By Christian George Acevedo
It was 8pm already. My flight to Hong Kong was almost an hour late and I needed to catch my plane bound to Frankfurt! At the back of my mind I was wondering: “Will Lufthansa wait for me?” But I was quick to brush aside the need to worry. No, I had to enjoy my trip. This was my first trip abroad and I resolved to savour every moment of it.
The flight attendant led me to my seat. Next to me was a slender lady in her late 30s. I smiled at her and decided to exchange small talks. “Are you going to Hong Kong?” I asked. “No, I’m heading to Frankfurt,” I beamed with what I heard. I knew that Hong Kong Airport is extremely huge and one could get lost there. Knowing I would have someone with me to look for the terminal was a source of relief. I asked her name but I couldn’t remember it anymore, so in this article, let’s call her Teri.
We talked while the plane progressed from the Manila to Hong Kong and it was then that I found out that Teri was heading to Berlin to see her German fiancée. The plane landed exactly one hour before our flight to Germany. “Let’s get up as soon as we’re told to unbuckle!” she determinedly said. We raced to the exit door but a team of Chinese attendants were already waiting for us at the end of the jet bridge. “Hurry up, hurry up!” they screamed in thick English. They seemed more anxious than we were. When all Filipino passengers were gathered, the attendants urged us to run. They were slim and in their early 20s so we had to keep pace with them or else we’d lose track.
A pregnant Filipina (let’s call her Lily), a domestic helper off to Malta (aka Momsy), a (haughty) Filipino couple living in Sweden, Teri and I. Then we had seafarers with us but I could no longer remember who they were. We gasped and struggled to make it to our flight. We turned to the left and right and then left again and so on. Then we took a train, an elevator, an escalator. We walked briskly…And ran again. It was tough, but all ended well. We passed through the boarding gate and, hallelujah(!)… we reached our plane 15 minutes before the departure. We made it.
The flight attendant led to my seat as I finally sighed with relief. I was seated next to a Filipina also. She took a different flight from the Philippines and was lucky enough she did not have to endure what we had to go through. She was shy, unlike Teri. Let’s call her Ningning. Ningning was soft spoken and also friendly. I learned from our chat that she was a salesclerk at a hardware chain in southern Philippines. She was headed to Austria to meet her fiancée (also?).
After 12 hours, the plane finally landed in Frankfurt. There, I met Teri, Lily and Momshy inside the airport. I introduced them to Ningning. Teri and Lily’s eyes widened upon hearing Ningning was also off to Europe to improve her prospects in life. I noticed Lily’s feet were swelling. She was having water retention due to long hours of sitting. Lilly was 7 months pregnant and she had to go to Dusseldorf where she would deliver her baby. Momshy, meanwhile, was a domestic helper in Hong Kong but a better chance came for her when she was offered to work in Malta.
Scenes like this in the airport reminded me how distraught life gets when you have very limited opportunities back at home. Who would want to leave home, anyway? Teri, Lily, Momshy and Ningning are just four of the millions of Filipino women who wanted to escape poverty and improve their lives. They are among the many cases of Filipinas who had to work abroad or marry foreigners first, for money, and then, perhaps, for love. You may agree or disagree with me but this is the reality and it’s been going on like this for decades. I believe in love and there are Filipinas who really fall in love with foreigners. What I’m telling here is another side of the story though.
Perhaps, by now, Lily must already be raising a family in Germany. I hope she and her German fiancée are now happily doting the child. Teri had definitely returned to the Philippines for sure—or did she resign to marry her Berliner beau? Momshy might be busy with her domestic chores in Malta. Maybe she moved to Italy or Spain? She may be tending to her master’s baby or cooking meals. Last Christmas, she must have sent a box load of chocolates and toys to her family. And Ningning. The boyfriend she knew only through the internet finally came face to face with her at the airport in Linz. He brought her to dinner in a restaurant inside a former baroque palace. Then, that evening they lied beneath the sheets. She may have found a job now. She may be better off now than she used to. I hope they’re all better off now that they used to.
Christian George Acevedo is an author, librarian and educator based in Roxas City, Capiz.
