Posted on Dec 23, 2022
Filipino workers in Dubai gather to celebrate Christmas far away from home
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https://www.npr.org/2022/12/23/ [login to see] /christmas-dubai-filipino-workers-uae
A life-size electric Santa Claus sways his hips back and forth outside a grocery store on Rigga Street in Dubai. It's Christmastime across this desert metropolis. Shops, malls and hotel lobbies are decked out in holiday decorations and fake snow for the season.
Rigga Street is no exception. It runs through Deira, a neighborhood built decades before Dubai's futuristic skyline of high-rises. Here, a cup of sweet milky tea known as karak chai sells for just a dirham, the equivalent of about 25 cents. This is where many Filipinos working in Dubai call home. Most are Roman Catholic and marking another Christmas away from their families in the Philippines.
A life-size electric Santa Claus sways his hips back and forth outside a grocery store on Rigga Street in Dubai. It's Christmastime across this desert metropolis. Shops, malls and hotel lobbies are decked out in holiday decorations and fake snow for the season.
Rigga Street is no exception. It runs through Deira, a neighborhood built decades before Dubai's futuristic skyline of high-rises. Here, a cup of sweet milky tea known as karak chai sells for just a dirham, the equivalent of about 25 cents. This is where many Filipinos working in Dubai call home. Most are Roman Catholic and marking another Christmas away from their families in the Philippines.
Filipino workers in Dubai gather to celebrate Christmas far away from home
Posted from npr.org
Philippines
Dubai
Christmas
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 3
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel thanks for the share.
..."Few Filipinos in Dubai have worked longer than 85-year-old Nida Maristela. The silver-haired, self-identified born-again Christian retired some two decades ago as a teacher in the Philippines. She's lived in Dubai almost ever since, earning money selling perfume and other goods.
She's proud of the friendships she's made on Rigga Street, where she lives. It's a community she's built with care over the years. Everyone here knows her, she says. Many confide in her. To people here, she's simply known as "Mommy Nida."
"I'm old [and] I have many friends very young ... we celebrate [Christmas] by cooking, exchange gifts, like that. Eating, then dancing. Music and also songs," she says. "I don't get angry to anybody. That is my secret. Because God is always with us."
..."Few Filipinos in Dubai have worked longer than 85-year-old Nida Maristela. The silver-haired, self-identified born-again Christian retired some two decades ago as a teacher in the Philippines. She's lived in Dubai almost ever since, earning money selling perfume and other goods.
She's proud of the friendships she's made on Rigga Street, where she lives. It's a community she's built with care over the years. Everyone here knows her, she says. Many confide in her. To people here, she's simply known as "Mommy Nida."
"I'm old [and] I have many friends very young ... we celebrate [Christmas] by cooking, exchange gifts, like that. Eating, then dancing. Music and also songs," she says. "I don't get angry to anybody. That is my secret. Because God is always with us."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel thanks for the share.
..."Few Filipinos in Dubai have worked longer than 85-year-old Nida Maristela. The silver-haired, self-identified born-again Christian retired some two decades ago as a teacher in the Philippines. She's lived in Dubai almost ever since, earning money selling perfume and other goods.
She's proud of the friendships she's made on Rigga Street, where she lives. It's a community she's built with care over the years. Everyone here knows her, she says. Many confide in her. To people here, she's simply known as "Mommy Nida."
"I'm old [and] I have many friends very young ... we celebrate [Christmas] by cooking, exchange gifts, like that. Eating, then dancing. Music and also songs," she says. "I don't get angry to anybody. That is my secret. Because God is always with us."
..."Few Filipinos in Dubai have worked longer than 85-year-old Nida Maristela. The silver-haired, self-identified born-again Christian retired some two decades ago as a teacher in the Philippines. She's lived in Dubai almost ever since, earning money selling perfume and other goods.
She's proud of the friendships she's made on Rigga Street, where she lives. It's a community she's built with care over the years. Everyone here knows her, she says. Many confide in her. To people here, she's simply known as "Mommy Nida."
"I'm old [and] I have many friends very young ... we celebrate [Christmas] by cooking, exchange gifts, like that. Eating, then dancing. Music and also songs," she says. "I don't get angry to anybody. That is my secret. Because God is always with us."
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