March 29

March 29 – It’s already past 8 AM in my wrist watch when the Etihad Airways landed in Doha International Airport. Inside the plane, my feeling is mixed – eagerly excited and glad but at the same time quite apprehended and tensed because this is my first time to work in a foreign country. All my life, I was always been a homebody – who never tried working away from the vicinity of my province.

During the early weeks of February, I inked the two-year contract accepting the position as one of the company nurse from a certain trading and construction company in Qatar through my agency in the Philippines. Then this March 29, here I am, I am going to venture my future as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW). I am a little bit exhausted then when my feet set first on the vast ground of the airport. I, together with my fellow nurse and a heavy equipment driver, followed the group of people straightly going to the arrival area of DIA. As I am approaching the arrival area, I made it sure that my documents are intact and complete. The security guard in the door looked at my papers and signaled me okay as he handed my papers back to me.  I asked to myself, Is that all? Perhaps the guard failed to check my backpack and belongings. I thought he would let me open my backpack to check what’s inside my bag.  Thus, I watch him how he do such to others. Really, this man is a complete opposite of the one being exampled by the speaker during our Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar or PDOS. She said, Arab nations are strictly implementing its tough security measures regarding the stuffs of its incoming expatriates. Pirated CD/DVDs, pornographic videos/images from mobile phones, images of Jesus Christ and Holy Rosary, and pork meats are considered illegal. I expect the guard would examine our bags one by one but it turns out not. Medyo napa-overacting lang yata sa seminar si madam ah! Sayang yung mga dinelete kong files sa cell phone ko! Hehe. Anyways, I approached the booth of the immigration personnel, who seems an Arab woman. She greeted me and I did the same. She asked for my papers and I handed it down which is for some final verification. She glanced at me for few seconds and turned back to her computer and typed some data. Just few minutes later, she signaled me okay.

As I entered the lobby of the waiting area, I looked up at the wall clock, it’s past 4 AM. So I adjusted my watch properly to sync with country’s current time zone. The plane almost took 12 hours to bring us halfway around the globe. Uh! Such a long trip! As we sit on the waiting area of the lobby, a lot of things linger on in my mind. Simple questions such as: Who will pick us up and what would he look like? Is my company would be a good employer to us? Where would be our first duty? Is our forthcoming working site huge? Is our accommodation good? Are there also Filipinos in the company? Is Qatar would be an enjoyable place for me? Do the company really aware we will arrive today? Are they going to fetched us up? What time will they go here? My eyes momentarily stared to my 2 buddies; I guess their minds were at ease unlike with mine. They keep on talking with each other about their own experiences way back when they were in the Saudi. From time to time I join to their conversations but most of the times I just listen. However, as it seems my mind just doesn’t comprehend well. It is focused to its own queries.

Doha street at night (taken from www.flickr.com/photos/lostinsky/)

It’s quite hard to be a first timer. Everything is new to your naked eyes and my mind is busy absorbing these kinds of unfamiliar things. I couldn’t help but to compare Doha and its international airport to Metro Manila and its NAIA as we left and passed by the streets of Doha going to our company’s main office where we will meet up with the HR manager later. My initial remarks to Doha so far are: 1) the international airport is not crowded, exceptionally neat and impressive; 2) no traffic – less vehicles are travelling the streets at that time; 3) the roads are well lighted by the lamp posts stretching each sides of the street; 4) roughly no one are walking around the streets; and 5) the buildings are tall but slim and have bizarre designs and structures. These observations are clearly different as compared to Metro Manila’s present condition.

All these things transpired exactly on March 29, 2011 – One year na ako sa Qatar!