Angelica Vorobey is a licensed translator, but sheer pleasure for her is a workout with a barbell. All her life Angelica had been dreaming of moving to a warm country. This strong desire forced her to take the risk and accept a job offer as a fitness trainer on the Maldives.
Angelica is from a family which loves sport. Her mom is a teacher of aerobics, her father is fond of track and field and regularly goes jogging even today – in his sixties. During 10 and 11th grades the girl visited her mom’s workouts, but didn’t care much of her diet. However, already then Angela had a clear understanding that she likes different kinds of physical activities.
The girl began to train more productively during her study at the university. Angelica studied translation in Belarusian State University and visited gym regularly.
– I did workouts without a coach, I studied all the technique and peculiarities of the exercises by myself. I especially enjoyed strength training. I attended several courses of fitness, but everything they taught there didn’t catch me infact. So I drew a conclusion that “bouncing and hopping” is definitely not my thing.
Having graduated from the university, Angelica started to work as the logistician in the Minsk Sparkling Wines Factory. According to her, it is deadly boring and uninteresting job indeed.
— When I imagined that all my life I will go through a checkpoint and sit 9 to 5, pushing pieces of paper, I felt down. In addition our weather. In Belarus it is cold most part of the year, but I adore heat very much.
Angelica had a desire to go to a warm country. Her first experience was Turkey, the country the girl was invited to work as the activities organizer.
– It is frightening, of course, when you are 22 years old and you go to the muslim country where the attitude towards women is, to put it mildly, different. My mom was totally against it. She kept telling me about some girls, whose passports were taken away and other stuff. But I stood my ground.
For nine months Angelica had been working in Turkey. She taught step dance and aerobics. On return to Belarus the girl began to look for a job abroad again. So she posted her CV on the English-speaking websites. After a while she was invited to work as the personal trainer on the Maldives.
— I got a call from one agency, they offered me their services: they look for the employer, the employer hires me, and after that I pay the agency 400 dollars as a fee. My interview took place on Skype. As I learned later, I was accepted mostly for being smiley and open.
Angelica’s plane landed in Male, the capital of the Maldives at the end of January, 2016. From there the girl was brought to the island and placed in the village for personnel near the hote where she was supposed to work. Buildings there are three-storyed, planning of which reminds of the Belarusian dormitories. There are two or three people living in the room. The company paid for Angela’s food and accommodation.
— Requirements for my position were high, beginning from full knowledge of anatomy of human body to dietetics. All trainings had to be held only in English. It was unacceptable to make mistakes because clients paid a lot of money. By the way, one personal training costs 250 dollars there, and one may take a room for a day, the cost of which is 40 thousand euros. For me it was unthinkable money, and I understood that I have to match, to be in congruence with the hotel.
In order to train, Angelica had to receive the certificate of the international school ISSA on education of trainers. She completed online-training and got to work. The mechanics of choice in the hotel were as such: the client looks through all base of trainers on the screen in his room and chooses the one who attracts him most. When Angelica came to work, she could using the base look how many trainings are planned for today.
— People, as a rule, asked more cardio. No one had purpose to make their body more relief. The main thing is not to get weight during rest. Therefore everyone strived to run and jump more, so that calories, which they ate during the day, could burn quicker.
Guests came to the hotel from all over the world, there were a lot of British. Angelica says that she caught a glimpse of the Beckhams and Jason Stethem, Russian stars Baskov and Syutkin were also noticed.
– In general I can say: the more money a person has, the simpler he or she behaves. I thought that I will not be able to find a common language with people who have a large fortune, but it appeared that they are much simpler than I imagined.
After half a year on Maldives Angelica realized that she misses her home. At first it seemed to be paradise, but then I realized that I began to degrade.
But all comes at a price.
— I lacked development, growth. We had been working for seven days a week. The other personnel did the same. Water is all around, and even on your day off there is no place to go, nothing to visit. We were carried to the capital to shopping centers, but I didn’t like these trips at all. Locals looked at me as if they saw a miracle, they photographed me, pointed with a finger. That’s all because I am blonde, and they are dark-haired with swarty skin. In shops you mostly won’t buy anything as all clothes were for Muslim women only.
Having worked more than ten months, Angelica decided to break the contract before term. The owner was not happy as it was necessary to look for the new person, but did not force to pay a penalty. The company paid Angelica a return ticket, and she came back to Belarus.
— I am happy that I had such experience in my life. Leaving for the Maldives, I did not expect to earn a lot of money, but I did. Every month there I received up to 3 thousand dollars. As a result, having returned to Belarus, I could buy a car and during next five months I did not work – I traveled all over the world.
Angelica’s history sounds amazing: here both Maldives and good income — but employment abroad is always connected with many risks. And the scenario, of which the girl’s mother was so afraid, could take shape in reality.
— I do not claim that cases when, for example, guests of the hotel are too sassy in relation to trainers, do not happen at all. But in the place, where I worked, nobody molested neither me, nor my colleagues. The administration treated us with respect too, understanding that we are from another country.
Upon return to Minsk the girl got a job in a fitness club. But she has no wish to stay here forever: it would be quite good, she says, to try to live in Spain.