Picture Booking

I met this 21-year-old lass from Pampanga who is in Dubai with a 30-day visit visa. The small talk revealed to me of her sorry situation that is synonymous to engaging in an all-out war without an armor or going to an Ebola-infested country and not wearing a mask.

I was convinced that her honest-to-goodness purpose of going to this land of gold and sand was not solely to seek a dream career or a fairy tale story of finding her prince charming abroad but for something else where earning dirhams is a piece of cake as ordering a venti frap in Starbucks.

The meeting was simple and unplanned (not the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere type of getting-to-know-each other scene in the movie Pretty Woman). The girl's name is SJ (I'm giving initials here to keep her identity). She was sitting comfortably near the entrance of a famous coffee shop (not Starbucks) gripping her Samsung Note phone. The coffee shop is situated in one of the busiest after-dark favorite thoroughfares in Dubai, mostly dominated by night male species who usually roam around for some random casual rendezvous with female "night crawlers".

Although it is common to this place seeing gorgeous men bumping in with 6-footer blonde Russian and petite, hairy-armpit Chinese women on plunging neckline loitering along the nearby dimly-lit streets, it is difficult to assume the genuine purpose and intention of innocent-looking kabayan girls trading sweet smiles and western-accent hellos with metrosexual thirty-something men driving range rovers and mustangs.

Okay, here's the moment-of-truth, nearing-denoument part of this story: I walked towards SJ's direction with my "Mr. Nice Guy" friendly approach and my opening salvo was a kind and wholesome question, “Hi, are you waiting for someone?”

Her answer was quick and straightforward: “Yes! but I am in a hurry. I need money because my visa is expiring on Thursday and I need to buy a ticket for my exit to Oman.” Alas, I knew that my instinct and sensibility won't fail me to sense what she was up to from that opening conversation. (Wait, i think i should state something like a disclaimer here so my family and friends would not suspect me of engaging in a hidden agenda)

I sat comfortably beside the chair where her light brown class-A Michael Korrs bag was left wide open. I noticed a Revlon makeup kit, a white power bank, a pack of Esse slim cigarette, a Bath & Body Works cologne and an unwrapped tissue roll.

I was thinking of offering her a piece of cheese croissant but the timing may not be perfect. "What do you want?" she asked avoiding an eye contact and still busy scrolling on her FB mobile.

"Do you come here often?" I asked. "No, i just came here to see a friend." She paused browsing her mobile FB and looked at me from hat to shoe.

She then asked me, "Are you the guy who contacted my friend through picture booking?" Now she's talking!

I found out from that piece by piece, blow by blow casual kind of conversation that their agenda happens through a mobile phone or via an online channel which they call "Picture Booking" where pimp-friends freely broadcast and share their teenybopper and pa-tweetums photos to virtual or live customers . This is where they arrange a 2-hour "jerjer" session for 500 dirhams (some 6,000 pesos tax-free but not HIV-free). Yes, this is actually faster than booking a flight online with Cebu Pac or PAL.

I bombarded her with some serious (not the PG-rated) types of questions which she answered from the heart.

To cut this short story shorter, I realized from SJ's honest revelation that her poor case is just like of that other young women in UAE. She has been a victim of the incurable Philippine poverty, social injustice, unwanted pregnancy, lack of education, and broken family where the only available option is to leave her child and go abroad to find her fate.

Yes, the girl needs some serious help. Not a spoon-feeding or raise-a-fund kind of generosity but something that she can confidently use her skills and competencies. By the way, she worked as a junior cashier in a food chain biz in Makati.

I ended the conversation with a semi-good deed and a priceless offer: "Send me your info and the details of your previous jobs... I will make a good CV for you. ###

your info and the details of your previous jobs... I will make a good CV for you!"