fishing my heart out

there were so plenty of fish around me last night! fish of different kinds, different sizes, different colors. i thought of how wonderful it is to be eating fried tilapia, or paksiw na dilis. i have always loved eating these sea creatures. and the shrimps! goodness, there were so plenty of them. i thought of the sumptuous meal that was coming, of all the glorious feeling one gets when the stomach is stuffed. i thought of the refrigerator that would be full, of the plastic containers that had to be prepared, of the crammed small table that we have.

there were so many good thoughts to have as i struggled cleaning them all.

(one would think that the dubai shopping festival has changed to dubai fish festival for the 6 of us. last night verlyn and anne went to the fish market. with a AED 70 budget, they came back with two bags-ful of fish and shrimps, all so fresh and so overly cheap! so how was the labor divided? jeal and i had to clean the reward of their labor while tina had to wash the night's dishes. ethel was excused from the household chores, she's a zombie afterall and would not need more chores.)

oh yeah, the pricks still hurt up to today...

workaholic? no, workish!

everyone of us have our own story to tell. it has not been easy going away from our usual comfort zones, to walk down the streets of D and find our way as we go from one interview to another, and the bus was a real ordeal! one would have to wait for an hour or more to get to destination. taxi drivers here are rude and the pay is worth a cadbury bar, so it's not always an option.

ethel and i are the lucky ones to have easily gotten a job. a few days after i came to this unfamiliar city, i got a call for a month-long relieving post. the offer was way too good for one who is used to getting only a 4-digit pay and so it was not an offer to turn down. a week after i started the job, i had interview schedules coming my way. one job offered was to be a recruitment consultant for one of the emirates' recruitment agencies. i was asked how much is the salary i would like to get. and crazy me, i asked for something low.

the story of ethel is not something so different. she started working 3 weeks from arrival. she is receiving the same pay as i get, but she works from dawn til dust. not that it's the working hours of the company she is in, but the workload just seems to pull her down to her last professional element that now she is a walking zombie! she is thinking of leaving her work and find something else but the idea of taking the bus heading to Terminal 1 of the airport is not something to look forward to. so much for the thought of being deported!

tina, on the other hand, is the very lucky one. in a few month's time she will be a millionaire, hahaha! we are so happy for her especially that she was the most cry-baby of us all. she would be engrossed in her own emotional struggles that she would not hear a word that we told her. thankfully, she has the most lucrative job among us all. and her company's the biggest in the emirates. it's like working in san miguel!

anne has just received her pay last weekend. we had taza! hmmmm, so yummy. chicken from taza is always something we have to thank for. for one, it tastes really heaven. another reason is its price, it is really affordable! (just do not convert it to peso, hahaha). going to and from work she has to wait for the bus for 2-3 hours a day. sometimes, she walks. but i don't think she would have much energy to walk the road as she does not take lunch during her break. why? because no one else in their office does.

there's so much more to tell, got not much time. got to run for breakfast...i think the tilapia is now fried.

duh!

i have so much to talk, but that was a little while ago. now, with the internet so slow, i have nothing to write down but complaints i'd rather not tell, duh! down with this net connection.

the story of...

Nanay Dina and Baby Abby
they've been there for more than 2 weeks. and even if they stayed in the hotel, the accommodation wasn't at all comfortable what with the daily fee of 50 dirhams. and the food, it was not somethng appetizing.
Baby Abby had her bout of chicken pox while staying in Oman for the entire duration of her exit. her visa did not come so soon that she had to endure being away from mommy while she was sick. room 210 was her refuge. and she sent nanay dina to a frenzy when she had high fever and didn't want to take in anything.

Saji
she's 20 years old and therefore is not allowed to work in the UAE. she finished nursing at the age of 19, went to the UAE to try her luck, found a job in one of the emirate's government facilities. she is earning a fortune now but she had to go out of the emirates for visa change. it is now her 16th day in Oman and still the possibility of a visa is as blurry as the mud down the hill.

the indian man
he's old, and balding. he came up to me one of those dreary nights. i was sitting in the hotel lobby. he asked if i had my visa yet, i told him not. he said he had been there for 10 days already and he has to wait for 5 days more before his employment visa comes. he has no money in his wallet and he has not eaten well for several days already. he said he worries about his family in india as he has not sent them money yet. he wants to lend his phone but he is waiting for communication from his company and from his agency and so the idea would not be good. one time i gave him enough for a meal. before i left the hotel to head back to UAE i gave him a little amount to last him a couple of days more if he would spend it wisely.

*** these are not their real names.

greeting the year 2008 with a bang!

it's the dawn of yet another year. now it is time for me to rethink of my priorities, my plans in the immediate future, and of my sins.

though faraway from family and friends and my comfort zones, i welcomed the new year with a light heart. i walked home after office last december 31, silently crying for the separation but nonetheless thankful for the time i had to be alone. at midnight, we had a sumptuous meal comprised of seafoods. i was with ate haidy, kuya bob and their kids (harriet, hyacinth, hillary and 2J). arlene and ate lot were also family. ate a lot of tiger shrimps that later on gave me the rashes. so much for seafoods!

the service later in the day was a meeting of culture. people from different walks of life came together to hear their first mass for 2008 at st. joseph's cathedral. the banquet that followed was an exhibition of different foods. i got a plateful and left the hall.

first sin committed this year: oversleeping. slept until 10am, ate and watched tv while busy with the phone and the internet, slept again at 2pm until 4pm, the mass, then slept at 8pm until 6.30 this morning. my head feels so heavy i swear i would not want to oversleep again.