While you were sleeping.....

DMM: airport code for Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Last night while some of you were in bed, or well stuck with your daily 9-5's, i did a quick turnaround flight to Dammam.

Passenger Load TO DMM: FULL (meaning a full 350 in a boeing 777)
This flight was seemingly packed to the brim with mostly Indonesian/Filipino/Pakistani contract workers or labourers who are flying out of their country to work for the first time. Some of them looked scared, some looked nervous, some obviously looked sad to leave their loved ones behind, but alot of them had the look of excitement, enthusiasm and mostly hope. To a number of them, working in a new country is an answered prayer, a chance to give themselves and their families a better life. But to a few, they were just left with no other better choice.

Passenger Load BACK from DMM: 80 passengers
Considering the amount of people that we fly to DMM not just today but almost everyday, this is an incomparable ratio. It makes me wonder. How many of them have really been fulfilled and successful? How many of them are really in a worst state?

It brings me back to a few incidences Ive had in the short time ive been flying. I have nothing against Saudi's or any other arabic countries, but they have been infamous for mistreating women, labourers and more often than not to their domestic help. Ive heard alot about certain incidences, which i hardly really believed. I mean who are we to really judge right? Until i saw and witnessed it myself. This im talking based on my experience solely.

Once, i remember i had a flight from Jeddah (another neigbouring city of DMM, in saudi as well) and we had two indonesian women come on board. I believe they were on their way back to Jakarta. One woman, in her mid twenties seemed awfully pale and sickly. She was walking unimaginably slow and had the other woman (a friend most probably) holding her by her arm and assisting her and merely cluthched a tiny plastic bag with her, with her legal documents with her. She was unable to talk, seemed like in shock, in pain and had bruises all over her hands. We didnt want to, but we had to offload her. I talked to the friend, who understood absolutely no english and who couldnt understand what was going on at all. I speak a little bit of their language, and hence got to shed a little bit of light to her on the situation at hand. She got to tell me teary eyed, that her friend has to come home with her because she had no one back in jeddah and that shes scared her "employer" might come and find her. She also got to mention that her friend has been sick for months now and that she has been abused by her employer for even longer. She never really fully mentioned it, but we believed that the woman was actually sexually abused as well, judging by the way she walked. It was an extremely emotional sight. Even until this very day, i could still imagine that image of the woman walking down the aisle with her feet spread apart, shaky and in pain.

Or how about that one time, i had a woman travelling from Dammam back to Jakarta faint with tears in her eyes just before landing? We thought she had some kind of medical emergency only to find out that perhaps she just couldnt stand the sight of her coming back home to her family with nothing. Her whole family sold all their land and gave her all their money just so she could work overseas to make MORE money for their family. It turns out, she worked for her employer for almost a year and he never paid her wage. She was abused and locked in the employers only to have her visa expired and hence deported.

All this, just with the hopes of giving their families a shot at a better life.

Looking at all those women last night with smiles of enthusiasm in their face. I cant help but sometimes feel bad, as if i want to tell them all to just go back home. But then i figured, everyone deserves at least one shot right?

While some of you were in bed, or well stuck with your 9-5's, some are on their way to a totally life changing journey, one can only imagine what kind of experiences are such. All there is left to do is to hope for their best....they deserve at least that