Sometimes I do very, very, very, random things, and talking to total strangers is one of them...
This evening I had quite a conversation with an elderly day nurse. She's from China and she was asking me for directions. I don't know her name, never asked for it, for convenience lets just call her Xiaomin. We were waiting for the same bus just outside a posh condo near the Singapore River. Anyway, I began to ask questions about her (sometimes I like to talk to random strangers). Questions about her, about her family.
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I saw this woman outside the bus stop, a little bit anxious, fidgety, looking at the bus number. I merely sat down. I had seen the bus that had only just left, and so knew it was going to be a long wait. She approached me, and in her heavily accented English, asked me whether the bus stopped at any MRT station. I said yes, then pointed to the bus guide and pointed to her Aljunied station. And then she sat down, still anxious. I'm a pretty random guy and there was a long wait (IRIS said 17mins), so I began chatting with her.
I actually told her that I could speak Chinese - that started everything. Oh, so she was actually here working as a day nurse for an elderly. She's been here for 2 years, and she didn't really have to keep extending her social visit pass because the hospital she was attached to was doing all these for her. Back in China she was a fully qualified staff nurse, and having to come here meant a demotion job wise. But the money was good. Here she could earn $1k per month, a sizable income compared to what she was earning back in China. Her lodging was a condo in Ang Mo Kio was all paid for, and she didn't even have to pay rent. Stayed with 3 others, 2 from Myanmar and the third also from China. The work was all they did, mostly staying at home, hardly went out. She knew that her workplace was posh, the family that she was working for had told her that most families wouldn't be afford such a condo. And Xiaomin herself knew that only rich families could afford to hire people like her.
She told me that people like her was in high demand - she had read the papers about Singapore's aging population and had understood the demand. And Chinese nationals like her were in high demand - most of the families were Chinese themselves. She spoke of her training, that she had passed from nursing institutes in China and was officially registered in Singapore hospital as well. In other words, she was a professional nurse and it showed. She compared herself with others who were doing the same job but coming from other countries, and commented that most of them were really poor and weren't properly trained - they don't have the education and the training whereas she was a genuine professional. And she knew, demand for people like her would surely rise.
She was married and had a boy of 7, growing up back home in Xian, where she told me that the 4 seasons were distinct. Summers were really hot, and winters were cold, unlike Singapore which didn't have any seasons to speak of. She wanted to bring her boy here in Singapore, and knew of the challenges of adapting to Singapore's education system. Yet, her boy was learning English back home, and yes, it was hard, since there was hardly any English speakers back. She knew of those who were of Pri 6 standard, yet had to start in pri 4 because of English. And your husband? I asked. She merely smiled. I had hit upon a sensitive question, so didn't probe further. She wanted to give her boy a chance in life. No, Xian was too inland, too backward, too little opportunities. When she could, she wanted to tear her China passport and get PR status. Maybe even citizenship, I thought.
Then I asked about the family she was working for. Oh, the place where she was working is actually the home of the youngest of three daughters. She was married, but they had no kids. It must be pressuring, she said, to be owning such a home, having to fork out so much every month for the mortgage. Must be the reason why they don't have kids. Such a home costs at least a million, right? Well in China, all you need is a roughly that amount and you'll be set for retirement in the countryside. Lower costs, yet still the same quality of life. I had said that my parents sometimes thought of retiring in some countryside in China. Yes, that would make sense too, she thought. And then she said, she would go back to China if only to retire.
In her way, she's living the Singapore dream, or even pursuing her happiness. Would Singapore welcome her with open arms? Singapore is the way it is, and even growing, her skyscrapers built on the foundations of immigrant labour.
The next time I talk to some stranger I'll write about it.
I don't know why, but my heart sometimes just simply burns...
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