MY OFW D-DAY

The day of my leaving and sojourn to the middle east has come...I am leaving for DOHA, Qatar through ETIHAD Airways and my flight will be from manila to Abu Dhabi with a connecting flight to DOHA, Qatar...I went to the last briefing at the recruitment agency office wherein our contract was explained to us, the documents that we need to bring, the explanation we needed to explain to the visa reader because the position on our visas were different from those that were in our poea applications...it was explained to us that the position mentioned in the visa was for visa entry only and that the position in our labor contract was our real positions and that we should tell the visa reader about these...after the briefing I went home to paranaque to prepare my bags because we agreed as a group...there was 8 of us and that we will meet in the OFW Lounge...at the NAIA airport...although our flight was still at 1 am of Feb. 26, 2009 we rushed to the airport at around 8 pm...I met the liason officer at the entrance because all my papers was with him and after receiving it from Kuya Andy the first hurdle was at the entrance gate...where the guards looked busy as if trying to read my etickets, passport and other documents then we were waved in...to the first x-ray inspection...I had to take off my jacket, shoes and cell phone...after going through that...we headed to the visa reader line...these visa readers were moslems or Maranaws or tausogs...and...we had a short run-in with them because of our visa entries but was eventually a-okyed after we tried to looked for a xeroxed machine at the airport lounge and we eyed an OWWA extention office and when we asked 'Pwede bang magpa xeroxed? The OWWA guy said hindi po pwede dahil hindi po pang commercial eto po??? again as expected you have another gov't employee paid by our OWWA dues who refuse to help an OFW just to have a document xeroxed???(As expected pinahihirapan ka para medyo magbigay ka ng pera for them to help you??? a very dissapointing experience but expected from a government paid employee pretending to be a bureaucrat...hay OWWA...nanaman you are there to help OFWs like us not to make life difficult for us so that we just have to cough up a few hundred pesos for a photocopy..., after which we headed to the checkin counter...as I feared for my belonging to exceed their weight I was told that they had no weight restrictions for my baggage which was pegged at 30.33 kilos...I was saved....I took the boarding passess issues tro us and we were off to the terminal entrance...being ofws we just had to show our OECs and passports and were exempted to pay the 750 terminal fee this is more like it...then off to immigration na kami...we did not have any hitches in immigration ...so we trooped to the last passenger security and baggage inspection...so tangal nanaman ang sapatos, jacket, cellphone, barya, sinturon...and after that yehey off to duty free kami pero wala naman kaming pera.kendi meron pa at skyflakes...so what's an OFW to do in these trying times after the stressful queing and unqueing at NAIA?...maupo ka na lang sa tabi at mag text-text ka na sa loved once at ka berks mo dahil this is the last time na mag tetext ka ng piso...kasi pag abroad mo na...naka roaming kana... pag announce ng paging...announcing ETIHAD airways bound for ABU Dhabi...please proceed to gate no. 6 because you will be boarding soon...you get the feel na paalis kana talaga... pagpasok mo na sa tube...eto nas...eto na...wahhhhhhh dobidobido sa DOHA KO...wahhhhh!!!boarding na tol!!! THis is the start of a 5 hour flight to Abu Dhabi...ang daming pasahero...boeing 777-300 pa kamo...sus andaming OFWs ...you can just turn your head around and you can see the whole supply chain business of grinding out OFWS from the Philippines ever present bumper to bumper...this is the moment...after seating down the airplane seats and taxing to the runway...the deafening silence of everybody as you all prepare for the take off was immiment...and as I have been training time and time again...I did the sign of the cross and envoked a silent prayer as the rolls royce engines of the plane were shrieking and the thuds of the landing gears was making the plane bounce I said my Our Fathers, My Hail Marys, and my Glory Be's.."Lord watch over me and specially with my family...Give me the strength to face my challenges and fears...guide me through this life changing experience of becoming an OFW...a strager in a strange land but deep down inside I know that I am no stranger at all because I have more than 11 million filipino brothers and sisters spread throught the world...and may God Bless us All!!!!