By Daniella Djiogan

When I got off the plane after a day’s flight, I was so exhausted. However, I still had to go through many customs before I could finally be free to leave. My company had specifically told me that there will be a taxi driver waiting for me at the arrival gate with my name.

My first thought then was “what if my name was written in Chinese” If that was the case, I wouldn’t even know who he was because I didn’t know a single Chinese character/word. But thankfully, when I walked out, I saw a man holding a paper with the name “Daniella”. I was relieved. But a minute later, I started to think “what if there was another person named Daniella?” I thought about it for a second and I was like “Oh well…every Daniella for themselves” I am too tired to even think of any other possibilities. I couldn’t even say a word in Chinese other than “nihao and xie xie” how was I supposed to explain to this man if he got the right person? Hey! put yourself in my position, what will you do? Of course leave with him.

Next thing I knew, I was in a car accompanied by complete silence. He didn’t even say a word. However, that wasn’t slightly as terrifying as my wary thoughts that kept wondering “what if he was going to kidnap me? What if the company I was about to work for was actually a human trafficking business?” What if he was going to sell my organs? What if he was going to abandon me somewhere in the middle of nowhere? OMG…what will I do?

I had so many ‘what if’ questions in my mind that I decided to shut down my thoughts. Thinking wasn’t helping at all. Plus, I was so weary that I decided to leave everything in God’s hands. If something was meant to happen, it would eventually happen…Oh well that would be a shame. I guess the long flight had corrupted my thoughts to the point that I didn’t care anymore. All I wanted was a comfy bed.

Anyways, I got to the company at about past midnight. When I walked in, the first thing they asked me was if I had 100RMB. Again my thought was…”I am getting kidnap.” But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. They wanted the money as a deposit for my stay at the hostel. I got checked in, and before I knew it, I was on my bed.

Due to jet-lag, I couldn’t sleep the whole night. So, I got up early, emailed my family that I had safely arrived and got ready for the day. When I left my room, I was surprised and relieved to see other foreigners from the U.K, South Africa, U.S, etc. In my head I was like “If I was going to be kidnapped, at least I wouldn’t be alone. Selfish right!….but comforting…lol.