Dubai Trip
Dubai Trip
People go abroad to make money.
Some go abroad to have fun.
She wants to travel out too to make money
She tried going to Saudi Arabia
It did not click
Her neighbour works with a tourist company.
She was offered an opportunity to go Dubai.
The place is also full of milk and honey they say.
Her neighbour processed the visa with a loan advanced to her.
Their agreement is that she will pay in monthly instalment from the salary she will earn when working over there
She was connected to an agent
Who got her a job as a nanny.
She travelled shortly before the end of the year and resumed work immediately.
She is to be in uniform always.
Her international passport was collected from her.
She will not have any day off work.
Her duty for each day starts as soon as the children she is tending to wakes up
And ends when they sleep.
There were three of them.
Her meal is the remnants from the family dinning table.
When there is no remnant there is no meal for that feeding time.
In just three days that she got there she regretted it.
She was signed on a two year contract.
She made up her mind to endure for a year and she will ask to leave.
Along the way her employer increased her work load
She was made to do laundry and housekeeping together with the nanny work
Whenever she complain of body pains
She was told to take paracetamol for relief
After four months
She was taken to another family on sub contract.
She was contracted into a new two years contract with the new family.
She was not even informed of this arrangement.
She heard from the children of the new family.
She objected to this new arrangement.
She asked to be returned home to Nigeria.
That was when she started seeing the real colour of the agent.
He called her ingrate and threaten her with all sorts.
He started charging her bills
For services she was not aware of.
He told her she may have to get over millions of naira to settle the bills before she leaves or she stay back to pay for it all.
The agent was always hurling insults at her any time she asks when she will leave for Nigeria.
He called her unprintable names.
All because she asked to leave.
Every day since the drama of going home started she prayed.
She prayed like she had never done before.
Meanwhile she was made to dress up in pudah.
She was even persuaded into being a Muslim.
She was taken to Mecca.
The employer felt she should be grateful for all these.
She was not.
On the contrary she felt imprisoned.
She just wanted to go back home.
Every morning she pace the few tiles of her sleeping corner (she sleeps with another maid in the laundry room)
Having a serious communication with her maker.
She refused to see her coming back before two years as impossible.
The Lord heard her prayers.
In the middle of the night of the sixth month
She was called by the agent to get ready to leave for home, Nigeria.
She didn't bathe.
She packed her bag hurriedly.
The agent came in a cab to take her to the airport.
Shortly before they got to the airport
He got down and told her he won't reach the airport with her.
She collected her passport from him
She didn't know why he will not get to the airport with her
Until she was detained at the airport.
She was told her visa had expired by two days.
Apparently, her agent cancelled the old contract
With the intention of processing a new one
Then the issue of going back came up.
He deliberately delayed taking her back on due time
It is to punish her for spoiling his business
The agent earns commission from her salary
The money she earned in the last month was given to her in cash.
She used the money to settle the penalties.
She arrived Nigeria looking rough.
Her first son sent someone to pick her up from the airport.
She had no home to get back to
No job for source of income
She had not even paid up the loan advanced to her to travel
Her son took up the remaining debt
She stayed few days with friends and family alternatively
She could not cope with the conditions of living with them
One of her aunties helped her get a job as a matron in a boarding school
She took up the job and started afresh again
What she was seeking abroad
Is right in her pocket
If she had known
She would not have wasted her time travelling abroad
Abike 2018
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