FIVE FOR FIGHTING!

It is a Sunday (for Moslem countries, the Monday is a Sunday) which makes it all the more grueling for me to control my irritation towards work, “keep the Lord’s day holy” as it was written. But here in the UAE, that’s hard to keep as it is the first day of work (for those who don’t know yet, Moslems’ holy day is Friday). If you are lucky you get Friday and Saturday as days-off from work, otherwise, you only get Friday.

It is hard for me to start my newly set-up website (see: http://chermahoney.webs.com/apps/blog/) with an “angsty” entry but I can’t bear to write a sugar-coated one just to please the reader. So I started this website-slash-blog to document life as an OFW here in the Middle East as it really is, with some toppings of my usual sarcasm, occasional emotional meltdowns and my drama-queen induced interpretations of things. 

I set foot in Arabian soil on 15^th of October 2009, and being here for almost 5 years now has definitely changed me a lot –hoping that it is for the better. I “hopefully” became more patient, I try to look at things from different viewpoints and I keep trying to have a positive outlook in life. I have no other choice because I won’t do these things, I will not be able to survive the “sandy, jungle” that is the UAE.

I am starting to write again, hence this blog, and chose the viewpoint of a third-world-er in a first world country simply because it’s the environment that I am exposed to for 5 years now. And since most of my artistic dreams have materialized (and some, within reach), why not pay tribute to the experience that made it all happen – my being an OFW in Abu Dhabi for 5 years.

Definitely, I cannot make excuses anymore now. I have my laptop, iPad, iPhone, iPod, DSLR and reliable internet connection everywhere I go, everything I needed to let the creative juices flow and continue to create what others may call art. Because I’ll never know when will I be back from being an OFW to the “free-lancer” (take note of the dash) I once was and earn my living by writing and taking pictures.

I want to share those experiences to others to also show them that being an overseas Filipino worker isn’t always about earning big, it is, for the most part, sacrifices brought about by the love for family. These adventures and misadventures are sad, funny, memorable, cuh-razy and action-packed. I would like you to join me in the journey through my first-hand account and maybe a lot of photos (and of course, my over-rated social media posts). 

Here’s hoping to keep the traffic in this part of blogosphere. Thanks netizens of the world!