My Adventure To Other Country
by Anna
I was born in a family of seven. I’m the eldest, I have two brothers and two sisters. I grew up in the countryside, where lots of my neighbours are farmers. We rely so much on the harvest in our fields. My two sisters work abroad too like what I do as a domestic helper. They all finished their studies in universities but then decided to work as domestic helpers. Because the salary is not quite big in the Philippines, so we try our luck in other countries.
I was raised in a loving family, we have the coolest neighbourhood, a lot of them are my father’s relatives. When we were young, we played a lot after school. Until the day I enrolled in secondary school. The secondary school is in town so we need to ride a tricycle to school. Now the budget must be tight, because the two of us, my sister and I, were in high school. While the three younger ones are in elementary school. My father works as a welder in a construction company. It was located in the next town. He worked there for more than 15 years till the company went bankrupt.
After four years of struggling and adventures in high school life. We graduated. I take up agriculture as my major so I gathered 10 pieces of medals. I have very fun-loving friends and classmates that until now we still keep in touch with each other. Some of those classmates of mine continue their college education but a lot of them haven’t got any chances to study in university.
I enrolled at the university next in town, it was an agriculture university. I've met lots of friendly classmates and schoolmates. But after a year I stop schooling because my father hasn’t got any job to support us. My four younger siblings continue their schooling, I’m the only one who gives up my studies. I don’t want to put pressure on my parents, especially since my father was in his old age and can't find work again. He was almost sixty years old at the time. My mother has worked but still, the salary is not enough to feed us and to buy our daily needs.
I look for some jobs, my relatives are helping me too to find some work. One day my cousin introduced me to work as a cashier at the pharmacy. It was in the city so I need to commute. It was fun to work there and have lots of people we met every single day. And our boss was a very nice person. After working there for a couple of years I asked permission to leave. I’m planning to work abroad, and my salary at that time is not enough for me.
I first worked in the Middle East, it was a very hot country. The people there were so brave and didn't respect life. Oh, that's my perspective. But not all of them it just happens that the people I work for are not that human in behaviour.
Every morning I wake up with a dusty smell. When I opened the window the dust smell was everywhere. I remember one time there was a sand storm. Oh, my god, the whole city is covered by golden sand. And the sand goes inside the house through the small opening at the door. Even inside the house, you can smell the musty smell. After the sandstorm the next day when I looked out at the balcony, it was covered with 1-inch thick golden sand. Only one thing I know is that the next morning I'm gonna spend an hour or so just cleaning that dirty and dusty balcony.
One of the good things I like about the Arab countries is their food. They love to eat rice as I do. They make a very big pot of rice and spread it on the mat on the top of the wide woven plastic mat. We serve big plates and different kinds of salads and yummy soup. After lunch, we serve dessert and cakes. Oh, it was so yummy! Seems like no hunger in that part of the world. But in some other places, people hardly put food on their table at mealtime.
After almost six years working on the land of the Arabs, I decided to move to Asian countries near my country. So my sister advised me to find work in Hong Kong. I work here in Hong Kong for almost 10 years now. I have a kind and generous employer. Sometimes the work is so tiring that my small body can’t handle too much work. And some other days I feel like I wanted to go home. But due to this pandemic, I’m stuck and can’t decide what to do. No one knows how long this pandemic is gonna last, it's so frustrating sometimes but I keep going.