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xtra: birthday ng bunso namin ngayon, happy birthday arnie

two years after graduating from high school & a year after i stopped studying. i got hired by a newly established multi-national company in our province. part of our employment contract is an overseas training in japan. in november 26, 1988, a month before my 19^th birthday, i together with 59 (55 women & 4 men) others left ninoy aquino internation airport via egypt airlines bound to narita international airport.

after the 4 hour plane ride, a grueling 6 hours land travel follows. shortly before midnight when we arrived in our destination. i can’t really remember the feeling that i had during that time. i would say that i was excited then, a lot of first happened during that period for me. it was my first full-time job, first airline travel, first country that i’ve visited, first christmas, birthday & new year away from & a lot more.

looking back it wasn’t really training why we were sent there. if it was a training, we should have classroom sessions & we will not be producing finished products. i can safely say that we were exploited one way or the other. but we’re what you can call as “willing victims”, we were paid 50,000 japanese yen a month as training allowance and extra money if we work extra time. that’s far bigger than a 64 pesos daily wage at home.

the first things i bought on my first paycheck was a pair of nike air jordan, a citizen watch, a camera & a nikko radio controlled car, the rest was spent on beers & food. but that trip has helped me & my family, i’ve learned how to live alone and much of the money that i’ve earned helped in renovating our house. but more than the money is the exprerience, a growing up experience.

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