Jetsetter OFW

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AT AN airport, Belle and I are each waiting for a taxi to go to another airport. She looks at me and I notice her looking at me when I glance at her. We both look away and I stifle a laugh at having to look away. I look at her again and this time it leads to a casual exchange of "Pinoy ka ba?"

We agree to share a cab to go to another airport where we'll take our flight back to our host country in East Asia. Belle and I are Filipino expat workers. We spend over three hours together at the second airport, enough time to know what we want to know about each other. I'm not sure if she's interested in my life as an OFW (overseas Filipino worker), but I certainly am in hers.

Belle is in her forties, separated from her husband with whom she has a son. This is her fourth time within a year to holiday in the Philippines. I envy her for the luxury that her bank account affords: four holidays in a year! From afar, you could mistake her for an officeworker or a teacher at an international school.

"You're very lucky you have an employer that pays you really handsomely you can jetset often," I tell her. Of course we talk in chicharon Tagalog.

"Truth is, I didn't want to go on a vacation this time."

"Why? You can afford it."

"No, I can't. I can never spend a cent on a plane ticket for a vacation."

"So why did you holiday then?" I ask, meaning to unravel the mystery of Belle.

"It wasn't really a vacation. Stayed home the entire time I was in the Philippines. Each time you go out while back home in the Philippines, your finances get worst." Belle laughs at the idea of a holiday that doesn't involve at least one visit to Jollibee with her son. Her eyes search for the horizon which is not visible at the waiting area outside the airport.

"How so?"

"My amo (boss) forced me to go home for a week. He buys the ticket using his Miles points. He said the points were about to expire and he had already purchased the ticket when I decided against going home. So I went."

"Who's your amo? What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a domestic helper (DH) and my 'amo' is an airline pilot. He and his wife, the whole family, they've been very kind to me. They know I'm a single mom so they insist I take leave when their schedules allow for it, and they pay for the airfare."

"You're one lucky DH," I say and I mean it.

"Indeed. And I hope my employers don't feel I've been abusing them because I've loaned so much money from them already."

"Why so?" I ask, wondering if she's the one-day-millionaire type of OFW.

"I want a house of my own. Whatever it takes," Belle declares, her eyes proud and sad at the same time. "So one time I went home I signed a contract to buy a house near Fairview. I'm paying for it now and sometimes my monthly pay is just not enough so I keep borrowing from them. The past few months though have been a bit easier than before so I've not borrowed from them again. I'm still paying up for the old loans though."

I ask her to cite figures so I can get a good picture of her financial situation. And she talks excitedly about it while munching Skyflakes at the airport. I smoke a stick of Marlboro the length of eternity wondering why I haven't invested in a house yet. Her monthly pay isn't a fifth of mine and yet she shines in the personal finance department.

"All these months, I never go out of my amo's house during my off days so I never have to spend on anything unnecessary," Belle says. "I go to church and that's all. They insist that I go out to relax and I insist on staying in my room. And I'm prepared for this kind of life until my house is fully paid up."

While she narrates her lifestory (yup, she also talks about how she and the ex-hubby parted ways), a group of Filipino teachers who've also left the Philippines for better pay are exchanging notes on how they send money home for their mortgage, and which new housing project is hot in Cavite or some other province. I admire Belle's sharp focus on what she wants for her family's future. There's the rub in her resolve: She asked her son to quit school for one year just so she could pay the mortgage. I'd rather grow old and be thrown in some geriatric care centre than be an old ex-OFW with a nice house and a son who's unprepared for the world of work.

Belle and I say our goodbyes after picking our luggage from the airport carousel. She goes looking for her pilot amo who's her chauffeur tonight while I search the phone number of a fellow Pinoy driving a kolorum taxi.

That was nearly a year ago. If I were to enumerate the factors that have led to my desperate want for a house of my own, Belle would be one of them.

Today I'm waiting for confirmation that the developer of my condo unit has received my first monthly downpayment.

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::: THE PICTURE: I told my property agent I don't want any sight such as this to spoil my surroundings once I move to my new condo.

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::: My tracks: Note for braggart_21: Your post on Savings is informative, including personal details of how you manage your finances. I wish I, too, were born to a landed family :) Thanks for the info on DBP's program for OFWs.

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