Serendipity At Play

By Edward Alivio (Yuppeace based in Dubai)

That was mid-summer Thursday afternoon. Everyone’s rushing to hit home before the late afternoon traffic build-up for the weekend reverie. Temperature outside reaches at sweltering 45 degrees and relative humidity is high enough to sweat out every drop of water deep within the body. Only in this place of the world where humidity level also inch up along with every rise of the temperature during summer.

Bank Street in Bur Dubai as the name suggests is where most large bank in this part of the world merges and intermingle. A place where inching for a mere parking space is a horrendous thing and cabbies dreaded not to go avoiding the traffic caused by brimming mixture of people doing all sorts of wares; bankers, salesmen, applicants, and shoppers in the nearby IT shops.

A hush of people is teeming out in the bus stop after I had my late lunch in a walk-in Japanese restaurant nearby. It was 2:30 in my watch as I prepare to try my luck hitching for a cab outside the scorching heat on my way back to the office at the other side of town. Earlier I had this bank negotiation on one of my early transactions with a client from Ireland. Reluctantly, I’m scheduled to do that atrocious bank process the next Sunday in timing with a project meeting near the area. But something pushes me to be there at that very exact time and place.

A cream-colored Dubai taxi suddenly stopped in front of me. The smiling Pakistani driver in his sweating uniform is beaming despite the heat. As I was about to open the back door, a heavy set, and dark and tired-sweat Sudanese man in a suit dragging his bulging portfolio came running from nowhere. He was the first to hail off the taxi as he claimed calmly. I could fight for that but gentleman as I am I let go jovially. A better one might come next. Five minutes and I could feel myself melting down. The weight of my black notebook bag is getting heavier on every minute that passed. The scorching heat is a torture thing. Then I hear it. Slowly, I left my phone...international call. The number is unregistered in my new phone but her voice is so familiar.

Marili or Amper as we fondly called her is a good friend and a fellow from Yuppeace, my faith community back in Makati. She was based in the Sultanate of Oman for her work. The last time I met her was early last year for a trade exhibition in Dubai. She was bound for Australia this time as a delegate for the World Youth Day as she told me. Quandary is that her visa and passport which was still in process in the Australian consulate in Dubai is due for stamping only on Sunday in time also for her booked flight. Three days left. The day is about to end and the next 2 days is weekend. Not mentioning that Dubai to Oman is 5 hours driving amidst the desert highway. Everybody’s saying it’s not possible. The visa processing agency, the Australian consulate office, even myself. But prayerful Marili didn’t give up. A confident expectant out of her enduring faith, she prayed for a miracle. Even I could hear her pray as we were talking.

Then heaven worked its miracles! The action must begin. The casts are propped up. The setting? The very exact place where I had my lunch a few minutes back.

The script calls me to pick up her passport from the visa processing agency office amidst the formalities and authorization required then dashed to highly secured Australian consulate office which would close at 3:30 PM for the visa stamping then heed back to where I picked it up which would also close at 4:00 PM. The distance between these two offices is about 15-minute walk under the blistering heat. Traffic outside is standstill. All in all I do need to complete the whole process within 40 minutes for her to go with her journey on Sunday. Even I myself couldn’t figure it out how to do it on time.

The whole action sequence is well coordinated from the moment it started. The gracious visa officer who handed me Marili’s passport without even asking anymore questions regarding the authorization, the pedestrian traffic signal that turns green automatically as I reached the busy intersection, the waiting elevator car which opens voluntarily on my arrival at the consulate building and whoosh me direct to the 25^th without any interruption, the affable security personnel who lets me in without any more hassle in the security procedure, and Ms. Brownyn who is all smiles eagerly stamping the visa as she is looking forward to her much awaited weekend break.

Time is 3:55 PM. The guy who received back the stamped passport couldn’t believe it that I was able to let the people from the consulate to stamp it on a Thursday.

My consolation after that daunting task, a super cold bottle of Coke from a vending machine at the building lobby. Quenching my thirst, realization on things started to play back in my thoughts. God in His infinite goodness is clearly conveying a message to me through that bizarre experience.

• That He answers when we pray.
• Angels are sent to us in time of need.
• And nothing is impossible if we have faith.

And that’s how Serendipity is at play!