Her name seems Latin American or Spanish but she is from the Philippines, aged 34, and arrived in London in 2009, after escaping from Dubai, where she worked previously.
Javier Duque
When someone comes from a poor family or doesn’t have enough to enjoy life, as is often the case with people from the Philippines, many people usually try to leave and find a place where they can prosper.
This is what Geraldine Reyes did, a Philippine, who left her country in 2004 when she was 26, to work in Dubai.
“A friend who was already there said they could find me something”, she says.
And so it was: they arranged her visa from the Arab country, and paid her flight to go to work keeping house for a woman. But the better future she was seeking didn’t turn out like that: the salary wasn’t what she expected, and she had no free time at all because she had to work 7 days a week. “I had no holidays, it was extremely hot, and the country was boring”, says Reyes.
Despite not being very happy with her work in Dubai she put up with it for 5 years until 2009, when she came to London.
Her arrival in the UK was not for a holiday. Or rather it was, but only for her employer, who had wanted to visit the island.
Once in the UK, having come with a work visa for 6 months obtained by the woman she worked for, Reyes took the chance to escape.
Once again through a friend, she found a job, this time as housekeeper to a Jewish family near Regent’s Park.
She still works for them and is very happy: “They are very good, they pay me well, give me paid holidays and even pay my ticket to go to the Philippines once a year to see my family.”
On one of these visits she decided to marry Eric, now her husband, and through her employer they got the documents necessary for him to be able to come to London and join her last December.
Family
Geraldine is happy in London, now that she can earn a living, she has work, and can enjoy weekends going shopping, or going to church to pray for her family. She is the eldest of six, and she sends them money every month. “If I don’t send money to my mother they can’t eat meat”, she says. Although now her family is better off because two of her brothers work as teachers, and also bring money home. A cousin has more problems, with 12 children to support, his salary is only enough to give them bread and rice.
For the moment Geraldine and her husband plan to stay in London for a few more years, enough time to save the money to go home and start their own business: “A shop selling things from abroad for example”, says Reyes.
(Translated by Graham Douglas – Email: ondastropicais@yahoo.co.uk) – Photos: Pixabay
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