The four girls did not know where to go and what to do because they must leave Locarno, Paula said to the girls that she will talk to her husband about this matter and then later the four girls learned from Paula about them going to Basel.
"Basel? Is that a city? Is that out of Switzerland?" Carla asked Paula when Paula said to them to get ready and handed a piece of paper with an address in Basel.
"Basel is still a city of Switzerland, that's why you have to go there next week, as I said, this apartment must be vacant next week!" Paula answered the question of Carla.
"We have to work in Basel?" Lorna asked.
"I don't think so, you have no more visa to stay here in Switzerland!" Paula said.
"What will we do in Basel then?" Luisa asked.
"You only have to go to that address and wait there. Someone will pick you!" Paula said.
For a while, the four girls were silent. They began to sensed uncertainty. The began to realize that the one year good and decent living in Locarno would be gone soon.
"Someone will pick us there in Basel, do you have an idea where will we go?" Thelma asked.
"I really have no idea. I asked my husband about it and he said he also don't know." Paula replied Thelma. "After a week, I will be back here to pick you and bring to the train station. I hope you will be ready then."
"This address, is this an apartment? Do we have to pay rent on this apartment?" Carla asked.
"It's not an apartment! It is just a room. A big house with three spare rooms for rent, that is what I knew. And yes, I think you have to pay rent for the room." Paula explained to the girls about the address in Basel.
"I hope it's not expensive, the rent of that room!" Carla said.
"Maybe you only have to pay a one month rent because as I told already someone will pick you there!" Paula said. "You worked here in Locarno for almost a year, you have saved money I hope!"
The girls did not answer, and Paula understood the silence. "You have not saved money?"
"Every month I almost sent money to the Philippines. My mother must pay the debt because the interest so high!" Luisa said. The other girls just nodded.
"I understood about this sending of money to the Philippines because I am also a Filipina, but you all must realize that you are here, and nobody will help you when you needed money. What I meant is that you do not have to send all your money to the Philippines, you must also have money for yourself, just in case."
Nobody responded.
"Next week, I will pick you and I will give the one-month salary our company owed you."
When Paula was gone. Luisa said, "it's easy for her to talk like that, she has no problem about money!"
"But she was right! To ourselves we must have a buffer. We could not afford to charge our security to tomorrow." Carla said.
Two more days before they must travel to Basel, the four girls were all ready.
"There's no food anymore in the fridge!" Lorna exclaimed when she opened the refrigerator, and it is empty.
"We did no groceries, we are leaving!" said Carla who was the one budgeting their allowance for food.
"Do you mean we don't have to eat because we are leaving? I am already cooking rice, what will we eat with the rice?" Lorna asked.
"We still have sardines. A dozen tins of sardines we bought was not yet touched!" Thelma answered Lorna.
"Sardines? The one you bought which Paula said that people here fed to their cat?" asked Luisa.
"We ate sardines from the tin in the Philippines. It's the same sardines!" Carla said.
And they ate their lunch and supper that day, only with rice and sardines from the tin.
The day before they must leave Locarno to travel to Basel, it was the same food on the table. Rice with sardines from the tin for their lunch and for their supper.
While they were eating their supper, suddenly Luisa laughed out very loud. The three looked at her and Carla asked Luisa.
"What happened to you? Why are you laughing?"
"I find it very funny! Very funny!" answered Luisa who stayed laughing.
"You are eating, and you are laughing! It is not a good manner! You just suddenly laughed, are you losing your mind?" Carla asked Luisa again.
"Well I remember during calamity in the Philippines, the government distributed to the people that were victims of calamities, rice and sardines. Two days we ate already, only rice and sardines. Hunger in the Philippines, hunger here in Locarno, like we are victims of a storm calamity!" Luisa answered Carla.
"We have no hunger here, we have food! You always have strange thoughts!" Thelma said to Luisa.
"Besides, we have to budget our money. We are leaving to Basel tomorrow. We do not know what will happen there, what will be our situation. Remember Paula said we go to an address and just wait. We will not work thus no income!" Carla explained to Luisa why they must control their expenses.
"I am not complaining! I suddenly thought about the situation in the Philippines and our situation now and I find it funny! No problem!" Luisa said with a grin in her face. She continued her eating, using only her hands, picking a piece of the sardines and together with the rice that she first made a ball before putting it in her mouth. The three girls as most of the Filipinos when they were home, they also used their bare hands in eating, no fork, no spoon.
The next day, early in the morning, Paula was already in their apartment. Paula will bring them to the train station. Paula handed each of them an envelope, their last month salary.
"You all have an extra of 100 Swiss Franc. A goodbye gift from me. I thought maybe you need it in Basel."
"Thank you very much Paula." the girls thanked Paula.
"It's okay. I understood the problems, but please don't do TNT!" Paula said to them. The girls understood what Paula meant with TNT. TNT was a short cut for a Tagalog phrase 'Tago ng Tago' that meant staying illegal in a country as the phrase translation in English words was 'Hiding and Hiding'.
"We will not do that!" it was Lorna who answered Paula.
Paula paid also for their train tickets, and after saying goodbye, the four girls were already in the train that was speeding to Basel. For the girls, the train was speeding to uncertainty and if they just kept in in their selves, the girls were very worried. What will happen to them in Basel?
BASEL, SWITZERLAND -1987
At the train station in Basel, the four girls asked a woman how they could come to the address what was written on a piece of paper that Paula given to them.
"Excuse me, can I ask something?" Carla approached the woman but seemed the woman did not understand her, so Paula let her see the address, but the woman just shook her head and said to her, "keine ahnung".
"Maybe she doesn't know the address." Thelma said.
"Or she doesn't understand English." said Luisa.
"There's an old man, I will ask him." and Carla went to the old man and approached him, but the same, the old man just shook his head.
They asked two other people, but they did not receive the help they wanted so the four girls seated in the bank.
"What will we do now, how can we go to the address written on that paper, maybe it's easy if we take a taxi!" Luisa said.
"Taxi? You do not know how far this address is and how much it will cost us? We have no money for the taxi!" Carla answered Luisa.
"If we don't spend for the taxi, how can we come to that address, Ackerstrasse?" Luisa insisted for a taxi when they noticed a man with camera and some gadgets for making photos or films approached them.
"Guten tag zusammen!" the man greeted them. The girls do not understand Germans but the heard already several times the words 'Guten tag' that the man said, and they understood it meant 'Good day'.
"Guten tag!" almost simultaneously the four Filipinas answered him.
"Sprechen zie Deutsch?" the four Filipinas just looked at him, and the man understood that the girls speak no Germans, so he talked to them in English, "Do you speak Germans?"
"You speak English! Thank God!" Lorna exclaimed.
The man smiled and nodded. "Yes, I speak English. By the way, my name is Gunther!" and the man gave hands to the four delighted Filipinas that also introduced themselves. At last there is someone who can talked English and maybe then, the man that introduced himself as Gunther could helped them. ****to be continued****Remedios Dorio