The grass on the other side is never greener, is a true account of Muthali life searching for greener pasture in the UAE.
Muthali a Kenyan young woman, is promised a job as a Sales Manager in the beautiful city of Dubai. When she arrives the middle east, she is cheated.
Her passport is taken away from her and she has to endure a life of hardship. As she shares her moving experience, you'll meet some of the dubious characters who color her life in all shades. You will cry along the way but ultimately fall in love with her fierce determination to succeed at all costs.
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
It was a very hot day and the walk to the car took some time, we were so amazed at the level of heat. I broke out in a sweat as did the other girls, but the shock of what had just happened temporarily left us all numb and quiet.
After a short drive, we were driven to what looked like a brothel. It was a very suspicious looking building.It reminded me of one of those places policemen discovered underage sex workers on television documentaries.
We sat in the car like prisoners, looking out of the window as the driver parked the car and waited for him to give us further instructions.
He turned his head to the back where we sat packed tightly like sardines and looked at us for a moment. It felt like he was about to say something but then his phone rang.
As soon as he finished, he spoke to us in his broken English. "Out! you all of you...sleep there!"
He handed us about a hundred Dirhams, pointed to a Filipino man at the gate and told us he would show us where to buy some food.
As we got out of the car he sped off and we could hear the screeching sound of the tires.
Immediately, the gate man walked towards us and ushered us into what looked like an apartment.
The girls and I held hands, I looked at the other girls and I could tell they were feeling the same way I was feeling, there was fear written all over our faces. Instantly I began to feel cold and shivery. My mind traveled out of my body I started to think of the worst.
The brothel looking place was a dingy one room apartment filled with probably about fifteen girls, they all looked of Asian heritage to us. As we walked into the room, we exchanged pleasantries but they fell on deaf ears. We were greeted with cold stares, and that made us feel very uncomfortable.
Quickly, they began to throw their weight around us to make sure we understood that we were not welcome and so we all stood in a corner and watched them because we didn't know what else to do. All the beds were occupied and there was really nowhere for us to sit. The room was very stuffy and smelt damp. Even though it seemed like there was an air conditioning sound, I could hardly tell where it was or where the sound was coming from.
The room was so crowded there was almost no ventilation. My heart sank and I choked back tears.
Eventually, we just curled up in our corner and started to pray. It started with some singing and then somehow we ended up weeping because we got really scared.
The Asian girls stared at us as we cried but we didn't care anymore at that point. We are terrified and heartbroken.
My mind flashed back to all the stories that I had heard about girls being lured to places like Italy with dreams of a better life and promises of gainful employment. I had heard that immediately they got abroad, their passports were seized and they were forced to prostitute. Even though our passports had been seized, I comforted myself with the fact that the agent had once told me it could never happen in the UAE because of its strict religious laws. When I shared this information with the girls, they wept even more because we knew that our agent had done nothing but lie to us from the beginning of our journey.
That night, we ate the leftover snacks I had with me and we slept on the bare floor with our handbags close to our chests as if we had prized possessions in them.
The next morning, we saw the girls cooking using portable electric stoves, we were so hungry that we stared at their food. They didn't offer us any, instead, they showed us where we could buy groceries.
Outside, there was another Filipino guard who watched our every move like a Hawk. He walked us to the grocery which was opposite the apartment with his eyes and we could feel him monitoring us as we walked in and out.
In hindsight, if we knew what our ordeal was going to be, we could have run away. I guess we were just naive and stupid at the same time. We did think about it though, it was just that we didn't have any money or anyone to run to.
Five days passed by and no-one came to see us or talk to us except for another Filipino man who brought a few beds for us. They were very tiny beds and the mattresses were heavily infested with bed bugs. The first night we slept in them was horrific, we itched all over the next morning. We decided that sleeping on the floor was a much better idea.
The Asian girls also began to warm up to us after some days, they told us they were from Sri Lanka and assured us that we were not in a brothel, they had been there for a couple of weeks and had just completed some training in housekeeping.
When we questioned them further, they explained to us that we were likely to get jobs as cleaners in hotels because we spoke good english. They also encouraged us to remain optimistic and so we began to hope for the best.
After about a week and a half later, the same man who picked us from the airport came to the dingy room we lived. He told us that he was taking us to meet our boss, so we dressed up and went with him to the Office .
It was a very neat and decent building. As soon as we arrived there, we were ushered into a small board room. It was very elegant and tastefully furnished and we whispered among ourselves about why we had been given such a shabby place to live when the office looked so pristine.
The manager came in after we were seated, he was an Indian man. He offered us some juice and smiled a little. Immediately he began to tell us what our jobs were.
We were to wash toilets.
As soon as those words came out of his mouth, we all fell silent. In my mind I began to think really quickly. I asked myself how I got into this mess. I didn't even wash toilets in Kenya, how would I do that here? It was as if I had received a blow to my head.
I guess to clear the air of silence in the room, he began to ask us all about our qualifications and if we had any working experience. My hopes were raised a little, quickly I spoke up and said to him, "Sir I have a Diploma in Business Administration." He looked at me, nodded and said Alhamdulillah. I didn't know what that meant but from the look on his face it felt like he said, that's awesome you won't need that in your new job.
I wasn't satisfied so I opened my mouth to speak again. Somehow, it was as if the girls had made me the official speaker.
"Sir, we didn't come here to wash toilets, they told us we will work as waitresses…"
He put his hand up motioning for me to stop talking. Then he spoke sharply to all of us "I am a very busy man, we paid for your tickets and visa and we will be paying you salaries that will take care of you and your families, do your jobs otherwise you will be sent to prison, this is the end of the meeting." He rose up from his seat and we were obliged to do the same.
His assistant who had been standing by the door very quietly all this while opened the door and asked us to leave the office.
We were even more shell-shocked than we had ever been.
On our way to the car, we asked the assistant if he knew anything about our salary, he said we would be well compensated and he grumpily handed us over to the driver.
The next day, three of was were driven to Abu Dhabi, and as usual no one was expecting us, neither was there any accommodation so we were dropped off at an office to sleep. As soon as the driver drove into the office car park, a uniformed guard walked up to him and began asking him some questions in Arabic.
We watched them argue back and forth and after a few minutes the driver made some calls. We didn't know what he was saying because he spoke more Arabic. A few minutes passed by and then he handed the phone to the guard.
The guard must have been getting some kind of clearance because as soon as he got off the phone, he led us to an office and told us to sleep there. We didn't ask any questions, we were very tired and it was already late.
We quickly showered in the office toilet and slept under the desks. It was a very restful sleep because the air condition worked and there were no mosquitoes, we would have continued to sleep if not for some voices and footsteps that jolted us out of our sleep.
It was already morning and another man came to us. He walked into the office where we were still lying down and asked us to get up, go out and look for accommodation.
"Sir, we are new here, how do we know where to go and find a place we can live?" I asked him confusedly.
He yelled at us to first get out of the office and then we would find a taxi waiting outside. As we scrambled under his fury, He hissed, cursed under his breath and called us Black and dirty.
We knew we were Africans and dark-skinned but dirty we were not, I was so close to lashing out at him, but one of the girls spoke to me in Swahili telling me that if the man killed us all, no one would ever know. I swallowed my tongue and walked out with them in anger.
True to his word, we found a taxi waiting for us outside and immediately the taxi driver motioned for us to get into his taxi, he explained that the man had hired him to drop us off at our new living quarters.
Everything was just confusing. The angry man sent us out of the office and told us to go look for an apartment and now the taxi driver was telling us that we had somewhere to live already. I almost burst into tears. It was becoming too much and I knew if I didn't keep it together, I would break down.
Not long after, we pulled up into a very rural area. The taxi driver was a very kind man and he told us that we had reached our destination. He also was nice enough to walk us to the building where we were to live.
It was a one bedroom which already had three other girls and so we had to share again with them. This time, the girls acted like they had been expecting us.
We were so confused but they were very welcoming. They told us that this was to be our new home and when we asked how we would pay the rent, they explained that it would be automatically deducted from our salary monthly.
Apparently, we were all to work for the same company. We also learnt that there was a bus that would pick us all up at 6am to our jobs and bring us back at noon. It would return again at 2:30pm and bring us back at 11:30pm. The long working hours terrified us.
The company had a structure for its workers, it was just that there was no communication or it was improperly delivered. No-one cared about us. Left to them we were half human beings and half animals so they did not bother about our welfare.
As we talked to the girls, they informed us about the house rules which were basic dormitory rules. They also shared some important information with us and the one I would never forget was there were cameras in the building which were monitored, and so they advised us to be careful not to steal as there was a heavy penalty for that in the Middle East.
Later that evening as we settled, we found that there were other men living in that same room.
That was just too much for me to handle, I was so scared because I felt like rape could happen at any time. There was just a thin curtain separating the females from the males and it made me feel so vulnerable and uncomfortable.
Every night I hardly slept because I felt someone would break into our room and attack us. It was peaceful until one night, I felt a strong hand grab my legs.
To be continued Next week.
