Archive for July 2013
Little Manila in Dubai
I strongly believe that Filipinos can be found in any part of the world to work and earn a living even in the most dangerous places; Filipinos would risk their lives just to be able to support their families back in the Philippines. Here in the UAE, Filipinos have also become very dominant. There's a big percentage of overseas Filipino workers here and there's this specific place in Dubai where these co-Filipinos are settling in, this place is Satwa which is now called the manila in Dubai.
On my way to Dubai, a friend of mine told me that I wouldn't feel that homesick at all because anywhere I go, I can see Filipinos and in every mall and establishments, our kabayans will always be present. By the time I stepped out of the Emirates plane and went to the immigration section, I saw Filipinos working there. Reaching to the villa where my brother is staying, almost all the residents there are Filipinos.
Then I went to different interviews, 90 percent of the human resources personnel are Filipinos. In fact, the company where I am working now, the HR who interviewed me was a Bisaya like me from Dumaguete and almost 70 percent of my colleagues are Filipinos.
Certified Resident
Living in the middle East is hard because of the temperature and the weather plus the people's attitude and most of the them have a strange smell. But I still consider it as an opportunity to earn and save for my future. I don't aim of living here for good, I would still prefer to grow old in the Philippines with the people I love and friends whom I can talk and go out. To be able to visit springs and waterfalls, climb mountains and swim on beautiful beaches. To feel the coldness of the wind breeze on an early morning and to hear the drops of rain in a Saturday afternoon.
I would also like to sleep under a huge acacia tree while listening to the singing of the birds and to smell the aroma of the fresh ripe fruits specially the favorite mangoes and bananas.
These are the things I miss about home but for now, what can I do? I have to wait for the right time that I can come home and so all of these things.
Updates from DXB
I haven't posted anything since I landed a job here in Dubai, I missed a lot of things and I haven't shared any of my experiences for the past weeks. June has just ended and I don't want to start July without telling you and sharing how my month went out. Here are the highlights of my stay here for the entire month.
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| Pakistani, Filipino, Egyptian, Arabic |
1. I landed a job and started training at a certain logistics company in Jebel Ali Dubai. I met a lot of people from different countries like India, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan. There many friendly ones and yet there are also other snobs and crazy ones but mostly are definitely friendly. The office is very far from where I am staying so I have to wake up early because I have to travel for an hour going to the bus station where our company bus would fetch us. From the station, it would take like 25 minutes to arrive at the office. It's kind of exhausting and sometimes I become tired with the travel time.
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| look at them! |
2. We visited the Dubai gold city at a place on Dubai named gold souq. I know gold and other kinds of jewelries are really eye alluring and all however when I arrived at gold souq, I never thought I would immediately get enough of it because the place was full of gold here and everywhere. If I could compare it to any area in Cebu or in manila I can say that it's like divisoria in manila or carbon in Cebu but instead of vegetables or any types of goods, in front of us were all but gold. White Gold, China gold, Saudi gold and every type of gold can be found there. Because of competition as well, the price there is cheaper compared to the other market areas. They have their own price per gram and I am thinking in the back of my mind that I can maybe start a business out of this. We'll see then.
3. I went out of Dubai and went to Muscat Oman. It sounds exciting and I felt really excited about going to another country but it was a total opposite because Oman for me was boring and we went there at three in the afternoon, weather was very hot and the flight made me dizzy and then made my head ache. I went there with my friend colleague named rose from Cebu as well. We only stepped on Oman for forty five minutes. We were running towards the check in area that we never had the chance to get a photo of ourselves. The country looked boring for me and I just thought that being in Dubai is a lot better than being in Oman.
