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.
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.
