Unang Tapak Sa Disyerto (part 1)

Two years ago, bagong salta lang ako dito sa bahaging ito ng middle east...ang bilis talaga ng panahon...ngayon madami nang nangyari, marami akong natutunan. Isa na nga talaga akong OFW...yun nga lang, bading na OFW...toink!

Pero laking pasasalamat ko kasi super enjoy ako sa trabaho ko, sa mga mababait na kasamahan at higit sa lahat sa mga naging kaibigan ko dito.

Di ko pa pala na i-share sa inyo ang nangyari mula nun unang tapak ko dito sa gitnang silangan. Samahan nyo kong balikan ang mga pangyayari dalawang taon na ang nakakaraan:

(insert music...#harp playing)

Pagkahatid ng pamilya ko sa kin sa NAIA, hindi pa ko nalungkot nun. Para ngang wala lang. Parang luluwas lang ng maynila drama ko.

Unang sakay ko ito ng eroplano. Kabado na excited ang pakiramdam ko. Di ko pa alam nun na bulok pala ang Gulf Air! hahaha. Hinayupak kasing agency ko, tinipid pala kami, wala nga kami'ng placement fee kahit singko pero kinupit pala nila yun pambayad dapat sa Qatar Airways! na isang world class airline! Go figure!

So ako naman yun, kiver kung anong sasakyang airline, go lang ako sa flow.

Sinabi sakin nun recruitment agency ko na may kasabay daw akong pinoy muslim, medtech siya, therapist ako. Pero pwede na sabi ko sa isip ko. Ang mahalaga hindi ako nag iisa papunta dun. Na-meet ko naman si Kuya agad sa airport. Mga edad 40 na siya. May walong anak sa mindanao. Mabait naman siya.

Yun nga lang naiipon lagi ang laway sa gilid ng labi nya tuwing magsasalita (ansamaaaaaaaaa ko! LOL)

Nag stop over kami sa bansang Bahrain ng isang oras ata yun. Puro Pana ang nakikita ko. Excited na ko makakita ng mga arabo. Gwapo kasi ang tingin ko sa lahi nila. Upo lang kami sa airport, antay ng oras. Si kuya sanay na, kasi galing na pala siya sa saudi 3 years ago.

Nun finally nakarating na kami sa Qatar airport, kabado na ko. Pano pag nahalata nilang bading ako? OO yun una tumakbo sa isip ko haha! Ayaw ko umuwi noh! Tinanggal ko ang agam agam. Di naman siguro. Tinignan ko sarili ko habang nakapila. Manly naman ang suot ko a...LOL

Pati sinunod ko lahat ng bilin sakin, walang naka save na file na bold or M2M sa cel or sa laptop in case ma check ang gamit ko. Wala din akong dala mga pork products ek ek. Lalo na mga dibidi-dibidi!

"Uy may arabong cute!!!" muntik ko ng masabi ng malakas!haha. Pinigil ko sarili ko.

Sa wakas, nakakita din ako ng mga arabo na naka white THOUB complete with head dress... naglalakad ako sa likod nila..ang tatangkad nila...naaliw ako sa mga suot nila na pare pareho'ng naka puti~!

Andami nila...nalulunod na ko...chos!

At tama, andaming gwapong arabs! Wagi! Pero siyempre di ko pinapahalata na type ko silang lahat! Balita ko pa naman mahilig sila'ng mang gang-rape!

ay type! chossssss!

Paglabas namin sa waiting area ng airport, ini-scan namin ang paligid sa susundo samin gaya ng sinabi nun taga agency sa pinas.

May nakita kaming Pana na may bitbit na karatula na pangalan ng hospital na pagta-trabahuhan namin.

Lumapit kami sa knya at tinanung niya kung kami ba sina ganito at ganire hehe. Pagkatapos inabot nya samin ang dalawang white sobre.

Yun isa naglalaman ng letter na wine-welcome kami sa corporation blah-blah. Pati detalye ng number ng bahay, at room na magiging tahanan namin. Pati na din ang susi sa pinto.

At yun pangalawang sobre naman ay naglalaman ng two thousand riyals (around 24K pesos ata) na gagamitin namin pansamantala habang di pa kami nag uumpisa sa trabaho at di pa sumasahod.

Ayos to! atleast di ko magagalaw yun baon kong $200! Kasi natakot akong wala akong gagastusin pagdating dito kaya nagbaon ako, incase lang naman.

Sumunod kami sa parking lot kung san andun yun company car na magdadala samin sa magiging flat namin. Yun kasi ang tawag sa mga tinutuluyang bahay dito. FLAT.

Dito ko na naramdaman ang matinding init ng panahon. Ang sakit sa balat. Para akong niluluto. Pati simoy ng hangin! Grabe. Imagine 48 degrees ba naman! Yun iba nga dumudugo pa ilong! E sa pinas 32 degrees lang kaya tayo dun.

Buti nalang mayaman tong mga bansang to sa middle east, pano nalang kung poor sila?e di walang aircon kahit saan! LOL

Nakarating na kami sa accommodation namin. Kinatok nun driver yun caretaker ng building at ipinakilala kami.

Egyptian siya. Wala akong maintindihan. Di siya gaano marunong mag english. Nag nose bleed ako hindi sa init kundi sa mga pinagsasabi nya!


Itutulog...


este itutuloy pala!





*kelangan ko na matulog! Galing pa night shift ang beauty ko! LOL

Lunok Lang Ang Pahinga

I was chatting with an old friend from Saudi Arabia at yahoo messenger last time and she was asking me for favor: can you help me transfer to your hospital? she said. We worked together at a local hospital back in the Philippines for five years. She's one of my closest friend.

When I flew here at Doha to work, she remained there. Until I heard that she too after a few months, applied and work at Saudi instead. I asked why she wanted to transfer and resign from her work this soon, she's only been there for 6months I think.

"Mac, lunok lang pahinga ko dito!" (Mac, my only rest here in when I swallow my saliva!LOL) she said. I laughed, she's a funny girl even before.

"Why did you applied there in the first place? I told you not to go to Saudi!" I reprimanded her, I intentionally avoided applying there, because I knew so many restrictions there. I chose Qatar and Dubai when I was planning to work outside the country.

"I know, now I'm in hell! I can stand the work you know, but the people, my colleague, they are the real problem!" she continued.

She told me that in their department, the senior staffs and other employee are on competition with each other, they're not helping each other, if you don't know something they will shame you in front of other staffs, the tensions are too high, you see when you work abroad, everything was totally different, the machines, the procedures, protocols, so you have too many adjustments to make.

"I always have this feeling of fear whenever I go to work..." she said. " I saw your face book's photos, I was so jealous when you can have the parties and drinks all you want! In here its like we are in prison on our own houses! We don't even have cinemas!huhuhu"

There's clubs, bands, concert venues, and alcohol in Qatar, its an open city, still a muslim country but the restrictions are lesser than Saudi. We have cinemas all around here!

Unlike in the hospital I'm working with, when I came, I was like a newborn baby, I don't know a thing about those machines (mechanical ventilators, breathing apparatus, gadgets, etc.,) we don't have those in the Philippines, all are high-tech here! They trained me for a month, taught me this and that until I got familiar with all of them.

But the good thing here, my colleagues are all very friendly and approachable, its never a competition here, you could ask your senior staffs if I was unsure or in doubt of something, they all have time to help me, because they said, they knew the feeling of being a new comer. They're all been there. We have a great time at work, joke around, the atmosphere are very light, that's what missing in her department.

I mean, who could work peacefully if you knew the people around you are like evil villains on a movie! Its like there's no peace of mind and especially when you know you're not even happy!

I am very grateful that I am in a place where I am now. So I have her resume and helping her to move here. Im crossing my fingers...

A Family Show: Coming Home

I will call my mom and dad "mother and father lily" in this entry haha"

Yippee!We're going to pick up my mom at the airport (NAIA) this Monday morning at 10 am!Kinda early but its alright, anything for my beloved mother-lily LOL! It would be the happiest day of my life, seeing her again after two years,I didn't realized that it was that long already.We just missed her so much!She must be really excited to see her only grandchild (since all of my kids are killed at the bathroom drainage LOL!)

She'll be having her month long vacation leave from work at Dubai.My mom have been in and out of Dubai for a while now, its like less than ten years already, she went there to send me to college and have hope in heart that I'll be the one to give my family comfort in life!haha what a shame I only gave them comfort rooms!LOL. I'm still nothing up to this day!Darn that visa from Qatar!Its like 48 years already why the hell its not here yet?(nagalit na LOL)

That's one of the reasons, that the title of this blog is "Living the Expectations". Its only fortunate that my mom have a great job there, its not something that she didn't like,s he's happy doing her own thing, she drives her own car, living in a nice unit, there was this time time when she missed her job badly back at Dubai when her vacation took at least two months here in the Philippines way back then.

We asked mother lily if she wants to share my dad's bed when she get here, on the phone last night and she said ,"oh no! I'll be sleeping with Anton(my 5 year old nephew)" and I was like "i told you so" to my sister, because she's having this idea that mom will actually be sleeping at dad's bed, she just didn't get it, that mother lily has fallen out of love to her husband already.A very long time ago.

We just don't know how father lily will take this, for all i know, he's expecting it to be the other way around.He might be un-manageable if he finds out that mother lily wont be sleeping with him,I feel the pity for him,he needs to wake up to reality.My mom is just being civil, she's doing her best to be friendly at him, but dad, thinks otherwise.

Actually I'm bothered, what will happen? I mean by the time my mom reached home. This will be the first time, she will actually spending time together with my father, because not until last year, my dad worked as a supervisor at a food processing at Saudi Arabia.Mother lily was always successful avoiding him, like she's having her vacation leave every month of May and dad will be having his at December, its been like that for like 5 years or so.

But dad quit his job and now living like a king here LOL!See yah next time!

By the way I created a multiply account haha.pls add me up if you have I'm so kawawa I don't have any friends there yet! www.maccallister.multiply.com

Related posts:A Family Show (part 1)
Related posts:Father and Son Story

Destined To Be Alone?

"Mac,pls meet me this Saturday,I'll give you my wedding invitation.Miss yah!

I received this text earlier and I don't know who it came from,I called the number and found out its my good friend Mel! OMG I didn't know that she's home already.FYI,she's working at Saudi Arabia as a therapist,if you noticed most therapist are working in the middle east,well,I think we are so in demand in that part of the world,but I don't want to work at Saudi hehe I preferred country's that are more open and less strict that's why I choose Qatar or Dubai.

Going back to my story,Mel is one of my closest friends way back my college days.There's actually six of us in the group,and come to think of it,Kat got married 2years ago,then Jason and grace last year and now Mel...they are all finding their own happiness and settling down building their own family...this suddenly hit me.I kinda felt sad in a way,that I'm still single...I'm happy for them of course but,what about me?

I have relationships in the past,yes,but still I'm single.When is the time I'm going to settle down too?When will the time comes that I am the one whose going to text and call my friends ,not the wedding of course and say this:"hey,I'm settling down with this amazing guy that loves me so much,we found our own place and I'd like all of us to have dinner" or we could do our own wedding vows even if its not legal in this country,its just a piece of paper anyway,all that matters is what we have and what we feel with each other.I'd like that thought...


But are we,gay or bi or whatever we call ourselves now destined to be alone?That we cannot have what straight people have? That someone to build a future with for a long time? Are we prepared to grow old alone? This fears me...I guess this is the fears of all mothers or parents who loves their son's so much who came out to them...


This is the fear of my mother...

I love you MOM.I'll be alright.Who knows.I might find my forever

...and you'll gain another son

...and you will love him too.

Parting Time Sucks

My sister is a little down today,though she tried to hide it but I can still feel it,why?because her husband is going back to Saudi Arabia tonight his flight is scheduled at 1am,after more than a month of vacation it will be another 2years before she could see him again.I hate parting time! My sister even joked around and said "he is so busted I have my period now!"haha too bad for him!

But at least they are together last Christmas and new year and I know my sister is so happy about it.I love my sister she is the only one close to me,next to my mom,since there's only two of us we don't have many siblings to play with when we were young.And she's the first person I told that I'm gay.At first she couldn't understand that how could two gay like each other haha.I mean she thought if one is gay he will only like straight guys and not the same third sex.She kinda cant imagine whose blue and whose pink in the gay relationship and I said I'm definitely the blue one!haha

The Red Apple and Edzel's Tut-tut!

I'm eating an apple right now which is leftover from new year's eve you know,they say if its new year's eve you gotta fill your dining table with different fruits that are rounded which symbolizes money all year round and I suddenly remember my childhood, my grade school days here in the province OMG. Why?because I used to bring apple and take note only one red apple at school and it was brought by my dad who was working at Saudi Arabia at that time [imagine my dad brought apple from there? don't we have apples for sale in this country?I will ask him later] and he came home for a month long vacation and apple and grapes was one of his take home or "pasalubong" to us.

Going back to my story,I was in grade 4 [that was 1988?I'm so old! Damn!] and I will keep the apple inside my bag and when its recess time,I will show it to my classmates and when they saw it, its like I'm the GOD, I clearly saw their envious and salivating looks, because at that time having that kind of food during recess was a status symbol LOL !Imagine just an apple! And I feel like super rich kid with that food while they eat guavas and banana-Que [yuck so poor... kidding!]

Going back with those years in my mind gave a smile on my face....I remember my classmate Edzel showed us his dick cause we teased him that he has a tiny dick.

"waaa! your dick is small..your dick is small!"

and then he stood at the table in front of us and dropped his shorts without underwear just to prove it to us!hahaha!

"is this small huh???! he said

I wonder if he still remember that! I just saw him the other day but we don't talk much.I think he has a big dick now!LOL! Maybe its a thing with grown ups..former grade school classmates...when you reached high school and went to different sections,we became estranged.

Whoa from apple to Edzels dick? Is there a connection?haha my mind's going a little bit further huh!

What About me?

Last friday my brother-in-law came home from a two years contract from saudi arabia,and he got my sister a perfume,my nephew a nice toy and a gameboy,and my dad an MP3 player,but nothing for me!!!!I mean am I the evil in-law here???Oh c'mon hehehe