Dubai-based expat Cynthia Clottey (right) doesn't mind being mistaken for YouTuber Emanuella (left). EXPAT MEDIA/ARCHIVE

Emanuella in Dubai? Meet African behind viral video

Popular YouTuber Emanuella spotted in Dubai? This is what many people are saying after watching Dubai-based Cynthia Clottey’s viral video on Expat Media. The 27-year-old African dishing out Filipino food while speaking Filipino at a supermarket food court in Dubai went viral on social media after Expatmedia.net posted a video of her last August. “I never imagined the video would go viral. We were just having fun,” Cynthia told Expatmedia.net. The video has since gotten nearly half a million views and reached nearly one million people. Watch her interview here: But is Cynthia really Emanuella all grown up? Laughing, Cynthia says she isn’t. “I’m not Emanuella. Emanuella is Nigerian and I’m a Ghanaian, and Emanuella is younger than me,” Cynthia told Expatmedia.net, adding “maybe I can be Emanuella in Dubai”. Cynthia, however, is all praise for the young YouTuber. “The kid is great! I’m glad she nurtured her talent in her younger days. She’s great,” she said. As for Cynthia, the young city girl from Ghana is looking at creating a better life in Dubai for herself and her family back home. She moved here eight months ago "to seek greener pastures", and within two months found work as a server for a Filipino restaurant. Her first challenge? Learning the names of Filipino dishes. “The first time I heard the names of the food, I was like, ‘Oh, Cynthia!’ But as I said, if you put your mind and heart into something you are good to go,” Cynthia said. The expat from Ghana admitted that learning the Filipino language “was not easy”, but that she had to adapt to what customers wanted. “Most of them feel free speaking in their language, so when they say, ‘How much?’ I’m like, ‘Dalawang ulam (two viands) with rice, kinse (Dh15)’. And they go, ‘Oh, you speak Tagalog!’” The first Filipino words she learned? “Dalawang ulam with rice, kinse,” she said, laughing, “And then followed by the names of the food: Pakbet, menudo, kare-kare, sisig chicken, sisig kambing meeeeeh! (bleats like a goat)” Cynthia said she is happy to have earned a “new family in Dubai” in the Filipino community, and embrace what Dubai has to offer. After all, she moved here with a “very big plan” in mind. “The main one is to open a family restaurant. Me and my siblings are working on that,” said Cynthia, who is the second born among her five siblings. She is saving up for the restaurant, and gets inspiration from her mother, whom she describes as a “very hardworking woman” and single parent. “She taught us we can do anything to survive,” she said. Before heading to Dubai, the city girl from Ghana secretly saved up before packing her bags and telling her mother about her big move to a bigger city in the Middle East. “I didn’t initially tell my family I was coming here. In the first place, if I told my mother, she wouldn’t have let me come here,” she said. After talking to her mother about earning a better salary in Dubai, her mother finally “understood and gave her blessings” on the condition that Cynthia keeps her updated about her activities every day. “I am the strongest in the family, I’m the one who holds my family together,” Cynthia said. This meant leaving her family and friends and embracing her new life in Dubai. “It was a bit tough at first because I’m a little bit picky on where I was living, where I was going, the people I hung out with,” she said. Cynthia said she has gotten into the groove of expat life now, but is not keeping her eyes off her goal. She also hopes she could land her dream job. “My dream job is to work in a five-star hotel because I like growing. I like improving on my skills, and I like to meet new people. I believe life is about learning. I learn about others, and then life goes well with me,” she said. The hardworking expat and foodie said that if given the chance to spend a day on whatever she wanted to do, she would like to go “dining in a fine restaurant, trying meals I’ve never tried before”. What has she learned from her expat experience in Dubai so far? “The trials, the things we go through here before we get to where we want to get to, all is about patience. Just go through them. Things that come will never stay. They will go. Everybody has a chapter in life. Just focus on your plan and just move on when you are supposed to,” Cynthia told Expatmedia.net. PIA/Expat Media ALSO READ: Emirati goes viral for singing Filipino song in Dubai
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