The crew who are the only one of their nationality at the airline: the Sudanese at Qatar, the Georgian in the Gulf, the Kiwi at Emirates and being the one
-
#1 Qatar, Sudanese, and there is a thread about being the only one from your country at the base. This is a different one: being one of a handful of your nationality at the whole airline, which is a specific experience at the giants where most nationalities have hundreds and some have five.
Who the ones are
At Qatar, the Sudanese are a few dozen, the Georgians a few, the Mongolians a handful, the Icelanders one or two. At Emirates, the Kiwis are a few hundred and still feel small next to the British thousands; the Bolivians are a handful; the Maltese a few. Every giant has the nationalities with hundreds and the ones with five, and the ones with five have a different job.
What it is like
No community waiting at the airport. No kitchen on your floor with your food. No crew group in your language. The month four loneliness Holly described, with no nationality group to rest in. The passenger from your country on a flight is an event and you are called to row 30 to speak to them. The purser asks where you are from and has never flown with one of you. You are, for the whole airline, your country.
What the ones do
They find the mixed group fast, because there is no other group. They become the most international crew members at the airline by necessity. They learn the big communities' food and languages and join the Filipino kitchen or the Egyptian cafés as guests who become family. They find the two or three others of their nationality and the group of five is closer than the group of five hundred. And they become the crew member the pursers put on the flight to their country, every time, because there is no one else.
The honest difficulty
The representing. A Sudanese crew member at Qatar is, to most of the crew and passengers, the first Sudanese they have met, and the behaviour of one is the reputation of a country. The ones carry that and the ones from the big communities do not. It is a weight and it is also a pride.
The honest advantage
The international life the airline promises is forced on the ones and they live it fully. The ones from the big communities can spend five years in their nationality group and never meet the airline. The ones from the small communities meet it in month one. Five years in, the Sudanese and the Georgians and the Icelanders at Qatar are the most connected crew in the building, because they had to be.
For the ones arriving
Find the mixed group in week one, not month six. Find the others of your nationality, however few, and hold them. Join a big community's kitchen as a guest. Accept the row 30 call as the honour it is. And know that the weight of representing is also the thing that makes you the crew member the airline is proudest of, because you are the whole country and you are doing it well.
-
#2 Georgian Airways, and the Georgians at the Gulf carriers are a handful and every one of them is the Georgian to the whole airline. My cousin is one at Emirates. Ibrahim's description of the row 30 call and the weight is her life exactly.
-
#3 Emirates from Auckland, and the Kiwis being a few hundred and feeling small next to the British is true and we are the large version of Ibrahim's small version. The Bolivian in my building is the real one. She is the most connected crew member on the floor, for the reason Ibrahim gives.
-
#4 airBaltic Riga, and the Latvians at the Gulf carriers are a handful and the ones I know describe exactly this: no kitchen, no group, the mixed group in week one, the most international life at the airline. The weight and the pride.
-
#5 Air NZ, and the reverse exists: the one Sudanese or Georgian at Air New Zealand is the whole country to a crew of Kiwis and is called to row 30 for the one passenger a year. The ones exist at every airline. Ibrahim has written them.
-
#6 Emirates, and the month four with no nationality group to rest in is the hardest version of month four and I did not think of it when I wrote the thread. The ones have the mixed group only. Ibrahim's advice to find it in week one is the correction my thread needed.
-
#7 Qatar, Egyptian, from the big community, and reading this I understand the Sudanese and the Georgians in my building differently. We have the cafés. They have the whole airline. The guest who becomes family in our kitchen is the thing I will offer tomorrow.