From sleeping on streets to shaping future leaders: How this Filipino educator found a new life in Abu Dhabi

Dubai: There was a time when Rex Bacarra’s biggest concern was not building a career or earning a professional title. It was finding somewhere safe to sleep. 

The Filipino educator, who now teaches Ethics at Zayed Military University under Rabdan Academy, has once spent almost five years without a permanent home in Manila. 

He has slept in parks, on streets, and wherever he believed he would be safe for the night. Today, he lives in Abu Dhabi and helps prepare young people for future roles as officers and leaders.

His journey from homelessness to academia has been built on hardship, faith, education, and above all, the opportunities he received from people who believed in him.

Bacarra was born in Catbalogan, Samar in the Philippines. His mother has died when he was six and his father later settled in another town. The family has been poor.

After graduating from college at 19, Bacarra has decided to leave the province and move to the capital city. He wanted to find work and support his father and family.

“I thought having a college degree would be enough. It wasn't,” Bacarra told Gulf News.

With little money, no connections, and a strong provincial accent, he has struggled to find employment. The rejections have continued until his money ran out. For nearly five years, he had no permanent place to live.

“I learned to live one day at a time because sometimes thinking about tomorrow was already a luxury.”

He has accepted whatever honest work he could find. He has carried vegetables and goods in markets, worked as a jeepney barker, and even worked as a clown for hire.

His days have often revolved around three questions: Where could he eat? Where could he shower? Where would he sleep? Sometimes he used public gyms to take a shower, make himself presentable, and continue looking for work.

“When you have very little, you stop asking whether a job is impressive. You become grateful that somebody trusts you enough to give you honest work.”

In his fifth year in Manila, a family has given him a chance to tutor their three children. They have also provided him a safe place to sleep. That simple act has changed his life.

During that period, Bacarra has become increasingly prayerful. His search for meaning has led him to become a Benedictine monk. He moved to a monastery in the mountains, where his life has been transformed by silence, prayer, study, manual work, and discipline.

“They saw possibility in me. They educated me. They trained me for teaching and administrative work. Through their generosity, I was able to pursue further studies, including my master’s and doctoral education at a university,” shared Bacarra.

In 2009, Bacarra has left the monastery. That same year, an opportunity has brought him to the UAE.

“When I began teaching in the UAE, I carried a fear that I rarely talked about. I was afraid of becoming poor again,” recalled Bacarra.

He has remembered sleeping on the streets and wondering where he would spend the night. That fear has pushed him to work harder.

Bacarra has decided that he would become the best teacher he could be. He has studied teaching methods, researched how people learn, and constantly improved his lessons and presentations. He has also worked on his public speaking, practising his voice, pauses, gestures, and delivery.

“I learned that knowing something and communicating it are two different skills.”

Teaching has become more than a way to secure his future. He has fallen in love with it.

Bacarra has noted that one of his most important lessons came from his own experience of being judged. He has known what it felt like when people saw only a poor provincial boy.

But he has also experienced what happened when someone looked beyond his circumstances and saw potential. That has changed how he approached his students.

He has started paying attention to their faces and reactions. If they looked confused, he looked for a better way to explain the lesson. If an activity failed, he asked what he could improve.

“Students enter our classrooms carrying lives we cannot always see. They have family problems, insecurities, disappointments, ambitions, fears, and private battles. And my own life helped me understand that,” exclaimed Bacarra.

Bacarra has highlighted that Abu Dhabi challenged him to keep learning. Working alongside educators, researchers, and professionals from different countries has pushed him to read more, research more, and prepare more carefully.

“When you are surrounded by excellent people, you have a choice, become intimidated or become inspired to improve. I chose to learn.”

Moreover, the UAE has given him something he deeply valued, this includes safety, stability, opportunity, and the chance to work with people from various cultures. Receiving a UAE Golden Visa has also been meaningful.

“For an expatriate, there is something deeply moving about a country where you arrived as a stranger eventually giving you a sense that your contribution is valued and that you are welcome to continue building your life here.” 

He added, “I came to the UAE looking for work. I found opportunity. I found growth. And somewhere during all those years, Abu Dhabi became home.”

Bacarra has not forgotten where he came from. During a recent visit to the Philippines, he has travelled to upland public schools in Samar where children sometimes walk kilometres through heat and rain to attend classes.

He has met teachers working in multigrade classrooms with limited resources. Together with local volunteers, he has brought school supplies, food, and other assistance. He has spent time talking and playing with the children and listening to their teachers.

“I recognise something of myself in them. I know what it feels like to grow up with very little. And I know what one opportunity can do,” stated Bacarra.

Outside his regular classes in Abu Dhabi, he conducts workshops and talks for students and educators on public speaking, study planning, time management, examination preparation, and other areas where he can share what years of teaching have taught him.

For Bacarra, even a notebook has carried a powerful message that education matters and someone believes the child is worth investing in.

“The UAE has given me opportunities I never imagined having. I think one of the best ways I can express my gratitude is to make sure those opportunities do not stop with me.”

Bacarra has recently received the Rabdan Academy Excellence Award Students’ Choice Award, an internal recognition that honours faculty members for outstanding teaching, commitment, and contributions to developing future talent.

The achievement has been particularly special because the students themselves chose the recipients. However, he was not able to attend the awards ceremony. 

When he returned to Abu Dhabi, he has been asked to visit the Institutional Quality Assurance, Compliance and Excellence Office. There, he has been handed the award he had missed.

As he looked at it, memories from his life have come rushing back. He thought about Samar, the streets of Manila, the years of uncertainty, the monastery, the monks who believed in him, and his first arrival in the UAE.

“So many different parts of my life seemed to meet in that one object. It was difficult not to become emotional and there was something beautifully appropriate about the fact that I missed the ceremony because I was with children in a small school,” remarked Bacarra.

His own journey has been proof that people do not need to come from privilege to pursue excellence.

“I was once a young man from Samar whom employers would not hire. An award can recognise excellence, for sure, yet the real work of excellence happens long before anyone applauds.” 

Meanwhile, Bacarra has understood the sacrifices made by people who leave their families behind to build a future abroad. There are birthdays missed, ageing parents, children growing up from a distance, and family emergencies handled through phone calls.

Additionally, there have been difficult days at work, financial worries, and lonely moments that rarely appear in photographs shared online.

His message to fellow expats is to work hard and take the opportunities that are available in the Emirates. He has urged them to treat others well, regardless of nationality, profession, salary, or position.

“Careers change. Titles disappear. Life can turn very quickly,” said Bacarra.

Most importantly, he has stressed that people should never be ashamed of where they started. There have been many moments when he had no idea where life was taking him.

“We simply have to do the next good thing in front of us. Work honestly. Keep learning. Accept help with gratitude. Help somebody when it becomes your turn.”

And keep going. For the young man who once worried about where he would sleep that night, Abu Dhabi became more than a place to work. It became home.