Chef Edgardo Fabella remembers holding on to dear life on the back of a pick-up truck with seven other Filipinos as it drove across the Libyan desert to flee from armed men who had looted their camp.
But after escaping the civil war in the North African country, the 55-year-old former overseas Filipino worker now faces a new challengeâmastering the nuances of English grammar and pronunciationâas he plans to become a call center agent.
Fabella has just taken a free course on information technology (IT) With the help of Bantay OCW Foundation, Informatics, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Recalling his escape from Libya in an interview at the Bantay OCW Foundation center in Mandaluyong, he said: âIt was really frightening⌠the Libyans were hostile. They were saying, âYou go.ââ
Fabella said he would like to stay put and take his chances here.
âThis (course) is a great help because Iâve decided to change careers. My work in the kitchen has become tedious,â Fabella said.
âIâve been working in restaurants since I was 19 years old. I started as a waiter. But now Iâm already 55. Maybe I would have tried working abroad If I were still 50,â he added.
Desert camp chef
Fabella tried his luck abroad seven years ago when he went to Libya to work as a chef in a hotel in Ajadabya in the northeast of that country. His job was to cook meals in nearby camps for various nationalities working in the oil fields.
âIt was easier working there than here. The hotel was basically our training ground for what to cook in the desert,â he said.
âWe had international cuisine, usually European. We had to cook food for Italians and the Maltese,â he added.
However, work got disrupted beginning in February as the Libyans began their uprising against their leader, Moammar Gadhafi.
On the early evening of February 28, Fabella and his fellow workers had to transfer from a satellite camp to their main camp near Ajadabya as the protests turned violent.
âA warehouse some 20 kilometers from our camp was burned down. We had to transfer to our main camp,â Fabella said.
âNight had fallen and we could hear them shouting and cursing Gadhafi. It was only then that they were able to vent out their anger,â Fabella said.
Filipinos left behind
But when he got to the main camp at around 8 p.m., Fabella saw that their clients thereâsome 80 Italian workersâwere packing up and preparing to leave.
âThey left at 4 a.m., leaving us 12 Filipinos behind. We couldnât leave immediately because our passports and salaries were still at the hotel,â he said.
Fabella and the other Filipinos stayed two more days at the main camp, during which armed Libyans went on a looting spree.
âI gave them what they wanted. They took the beef, all our stores, anything that they wanted. We had 2,000 kilos of meat and canned goods,â he said.
âEven the computers that were left behind (by the Italians) were taken.
Fabella said that while the Libyans did not hurt them, they were hostile and told them to âgo home.â
His employer finally arrived two days later and packed them into a pick-up truck for a four-hour drive back to Ajadabya.
âWe couldnât sit and had to stand up on the back of the pick up. It was too small for us.â
Time to go home
Back in the hotel, his employer tried to convince them to stay, promising a pay increase. But Fabellaâs wife wanted him home.
âShe was crying and worried about what she was hearing on the news. If it werenât for my wife and family, I wouldnât have come home,â Fabella said.
With gunfire ringing out ânight after night,â Fabella said he and the other Filipinos at the hotel finally decided it was time to leave. They left for Benghazi, where a cruise ship contracted by the Philippine Embassy fetched them on March 6.
Back home but unemployed, Fabella said he hoped to change careers so he attended the free basic IT training provided by the Bantay OCW Foundation Center.
He said he learned word processing, internet browsing, and typing. He also took a free course with the OWWA on computer hardware.
Fabella said he has already sent applications to at least three call centers.
âThe problem is my listening skills and my English. I still need to practice. I have to work on my accent,â Fabella said.
According to Informatics project manager Ellen Cruz, thereâs another course on improving oneâs English skills.