'...the surprise phone call!'

We all do it – let the telephone ring, ask someone else to take a message or allow the answering machine to do the same. Later on, upon receiving the message, we often curse ourselves for ignoring the call – perhaps it was good news, or a cheery greeting from a long-lost friend.

Gift Lowane will probably never leave a phone call unanswered. Because for the 31-year-old Zimbabwean, now based in Dubai, the decision to answer a phone call changed his life.

"Things happen when you least expect them to – and when they do, it takes a while for the good or the bad of this to register in your mind," says Lowane. "A year and a half back, I was an electrical maintenance technician at a company called Mega Pak in Harare, Zimbabwe. My wife, Angelina, and I were living a simple life with very few luxuries – happy, but not quite content, because like everyone else, we wanted to do better.

"We had been married for a few months only and I wanted a better job [something difficult to come by in Zimbabwe, where there is a high rate of unemployment], to earn better money and live a better life," says Lowane. "But these ambitions did not include wanting to move to another country in order to get all the 'betters'.

"It was a day in December 2005. I was working on a piece of machinery that had broken down when one of my colleagues came up to me and said I had a phone call. I was concentrating at the problem at hand so hard that I felt a bit irritated by this interruption. So I turned to him to say, "Take the message."

"But as I opened my mouth to utter those words, something stopped me. Call it sixth sense. So I put my gear down, cleaned my hands and took the phone call."

"The person at the other end of the line introduced himself and told me that this was a call for a job interview in Dubai. For a second I wondered if it was a joke. I could scarcely believe it. Then suddenly I remembered that I had indeed handed over my resume to a friend of mine living in Dubai – at his insistence – some time back. And that he had mentioned that I would get a call in the future.

"The caller asked me questions about my work, my qualifications and I found myself faithfully answering his questions. And just as suddenly, he concluded the phone call by saying, 'Alright Mr Lowane.

We would like you to join us as soon as possible in Dubai. I will keep in touch regarding the arrangements. See you soon.' And then he hung up.

Before I could fully grasp what was happening, I had been interviewed and hired over the phone – in a matter of minutes!

"The rest of the day passed by in a daze. I dared not tell anyone about the phone call – not until I was sure that the job was mine. In the evening, I rushed home and after having a chat with my wife, we decided to remain quiet about the job offer until it actually materialised. I mean to be hired over the telephone, fuelling our hopes for a better future, seemed incredible. Too good to be true.

"As the weeks stretched on with no further communication, we were glad we hadn't told everyone about the job offer. And just as we were about to give up on it, a representative from Jazira Technical Systems, Dubai, got in touch with me.
"The visa was arranged within days and I found myself flying to Dubai towards a whole new future.

"When I think back, it probably sounds quite simple that you could be hired for a job from another country over the phone. But when you are struggling for a living – with almost no prospect of a better job or a better life – to be offered a job of this calibre, to fly for the first time, to meet such an exciting blend of people for the first time and to be given a shot at a better life for the first time – it's truly astounding.

"Life has been good since then. I miss my family sorely though. My baby girl, Tari, was born a few months after I came here. It was July 13, the same day I got my UAE driving licence!

"I'll always be grateful for whatever prompted me to take that phone call personally instead of asking my colleague to attend to it."