Arnold Ancheta – OFW story of survival, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Me and my housemates were eating at one of our favorite Pinoy restaurant in Batha when I chanced upon a guy who was cleaning the dining tables after customers left and our table too after having our breakfast.
Let’s meet another Kabayan and his simple story.
Born in Bulihan, Silang Cavite is 23 years old Arnold Ancheta. He worked in a printing press in thePhilippines before he set foot in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 2010.
He is the second child of Arnold (deceased) and Shirley Ancheta. His mother, Shirley, 46 yrs. old is working in London as a househelp for 11 years now. His two siblings are Sherilyn Ancheta Garma, 27 yrs. old his eldest sister, married with 2 kids and the youngest, Sherwin Ancheta, 21 yrs. old and is in his 1st year in College.
Arnold married at a very young age of 18 years old to Gwendolyn Ancheta. The couple was blessed with a son named Thirdy Ancheta now 4 years old.
When he was still working at the printing press, he earns 300.00 pesos for 8 hours of work a day, 6 days a week. As most of the companies in the Philippines specially the small ones, it’s a no work no pay scenario. He then took Automotive course in Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to enhance his skills hoping to land better opportunities.
Due to the economic situation in the Philippines, he tried his luck abroad to give his family a good life and set his foot in this oil rich country Saudi Arabia on November 2010 with a contract of 2 years.
He is working in Hara Al Wasarat as pizza maker from 1:00 p.m.- 10:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday without day off with a salary of 1,200 SR. Free food and accommodation are part of the contract. Since Arnold is already a family man, he find ways to augment his income and found a part-time job as a utility man at Pasalubong, a one stop shop store and restaurant of Filipino food, products and delicacies. He goes to work in this part-time job from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and earns extra 600.00 SR a month before he goes to his main job as pizza maker.
Thinking that this is still not enough to support his family and considering his son will be in school soon, he used his talent as a barber and serviced kababayans who wants to avail of his service at 5.00 SR per person. Usually, 5 – 6 persons per week comes to him for hair cut which he said is a good added income which he can use to buy for his personal needs.
If we know how to use our God-given talent, there is no excuse we cannot survive in this word full of competition.
Let’s meet another Kabayan and his simple story.
Born in Bulihan, Silang Cavite is 23 years old Arnold Ancheta. He worked in a printing press in thePhilippines before he set foot in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 2010.
He is the second child of Arnold (deceased) and Shirley Ancheta. His mother, Shirley, 46 yrs. old is working in London as a househelp for 11 years now. His two siblings are Sherilyn Ancheta Garma, 27 yrs. old his eldest sister, married with 2 kids and the youngest, Sherwin Ancheta, 21 yrs. old and is in his 1st year in College.
Arnold married at a very young age of 18 years old to Gwendolyn Ancheta. The couple was blessed with a son named Thirdy Ancheta now 4 years old.
When he was still working at the printing press, he earns 300.00 pesos for 8 hours of work a day, 6 days a week. As most of the companies in the Philippines specially the small ones, it’s a no work no pay scenario. He then took Automotive course in Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to enhance his skills hoping to land better opportunities.
Due to the economic situation in the Philippines, he tried his luck abroad to give his family a good life and set his foot in this oil rich country Saudi Arabia on November 2010 with a contract of 2 years.
He is working in Hara Al Wasarat as pizza maker from 1:00 p.m.- 10:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday without day off with a salary of 1,200 SR. Free food and accommodation are part of the contract. Since Arnold is already a family man, he find ways to augment his income and found a part-time job as a utility man at Pasalubong, a one stop shop store and restaurant of Filipino food, products and delicacies. He goes to work in this part-time job from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and earns extra 600.00 SR a month before he goes to his main job as pizza maker.
Thinking that this is still not enough to support his family and considering his son will be in school soon, he used his talent as a barber and serviced kababayans who wants to avail of his service at 5.00 SR per person. Usually, 5 – 6 persons per week comes to him for hair cut which he said is a good added income which he can use to buy for his personal needs.
If we know how to use our God-given talent, there is no excuse we cannot survive in this word full of competition.
THE BITTERSWEET LIFE OF A UK-BASED NURSE
By Vanessa Austral
Vanessa Austral, 26, worked as a nurse for three years at the Philippine General Hospital before landing a job at the United Kingdom.
On the twenty first summer of my life, I officially became a nurse. Armed with idealism but lacking the wisdom from experience, I embarked on a journey of blood, sweat and tears. I graduated from a nursing college of a posh hospital and I was fully convinced that equality in healthcare is a myth. I told my ambitious self that ?those who have less in life should have more in healthcare,? and if this is not possible in a national scale, at least it can start from within. Defying my parents? wishes, I decided to work in a tertiary hospital which caters to indigent patients. There, I discovered myself.
"I walked the road to disenchantment"
Once, I had 15 patients, one just had a neck surgery, another patient had an abdominal surgery and had severe bleeding in the operating room; both of these patients were freshly out of the recovery room. Another patient just had a lumbar puncture a few hours back, I had two patients on four hourly tube feedings and on top of these were six dengue patients with their anxious parents tirelessly asking me, ?What is the latest platelet count of my baby?" Unfortunately, one of my patients had a cardiac arrest at 10 pm, 30 minutes before my shift ended officially. I went out of the ward, exhausted at 2 am and had a sumptuous meal at Jollibee with another colleague, both of us suffering from low blood sugar and mild dehydration. They say that challenges diminish small passions and increase the great ones as the wind blows out a candle and blows up the bonfire. That morning, I laid my head on a pillow and had a peaceful sleep, at 11 am, I lifted my aching legs off the bed and went to the battlefield they call ?hospital? at 12 pm. This was the gruelling schedule I had for two years but on my third year as a nurse, I walked the road to disenchantment.
"This will not happen to me!"
I had this patient with chronic kidney disease whose blood pressure was way up the mountain. She can?t afford to rent a machine to regulate her condition so we ended up doing the job manually with hurting eyes. Days passed and we all had to contribute for her drugs. I was not surprised when I read the doctor?s entry in the patient?s chart, saying that the family has given up due to financial constraints and that the patient was just awaiting demise. No, it?s not that I can?t deal with death; it was the patient?s daughter.
Coming from a family struggling to make both ends meet, I imagined myself in her place. The pain was too real. This will never happen to me! I will not watch a loved one suffer just because I don?t have the financial means. My passion for helping the indigent dwindled. My work in such an environment was like an exercise in heartbreak. I started losing my idealism as I learned more. Exhaustion was taking its toll on me. La Place law states that tension is directly proportional to difference in pressure; the higher the pressure difference, the greater the tension. The greater the tension, the more one will stretch himself. Perhaps, my job is pulling me in different directions that I became too resilient; I was spreading myself too thinly. Voltaire once said that no one is so wise as to learn from the experience of others. I had enough of this so-called experience. It was the source of my power actually. Experience molded my fastidious mind and my fastidious mind was silently breaking my heart.
Greener pastures
Now, I?m on the fifth year of my career as a nurse and I?m living my dreams. Gone were the days when I have to lend a bag of intravenous fluid from another patient because my patient can?t afford it. Now, I don?t have to shell out my own money to buy a medication for my patient. I no longer find myself in a difficult situation of explaining why a patient?s watcher should go out in the middle of the night because we don?t have this laboratory exam. Here, we don?t wait for days or even sometimes a week to have a computed tomography scan done and it will take only five minutes to have the result of a routine urinalysis right at hand. I opened the medication cupboard of my new ward and found it teeming with supplies, ?if only,? I muttered to myself.
At the end of each month, I have the pleasure of seeing my family smile because of the financial benefits this job brought us. Last month, my sister was hospitalized and thankfully, my fear of seeing a loved one being deprived of treatment due to financial limitations did not come true.
Each day, I lay my head on a pillow and find not the satisfaction I once had after a long day in the hospital. Now, the practice of treating the vital signs machine and the heart monitor (not the patient), is deeply inculcated in me. Every nurse-patient contact is so casual, as casual as a handshake, nothing more and nothing less. What ever happened? Am I too cold to feel? Am I that volatile?
Five years seemed to have passed by too quickly; I sometimes close my eyes and then try to have the feel of yesterday when it was the twenty-first summer of my life, when I was too passionate that I ended up spreading myself too thinly. Now, I am fighting my own tendencies to be complacent, apathetic and lethargic. However, I?m still hopeful that God will send the wind to blow up my bonfire again and when it happens, I will not be afraid if it will take me here or there.
Vanessa Austral, 26, worked as a nurse for three years at the Philippine General Hospital before landing a job at the United Kingdom.
On the twenty first summer of my life, I officially became a nurse. Armed with idealism but lacking the wisdom from experience, I embarked on a journey of blood, sweat and tears. I graduated from a nursing college of a posh hospital and I was fully convinced that equality in healthcare is a myth. I told my ambitious self that ?those who have less in life should have more in healthcare,? and if this is not possible in a national scale, at least it can start from within. Defying my parents? wishes, I decided to work in a tertiary hospital which caters to indigent patients. There, I discovered myself.
"I walked the road to disenchantment"
Once, I had 15 patients, one just had a neck surgery, another patient had an abdominal surgery and had severe bleeding in the operating room; both of these patients were freshly out of the recovery room. Another patient just had a lumbar puncture a few hours back, I had two patients on four hourly tube feedings and on top of these were six dengue patients with their anxious parents tirelessly asking me, ?What is the latest platelet count of my baby?" Unfortunately, one of my patients had a cardiac arrest at 10 pm, 30 minutes before my shift ended officially. I went out of the ward, exhausted at 2 am and had a sumptuous meal at Jollibee with another colleague, both of us suffering from low blood sugar and mild dehydration. They say that challenges diminish small passions and increase the great ones as the wind blows out a candle and blows up the bonfire. That morning, I laid my head on a pillow and had a peaceful sleep, at 11 am, I lifted my aching legs off the bed and went to the battlefield they call ?hospital? at 12 pm. This was the gruelling schedule I had for two years but on my third year as a nurse, I walked the road to disenchantment.
"This will not happen to me!"
I had this patient with chronic kidney disease whose blood pressure was way up the mountain. She can?t afford to rent a machine to regulate her condition so we ended up doing the job manually with hurting eyes. Days passed and we all had to contribute for her drugs. I was not surprised when I read the doctor?s entry in the patient?s chart, saying that the family has given up due to financial constraints and that the patient was just awaiting demise. No, it?s not that I can?t deal with death; it was the patient?s daughter.
Coming from a family struggling to make both ends meet, I imagined myself in her place. The pain was too real. This will never happen to me! I will not watch a loved one suffer just because I don?t have the financial means. My passion for helping the indigent dwindled. My work in such an environment was like an exercise in heartbreak. I started losing my idealism as I learned more. Exhaustion was taking its toll on me. La Place law states that tension is directly proportional to difference in pressure; the higher the pressure difference, the greater the tension. The greater the tension, the more one will stretch himself. Perhaps, my job is pulling me in different directions that I became too resilient; I was spreading myself too thinly. Voltaire once said that no one is so wise as to learn from the experience of others. I had enough of this so-called experience. It was the source of my power actually. Experience molded my fastidious mind and my fastidious mind was silently breaking my heart.
Greener pastures
Now, I?m on the fifth year of my career as a nurse and I?m living my dreams. Gone were the days when I have to lend a bag of intravenous fluid from another patient because my patient can?t afford it. Now, I don?t have to shell out my own money to buy a medication for my patient. I no longer find myself in a difficult situation of explaining why a patient?s watcher should go out in the middle of the night because we don?t have this laboratory exam. Here, we don?t wait for days or even sometimes a week to have a computed tomography scan done and it will take only five minutes to have the result of a routine urinalysis right at hand. I opened the medication cupboard of my new ward and found it teeming with supplies, ?if only,? I muttered to myself.
At the end of each month, I have the pleasure of seeing my family smile because of the financial benefits this job brought us. Last month, my sister was hospitalized and thankfully, my fear of seeing a loved one being deprived of treatment due to financial limitations did not come true.
Each day, I lay my head on a pillow and find not the satisfaction I once had after a long day in the hospital. Now, the practice of treating the vital signs machine and the heart monitor (not the patient), is deeply inculcated in me. Every nurse-patient contact is so casual, as casual as a handshake, nothing more and nothing less. What ever happened? Am I too cold to feel? Am I that volatile?
Five years seemed to have passed by too quickly; I sometimes close my eyes and then try to have the feel of yesterday when it was the twenty-first summer of my life, when I was too passionate that I ended up spreading myself too thinly. Now, I am fighting my own tendencies to be complacent, apathetic and lethargic. However, I?m still hopeful that God will send the wind to blow up my bonfire again and when it happens, I will not be afraid if it will take me here or there.
Vladivostok: Up North and Far East
Angelo Paolo Kalaw
I never thought I would ever set foot in Vladivostok, Russia. Most of us would either visit Moscow or St. Petersburg when coming to this country, and if not chosen to host 2012's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Week, it was honestly a city I never knew existed. True enough, as a friend exclaimed, I was on a real adventure." The idea of coming to Russia, learning a few Slavic words and bringing home a matryoshka doll, was irresistibly exciting.
I had major hesitations about coming because I only had two weeks to get a plane and cram my visa application. But my wanderlust argued the contrary and prevailed. With the high heavens conspiring with me, I found myself landing in the capital of Primorsky region, just 2.5 hours away by plane from Seoul and three time zones away from Manila.
The trip begins with a horror visa story, among the things we should expect at least once in our lifetime for being a non visa-free country. Arriving a day earlier than indicated in my Russian visa, I was held for almost four hours at the small immigration building together with a stoic-faced security, my luggage and the airport dog. This was the price to pay for cramming my visa, and I suddenly felt being in a Cold War movie. Grappling with the language barrier, I was hell scared as they took my fingerprints and posed for a mug shot."
High heavens were still with me. I wasn't escorted back to Seoul though I had to pay a hefty fine (around 3000 rubles). The next four days became the best escapade ever, an immersion to the unique character of the Russian empire.
Vladivostok was originally conceived as a military fortification and homeport of the Russian fleet in the Pacific. It answered my honest curiosity why the people of Vladivostok are predominantly European looking, and the Asian population is too few despite its proximity to China and Korea. There was a chapter in the city's history that it was purely a military base, and it was closed to all civilian life.
Today the city has already opened itself wide, and it is embracing diversity while maintaining its moniker Europe in the East." Vladivostok is poised to be Asia's access to Russia, and likewise, Russia's access to the Asian Century. The place beats with life and excitement and massive investments are underway to transform the city as a growth center. In fact, in preparation for APEC, new roads, hotels, bridges and buildings were built and constructed.
This development momentum reverberates in Vladivostok, and it aptly displaces those stereotypes I had for Russia. As a Filipino, I think that we are more similar to them than we are different we face the same predicament to ply through today's immense global economic and political challenges while constantly seeking to establish a unique identity and role as a nation.
The wonderful people I met at the APEC Youth Festival were just like us. We are like-minded young leaders, students and professionals who worry about our future careers, then at the same time are seriously anxious about globalization and pretty much passionate/excited for our turn to lead our institutions and economies. For three days, we saw international cooperation and dialogue in action. You had China, Russia, United States and Australia, among others in one table and everyone was oozing with fresh ideas and solutions about various APEC agendas on small and medium enterprise development, energy, agriculture and trade.
When in Vladivostok, one should see the Golden Horn Bridge. Inaugurated just a few weeks before our arrival and best seen from the Eagle's Nest Hill, the locals told us that it meant so much for the people to finally have a beautiful bridge just in time when the world is looking at Russia as the APEC host. When it opened, the people joyfully lined up to cover the bridge's length with hands held together. When was the last time we did something like this in Manila?
For history enthusiasts like me, you will see the Memorial to the Fighters for the Soviet Power in the Far East in Central Square in Svetlanskaya, a grand reminder of the city's military history and indelible mark on Russian civic pride. The patriotic statues are set against the backdrop of quaint European-style buildings that roll with the hilly terrains of Vladivostok. Tsar Nikolai II also built the beautiful Triumphal Arc not so far from the square. The C-56 Submarine, one of the most successful ships of the Russian Navy, is also nearby.
The Vladivostok Station along Aleutskaya Street ends the Trans-Siberian railway. The rails are like the umbilical cords of the city to Moscow, which may be 9,200 kilometers away but still commands loyalty and unity from this side of the empire. I am adding the Trans-Siberian train journey as one of my must-dos before I die.
Finally, just in front of the station stands the statue of Vladimir Lenin. Oleg, my Russian friend who walked with me on our last day at the city, explained that all of Lenin's statues point to a certain direction - the road to the utopian society". The locals joke about it that he's saying, We're on the right way, comrades", while pointing at Japan.
Getting exposed in international conferences like this and visiting new places like Vladivostok should become a must for young Filipinos to acquire a global perspective and deepen our understanding of the rapidly evolving world we live in. Meeting diverse people from almost 14 APEC member-economies was an eye-opener to our commonalities and potentials, as well as a chance to reflect and dispel our biases and parochial dispositions.
Of course it was also a perfect opportunity to proclaim that it's more fun in the Philippines". My fellow Filipino Chris was brilliant to bring a lot of Pinoy bookmarks, postcards and souvenirs for our new friends. I strongly believe this should be a habit of every travelling Filipino.
I never thought I would ever set foot in Vladivostok, Russia. Most of us would either visit Moscow or St. Petersburg when coming to this country, and if not chosen to host 2012's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Week, it was honestly a city I never knew existed. True enough, as a friend exclaimed, I was on a real adventure." The idea of coming to Russia, learning a few Slavic words and bringing home a matryoshka doll, was irresistibly exciting.
I had major hesitations about coming because I only had two weeks to get a plane and cram my visa application. But my wanderlust argued the contrary and prevailed. With the high heavens conspiring with me, I found myself landing in the capital of Primorsky region, just 2.5 hours away by plane from Seoul and three time zones away from Manila.
The trip begins with a horror visa story, among the things we should expect at least once in our lifetime for being a non visa-free country. Arriving a day earlier than indicated in my Russian visa, I was held for almost four hours at the small immigration building together with a stoic-faced security, my luggage and the airport dog. This was the price to pay for cramming my visa, and I suddenly felt being in a Cold War movie. Grappling with the language barrier, I was hell scared as they took my fingerprints and posed for a mug shot."
High heavens were still with me. I wasn't escorted back to Seoul though I had to pay a hefty fine (around 3000 rubles). The next four days became the best escapade ever, an immersion to the unique character of the Russian empire.
Vladivostok was originally conceived as a military fortification and homeport of the Russian fleet in the Pacific. It answered my honest curiosity why the people of Vladivostok are predominantly European looking, and the Asian population is too few despite its proximity to China and Korea. There was a chapter in the city's history that it was purely a military base, and it was closed to all civilian life.
Today the city has already opened itself wide, and it is embracing diversity while maintaining its moniker Europe in the East." Vladivostok is poised to be Asia's access to Russia, and likewise, Russia's access to the Asian Century. The place beats with life and excitement and massive investments are underway to transform the city as a growth center. In fact, in preparation for APEC, new roads, hotels, bridges and buildings were built and constructed.
This development momentum reverberates in Vladivostok, and it aptly displaces those stereotypes I had for Russia. As a Filipino, I think that we are more similar to them than we are different we face the same predicament to ply through today's immense global economic and political challenges while constantly seeking to establish a unique identity and role as a nation.
The wonderful people I met at the APEC Youth Festival were just like us. We are like-minded young leaders, students and professionals who worry about our future careers, then at the same time are seriously anxious about globalization and pretty much passionate/excited for our turn to lead our institutions and economies. For three days, we saw international cooperation and dialogue in action. You had China, Russia, United States and Australia, among others in one table and everyone was oozing with fresh ideas and solutions about various APEC agendas on small and medium enterprise development, energy, agriculture and trade.
When in Vladivostok, one should see the Golden Horn Bridge. Inaugurated just a few weeks before our arrival and best seen from the Eagle's Nest Hill, the locals told us that it meant so much for the people to finally have a beautiful bridge just in time when the world is looking at Russia as the APEC host. When it opened, the people joyfully lined up to cover the bridge's length with hands held together. When was the last time we did something like this in Manila?
For history enthusiasts like me, you will see the Memorial to the Fighters for the Soviet Power in the Far East in Central Square in Svetlanskaya, a grand reminder of the city's military history and indelible mark on Russian civic pride. The patriotic statues are set against the backdrop of quaint European-style buildings that roll with the hilly terrains of Vladivostok. Tsar Nikolai II also built the beautiful Triumphal Arc not so far from the square. The C-56 Submarine, one of the most successful ships of the Russian Navy, is also nearby.
The Vladivostok Station along Aleutskaya Street ends the Trans-Siberian railway. The rails are like the umbilical cords of the city to Moscow, which may be 9,200 kilometers away but still commands loyalty and unity from this side of the empire. I am adding the Trans-Siberian train journey as one of my must-dos before I die.
Finally, just in front of the station stands the statue of Vladimir Lenin. Oleg, my Russian friend who walked with me on our last day at the city, explained that all of Lenin's statues point to a certain direction - the road to the utopian society". The locals joke about it that he's saying, We're on the right way, comrades", while pointing at Japan.
Getting exposed in international conferences like this and visiting new places like Vladivostok should become a must for young Filipinos to acquire a global perspective and deepen our understanding of the rapidly evolving world we live in. Meeting diverse people from almost 14 APEC member-economies was an eye-opener to our commonalities and potentials, as well as a chance to reflect and dispel our biases and parochial dispositions.
Of course it was also a perfect opportunity to proclaim that it's more fun in the Philippines". My fellow Filipino Chris was brilliant to bring a lot of Pinoy bookmarks, postcards and souvenirs for our new friends. I strongly believe this should be a habit of every travelling Filipino.