Good morning everyone 😃, how was your week? It's Sunday and some are happy because it's weekend and they can relax and have some fun.
Last Thursday, I was in the area where our Cavendish banana is located, I supervise the packing activity there. I didn't expect it happens in that instance because we only met twice and we didn't even talk just hi and hello. Only yesterday did we have the time to talk, she was the Quality Inspector of our banana. We eat together at lunchtime, at first, they talk about work and I just listen to their conversations, and as some of our companions finished and left the table she and her fellow QI and I are still sitting and starting to know each other. I use to call someone "Ate" even though I don't know if she is older than me or not, and I called her that and yesterday I knew that we are the same age 😅.
We started the conversation about work, and she started to share with me her plan to go abroad she is waiting, and hopefully by September she can go. Then I also shared my plan about going abroad. She told me that she was working as a domestic helper in UAE for 5 years and also 2 years in Singapore she was lucky to have a kind employer. As I listen to her, I feel happy that she experienced that unlike other DHs that we heard on the news who are molested and maltreated by their employer. I told her that she is blessed when the time she worked there.
But suddenly, she told me even though her life there is fine and she build a house for her parents and her family here in the Philippines there's always a bad side to it all. Truly life is not perfect, but I didn't expect that she experienced such a thing. When she went abroad she left her partner and daughter to give them a better future, she was happy that their house was finished and her sacrifices were worth it. But she didn't know that her partner could do such a thing, he molested her daughter and got impregnated. I was shocked and felt sorry for her. She send her partner to prison and her daughter give birth a few months after(I diverted the topic 'coz I don't want her to recall the pain).
I don't know what to say and I felt awkward and wanted to stop her from telling me things about her. We only met twice but her confidence in telling me everything about her life is the first honest interaction I ever experienced. Most of us does not trust other easily and we don't open up our personal life to others not unless it is a family or close friends. I thought that her life gets better after that incident, she had another man and it was fine, she went back to her employer and she was doing fine and then after a few months, her female employer got sick and died. She and the husband of her female employer were left alone in their hows she did not expect that her male employer will treat her badly because he was so kind to her when the female employer is still alive.
She told me, one night that she was about to sleep her male employer went to her room and punch her and she fainted when she woke up only the blanket is covering her, she cried and the next day she left and went to a shelter. After a month of waiting she finally went home and she is about to apply for another job abroad and got her medical examination, she was shocked that she did not pass it because she is pregnant. Her Arab employer impregnated her, and she don't know what to do she almost thought of taking her life but she was thinking about the future of her other children. Her second partner left her and she went home to her parents.
I was sorry for the things that she experienced, but I am also proud of her courage and enduring all the pain she encounter. She didn't give up and still wanted to pursue going abroad, she said as long as she can work she will work for the future of her children and her family. Life is always a struggle but it's up to us how to handle all of our struggles.
When I came home that evening, I told myself and put my situation in hers, I'm still fortune (di umabot sa kalingkingan problema ko sa kanya). If ever I thought about my problem it was just like all the problems in the world are on me, but, she put it all aside and never look back and she focused herself on her dreams. We know that there's always a light at the end of a tunnel, sometimes we miss seeing it because we are destructed by our fear and then get lost.
Quite a story to tell, I shared this with you because the feeling I felt was extraordinary. The trust, courage, and realization that life is worth living for. Have a wonderful day to all 😘 and thank you for your time reading.