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Visions of Arabia
February 1, 2009 by hames1977
Traffic. The car stops. This one will be longer, I guess. So I just fielded my gaze travelling into the vastness of the Arabian soil. My mind just wander. And wander still. Back. Five years ago.
It’s early morning, I am walking along the streets of Mabini glossing over overseas employment prospects in the Middle East. I can’t remember how many copies of CV’s did I send to those recruiters. I sweat it out and inching my way towards the front desk, hoping and wishing that I can score an interview that day. Nervous as I was, I would wait and rehearse the words that I have to say. Like a salesman trading myself for a price.
I can’t remember how many recruitment agencies I have tried my luck with. Most often than not, a thumbs-down sign. I don’t know, what drives me to go Middle East. Though, I am filled with worries about the inconveniences of being away from home. I just wonder how others have survived the heat, the barrenness and the loneliness of the Arab lands.
Those were the days. Here from where I was, a palm tree struck a memory. Yeah, I remember that too, when I was waiting in the hallway of a recruitment agency back in Manila. The posters of the Arab boom cities lined up with palm trees.
I remember my uncles who had the chance to work in Saudi Arabia. Year after year, they come home bedraggled from the harsh climate of the desert. I remember them talking about the expatriate’s life in an Arabian land. It is not an easy life.
But now, I am here as one of another generation of Filipino expatriates trying to make a living. Accustomed to a unique culture of restraint and unimaginable patience. Accustomed to the extreme hot weather and the abstinence to pork meat.
I know why thousands and thousands of Filipinos are flocking there at the recruitment agencies back home. I know that most of them have the same visions I had before. And the persistence that they have to keep going and make their lives better.
For me it will always be a risky bargain. You may win some or you may lose some. It is a choice that one has to make but if things go rightly, it is worth an adventure.
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Posted in Current Affairs, Essay, Memoirs, Prose, Social Commentary, Society, Travel | Tagged adventure, Arabia, bargain, choice, city, days, desert, Essay, expatriates, Filipino, generation, home, life, memory, mind, palm, persistence, price, Prose, salesman, sign, Travel, tree, vision, words, work, worth | Leave a Comment
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