On my arrival, midnight of October 10, 2006. I was directed to a line at the immigration. 6 very loooong lines of almost all women...mostly Pinays. Since ours was a direct PAL flight, we had endured 9 hours on the plane already... seeing new faces was most welcome.
Saudi men. That's the first thing we saw.
The first time to see men in dresses & cloaks, kissing one another was strange. Ay mga bakla (Gays), you'll never see that in my part of the world.
They were laughing happy, all men, among themselves but once they faced us, women, all turned formal, cold, not even a "welcome to the kingdom", barely looking at us....you'll never see that in my part of the world.
Surprised that I was told to surrender my passport and wait for my sponsor to come. I found that strange but as all the women were giving up their passport, I followed. I got my luggage from the conveyor belt, as everyone did and made sure my phone was open for any calls. Slowly saw all the women forming the longest line ever ...but the feeling I got was that of a herd of animals being rounded up...not good. They left for where? I don't know but I was told to wait so I waited.
I waited...and waited...until I was all alone by the baggage counter...all lonesome by myself. You know that feeling of being the last person in the world, in an airport, at 1 am in the morning? Only the echo of my voice could be heard. I finally called Dr. B (my boss) and he said a Mr. B would pick me up, the hospital administrator.
30 minutes later, sitting by my lonesome, an airport security guard who did not speak a word of english started ordering me to go to the REAL immigration line. My baggage was opened and searched & for the first time in the kingdom I saw a smile. But the smile had a "naughty-look" to it. Yikes! What is it with people here, haven't they heard of "hospitality"???!!!!
I was led to a woman's waiting reception hall, more of like a "glamorized but huge" prison cell than a hall, walls with designs, carpeted but musty. Full of Filipinos, Indonesians, Asians...all women. My first taste of women segregation. I hated the place. A hall with double decker beds, but most of us were sitting on the floor...idle. About 50 or more of us...seated.....waiting. It was humiliating.
Strict airport women not allowing you to even go out of the reception once you're inside. A feeling of being looked down upon creeps into you. Especially when a lady hollers and shouts for a specific group to line up...reminiscent of slaves being rounded up to meet their masters. Worst was I lost my telephone signal and was beginning to worry. How in the world would Mr. B find me among all these halls (about 4-5 halls), amidst hundreds of women!
Finally I figured out thatthese women were all domestic helpers waiting to be brought to their final Saudi province. Then I saw another hall for health professionals with sofas and a bit an upgrade of where I was staying. So....this was where I belonged. I decided to stay there for awhile, met a fellow pinay, a nurse who made me understand.
The way of the kingdom for newly arrived women was to wait for their male sponsors are their representatives to pick them up from these halls and be brought to their final work place. There were only 2 kinds of women who entered the kingdom....domestics or nurses.
Peering through a small window, I saw the men swarming over a counter fighting over getting the women who had come. What is this? I felt like a commodity being sold over the counter and hand picked. They were the sponsors bringing the goods home.
Alas Mr. b came. Relieved at last of all my worries and fears! It took them 3 hours to fix my documents for release since it was the first time that their clinic was hiring a doctor from the Philippines.
It was 3 in the morning and the whole kingdom was still asleep.
The queen arrived feeling more like a slave, a prisoner.
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