As if driven by instinct [or insinuated by her?], I looked at her wrists and found out she had a watch. Not only that, she has marks of wounds on her hands that I find hard to describe. I answered with a lump in my throat, trying to find more of what I could aside from what I already did. "It's 9.05... why? Are you running late?"
She said "No" and asked me another question right away. "Would it be okay to flash my name out?" Or at least, that was how I understood the question. I ruminated on it quickly, as she pulled out this cardboard from her bag showing her name. I said, "No," right away.
She said she's waiting for someone who is picking her up and they don't know each other. I told her not to flash her name because paranoia struck me that some bad guys might play a prank [at the least] on her and tell her they are the ones and might end up doing things. Yeah, I just find this act okay when you are at the airport, but not when you are in a bus station. There's also the chance that the police might spot-check her and all; I am not sure yet - and still had to ask - what kind of visa was she holding.
So, she told her story. She's been here for about three weeks now, working in Sharjah as a housemaid. No stories of maltreatment but the fact that she's working for a family of seven kids plus the husband and wife. The job is too much for her to handle. Washing all the clothes and dishes manually. Her visa expires in one week and doesn't want to continue. But her employers are trying to be nice to her the past few days when she announced that she's not interested. It turned out she's currently on visit/tourist visa and she escaped from her employer. When I asked for her passport, she said and motioned that it's under her bra. I said, "Ok, let it be."
It turned out her niece's friend is picking her up and they haven't met yet. I was supposed to be back to the office after this appointment but instinct told me to stay with her until she's with the person who's picking her up. It turned out she doesn't have a mobile so I said, give me the contact person and I'll call her to ask for their location. She ended up texting me for the number of the person. I waited and finally called the number. The lady said that she's still about 15-20 minutes away from us. She asked me if I can wait, adding please at the end of the sentence. I told her I'll wait. Until finally, 30 minutes after, she came and took her away.
My heart bleeds for this... even if it was already two days ago. It's hard to just make it go away. We've heard of these stories time and time again. But I never thought it would feel different when you've actually encountered one. Closed to tears, hands still bearing all the wounds, eyes expressing too much disappointment. Instead of assuring her that I'd stay until she meets with these people, I ended up convincing her that she can trust me. It wasn't hard though, because in her situation at that moment, that's the only thing she needed. I didn't leave her because of fear that she just might end up with some vultures of our own skin... which would have been the saddest part.
The photo above was taken while I was on my way to that appointment before this incident. Little did I know that I will have this encounter. The irony of it is, a lot of us feel proud to be OFWs. And the reason why I took this picture [while on a bus] is that I find a certain dignity seeing this on cars.
But how can one be dignified if she's being humiliated, deprived and overworked.
How can she be proud of what her life came about?
No comments:
Post a Comment