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| Inside the Frankfurt Airport, one of the world's largest and busiest airports. |
It was 8pm already. My flight to
Hong Kong (my first ever international flight) 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. That was my first trip abroad and I resolved to savour every bit of it.
The flight attendant led me to my
seat. Next to me is a slender lady in her late 30s. I smiled at her and decided
to exchange small talks. “You going to Hong Kong?” I asked. “No, I’m heading to
Frankfurt,” I beamed with what I hear. I knew that Hong Kong Airport is an extremely
huge one and you 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 fiancee. The plane landed exactly one
hour before our flight to Germany. “Let’s get up when 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 can’t
remember them. 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
(finally!) and, hallelujah(!)… we reached our plane 15 minutes before
departure. We made it.
At the flight to Frankfurt 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?).
When the plane landed in
Frankfurt, 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. It 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.
It’s been five months now since
my flight to Frankfurt. Lily had given birth for sure! I forgot to ask if it
was a girl or a boy on her womb. 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 may be busy with her domestic
chores in Malta. She may be tending to her master's baby or cooking meals. This 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.
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