Gelli Rose Saludo BSEDEN

2-1
'My Life as an OFW'
. (Ms. Jean Rosario)
Posted at Jan 18 2012 08:54 AM | Updated as of Jan 18 2012 04:54 PM
Since my parents passed away when I was 9 months old, I grew up with my godmother and her daughter. My
godmother’s daughter and I were the same age and she became like a sister to me. Even though I never learned what it
is like to be loved by one’s own mother and father, these people gave me the feeling of having a home and I consider
them my family.
A friend in Manila was encouraging me to become an OFW and my adventurous nature drove me to leave the country.
I thought I might be able to find overseas what was missing in my life. I left for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1995 for a
two-year contract, when I was 26 years old. People told me I shouldn’t go to an Arabic country and warned me of the
massive cultural differences, but I wanted to make my own experiences. When I arrived I already knew that things
wouldn’t be as expected. Even though I arrived in my employer’s home late at 2 in the morning, I had to get up at 6
a.m. and start to work; not as a babysitter as written in my contract, but as a domestic helper.
And even the number of the family members I had to look after was not as I was told. Instead of three people I had to
clean up the mess of six people.
The two-year contract I signed assured me of a US$250 salary a month, but I was only paid US$200. I was told it
was due to a salary deduction for agency fees, so I accepted it because I had no other choice. I was already in Saudi
Arabia and I would rather work for less money than leave right away without a single dollar. I wouldn’t be able to help
my family at all, if I do not accept these conditions and helping my family to have a better life was my biggest
motivation.My daily life in Riyadh was not really livable. The family I was working for held back my salary and sent it
straight back to the Philippines, so there was nothing left for me. I did not even have days off where I could do things I
could have spent my money on.
Apart from the language barrier I had to deal with and which challenged me a lot because Arabic is really hard to pick
up, most of the time I had to stay inside and was not allowed to leave the property. To adapt myself to the Arabic
culture I had to wear a Burka, which is a robe that veils one’s whole body except for a little slit for the eyes. There
were a few Filipinos around who maybe could have given me a sense of home, but I was also not allowed to talk to
them. I was isolated for most of the time and I felt really lonely.
I was not satisfied at all with my working conditions, but I was also afraid, that it would have been my fault if I would
have reneged on my contract. I didn’t want to get fined by the agency and return to the Philippines with no money in
my pocket.
Things became worse and turned into a nightmare when the man of the family started to take an interest in me. He
tried to get my attention and kept on touching me, even though I ignored it and showed him that I do not want what he
was doing to me.
I felt really uncomfortable every time he was around me and he probably knew that I was avoiding him. So he found
other ways to catch me alone. One day, someone knocked three times at my door, the same way the boy I was looking
after would knock. This time the man entered instead. He approached me and started to touch me and tried to kiss me.
I knew what he wanted and there was nothing I could do. There was no way for me to escape. I said to him, “Do what
you want, but kill me afterwards.”
But even this intense expression didn’t make him stop. So the last thing I could think of to make him leave me alone
was to address his faith. I started chanting words of Allah which are sacred for Muslims for 20 times or more. My
desperate try to make him remember that he is a human being and not an animal made him eventually desist and he
promised me that this will never happen again.
But he did not keep his promise. There was another time when he started another advance. I was alone with him in the
elevator and suddenly he put his hand on my mouth and came closer to me. I immediately dropped the watermelon I
was carrying at that time to show him that I don’t like what he was doing. I made it clear that I did not want all this. He
broke his promise. How could I trust that he would not attempt another try? I wanted to leave the country before the
contract was finished and asked for my passport which was taken away from me and retained by the family. I had no
choice, but the husband convinced me to stay and promised me again that he will leave me alone. All he wanted was
for me to stay, because they could not find another ‘babysitter’ like me.
The wife treated me nicely. She did not know about the attempts of her husband. But the daughter-in-law, who was
also living with them, looked down on me and would always rush me with the cleaning. She didn’t really treat me like
a human being, but more like an unworthy working machine. I wondered why some people enjoy bossing others
around? I always had to help the other Indonesian domestic worker, because I couldn’t afford to watch someone
working while I just sit around.
Another hard time I experienced was the time during Ramadan. During this month, Muslims only eat before and after
sunrise. I also had to conform to this tradition, so I was not allowed to eat during daytime. I had to be awake until 3
a.m. and because I was starving I would hide in the bathroom to eat. Sitting there inside the bathroom, a place where
one is not supposed to eat, made me realize how undignified my life was. All I could do to have the strength to go
through all this was to think of my family and the thought of being able to help and support them. I always had to keep
that in mind, which was sometimes really hard, because I haven’t had any contact at home. I was able to talk to my
‘sister’ on the phone only once. But even that one call lasted only for 10 minutes.
Sometimes the family would buy me expensive necklaces and give me money as a present, probably just to make them
feel better. But they meant nothing to me. They wanted me to extend my stay because they said no one could replace
me. The husband argued that other friend’s families also have Filipino maids and that it would be normal. But I told
him that I am different. After two years, I finally returned to the Philippines.
I went back to the province and stayed at my family’s farm to help those people who helped me and gave me a home.
From the money I saved in Saudi Arabia, I was able to buy 1.5 hectares of land for my family and I started a small
business.