Welcome home, December!
By Rolo B. Cena
Arabian Diaries

Just about an hour before writing this article, I accompanied our Filipino company driver and aide in transporting one Sri-Lankan guy to the airport. He is leaving the Kingdom for his annual vacation to his tribal home in Colombo.

Five months ago, I was also heading for the departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 1 for my sojourn to this Kingdom. I was leaving my family then in search of the “good luck” we OFWs used to call. Paul, the Sri-Lankan employee we ushered to Dammam International Airport was donning the other way – he is leaving the Kingdom to join his family.

Prior to this, I chanced a casual conversation with him and asked him what would be the first meaningful activity he would do upon reaching home. Exuding a very sniveling yet consoling smile he replied, “I will say a service as a thanksgiving for everything.” Paul is Christian-convert from Islam in Colombo.

About eighteen hours earlier, the same team escorted another colleague to the Bus Station for Bahrain International Airport. He is leaving for Manila for his annual vacation, too. After a casual chat that preceded a tearful exchange of “goodbyes” from Kababayans, Gerome tendered his firm yet temporal goodbye to all of us. After nine hours of taxing air stride, he would finally enfold in his arms his loved ones.

Early morning tomorrow, the same group will bring an Indian National to the Airport. Mubin, who has been in the company for about ten years, would soon join his own family again for his annual vacation in the native town of Mumbai in India. As per our earlier pre-departure interview with him, Mubin said “the mere thought of meeting loved ones whom you have left behind year after year is as refreshing as taking a bath every morning.”

All the three of them are heading for a very exciting vacation spree with their respective families. Whether one is a Christian (Paul), a Roman Catholic (Gerome), or a Buddhist (Mubin), the feeling of leaving the hardships in the Kingdom is as relieving as meeting respective families at their respective arrival areas.

Finally, I quickly grasped the meaning of leaving Saudi Arabia or the Mid-East for that matter- your work, either for vacation or final exit: relief.

Yes, relief! Relief from loneliness brought about by being separated from loved ones; from boredom being ushered in a place where almost everything is prohibited; from temporary insanity caused by severe frustration to do activities mature men do but just can’t do them; and from stress brought about the piling pressures in the workplace.

Yes, relief! The gratitude is immeasurable; no words can equate or super-impose the meaning. Nothing can compare, in fact.

To us Christians, the month of December, or the Season of Advent, is very meaningful and important. Which is why, booking for these three vacationing employees as early as three months ago was as hard as getting approvals for their entitlement. According to our Travel Agent, also a Filipino, it is in month of December where we experienced the heaviest of traffic in the e-ticketing system. There’s no doubt about it.

Which is why, one-hundred per cent of OFWs are dying to send home packages and monies on or before Christmas for the momentous affair. Which is why, most are dying to apply for Christmas vacation just so to be with the family.

Gerome sensitively confirmed that, apart from of course vacationing, his trip was meant to attend the baptism of his second angel. Paul revealed that his is supposed to be a thanksgiving for the good health of the whole family and a better income-source; while Mubin sweetly informed us that his eldest son is marrying another Buddhist.

December is just as ordinary as January in the Islam-dominated and controlled Kingdoms. But to us Christians, this is the most festive of all months, the month of celebrating life and the fullness of life.

Obviously, we cannot just fly home as fast as clicking the mouse; we need to push the buttons of requirements and processes. Conversely, Christmas would be far from reality. Christmas to us here in the Mid-East becomes a dream, a fantasy only those with magical carpets and wands can celebrate.

Christmas is absent to those who are left to experience another mile of longing in this land where the Magis were believed to have come to abort the plan of Herod to the Messiah.

But to Paul, Gerome, and Mubin, Christmas is being home. For Believers or not, December which encases the celebration of Christmas, has come; they have come home.

Welcome home, December!

Published, Dumaguete Star Informer, 28 December 2008.