Dear Papa Jesus

Awhile ago, I talked to Xioms through Skype. Actually, we've been doing this every week since I left home just to catch up on things. My mom told me how lazy Xiomai nowadays. She don't want to go to school anymore. Well, it's normal and btw, she just turned 3 last July. I was thinking... I mean I told mom to enroll her in ballet class instead. Kiddo was super excited when she heard that and that's a good thing!

Anyway, when Xioms and I were chatting, I asked her if she still reads her books. She said no because I'm now here. Okay, good point because we usually do that but I told her that she should continue reading her books. And then I asked if she's praying before going to bed. Here's her reply:

"Yes Mama." Then she recited.. "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy, Spirit, Amen. Dear Papa Jesus, bless me as I am about to sleep. I love you Papa Jesus. Sweet dreams. Papa Jesus, Jun Pyo is my crush. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy, Spirit, Amen."

My jaw dropped, literally.

Eid Experience

If you ask Google, it'll tell you that Eid ul-Fitr is a three-day Muslim holiday. I'm not a Muslim, hell no but since am currently working in a Muslim country, I have the privilege to enjoy this kind of holiday. Anyway, me and my hommies decided to go to Fujairah which is one of the seven emirates of UAE. Twas a four-hour drive from Abu Dhabi and I tell you, it's worth it. Lots of amazing sceneries out there. It's more of a nature tripping I must say.

We booked a night stay in Al Diar Siji Hotel and we had a beautiful view of the sea from our room. How cool is that? Well, we never enjoyed the beach to be quite honest as it was jam-packed! So we filled our entire time road tripping, not to mention climbing a rock mountain for photo opp.

postcard

the rock

So there. Not bad for my first ever Eid holiday in Sandpit.

PS Thank you my lovely friends. You all never fail to keep me company: Yatz, Chie, Kathe, Dantley and Pat.

Acts of Evil

Don't be a hypocrite! Am sure all of us have done some evilness once in our lives. Big or small, it's the same. It shows that none of us is perfect.

As promised, I'll tell everything about what happened on my roller coaster journey here at sandpit. So here goes.

The moment I came back to the Philippines was like a hell. Don't get me wrong. The word hell here is only in relation to my documents. I never thought that I'll be able to enter UAE again and have this job, but I'm a lady with full of hopes in life. Money matters, that I won't lie. Sad to say but it's true that money is power. Anyway, I endure more than a month, as a jobless ass in Manila. There was a point that I am giving up and planning to be in my home country for good. You see, all my papers were authentic and okay though my contract lacks attestation from our own labor office in Abu Dhabi. I've elaborated everything about this in Episode 6.

Good news is, there's someone in Abu Dhabi University (ADU) who knows someone in the Philippines who can help me. I call this person, the mogul. My colleague told me to contact this mogul as soon as I arrive Manila and tell everything about my case. He sounds like a very powerful man, I thought. So, I contacted this mogul and discuss things. Things that you can only see in movies. Anyway, the main point is me leaving the Philippines with fake and original docs. Fake ones for the PHI Immigration and originals for AUH Immigration. So, how much? I have to say, a lot of cash. If you insist, throw me a mail and I'll elaborate further.

My first meeting with mogul was quite scary and full of skepticism. I just thought this is the only way and I really need to gamble. I never got the mogul's full name, where he lives, what 's his job and so on. I went home with nothing but trust in my pocket.

One day before my departure is our second meeting. This is the schedule he gave me for my PDOS. He gave me my referral form, there I saw that I've got an agency in Manila and my employer in Abu Dhabi is different. I tried searching for it in Google and found out it doesn't really exist. So I attended the half day boring seminar just to have my certificate.

On the departure day itself, I arrived NAIA earlier than expected, as I've said. This is my third and last meeting with the mogul. We had some short briefing then he gave me my papers. I was never surprised on how good Filipinos in forgery. What sickened me is the idea of passing through the whole airport process. But of course, twas a success. Unbelievably no sweat! It's why I'm here sharing you this story. One thing I remember the mogul used to tell me: All persons working at NAIA airport have their own tag price in their heads. TRUE, with my own experience.

Moral lesson? I couldn't think of any good so far but this I tell you, never ever exit in the Philippines if you're planning to work abroad. Our government sucks from head to toe and for that, I am not a proud Filipino.