Sunday, April 26, 2009

Hi people,

Today, I'd like to share with you guys why I think I am such a lucky person.

Every day, when I'm in camp at my pass office, I see long stretches of Bangladeshis, Indian, China workers queuing up to change their passes. These people come here to work for a living, their families miles away.

My base has this escort system, where personnel without high enough clearance, are required to be escorted whenever they need to do work in the base. This applies to many of the contractors and the foreign workers that come here. As such, at times i am required to escort these people. Inevitably, I will talk to them and ask them where they are from, and observe what they do.

An indian which I spoke to doing manual labour, digging soil with chunkos said he was saving up money in Singapore so that he could marry his fiance back in India. He has been in Singapore for more than 2 years now, and wants to go back soon. Who knows if the fiance would be with another guy when he returns. This is probably one of the harsh tests of the strength of relationships.

The rubbish truck collector/driver has a family in China, and plans to end his 3 year contract this year. It is not an easy job, going around singapore in the hot sun, running around emptying garbage bins the whole day, crushing garbage, day after day.

These men work more than 9 hours a day. they want to work 12 hours at times as overtime pay is worth it, since they don't have families in Singapore. However, because of this, the escorters, who are Singaporeans, have to wait until 7pm or even 8pm just to see them leave the base. These escorters, (can't reveal their names because of security reasons) have families, kids to raise, some still in primary schools. Sometimes they have to work on Sundays as well.

So, I think I'm lucky. At least I get to see my family, though not so often these days.