Until one time, he told me that Cath Lab was the best department of all nursing stations in the hospital. He then asked me where I would like to be stationed if I was given a chance to choose a place. I thought he was not serious about his question, so I argued back as a joke and said to him that anywhere was just okay for me. He was offended by my answer, but I never thought that he would get that joke seriously.
Three days had gone things were quite normal between us, except that later in the day, I heard the nursing supervisor complained me of something I did not do. A statement of complaint about me was that I was missing at the start of my duty. To be specific, I was absent for 4 hours, seriously? My close friend Sherwin knew what exactly happened because I was talking to him that day while he was waiting for his Ministry bus way back home.
Yes, I had many witnesses that would prove I was working with them at the outset of our duty. I also had eyewitnesses that would indicate that my Filipino senior nurse was the one who called our nursing supervisor to complain about me. After knowing this, I confronted him. I told him why he did not tell the whole truth that he saw me at work. He denied all the allegations that he was the one who drew a complaint.
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| Two foreign nurses playing computer games while on duty |
But rather, he blamed other senior nationalities who made a charge. When in fact, my colleagues told me that he was the one who phoned our nursing supervisor. Not only that, I saw with my own eyes these seniors including the Filipino playing video games and watching shows instead of performing their duties and responsibilities. I took photos to be used as evidence after they made a complaint against me. The picture clearly showed that they were watching videos during their hours of work.
When I presented this evidence to the nurse manager, the nurse manager spoke with them in Arabic. I did not understand their entire conversation because they talked in Arabic fluently. But because they were seniors, they could hide their wrongdoings in order to avoid being exposed. Ministry of Health in Kuwait was paying them a good amount of money for them to work properly, but then they abused this privilege. A chance your voice being heard was low because the system was predominantly based on seniority or Wasta (Nepotism).
I found out that not all OFWs could be trusted. I didn't realize I would be betrayed by a fellow Filipino whom I called a friend. I didn't even say bad words on his personality at the beginning till I had recognized his true color. Even so, I treated him with respect and dignity since I still considered him as my senior nurse even though he disrespected me. I never lied or stayed in one seat for 4 hours or longer. That was extremely excessive and unacceptable circumstance that happened to me. I was a victim and would never ever forget about all those lies I encountered!
I posted this story to a thousand of readers so that they could learn something from my experience overseas. As I said earlier, not all OFWs are true friends. It's better to have few good friends instead of many acquaintances who would pull you down in the end. Despite what happened, I still need to forgive and forget all the unpleasant memories. I thanked God for all the blessings he gave me, and I am still having these days.
Thank you for reading!
