"If you want to get there by midday, we have to leave here at nine o'clock. Maybe even earlier."
"Are you serious? But I saw it on Google Maps. It's only twenty k's away."
"We have to go through Quiapo. Have you been through Quiapo on a Saturday? You'll want to cry."
"In Auckland, if you want to drive twenty k's on a Saturday, you'll get there in ten minutes."
"My second daughter is a nurse in Qatar. Just recently, they had to smuggle a nephew of mine out of Syria and into Doha after the hospital he's been working in was bombed. She's not enjoying herself there. It's no place to raise a family."
"Well, how long has she been there?"
"Two years."
"Then tell her to apply for Canada or New Zealand. She'll only have to take six-month bridging course and there will be a job for her right away. Experience in the Middle East. That's the easiest way for young Filipinos to go to Canada, New Zealand or Australia nowadays. She'll be a shoo-in."
"We do have relatives in Canada."
"Even better!"
"I'll tell her to apply as soon as she can."
"I don't know why she's still here. She could be making more money in the States. She doesn't need to worry about us. We've got all the things we need here. She needs to make her own life."
"You know, if she applied to New Zealand, they'd give her a residency right away. We have a huge shortage of dental surgeons over there."
"I keep telling her to try, but she just won't. She says she won't enjoy it there."
"Tell her that her dog would enjoy it."
"So, where's your brother?"
"He's living in Canada now, with his wife and kids."
"Canada? That's great! They're liking it there?"
"Yeah. They originally planned to go to the States, but the application fell through."
"Well, they wouldn't want to go there anyway. Filipinos with grown children still have to work two jobs there to make ends meet. And they don't have paid annual leave! You don't want to go to the UK either. The weather is awful and people are racist. New Zealand, Canada and Australia are the best options right now for families. Dubai and Qatar, of course, if you want to make money."
"Of course."
This is what life is now. People come home now and then, but all anybody ever talks about is leaving.
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