Taiwan... Mei Yo Nama Wan

The last couple of months I lived in Taipei in 1999 was spent on night joy-rides during week-ends. Xiao Shuang and Chiu Lien would sneak me out of the building whenever they come on Friday nights just to spend time with and cheer me up. They live and work in Taichung City, a four-hour drive from Taipei. Xiao Shuang drives a black Nissan Verita, which Shirley — my broker’s fiancee said was too small a car for Shuang’s big size. That little car took us to high places in the mountains where the three of us would sit on its hood for hours just admiring and taking in the breathtaking view of the city at night. When we weren’t high on nature’s beauty, we were caffeine-high from the cuploads of Mc Donald’s brewed coffee we consume in the streets of Taipei. The McDo store near Mitsukoshi (Top View’s awesome!) was one of our hang-outs.

We once parked the car in the middle of a long bridge after midnight and snoozed, only driving off at dawn. We would roam the streets; eat ‘tempura’ (starch-coated meat, fish, vegetables); feast on too sweet ‘ti gua’ (sweet potato) and noodles with eels (hmmm!); and buy knick knacks in the night markets. Lung Shan Shi Temple (a famous ‘miao‘ in Taiwan) was just three blocks from where I lived, its brightness clearly viewed from my window at night. There was a night market nearby. That street’s always too busy, crowded, and noisy. It’s real fun though, so much alive, in deep contrast to Ilan City in the high mountains where I first had a job before coming to Taichung and then finally Taipei.

I worked for six households during those times I was ‘working’ for the agency. I was risking my neck, going along with my broker’s orders. I ran the risk of being deported when found out…but I prayed for it to happen then when my hands were bleeding from dishwashing, when my teeth were chattering from having my feet soaked too long while doing the laundry by hand, when I was hosing up a four-storey school building in winter. I was a modern day slave in Taiwan.

I wasn’t alone. I heard the same suffering voices on the phone when I was on-duty at the agency. I did paperwork, set up meetings for my broker and prospective partners for agency tie-ups in the Philippines — making overseas calls to all the agencies listed in the Council of Labour and Affairs (CLA); and receiving calls from workers placed by the agency who was having trouble at work. That was when I got to hear the others’ stories. There were times I get to see these workers in their worksite when one of the Taiwanese agents brought me so the worker would easily open up to me, being her own kind. Communication between employee and employer or between employee and agent was always the greatest problem encountered. I was there to ease things a little.

Everything changed when my broker kicked me out of Taichung City and sent me to his fiancee’s sister’s family in Taipei. That was after we had a shouting match after he refused to let me terminate the contract and go back home. He wanted me to stay and work for him permanently just like all the other employers I previously worked for who offered to make all things legal if I choose to stay. He sent me to Taipei to think things over after the big fight and after telling me he never will forget the only Filipino who ever dared to shout back at him.

Oh sweet! Things were a lot lighter and easier in Taipei. When he tried to pull me out more than a couple of months later, I asked to have the earliest possible flight back home. He finally relented and I bid my Taiwanese friends goodbye.

Author: Joy Marqueses, TF Newsmag

*Published in True Friends Newsmag (October 2008 issue)

note: above is a re-post from joyzjourney