Transfer to Arar

Returning from my Cyprus vacation (see my previous blog), I had a layover in Istanbul. While waiting for my flight, I received a WhatsApp from our HR department to inform me that I was transferred to Arar, a small town about 60km from the Iraqi border. I was told that our company had been contracted to teach preparatory year English at the Northern Border University. I was to pack as soon as I arrived back in Riyadh as I was to fly out again on the Sunday.

Accordingly, I packed up all my belongings into boxes and suitcases and by Saturday I was good to go. I kept out just a change of underwear, socks and trousers and shirt. The company bus was due to drive to Arar early on Sunday morning, so I loaded all my belongings onto the bus on Saturday night.

Arrangements tend to be fluid here, and upon inquiring about my flight and ticket, I was told that I would only be traveling on the Tuesday morning. That made life a bit awkward since I had no change of clothing or underwear. I had also packed up all my kitchen stuff so I couldn’t cook anything either. However, Uber Eats came to my rescue and together with take-aways and sandwiches I was able to survive.

Tuesday morning at 0300 my driver arrived to transport me to the airport and I set out on my new adventure.

I was met at Arar airport by our driver and taken directly to the university for my interview. After my interview, the manager of our English department (who speaks no English) sent me and another teacher to our accommodation so that we could settle in and get ourselves organized. Unfortunately, our driver did not yet know his way around Arar and after an hour he still hadn’t found our hotel (our temporary accommodation). 

We decided to stop for something to eat at a fast-food joint. Arar is basically a large village, and according to my till slip, I was customer number 3 for that day – things were apparently not hectically busy at the eatery.

We eventually found our way to the hotel. Initially the hotel intended to assign both of us to one room (non-native English speakers are expected to share rooms). After we, as native English speakers, had strenuously registered our objections, it seemed that the hotel had no available rooms. They were concerned that other teachers may arrive and that they would have no accommodation for them. Eventually, after about 30 minutes of loud discussion, things got sorted out and we were assigned separate rooms and we got ourselves sort of settled. 

For the rest of the week we attended at the university but nothing actually happened. One colleague (also a SAFFA) and I found an empty classroom and spent the days there reading and doing crosswords. We ate lunch in the canteen which served up pretty decent and tasty home-cooked food. There were also dozens of Sudanese teachers milling around the building, all hoping to get a teaching position at the university.

On Thursday, on the way home, the bus stopped to allow some teachers to do some shopping. After thirty minutes of sitting on the bus getting bored I thought “fuckit” and looked for an Uber. The gods were with me and an Uber was available. It turned out the driver spoke perfect English and had obtained his Master’s degree in Australia. Chatting on the way home, he mentioned the name of my company and said that he had heard that our company hadn’t landed the university teaching contract. This was more information than we had received from our company and we spent the weekend mulling over the implications.

The weekend I decided to explore the local mall and supermarket to get some provisions. There are no cooking facilities in the hotel but I had my microwave with me, so I was hoping for some microwaveable meals. When I accessed the Uber app I noticed that there were very few Ubers in town, but I was able to get one and off I went to the local mall.

When I was ready to go home again, I called up the Uber app which apologized and said that currently there were no Ubers available. This was a problem as I was several kilometers from home, in flip-flops and with an outside temperature of around 40°C. I kept trying to find an Uber but after about 30 minutes I admitted defeat. I downloaded the Careem app and the gods smiled on me. One car was available. The car was a bit of a heap and the driver kept talking to me in Arabic and asking the way and touching me, but eventually I got home.

Sunday morning, when our driver was fifteen minutes late to take us to the university, I sent a WhatsApp enquiry to find out what was going on. I got a message back: “Did Mr. xxx not inform you?” (Mr. xxx being our non-English-speaking manager). The answer was no, Mr. xxx had informed nobody that no teachers were required to attend at the university that day So now we again sit and wonder… are we staying in Arar, will we return to Riyadh, will we be posted elsewhere? Communication is somewhat rare commodity within our company.

Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus

I was recently fortunate enough to spend ten days in Northern Cyprus. I have been there several times before on holiday as I really like it and it isn’t overly expensive – although it is becoming more so. Passable English is spoken in most shops and restaurants on the island although sometimes there can be some misunderstandings.

Kyrenia Harbor

I had noticed a new souvenir shop in the harbor area a few days previously so one morning I thought I would go and have a look at what they had to offer. Instead of walking along the main thoroughfare I decided to take the back street and then cut down to the main area after a couple of blocks. Well, with my lack of sense of direction and the turns and twists of the lanes I quickly became disoriented and by the time I found my way down to the main harbor area I was way past the souvenir shop. However, since I felt that I was very close to the town area I decided to press on and have breakfast in town.

Sadly, I had misjudged again. I was a lot further from town than I had estimated. I walked for another thirty minutes and a couple of kilometers, up some steep hills in the hot sunshine before I got to the town area. I slumped onto a park bench in the shade until I got my breath back and stopped sweating.

Then I made my way to a café/pub that I hadn’t tried before, Windows Restaurant. I started 

with a beer and then I ordered two fried eggs, two sausages and some toast. The lines of

Both my order and
the eggs were scrambled

communication had obviously gotten twisted and I was served scrambled eggs on toast, lots of chips in all the open spaces on the plate and no sausages. On making inquires about the absent sausages I was given an apology and after a few minutes, the reluctant sausages arrived.

After another beer I decided to make my way down to the tidal pool where I spent most of my days. Along the way I stopped at an apothecary (pharmacy) to buy some safety pins. I wanted them to pin some badges onto my backpack. The gentleman in the pharmacy had no idea what I was talking about and he called a colleague over to see if he could assist. He also came up empty and so I drew a picture of a safety pin. They still had no idea, so I drew a larger and more detailed image. Suddenly his face cleared: “Ah! You want condoms!” he exclaimed. Giving up my artistic efforts, I mimed changing a baby’s nappy. They seemed to understand – or else they had just decided to give me up as a lost cause. Either way, they told me they had none and suggested that I try elsewhere.

A couple of days later I decided to go into town for breakfast again. Eschewing Windows Restaurant, I instead went to The George, an English pub/restaurant that attracts all the local English visitors and shows all the English football games on big-screen TVs. I had eaten there before, and I knew the food was good but the service wasn’t great. On that day the service was worse than usual and after being ignored by the waiters for ten minutes I got up and left. 

I went to the pub next door, Murfeys, who had previously given good service and very palatable food. After 10 minutes I hadn’t even seen a waiter or waitress (waitron?) so I got up and left.

I headed on towards the pool and decided to try another pub along the way that I hadn’t tried before, Simit Dünyasi. Sadly they only had menus in Turkish, and when I told the waiter what I wanted he looked at me in some consternation and walked away without a word. A few minutes later another waiter appeared and looked at me equally blankly when I placed my order. Abandoning what I had been trying to order, I pointed to a picture of an omelet and a beer. The beer arrived and a while later the omelet, which was very nice. As I got up to leave, I managed to knock my beer mug onto the ground where it broke. I was really having a bad breakfast day.

I hurried away to the pool where I spent the rest of the day relaxing and swimming and sunning.