Eilat in Southern Israel.
Miss Universe 2021 Pageant.
80 beauty pageants from all over the world gathered in Israel to compete for the title of the 70th Miss Universe contest.
After fierce competition, Hanaz Sandu from India finally won the crown.
Beautiful and generous girls, standing in the center of the stage, enjoy their own cheers and glory.
Such a scene is also destined to become the other shore that countless girls dream of arriving.
And after the lively Miss Universe contest came to an end, her sister also thought of a grand event held in Hong Kong every year -
"Miss Filipino Friendship" beauty contest.
Unlike the global beauty pageant, the size of this match is not large.
The contestants are also special – all are Filipino women working in Hong Kong.
This is the most unmissable event of the year for the 200,000 Filipino maids gathered in Hong Kong.
On weekdays, these girls are scattered around the city, dutifully completing various household chores in their employers' homes.
On this day, they unloaded their identities as Filipino maids and gathered here.
Some people became contestants, while others sat offstage and cheered on the supporting contestants.
The competition has a completely formal format, undergoing fierce competition, and eventually one of the most favored girls will become the champion and receive praise from the audience.
The only regret is that this joy belongs to the limit of the day.
After the midnight bell rings, the girls take off their gorgeous makeup.
Like Cinderella in fairy tales, they return to ordinary life and become maids overwhelmed by complicated household chores.
The mother who was forced to run away
Sarah was one of the contestants in the beauty pageant.
Before taking to the stage, she, like the 200,000 Filipino maids in Hong Kong, was handling various household chores day after day in her employer's home.
If she had the choice, she certainly didn't want to give up her life and leave her hometown to work.
But in order to raise four children, she had to stay here and work hard.
Looking back at her distant childhood, Sarah was also a little girl who grew up in love.
Her father was a soldier and could go home every two months to rest for a few days.
Such a short vacation has also become Sarah's best memory.
She loves to laugh and play with her father and enjoy the fun time she spends with him.
But the days of ease did not last long, after the father retired from the army, the family began to quarrel more and more frequently, the contradictions could not be reconciled, the mother chose to divorce the father.
After that, his father returned to his hometown and soon died of illness.
Sarah, who lost her loved one, grew up overnight, and secretly swore in her heart that the family she would form in the future must be harmonious and happy, and could not let the broken marriage affect the growth of her children.
Unfortunately, it backfired.
At the age of 17, Sarah had her first child.
Because Filipinos generally have traditional ideas, most do not use contraception and do not approve of abortion.
So in this year, Sarah, who had not yet grown up, became a mother.
A dark time unfolded.
In the years that followed, Sarah went into two marriages and gave birth to four children.
Every marriage did not allow her to achieve the happiness she imagined, and in the complicated life, she not only needed to raise her children on her own, but also endured her husband's domestic violence at all times.
The poor life in her hometown and the marriage that could not see the light made her feel hopeless.
In the end, Sarah chose to escape from such a life and go to Hong Kong to work as a Filipino maid.
My aunt, who also works as a Filipino maid in Hong Kong, couldn't help but burst into tears when she greeted Sarah at the airport.
In her heart, this girl who has been clever and clever since childhood should follow her childhood wishes and become a teacher.
But pushed to this point by fate, Sarah has no choice.
When she first arrived in a foreign country, she often shed tears because of the hard work.
But in order to make her children's lives better, she forced herself to grit her teeth and persevere.
Fortunately, the employer here was very kind to her, knowing that she would send all the money she earned home, so he sent her a gift instead of money on her birthday, giving her a chance to be nice to herself.
The most impressive one.
It was her employer who gave Sarah a ticket to the concert of a popular singer, and Sarah was so happy that she was thinking about it even in her sleep.
But when she woke up the next day, Sarah, who had regained her senses, asked her employer for the price of the ticket.
Apparently, exchanging tickets for money was enough for her to pay most of the tuition for her children.
So she gave up her pastimes and instead got a sum of money to supplement her family.
Similar things are numerous in Sarah's filipino career.
Participating in this beauty contest belonging to the Filipino maid under the introduction of a friend can be said to be one of the few things she has done in all these years just for herself.
When she dragged her suitcase to the scene of the competition, the smile on her face was extremely sincere.
Whether she can become the last champion on the stage does not matter to her.
The important thing is that in the moment of standing in the spotlight, she can briefly let go of everything in her life and be a princess in her own world.
Please your own "big girl"
Compared with Sarah, who was guided by fate to today, Roar, who is also a Filipino maid in Hong Kong, chose to live in a more sober way.
As the ninth child in the family, she has been accustomed to a poor life since she was a child, and she has not been able to get a complete education.
After graduating from high school, she began to work around to subsidize her family, relying on her own ability to alleviate the pressure of life.
At the age of 19, she faced the same situation as Sarah, entering into marriage early because she was pregnant.
The husband is not a man who knows how to take care of the family, and he has never gone out to work after marriage, relying only on Roar alone to make money to support the family.
There is no end to the days of poverty, and there are more and more places where money is needed.
Over time, children gradually reach school age, and they can't come up with enough money to pay for school.
Faced with a meager income and an unhelpful husband, Roise finally made up her mind to get out of the bad life here and make a living in the larger world.
At this time, coinciding with the opening of the Philippines and the delivery of Filipino maids to various countries, Ray, who saw the opportunity, took advantage of this opportunity to take a plane to go abroad.
In the following ten years, she settled in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other places, accumulated enough experience, and finally settled down in Hong Kong.
Most Filipino girls, when they first came out as Filipino maids, had a hard time accepting this tedious and hard job.
Roise disagreed.
For her, life is much better than her hometown.
She has a fixed residence and a job, and she no longer needs to worry about the big things and small things in her life as before.
Earning money is to support the family, and in the time outside of work, her life can be completely her own.
Filipino maids working in Hong Kong are free to take a holiday every Sunday.
On this day, people spontaneously set aside space in Queen's Statue Square so that these Filipino girls can gather freely here.
Roise also enjoys the day off and gets away with her friends.
In addition, she will also use these rare breaks to improve her abilities.
Go to the park to stay in shape, go online to watch videos of beauty contests around the world, learn the posture of the contestants...
She was very busy, just to be able to show her style in the next beauty pageant.
As the oldest player on the field, she has competed for eight consecutive years and has won second place.
Although she knows in her heart that she is 37 years old, she is likely to stand on the stage of the competition for the last time, but she still did not lose confidence, but more and more confidently showed her strength.
Perhaps it is also because of such a strong inner strength that she can get rid of the various shackles in life and enjoy her own happy life in another city.
Princess and Cinderella
The beauty pageant is like a mirror that allows filipino maids living in this land to clearly see their best looks.
On stage, they don't have to think about whether there are still stains in the corner of their employer's house, but just confidently accept the cheers from the stage and show their most elegant posture.
After several competitions, the results of this pageant were finally released.
Roise became the runner-up and was able to accept everyone's praise in the most dazzling places.
At her side, the champion Shang has been a Filipino maid in Hong Kong for ten years, but she still hasn't given up on her dream, looking forward to one day becoming a Victoria's Secret model.
Runner-up Bajoi said that all the prize money obtained from the competition should be donated to charity groups to improve the living conditions of children in their hometown.
They are the hard-working workers in this city, but they are also the admirable beacons on the road to pursuing their dreams.
After the lively awards ceremony, the girls' beauty pageant also came to an end.
The champion girl, Shang, stood on the side of the road and said excitedly, not wanting to remove the decorations on her body.
But she also knows that her seemingly willful decision only means to "wear them until tomorrow."
At night, she walked easily in the direction of home, her bright red dress, and was quickly drowned in the crowd.
The camera doesn't record more about her, but we can foresee life after that.
When the sun rises the next day, she will put on comfortable cotton clothes and wander around the house to complete the tasks arranged by her employer.
The crown-clad and beautiful herself will eventually disappear into the noisy night like a flash in the pan.
Sarah, who participated in the whole race, also took off the jewelry on her body in the background step by step and returned it to the staff.
In this competition, she did not get any place, but she gained a joy that can be remembered infinitely.
In the face of the interview camera, she did not feel the slightest loss, but smiled and said to everyone, "Tomorrow I am going to wash the dishes again."
The identity of the Filipino maid did not become a shackle for the girls.
They are happy to prove to themselves through beauty contests that even if they are doing the work at the bottom, they have the right to show their confidence and beauty.
Even if they know that the game will eventually end, the spotlight on the stage will be extinguished, and the flame in their hearts will not disappear.
On the contrary, in the process of pouring all their strength into the game, they also gained more strength to face the rest of their lives.
At her employer's home, Sarah has a small room of her own.
Through the bright glass windows, she can look at Hong Kong's landmarks in the distance.
Sarah often sat here and looked out, but did not feel small.
Because on the stage on the other side of the city, she once left her best appearance.
What is the significance of such a beauty contest that belongs to filipino maids?
Because the game is over, the girls will eventually have to take off their costumes and rush to the next life.
This used to be her sister's question, and perhaps a lot of people's question.
But after seeing their smiles, her sister suddenly realized—
The smile itself is the meaning.
No girl would refuse to pursue the good.
Even if it is only a short time to enjoy the joy of being a princess, you can already reap enough joy.
A beauty contest that belongs only to Filipino maids may not help them to step onto a larger pageant.
But they were able to stop briefly because of the competition and show the world the best they could be.
On the stage, they are no longer Filipino maids who work outside the home, but can confidently show their protagonists.
As service providers in the city, the girls finally enjoy the care that the city brings to them.
Be appreciated, be inspired, be rewarded...
In a bitter life, be fed a little sweetness.
And this is far more precious than the material rewards of the final moment.
They learn to be strong in life and find confidence in the game.
These are the strengths that come from life, enough to support them and bravely move forward towards the future they hope. She published