Repatriated OFW seeks new horizons after Lebanon

Dolorita "Bebie" Sarzuelo, 34, prayed to high heavens her female Lebanese employer won't catch her stealthily leaving the household in Beirut, a year and eight months after she was taken in as a domestic helper.

Pretending to dispose of household garbage on the early Saturday morning of July 22, she stuffed a few pieces of clothes into a trash bag uncertain how to make it alive out of war-torn Lebanon, but hopeful that despite being penniless would be able to make it safe to the evacuation center run by a Filipino priest.

Bebie is from Bantayan island, but settled with her husband and three kids aged 10, nine and seven at Villa Santa Cruz, San Isidro, Talisay City. She was one of the overseas Filipino workers, belonging to the third batch, repatriated here after the hostility between Israel and Lebanon eventually ended up in aggression.

Bebie said she was earning US$150 every month in Badaro, Beirut. Though it was specified in the contract that she signed with her agency she was supposed to receive $200 monthly, she kept her mouth shut to avoid further trouble. Also, for the strong reason that the amount is a lot better compared to what she was getting back here when she was still working for a poultry feeds producer, she zipped her mouth, set aside complaints, and went off to begin work as a domestic help.

Prior to that, she first left her family in favor of work in Kuwait in 2002 where she had a two-year contract as a nanny.

"I used to work as a warehouse controller for this feeds company here in Cebu and it spanned five years. My husband also worked as a sales boy for another feeds company. Then, after years of marriage it dawned on us that even with our combined efforts, our income here was not enough to cover all the expenses for the needs of our growing family, especially that the kids already started going to school," Bebie explained.

She said she wasn't able to complete requirements for her computer programming studies, but nevertheless pursued a caregiving course offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority that she used in her job application for Kuwait.

After her contract in Kuwait, she decided to come home and spend some quality time with her family she missed. Then, reconsidered applying for another job in Kuwait impressed with the "better life she is providing her family."

Unfortunately, she was told there is an agency policy that once an OFW finishes her contract in Kuwait, she wouldn't be hired again to work for same country. This policy is reportedly drafted to avoid those who might be leaving their employers without the knowledge of the agency. Some OFWs had already done this in the past wherein once they become familiar with the place and get enough knowledge and courage to move around that certain place, they start leaving their employers to hunt for better-paying jobs.

As it was impossible that time for a rehire in Kuwait, Bebie opted for Lebanon and left her family again on October 26, 2004 for a two-year contract there. She said she was so eager to avail of the one-year extension had the war not broken out.

Her employers were pensioners, she said. The husband formerly worked as a bank manager and that his wife used to work in a hospital. The household she was serving was located at the fifth floor of a nine-story building in Badaro.

Bebie described them saying; "in fairness my employers were both good to me, only that they did not allow me to come home when the war broke out on July 12, saying we're safe and that we're okay."

But when Israel started pounding the airport of Lebanon in one of the air strikes they launched, her employers told her they were to evacuate to a mountainous place called Zahle, which is an hour's drive from their location.

Bebie said she was uncomfortable with the idea, so she planned an escape.

At the height of the war when all stores near their place closed shop, her male employer took care of shopping for their needs going as far as Syria. On July 22, Saturday, while he was on the 24-hour trip to Syria from Lebanon, she took advantage of his absence.

She recounted she slipped out of the house jittery, heart pounding like the very earth shaken by the mortars that fell on Beirut. She did this in the early morning while her female employer was still fast asleep. Earlier, she had made her preparations by hurriedly stuffing a few pieces of clothing into a trash bag. Then, she went out of the house pretending to throw household waste.

"Heaven was in favor of my plan because nobody saw me leaving the area. Not even the Lebanese guard on duty named Mohamad whom I was afraid of. It was a good thing he too had fallen fast asleep," Bebie shared; an expression of relief was evident in her voice.

With courage mustered at the thought of wanting to return to her family alive and doses of persistent prayer to survive the ordeal, she was able to hail a taxicab right away and left the place. Since she had no money as she was not able to receive yet her salary for the month of July which she supposedly receives every end of the month, she asked the cabbie to take her to the evacuation center at the Saint Jude church in Asrapeye where she lived with some 1,000 other OFWs displaced by the war.

Bebie said she was just so grateful that despite the congestion at the center and them sleeping on the cold concrete floor without mats, they had enough food supply.

She together with the rest of the evacuees stayed for two weeks at the center. After that, they traveled to Syria where they were stranded for four days waiting for their plane tickets.

From Syria, she said, they again traveled to Cyprus and then to Doha, Kuwait, where they boarded a Qatar Airways flight, for Manila.

After touching down in Manila they stayed for another five days at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration office for the shipping tickets to Cebu.

Despite the ordeal, Bebie said this didn't stop her from dreaming again of better lives for her children. She said she is hopeful that her application for a caregiving slot in Taiwan would yield positive result.

"It is rare for one to find a good-paying job here. As a parent, it is my earnest desire to be a good provider to my family, so that I have to embark on crossing oceans to be able to find a good job that is matched with a good compensation package," Bebie pointed out.

"The scars of Lebanon can be healed in time, but I can't close my eyes to the pangs brought about by hunger. After Lebanon, life has to move on," she said.