tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70763098142159485872024-02-20T04:04:20.041-08:00Saudi ArabiaGregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-49674921351959437492023-06-25T03:39:00.006-07:002023-06-25T04:43:25.529-07:00More Medical Matters - Cataract<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> 25 June 2023</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;">I’ve been home from Saudi
Arabia about 18 months. I must say I’m happy to be amongst my people again and
to not to have any work obligations. I sometimes miss teaching especially<br /> when
I think of some of the excellent classes I had. I also miss having a regular
income and the opportunity to travel several times a year.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">A couple of months after
arriving home I went for an eye test. I had noticed while still in KSA that my
left eye didn’t see straight lines. Both horizontal and vertical lines appeared
wavy. When I mentioned this to the optometrist, she was concerned that I may
have age related macular degeneration. She suggested that I start taking
Ocuvite vitamins for the eyes. I did this and a while later decided that it
would make sense for me to see a specialist</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I don’t have medical insurance,
so I’m obliged to use Government Health facilities. The one I have used before
is Helen Joseph Hospital. They provide pretty decent health care, but the one
thing you can depend on is that you </span><i style="font-family: arial;">will</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> queue for hours. You can count
on spending at least half a day there with every visit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">However, you can’t just
pitch up there, you need a referral. This meant that I first needed to</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJt6xnJH6qUfoS9mUbzf7FI7OSa3mO2pN7FAejhTfSnX_d4qSDDPPnuqoNrAnDt4prBkndZhTo_ALEw6nqpsjHWOOtRVp2n4KnA8oyS5ZwaClFkHAU1_D4AiogAoeb-HjLBMOr2DWBNDSJA-Q_bC_y_ULATp3DKJYyqf-o99Al9FK1MB5ceGpQYI6mnA/s4032/20230206_094508.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJt6xnJH6qUfoS9mUbzf7FI7OSa3mO2pN7FAejhTfSnX_d4qSDDPPnuqoNrAnDt4prBkndZhTo_ALEw6nqpsjHWOOtRVp2n4KnA8oyS5ZwaClFkHAU1_D4AiogAoeb-HjLBMOr2DWBNDSJA-Q_bC_y_ULATp3DKJYyqf-o99Al9FK1MB5ceGpQYI6mnA/w200-h150/20230206_094508.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> visit my
local clinic – Discoverers Health Center. So bright and early I pitched up at
Discoverers only to discover that I wasn’t early enough; there were about 30
people ahead of me. The first thing I had to do was to open a file. This took
about 90 minutes. Then I had to queue to be told where I needed to go. This
took about 45 minutes. Then I queued for the optometrist for another 30 minutes
only to be told that I first had to have my vitals checked. This done, I
finally got to see the lady who after an eye test gave me a referral to HJH.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">A few days later I reported
to HJH eye section where I had to make an appointment for a few weeks hence. I
duly arrived for my appointment. Fist I had to report to reception so they
could fetch my file. </span><span style="font-family: arial; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">That’s when they
discovered that my file had been discarded because I hadn’t been there for a
couple of years. After about an hour a new file was created, and I reported for
triage and vitals. This took like an hour and then off I went to the eye
clinic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">After about another hour I
was in eye-clinic triage. This consisted of about 4 tables manned by ladies who
did some preliminary checking. After a cursory examination and reading my referral,
she asked where I live. When I told her Weltevredenpark, she said that I needed
to report to Leratong Hospital for treatment. I objected but she was adamant.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xnCY73wblWHMAotkDpWRecPMqNB6Z8SGIipB6iUSu0wSYsPrls2-YIYlJa5srgM-vO3_IvyePAUbanCVn1KKBsyrAX47Jrb0PI1TWOE0H3N_mxxncz2VfVfCsJqLcNC_msoPjR2_PPPC6tziSuVGQ1NmOLoJKiu8Cp-CDskPpbnZXIuxx3NkGq7X0Jo/s4032/20230512_112347.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xnCY73wblWHMAotkDpWRecPMqNB6Z8SGIipB6iUSu0wSYsPrls2-YIYlJa5srgM-vO3_IvyePAUbanCVn1KKBsyrAX47Jrb0PI1TWOE0H3N_mxxncz2VfVfCsJqLcNC_msoPjR2_PPPC6tziSuVGQ1NmOLoJKiu8Cp-CDskPpbnZXIuxx3NkGq7X0Jo/w200-h150/20230512_112347.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: arial;">So I duly arrive at Leratong, about 15km further than HJH, spend a couple of hours getting a file
created (they put my name as John, my middle name, on the file). Then I went to
get my vitals checked and then queued to see the doc. She examined my eyes and
concluded that my right eye needed cataract surgery and the left one wasn’t in
great condition due to the orbit being cracked, no doubt from the car that hit
me back in 2015. She scheduled my surgery about 3 months hence with a pre-op
appointment a couple of days before the surgery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I arrived for pre-op
procedures at 0700, not knowing what the pre-op entailed. Eventually, at 1400 I
got to see the doc. He scribbled some notes in my file and told me that I
should present myself for pre-op next Friday. I said that my pre-op was today,
but he said that they had overbooked, so sorry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The
next Friday I went through the same motions again and eventually got to see the
doc again. He again scribbled in my file and told me that I would be admitted
to hospital, ward 23, on Sunday morning. When I questioned why because the
surgery was scheduled for Monday morning and was done on an out-patient basis,
he replied that there were “problems” when people were told to come on the day
of the surgery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial; line-height: 107%;">So
Sunday morning I collected my file and reported to ward 23. Of course, because
my file said John Grove, they kept calling me John. Eventually I gave up
correcting them. I sat in reception for about 2 hours while they completed
various documents. An orderly came by with a food trolley and asked if I would
like some food. I said, “yes please” and he gave me a plastic covered plate of
food. It was a chicken drumstick, a greenish substance, and some potato. Unfortunately,
he didn’t have any eating implements, so I put the food to one side. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Eventually they told me to
report to ward 17. After wandering about for a while, I found ward17. Again, I
sat in reception for about 30 minutes before being shown to my room and bed. It
was an 8-bed ward. Since there was absolutely nothing else scheduled for the
rest of the day, I went outside to find a patch of sun and to read my book. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> <br /><br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4tcr0NRVotiCucKmfSkCJCDG30fMZ-5fgHM_SJ31pD-p5GiaTF5JaTzgjEj4jEskiOQq5DlB5j_LRe1IQS4VrDBCtc0lJhQ9FBFMv2-yCvNK_s1kE_3WVS7xBQFFWGYw_I-4sD1eXjZbQ99GLWr6DQT2dqoi1xKDNhbRpn0LWOEhyghQ6Zeb6skAGJk/s4032/20230521_171029.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4tcr0NRVotiCucKmfSkCJCDG30fMZ-5fgHM_SJ31pD-p5GiaTF5JaTzgjEj4jEskiOQq5DlB5j_LRe1IQS4VrDBCtc0lJhQ9FBFMv2-yCvNK_s1kE_3WVS7xBQFFWGYw_I-4sD1eXjZbQ99GLWr6DQT2dqoi1xKDNhbRpn0LWOEhyghQ6Zeb6skAGJk/w172-h114/20230521_171029.jpg" width="172" /></a>About
1630 I thought I would return to my ward and wait for supper. When I got there,
I found that my supper had already been delivered and by now was cold. Supper
was hospital food. The sheet on my bed was exactly the same length as the mattress
and wasn’t too stable. It was also the noisiest bed I have ever been on. Each
time I moved it </span><i style="font-family: arial;">spoinged</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial;">spanged </i><span style="font-family: arial;">and rattled and groaned. The
wheels weren’t locked, so it also moved back and forth and banged into the
wall. All this earned me some irate looks from the rest of the ward. One dude
had his arms tied to the frame of his bed, so I assumed he was a prisoner.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Around 2030 we were
brought tea and bread which I enjoyed. Then around 2100, after we had all
climbed into bed, we were told to pack up all our belongings, including our
bedding, because we were being moved to ward 23. So off we went and again spent
about hour hanging around in ward 23 reception. In due course we were shown to
our beds. We made them and hopped in. After lights out I quietly went to the toilet,
quietly made my way back so as not to disturb anyone, and kicked over a table
as I was climbing back into bed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjTaCyvcmbJ-J4N9tMaSJPP3UO00l3RUUPCvJwkoKQ2c1mXg5Fa82ylVuYDx408kw_BWljgKEIbUA-3gSY_bOp364ZJzQWio7tvcNT4aynYEUO-haKnOkSnVLSoC1_zMSWv_4ZBu6NmHXh6AnetMJ5U2dTiLLvXwxwdQ5x_eeEUy74CwUfGGpqisIZdhw/s2944/20230522_063329.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2944" data-original-width="2208" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjTaCyvcmbJ-J4N9tMaSJPP3UO00l3RUUPCvJwkoKQ2c1mXg5Fa82ylVuYDx408kw_BWljgKEIbUA-3gSY_bOp364ZJzQWio7tvcNT4aynYEUO-haKnOkSnVLSoC1_zMSWv_4ZBu6NmHXh6AnetMJ5U2dTiLLvXwxwdQ5x_eeEUy74CwUfGGpqisIZdhw/w150-h200/20230522_063329.jpg" width="150" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">I woke up with all the
lights on, and I wondered who was messing with the lights as it was only 0400.
Turns out it was the nurses and our day had begun. They took blood pressure,
checked sugar levers, and put drops in my eye and covered it.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">They
don’t come and fetch you from the ward when it’s your turn but took all 7 of us
to the operating floor where we sat around awaiting our turn. After about an
hour I was bored so I went walkabout.</span><span style="font-family: arial; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">A
nurse saw me wandering around and asked me “Pappa, </span><i style="font-family: arial;">where</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> are you going”?
I went into one procedure room and asked the dude there what the interesting looking
machine was that was over the bed. He told me I wasn’t supposed to be in there
and to please leave.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Eventually it was my turn,
and I was seated in a dentist-type chair with my head tipped right back. When the
doc started the procedure she placed a bright light in my eye, so I saw noting,
which was probably for the best. From what I’d read I knew that they cut a
small slit in the sac surrounding the lens, then they fragment the lens with a
sonic probe, “vacuum” out the fragments and then insert the new lens which
unfolds itself in the sac. It wasn’t a fun procedure, but it wasn’t bad and it
was over in about 20 minutes. I was given drops and tablets and told I could go
home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">That was easier said than
done. I had to take an Uber home since I couldn’t drive with my right eye
covered and my left eye not focussing properly on anything. Trying to read my
phone screen to order the Uber was a challenge. I couldn’t read any of the car details
except that the registration started with a K. I watched the cars coming and
saw one that I thought started with a K. I went closer and closer until I was
almost touching it and saw that indeed it started with a K. I opened the
passenger door and climbed in, hoping that it really was my Uber. It was.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYPlzLy4O0hsLRJOv9JvuNUVIIIr55s0JNC59-PvS3Z9aG8ng5jFQgSizbKAL8YgkBNlS8AVexF2vtRyxHg26R9o8U-nXYAWdUXtb3tLTnc5UJGkOlxrEgZel0suIVBsBtBCpNDEX7hECYuENMsXRqy1SMgqF_jKMwHhWi8IdXeHPhar7t3_-X9PYLpfQ/s4032/20230613_084228.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYPlzLy4O0hsLRJOv9JvuNUVIIIr55s0JNC59-PvS3Z9aG8ng5jFQgSizbKAL8YgkBNlS8AVexF2vtRyxHg26R9o8U-nXYAWdUXtb3tLTnc5UJGkOlxrEgZel0suIVBsBtBCpNDEX7hECYuENMsXRqy1SMgqF_jKMwHhWi8IdXeHPhar7t3_-X9PYLpfQ/w150-h200/20230613_084228.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I went for a follow up 2
days later and a took a sharpie with me to correct my name on my file. I did so
and when I went for my vitals, the nurse looked at my file and said, “Sit down,
George” <sigh>.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">My right eye is so much
better than it was. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Colors</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> are so much brighter, and I
can read and see my computer screen without glasses. The doc said that surgery
wouldn’t benefit my left eye, but they could improve it with glasses. In
another couple of weeks, they will test me for specs and I’ll be good to go.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">It’s
been an interesting experience and I am happy that I got top-notch attention in
a spotlessly clean hospital without any cost to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-50096115822312076762021-12-19T05:13:00.014-08:002022-01-19T03:08:32.133-08:00Evicted from the Kingdom<p style="text-align: justify;"> 18 December 2021</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Pieter and I shared our accommodation with an HR person – separate bedrooms and shared kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Near the end of November, the HR person (Wahid) told us that Bisha university had changed their minds and had decided to accept Pieter and me on a trial basis. We were told that we had the following day to pack up our lives and the morning following that we were to fly to</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjeCU4cmJerAxdQLZWBPQYHqi1D6bk96DjIZ_SC1TCdoLEOQwy2n8tFHEH2QE5LNXq4fqT2-KQ5xZJkPkF5w2dfMFzJvoSIenKEpcK7JATUNv61_7_EP1Ki5wh74_Ii8VvVUkDc7lurlt-yxpDcIPjHHN_3UMVAXVh90CgMk-7LH1gXpQOAkL1OMONn=s1945" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1459" data-original-width="1945" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjeCU4cmJerAxdQLZWBPQYHqi1D6bk96DjIZ_SC1TCdoLEOQwy2n8tFHEH2QE5LNXq4fqT2-KQ5xZJkPkF5w2dfMFzJvoSIenKEpcK7JATUNv61_7_EP1Ki5wh74_Ii8VvVUkDc7lurlt-yxpDcIPjHHN_3UMVAXVh90CgMk-7LH1gXpQOAkL1OMONn=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wahid and Pieter</td></tr></tbody></table>Bisha to take up our new positions. We were to be responsible for finding and paying for our own accommodation and arranging our own transport to and from work. This was a new challenge as for the past ten years Al Jazeera has provided accommodation and transport as part of our package to wherever we were teaching. I had a rather lengthy and heated discussion with Wahid as I really did not want to leave Riyadh and I really didn’t want to move to Bisha. However, in the end, I reluctantly acquiesced, mainly so that Pieter and I could support each other.<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finances were another challenge. My bank account had been frozen due to some iqama issues and Pieter was earning a reduced salary due to Al Jazeera’s ongoing financial woes. Al Jazeera gave us a SAR10000 </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAyJNOkYbcKbC0khdyIQKMpTw22Ps6SRY5RDTGbaN_adKmV_CbC0t6azKdsaihji7P1L-9QlLVpLphERkb8B9tuRJxvkuYJ2YOhePqwNg2uqkQ-jWPGFdLzt_6AhAHbKuvcmzTLjWY3hPEJHYOKwMPI9OuM_LxIuPenxQLvmi_ZOT6igLrD-T0bdhK=s1898" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1424" data-original-width="1898" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAyJNOkYbcKbC0khdyIQKMpTw22Ps6SRY5RDTGbaN_adKmV_CbC0t6azKdsaihji7P1L-9QlLVpLphERkb8B9tuRJxvkuYJ2YOhePqwNg2uqkQ-jWPGFdLzt_6AhAHbKuvcmzTLjWY3hPEJHYOKwMPI9OuM_LxIuPenxQLvmi_ZOT6igLrD-T0bdhK=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temp accommodation<br /> in Bisha</td></tr></tbody></table>advance to find temporary accommodation when we arrived in Bisha and to pay the first month’s rent for when we found permanent accommodation. We had one week to sort ourselves out before classes resumed at the university after the break. A taxi driver took us from the airport to a hotel apartment that we could afford for a few days.<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some difficulties immediately became apparent. The list of phone numbers that had been provided to us by HR to find accommodation was useless. Either the contacts had left Bisha, could not help or could not communicate in English. In fact, very few people in Bisha can speak English and neither Pieter nor I can speak Arabic. The receptionists in our hotel apartment did speak some English and were very helpful. They suggested that Pieter and I walk around and look for buildings with signs outside and make a note of the phone numbers. They would phone the numbers for us and make enquiries. This approach was a total bust and the days were passing, and the money was dwindling.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adding to the situation, the contract Al Jazeera presented to us to sign was for a much lower salary than had been discussed before we left Riyadh. The reason for this, we were told, was because the university did not consider South Africans to be native English speakers. So, Pieter and I were to earn less than Sudanese, Somalians, and various other non-native speakers. Further, HR told us that we would have to pay for our boxes of belongings in Riyadh to be shipped to us in Bisha. This also had not been discussed with us before we left Riyadh, but this is fairly typical Al Jazeera planning and communication.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Around this time, I got a call from a company in Riyadh offering me a teaching position at the Ministry of Defense, working shorter hours and for a higher salary. Given all the drama, disorganization, stress, and miscommunications with Al Jazeera, I decided to accept this offer and return to Riyadh.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This decision did not go down well with Al Jazeera. They were angry and felt that I had embarrassed them in front of the university. I had several phone calls from a variety of people at head office urging me to change my mind and to stay in Bisha. Even the COO of Al Jazeera, currently based in Egypt got involved. However, I had had enough and went ahead and bought myself a ticket back to Riyadh.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFul2eCNz4luAxxdzZelH5fVQLh0CUChu4GFHHtA8oend_-FNRBgkyOSPT_5eO8lZCttonukmebrxohNpHenzAjrKgftXHlpuQanvuHbMLQ2lx1ZEdOWW753C-f7UXr7urP_vn-SXcFvPQnciwRTSG2wO5_iJDvg8kbM0E3Tv_pq5mEGmkH68Bk2Rw=s2287" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1715" data-original-width="2287" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFul2eCNz4luAxxdzZelH5fVQLh0CUChu4GFHHtA8oend_-FNRBgkyOSPT_5eO8lZCttonukmebrxohNpHenzAjrKgftXHlpuQanvuHbMLQ2lx1ZEdOWW753C-f7UXr7urP_vn-SXcFvPQnciwRTSG2wO5_iJDvg8kbM0E3Tv_pq5mEGmkH68Bk2Rw=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flying back to Riyad</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I informed my erstwhile flatmate, Wahid, that I would be returning to the accommodation. He in turn informed me that my room had been taken by another employee and there was no room for me. Although my contract with Al Jazeera had ended more than a year previously, they were still obliged to provide me with accommodation as they still owed me a fairly large sum of money - they had paid me, and most of their staff, no salary for the whole of 2020. So, there I was the night before flying back to Riyadh with absolutely no idea of where I would be staying when I got there and with limited funds. I spent ages Googling cheap hotels in Riyadh with zero success. To say I was stressed would be an understatement.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In desperation and on Pieter’s advice, at about 21:30 I contacted my new manager and asked if he could <span style="text-align: left;">help. He gave me the number of a SAFFA that also works for the company and said that this guy (Arno) could maybe help. This gentleman proved to be an angel in human form. He met me at the airport and drove me around various places where I could stay close to where I would be working. Nothing was too much trouble. We found a very suitable furnished accommodation that would be available three days later and then he found me somewhere to stay for the three days I was waiting. On the day I moved into my new accommodation he picked me up, transported me and my cases to my new digs and then took me to the local Carrefour to buy some basic provisions. I doubt that he will ever know what a huge weight he lifted from my shoulders. Each time I thanked him he dismissed it as “nothing”.</span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghh3q575M546A88hrpDnPgYkJncSrk4jesVIiDeXkE_PrpiqkNCMVVmryDYMTVrYMLDAvOoc8pCocs1qXSVNFI8zOrXqnkAhRYljU9bTLmJ_RZZ7E-lp593QA5mBe0XmFm3NJHjWqRd1k5MLxTuRUGfsrBWE2P5jja3OgQa7tqwZGAzolU8MBczUa-=s2026" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="2026" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghh3q575M546A88hrpDnPgYkJncSrk4jesVIiDeXkE_PrpiqkNCMVVmryDYMTVrYMLDAvOoc8pCocs1qXSVNFI8zOrXqnkAhRYljU9bTLmJ_RZZ7E-lp593QA5mBe0XmFm3NJHjWqRd1k5MLxTuRUGfsrBWE2P5jja3OgQa7tqwZGAzolU8MBczUa-=w200-h150" title="My apartment" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My apartment</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the plus side my iqama issues had been resolved and I again had access to my bank account. What a relief!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, my erstwhile flatmate, Wahid, told me that I needed to collect my boxes of belongings from the accommodation. I agreed and told him to give me a week and I would make a plan. He nixed this idea and said that if I didn’t fetch my stuff within three days, he would turf the lot. Such an accommodating fellow. So, I made a plan and at great inconvenience I fetched my belongings the next day.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Al Jazeera, however, was not done with me. They decided that because I had embarrassed them and because they were angry with me that the best course of action would be to destroy my livelihood and my ability to support my family financially. After all, revenge is important. Accordingly, they issued me with a final exit which gives me two months to leave the country. My previous ten years of work and support of Al Jazeera is evidently worth nothing.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My new employer is doing what they can to get my sponsorship transferred and to cancel my final exit, but I fear they will need the cooperation of Al Jazeera to achieve this. Although I have already paid Al Jazeera SAR25,000 to make my iqama transferrable, I doubt that they will allow this to interfere with their exacting their revenge on me. As things stand, I have until the end of January 2022 to leave the country.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTpRF5yOkDqTz8_HHO1DX4laMX7BzSfYWR5Y2rRK7SJ6dGynWMw18oORooeJQEcVOoqvTfFkEa9-YFRYetjkcuxelTvv5XGR4W_gzYURd0KOxy7wk5AVP_RojM34b-EvATjFYfhlPjpgkAEHzRGSu6lRH-Uzt31q7-fFtvj2G0fymKbqqTL_qHacZ2=s5312" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2988" data-original-width="5312" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTpRF5yOkDqTz8_HHO1DX4laMX7BzSfYWR5Y2rRK7SJ6dGynWMw18oORooeJQEcVOoqvTfFkEa9-YFRYetjkcuxelTvv5XGR4W_gzYURd0KOxy7wk5AVP_RojM34b-EvATjFYfhlPjpgkAEHzRGSu6lRH-Uzt31q7-fFtvj2G0fymKbqqTL_qHacZ2=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><u>Khaled Hammed</u> (COO) and <u>Abdulaziz Al-Awad</u> (MD)<br />Al-Jazeera Management</b></span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-61083711677543195902021-07-10T03:22:00.009-07:002022-02-15T04:57:04.622-08:00Jobs, Yobs, Vacations and COVID<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> After my surgery I was still out of work. I eventually had to give in to AJ’s extortion and pay the SAR25000 demanded by them to renew my iqama, otherwise I would have no chance of finding work. A local recruiter told me that BAE (British Aerospace) were looking for teachers to work from home in May. As the salary was rather attractive, I immediately put my hand up. The first three weeks of May I was emailed a couple of assignments, mainly</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLzVcGGLEkoPePheDd7nfHssX_N_spKJHukBjRERry3jVyxp72J8Lrt7anCZ746t5yaO6MxiycUEbW9LJCgHiQnnFIpAAxiL6jS_Ze1mRpFiCwjflcJre5BBhvTCHRgtNFtAhqH6fomw/s484/Capture.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="484" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLzVcGGLEkoPePheDd7nfHssX_N_spKJHukBjRERry3jVyxp72J8Lrt7anCZ746t5yaO6MxiycUEbW9LJCgHiQnnFIpAAxiL6jS_Ze1mRpFiCwjflcJre5BBhvTCHRgtNFtAhqH6fomw/w138-h99/Capture.PNG" width="138" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">preparing transcriptions and test questions for the cadets at KFAA (King Faisal Airforce Academy). The last week of May I was told to report to KFAA where I would be assigned a class. Work started at 0600 with the first class starting at 0700. We then had six 45-minute periods of teaching the same class.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyh_Yneu9hAqIaL-Z6G3tWQtcR8N2NDezhNkqYi_Mo8GGqgyaQ_OXSLVmsTbW76FIdEsa_8r0QzPSxc_Su57jaCRnzOMuj3Gdz8AZZS-wGPKaQjEZHbIgy292a7yKevJl6bzjExCgRy-M/s4032/2021-07-04+10.20.28+Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyh_Yneu9hAqIaL-Z6G3tWQtcR8N2NDezhNkqYi_Mo8GGqgyaQ_OXSLVmsTbW76FIdEsa_8r0QzPSxc_Su57jaCRnzOMuj3Gdz8AZZS-wGPKaQjEZHbIgy292a7yKevJl6bzjExCgRy-M/w104-h139/2021-07-04+10.20.28+Riyadh.jpg" width="104" /></a><span style="font-family: arial;">One problem I faced was the fact that the English school is about three kilometers from the base gate, and I have no transport here in KSA. The way that we dealt with the situation was </span><span style="font-family: arial;">like this: I would get an Uber at around 0515 which would drop me about one kilometer from the base gate. There I would wait at the side of the road for a colleague to pick me up and take me to the school. Usually, I wouldn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes. After classes I’d find someone to drop me at the side of the road (preferably in the shade) where I would get another Uber to take me home. Again, the wait was usually 15-20 minutes in 45-degree temperatures. The cost of this transport arrangement was close to SAR2000 / month. Not ideal but what can you do? Times are tough.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My first class was a pleasure to work with. They participated, asked questions and were generally enthusiastic students. When exam time came around they all did well, with a few 100% scores and a few in the 90%s. We had a good and cooperative working arrangement which worked well for all of us.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Then I got moved to a more “senior” class.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The term senior, in this case, simply means that they had been on the course for a longer time. It in no way implies that they were proficient in English, had any interest in learning, wished to participate or had any understanding of the importance of English (IELTS 6.5 required) for their chosen future “careers” as air-force pilots.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Never in my teaching career have I had a class like this one. Other teachers suggested that because I was a “temp” I should have expected to be given classes that Saudi or permanent teachers preferred not to teach. These students declined to open their books, complete any <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuOGf8rsO73anjpaWshkW5TS2OY6ULBwMc2hcswSN0j4PnMDIPnwjmkLaSZndk9T5uLVBZLTUa6MNLYRgVmDurVOz65I27r6Cvko74NbuTNiJad798KM9tTRmwv9CI1l1bBmyeWKnYv6ch4H6VaBp2tHzTM9OlISboNRYwhAM9msmAutsLHdbjf-uN=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuOGf8rsO73anjpaWshkW5TS2OY6ULBwMc2hcswSN0j4PnMDIPnwjmkLaSZndk9T5uLVBZLTUa6MNLYRgVmDurVOz65I27r6Cvko74NbuTNiJad798KM9tTRmwv9CI1l1bBmyeWKnYv6ch4H6VaBp2tHzTM9OlISboNRYwhAM9msmAutsLHdbjf-uN=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Motivated only to sleep<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />exercises, or answer any questions. Instead, they would tell me that the classes were a waste of time (on the evidence, undeniable) and that they would prefer to sleep or chat amongst themselves. They would walk into class late and immediately put their heads down and sleep or shout amongst themselves (in Arabic) and generally ignore me. They also would make comments about me in Arabic and laugh and otherwise mock me.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">They would tell me that they did not want to be there and that they were “senior” cadets. My pointing out to them that I was a senior teacher and that I also did not want to be there, but here we were, had no effect. It was horrible. I did have one student who actually wanted to better himself, and I spent my days teaching him, while trying to get the rest of the mob to keep the noise so that I could communicate with this one student. On one occasion I was obliged to call for an officer to deal <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiegghOJ09eJmLApbsq5rsVrP1Vhaf42RPwMV7C8ojuWDFatLvEoPgdcUEaDIjD5Dw1CVsIHmxatgZGIF7kDb2M4SzVoViiUerb8HVjjo7odB-hCQwBKb2qwr_oQU9kghFTKQ-6ptdIYqBt2M_wI5Cc426mD2M-hu57DIRmX9BSUb8CyrZfIs-WK2Ph=s1817" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="1817" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiegghOJ09eJmLApbsq5rsVrP1Vhaf42RPwMV7C8ojuWDFatLvEoPgdcUEaDIjD5Dw1CVsIHmxatgZGIF7kDb2M4SzVoViiUerb8HVjjo7odB-hCQwBKb2qwr_oQU9kghFTKQ-6ptdIYqBt2M_wI5Cc426mD2M-hu57DIRmX9BSUb8CyrZfIs-WK2Ph=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My students being motivated by the lieutenant<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />with them, and he took them outside and made them do pushups and bunny-hops in the dirt and the sun. On their return one troublemaker burst into tears; I searched my heart but found no trace of any sympathy for him. Behavior improved for a few hours but there was still no sign of any motivation or desire to learn. As a teacher who loves teaching and interacting with students, I found this dispiriting.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a couple of weeks of this, I was ready to resign. As it turned out I was saved the trouble by being told by BAE that as a temp I was no longer required. When I realized that I would never again have to deal this unpleasant, undisciplined, and immature bunch, my overwhelming emotion was one of relief.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>12/7/21<br /></u></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Synchronicity in action: Out of the blue today I got a WhatsApp from two former students at Oxford Flying School in Dammam. I taught there in 2018. In general, the students there were motivated and eager to learn and we had a good working relationship. Here is a message I got from one class when I was reassigned:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOcMwATon2Atvv1s5iTqIS3hOD_ODFsQGxK5psn6aX22zVqzOHMB9EzRm4_hxiNjdorKSdGtEoPAG78lM_QjSe4YYwHzk_H0NWM89LDS6ORKaXBp8Ob23JJgXF4F4Vq8DcSNcRZsQJ1xQ/s351/Capture.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOcMwATon2Atvv1s5iTqIS3hOD_ODFsQGxK5psn6aX22zVqzOHMB9EzRm4_hxiNjdorKSdGtEoPAG78lM_QjSe4YYwHzk_H0NWM89LDS6ORKaXBp8Ob23JJgXF4F4Vq8DcSNcRZsQJ1xQ/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After my experience at KFAA, I needed to remember this to restore my faith and belief in myself.</span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We have an Eid break coming up soon and I had decided to spend 10 days in Northern </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_YcvhhiO6bfj_z78IOQzz87fxFKzs7QtyDBV2dCZCjAHpdfK9IpLwUJRQUzI4Yxp_XgyTeLJY_1O3MoHg5_IBDVlO6riAUHp-xnXHaHX4VMI0VO_vqPcpcbP2SiHkosae4F-9ZQ5keo/s1629/2021-06-22+12.40.56.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1221" data-original-width="1629" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_YcvhhiO6bfj_z78IOQzz87fxFKzs7QtyDBV2dCZCjAHpdfK9IpLwUJRQUzI4Yxp_XgyTeLJY_1O3MoHg5_IBDVlO6riAUHp-xnXHaHX4VMI0VO_vqPcpcbP2SiHkosae4F-9ZQ5keo/s320/2021-06-22+12.40.56.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Cyprus, one of my favorite places. I have been stuck in Riyadh for over 18 months, so I am more than ready to travel again. I applied for and paid USD80 for a Turkish visa (previously it was free) and bought my airline tickets. A few days later the KSA government announced that Turkey was now on their red list and that when I wished to return to KSA I would first have to quarantine for 14 days in a third country. Accordingly, I canceled the Cyprus trip.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="text-align: justify;">So then I thought maybe somewhere a bit closer to home, Bahrain. Using Booking.com I booked a nice hotel with pool and private beach. The hotel thanked me for my booking and pointed out that due to COVID their restaurant was only doing take-aways. The spa, the pool and the beach were also all closed due to COVID restrictions. Accordingly, I canceled my Bahrain trip.</span></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Then I thought maybe Abu Dhabi – it’s also close by, and I understood that they had COVID under control. I would be required to have a COVID test on arrival at Abu Dhabi airport and if that was negative, I would be free to proceed with my vacation. I paid USD200 for a UAE visa and health insurance, booked a nice hotel on Booking.com and bought my air tickets. A few days later KSA announced that UAE was now also on their red list and all flights to and from UAE were cancelled. Accordingly, I canceled my trip to Abu Dhabi.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Luckily, on Booking.com, one can cancel hotel bookings without any penalties, Turkish Airlines have refunded most of what I paid for my ticket and now I need to speak to Etihad about refunding the money I have paid them. I have not traveled out of Riyadh since end 2019 and it seems I’ll still be stuck here for a while.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rounding off a rather rough patch, last week I learned that my son-in-law had contracted COVID and yesterday my daughter tested positive. She had been vaccinated a few days </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3EO6oG72AiVIQyzdwyfSa5v1rXhYTusuDt-qFN7S4Y7vgNTzE1o970hlVlUNNTmPuidKb5UxgE6d9kI1XAOh9pcVHJ-C7MsHmOF-TfBpKMARtWOGvIwkOXFCwPysQskEehagcz6Rnjs/s300/download.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="73" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3EO6oG72AiVIQyzdwyfSa5v1rXhYTusuDt-qFN7S4Y7vgNTzE1o970hlVlUNNTmPuidKb5UxgE6d9kI1XAOh9pcVHJ-C7MsHmOF-TfBpKMARtWOGvIwkOXFCwPysQskEehagcz6Rnjs/w130-h73/download.jpg" width="130" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">previously, but unfortunately not enough time had elapsed for her to be fully protected. On the plus side her symptoms are mild compared to my son-in-law (who is not yet vaccinated), so it appears that the vaccine is giving her some degree of protection.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So we wait for life to return to normal and hope that this is not the new normal.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0Riyadh Saudi Arabia24.7135517 46.6752957-28.8660336318169 -23.6372043 78.2931370318169 116.98779569999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-84700004276473440942021-04-29T06:35:00.006-07:002021-04-29T07:00:40.339-07:00Medical Matters<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In January of 2021 I noticed a small lump near my right
ear which was growing. I’d initially assumed that it was something like a pimple, but
it got bigger and assumed a “volcano” shape and became crusty.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwUBhKSBiMRj5KE5lX4rOl9QoggQE14Rdb72MjXGBEViOkAYkBgb_pnhqdcmYZBnST0Vp-IzTvuIeVTMPewhINfYrre6GqNdYMt64wAlxAtfVqCai_ts2uC3ZDFrjqk-5WO_u7ioLmeo/s4032/2021-01-19+10.17.23++Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwUBhKSBiMRj5KE5lX4rOl9QoggQE14Rdb72MjXGBEViOkAYkBgb_pnhqdcmYZBnST0Vp-IzTvuIeVTMPewhINfYrre6GqNdYMt64wAlxAtfVqCai_ts2uC3ZDFrjqk-5WO_u7ioLmeo/w200-h150/2021-01-19+10.17.23++Riyadh.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eventually,
towards the end of January, I went to our local medical center, Alsahafa
Medical Centre to get it checked out. The GP took a look and said that I need to see
their skin specialist. I did so and he referred me to a surgeon at Dallah
Hospital, one of the more expensive hospitals that does not accept Al Jazeera’s
medical insurance (because AJ has the cheapest cover available).</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A few days later I consulted with the surgeon at Dallah and
he was willing to excise the cyst there and then. We went into a side room
where he injected the mass with local anesthetic and started the procedure. I
had some misgivings when I heard the nurse advising him on how to go about making
the incision and afterwards advising him on whether I should be given pain
medication.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKZor5oV2fkrRkXe7XaffVfmab0GQhJikzKv6ElvBAL1GD2lvqs4_no_v7S4Sr-u_gTYd8zjpVPWxdlmn9gWXVTiwZnKMRzkavXF12SF4Rx53-XQuHp5wRrbLnFDbu6iPDdhxFpjApWks/s4032/20210130_095955.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKZor5oV2fkrRkXe7XaffVfmab0GQhJikzKv6ElvBAL1GD2lvqs4_no_v7S4Sr-u_gTYd8zjpVPWxdlmn9gWXVTiwZnKMRzkavXF12SF4Rx53-XQuHp5wRrbLnFDbu6iPDdhxFpjApWks/w200-h150/20210130_095955.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, thirty minutes later the job was done, the
cyst had been sent to a pathology lab for analysis and I was a couple of
thousand Riyals poorer. Two days later I returned to Dallah for feedback. The
surgeon informed me that the cyst was a squamous cell carcinoma. Nothing to worry
about, he assured me, but probably two or three sessions of radio therapy would
be a good idea just to make sure no stray carcinoma cells were lurking around. I
didn’t feel reassured because on the pathology lab report the recommendation
was for a complete excision of the cyst with safety margin. Anyway, Dallah did
not have radio therapy facilities, so I needed to investigate where to find
such facilities.</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A few days later I went to Aster Sanad Hospital, where after
registering as a new patient I eventually got to see a doctor. He told me that
they had neither an oncology department not radio therapy facilities. He
suggested I look elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Id1qTK2PJSWeTx9sSv39L-PWHG-rK1lKOXN8UafsRbbmrxLLhLiJQpKscNeIBVXvEEQ7_WFv73B9sivAOdHtELmc7mxCQSEnOL5o_-QhMkDZ3_Z0lKiXvZDSHWNijOi2vnbNBcYNf98/s4032/2021-01-31+09.41.40++Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Id1qTK2PJSWeTx9sSv39L-PWHG-rK1lKOXN8UafsRbbmrxLLhLiJQpKscNeIBVXvEEQ7_WFv73B9sivAOdHtELmc7mxCQSEnOL5o_-QhMkDZ3_Z0lKiXvZDSHWNijOi2vnbNBcYNf98/w200-h150/2021-01-31+09.41.40++Riyadh.jpg" width="200" /></a>The following day I took myself to the Saudi German Hospital.
I first <span style="text-align: left;">spoke to a doctor in the oncology department. He told me that they did not have radio therapy facilities, but he gave me a list of hospitals that did have such facilities.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">He estimated that I would probably need about fifteen
treatments, again at exorbitant cost. He read the pathology lab report and
suggested that I consult with a surgeon without delay with a view to complete
excision of the cyst as recommended in the lab report. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The surgeon at Saudi
German read the lab report and agreed that immediate surgery was indicated. The
cost would be painful but when you’re dealing with a cancer, money becomes a secondary
concern. All of a sudden you become very aware of your mortality.</span></p><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the cyst had started growing again, soon
exceeding its previous proportions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">While discussing this issue with my friend and colleague, he
mentioned that the father of one of his ex-students was highly placed in
oncology in Saudi Arabia. If we could contact this person, he could presumably
point me in the correct direction. The problem was that although my friend
remembered the student's name, he didn’t have his number. He spent the next few
days trying to get contact details for this student without success. Then there
was an amazing synchronicity: a few days later, while sitting in a taxi at a red traffic light,
he heard someone calling his name. And yes, it was the student that he had been
trying to reach in a car next to the taxi.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We contacted his father and he set up an appointment for
me with a professor specializing in head and </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFenhXf63_F3700xiQxIuSIcA8oB3NRMnGY_XW1GpXyU_N3BqTbZdJcxeiojM6cvkJOAgH-zST4OM0t5kWlZJvUPhBGaQ-OuI1TVfDN6cXfV-6Is0-Nhp_XbjQK83gy3bew8iuTtEk5_Y/s4032/2021-03-17+08.31.01++Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFenhXf63_F3700xiQxIuSIcA8oB3NRMnGY_XW1GpXyU_N3BqTbZdJcxeiojM6cvkJOAgH-zST4OM0t5kWlZJvUPhBGaQ-OuI1TVfDN6cXfV-6Is0-Nhp_XbjQK83gy3bew8iuTtEk5_Y/s320/2021-03-17+08.31.01++Riyadh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">neck carcinomas. He had rooms at
King Abdulaziz University Hospital, a prestigious hospital in Saudi Arabia. I
was incredulous and relieved when he told me that my tests and treatment would
be free of charge. This apparently because his son has an extremely high
opinion of my colleague as a teacher, so he was happy to help us deal with my
issue. He also told me that he loves to be able to help people.</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I had several consultations with the professor, a CT scan, an MRI scan (an extremely noisy process), blood
tests and an internal organ scan. The decision was made to excise the carcinoma
with safety margin, to remove the right parotid gland and several lymph nodes
in my neck.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I checked into the hospital and the following day I had a
seven-hour surgery. I woke up feeling very sorry for myself. I had a (uncomfortable)
catheter inserted, an oxygen mask, a drip, an oxygen and</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ldk0PJw_qe4N3_MWYpzf9uOh0yRNhkqv_zbNMOdb3CkyZVp8YQQsbmClo-ALYUcf7yK4T7S8-Ib6audPTG4D18ZbbbzkB5_MlQsvWKHbIqH_tVFSjDeIqUZYy14tuVGmU1Zhwo5mYYU/s4032/2021-02-16+09.32.00++Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ldk0PJw_qe4N3_MWYpzf9uOh0yRNhkqv_zbNMOdb3CkyZVp8YQQsbmClo-ALYUcf7yK4T7S8-Ib6audPTG4D18ZbbbzkB5_MlQsvWKHbIqH_tVFSjDeIqUZYy14tuVGmU1Zhwo5mYYU/w200-h150/2021-02-16+09.32.00++Riyadh.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">respiration monitor
and a blood pressure cuff which automatically took my BP every 10 minutes. I also had some sort of inflatable leggings on my legs, which inflated and deflated regularly, apparently to promote good blood circulation. My throat
was sore, and I was dying of thirst. After a couple of hours, I was taken back
to my room to recover. Several days later I was discharged and I Ubered back to my
accommodation.</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The main side-effects is that up until now my right ear is
completely numb as is my cheek below my ear. When I shower if feels like I am
washing a piece of rubber stuck to the side of my face. The incision scars are fading into invisibility and the medical report states that all traces of the
cancer have been removed. I am supposed to have two or three follow up tests during
the course of the year to confirm that there is no reoccurrence.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPedXL4dkCoMS8CVa_9Y-OROhqVjC8drlEF69SXInTcHkHjgIx9IT16Xp1Rapm4cQyg8HaBtU0KcjkKSxrGdaBhJHiiFhTboe4CtbQ7bh1l8Y_wpjxk7pxy4V5UCuxQy7sf-wI5Eqxc8/s4032/2021-03-31+08.16.30++Riyadh.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPedXL4dkCoMS8CVa_9Y-OROhqVjC8drlEF69SXInTcHkHjgIx9IT16Xp1Rapm4cQyg8HaBtU0KcjkKSxrGdaBhJHiiFhTboe4CtbQ7bh1l8Y_wpjxk7pxy4V5UCuxQy7sf-wI5Eqxc8/w150-h200/2021-03-31+08.16.30++Riyadh.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not have the words to express my gratitude to the
doctor who made my treatment possible. I would not have been able to afford the
excellent treatment I received, either here or in South Africa. I believe there
would have been a very different outcome for me without his intervention.</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The best way for me to end this entry is with the response I
got from the doctor after I sent him feedback and a copy of my medical report:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>Excellent...you don’t need anything extra...you are
cured...Alhamdulillah...it was early disease and removed completely...you just
need follow up..i think King Fahad might charge you more than other hospital.. I
think prof. Khalid has a clinic in Dallah hospital and might charge you less
for the follow up...by the way follow up is only physical examination and CT
scans every 3 to 6 months. Which can be done by any hospital...check with King Fahad
first and if they are charging high better you go to Dallah hospital and fix
appointment with prof Khalid.. after Ramadan...but believe me Greg. you are
really lucky</i>...<span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";">👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼</span><o:p></o:p></p>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-90292299545982537222021-01-20T03:11:00.000-08:002021-01-20T03:11:35.492-08:002021 – Part 1<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Shortly after the above events, my colleague and I were
invited to give a demo lesson for BAE at a Saudi Air Force military base. We
were cautioned to be at the visitors’ entrance promptly</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxNgPlEZBGr0WMwJCfSQQeDfIPXQvFvJND6PPQpFz5flZvTYsCpKw3PVoliQDn-olvAeOHg6TAde-Q-amKramh_G3pRPXUDYBGiiDzRO7kFiQXciaT2dgcow5ZG_IbCtWBXeg2Uptktg/s808/20201129_083418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="808" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxNgPlEZBGr0WMwJCfSQQeDfIPXQvFvJND6PPQpFz5flZvTYsCpKw3PVoliQDn-olvAeOHg6TAde-Q-amKramh_G3pRPXUDYBGiiDzRO7kFiQXciaT2dgcow5ZG_IbCtWBXeg2Uptktg/w200-h150/20201129_083418.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> at 7am as there was
only a 15-minute window for us to be admitted to the base. Accordingly, we took
an early taxi and arrived at around 0640. We stood around for a couple of hours and were eventually collected at the
gate at around 0915 and taken to the school, about 5 km from the gate. We gave
our lessons and in due course we returned to our accommodation.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Several days later we were informed that we had been
accepted by BAE and that we would commence teaching on the following Sunday.
There were forms to be completed and photos to be provided to obtain a base
pass. I completed the forms and submitted edited photos which I had on my
laptop. A few days later I was informed that the photos were not acceptable </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGvlHzWCFCqU-bv8bIqgVGRmsG2jhyphenhyphenMlYG-DByVPvEii61yjHe5uhcccq6qNu68wbU6EeryyMTaRtbPlysU-oimXYAXU2xZHmQmzTar5rVDU_278BkSkE7IHecpXyy7wdxT9LYcNggrc/s238/20201014_084140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGvlHzWCFCqU-bv8bIqgVGRmsG2jhyphenhyphenMlYG-DByVPvEii61yjHe5uhcccq6qNu68wbU6EeryyMTaRtbPlysU-oimXYAXU2xZHmQmzTar5rVDU_278BkSkE7IHecpXyy7wdxT9LYcNggrc/s0/20201014_084140.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />and
that I needed to get proper visa photos.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The next day I consulted Google Maps which informed me that
there was a photography studio, <i>Studio Al-Sahafa,</i> about 2km from my
accommodation. I took a walk to the given location of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the studio, and after wandering around for
about an hour I concluded that the studio either did not exist or had moved. I
looked at the next place on Google Maps and found <i>Digital Photo Studio</i>. I
decided to Uber to this one as by now I was tired of walking in the hot sun. Happily,
this place existed, and I was able to quickly get the photos done. The photos
were given to the base and I then awaited feedback.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At this time the recruiter (a Jordanian) informed me that he
needed to travel to Jordan for a week to attend to an emergency, but when he returned,
we would sort out all the paperwork, including the transfer of my iqama. Soon
after he left, KSA entered lockdown again and all borders were closed. A few
days after the commencement of the new lockdown, he messaged us that we should
go to his office to sign the contracts for our application to proceed and for
the iqamas to be renewed. All his colleagues, he assured us, were in the loop and
would deal with our affairs speedily. Accordingly, the next day we took a taxi
to his office. We spoke to three of his colleagues, none of whom had the
faintest idea of who we were, what we were doing there and what they were
supposed to do with us. Eventually I told them that, in the circumstances, we
would return when the recruiter was back from Jordan, which he had told us he
would be that weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As it turned out, the lockdown continued for three weeks,
and when the recruiter returned, we had just one week before we were due to
start teaching at BAE. That is when things turned even more pear shaped. After
assuring me that things were well in hand, a day later he told me that he could
not transfer my iqama due to my expired exit visa on my file. Since Al Jazeera
had applied for the exit visa, only they could get it cancelled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I phoned Al Jazeera HR and asked if they would please cancel
my final exit. No problem, they assured me, just come in and sign some papers.
So I Ubered to Al Jazeera Head Office and </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvlzZTIiaCgjpKlC-ehMv2cP2F6g-SqKd1LTzQkK_87nTwQmcxgZ4J1_2A4_BcSaWp0xLqrwpodF3F_IaZEfTlXe6UU7N5Oq4SZemxxfRMnNl52jkfKsLiQpEYmtArc5kno5EQsptW_E/s4032/20210112_125632.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuvlzZTIiaCgjpKlC-ehMv2cP2F6g-SqKd1LTzQkK_87nTwQmcxgZ4J1_2A4_BcSaWp0xLqrwpodF3F_IaZEfTlXe6UU7N5Oq4SZemxxfRMnNl52jkfKsLiQpEYmtArc5kno5EQsptW_E/w320-h240/20210112_125632.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">the papers I was required to sign
were a commitment to pay Al Jazeera 25,000 SAR (about R120,000 of my retirement
money) to renew my iqama and transfer it. I explained that the renewal and
transfer would be taken care of by my new employer, all I needed was for them
to cancel the final exit. They were not interested – it was an all or nothing
deal. Since only Al Jazeera could cancel the final exit and the fact that I was facing severe time constraints, my back was to the wall and I had no option but to sign.</div><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Firstly, I had to write a request for this expensive and
illegal service. I was not given a copy of my document, but I was able to take a photo of it. Then I was coerced into signing a printed "contract" where I agreed to pay Al Jazeera 25,000 SAR. I also took a photo of this </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60gqp6eLVOfzmDO8st5mTyf9MToIjT_017OIzFGIystba-F1e9AyvOYWIhGM3-fBfBg7vA87JWvz15gjVja9f1pKlGzNUnS0wrVtR01b0Z3u4UyyvTO6aZ7CJjguSr9mphdZPASFgGEA/s4032/20210112_140300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60gqp6eLVOfzmDO8st5mTyf9MToIjT_017OIzFGIystba-F1e9AyvOYWIhGM3-fBfBg7vA87JWvz15gjVja9f1pKlGzNUnS0wrVtR01b0Z3u4UyyvTO6aZ7CJjguSr9mphdZPASFgGEA/w240-h320/20210112_140300.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"> document. I was assured that the matter would be finalized by
close of business that day.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To cut a long story short, my iqama was not renewed that day
and as a result I lost the job I had been offered with BAE. Al Jazeera was in
no way concerned about this and made zero effort to expedite matters despite
the large sum of money which they had extorted from me. The process will take
two weeks, the tin-pot dictator told me when I followed up, reveling in his
power over me. He has since ignored my attempts to communicate with him, apart
from one email “instructing” me to come to the office to meet someone. I was
ignored when I asked who the someone was and why I needed to meet them. Most
frustrating is that there is no one to whom I can escalate this toxic
situation. The owner of the company has another office and another business to
which he devotes all his time, and the COO is in Egypt for an unknown length of
time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So once again, I grit my teeth and hurry-up and wait.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-32290739188644555262020-11-26T01:37:00.006-08:002020-11-26T01:48:08.522-08:00Yet More of 2020<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Several days after I posted the above blog, I received some sad news. My brother-in-law, who had been ill for some time, passed away. On the same day I learned that a colleague of mine, who had departed KSA for home a few days previously, had also passed away. Both deaths were a shock to me.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Around mid-October I got a call from a recruiter with a potential job offer. A few days later I went for an interview (British Aerospace) and was subsequently offered a position. The only problem was that the starting date was non-negotiable, and this would entail me breaking my contract with Al Jazeera. I made it clear to the recruiter that my top priority was protecting my end-of-service benefits which had been accumulating for the past nine years. He assured me that there was no way that breaking my contract with AJ could endanger my benefits.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Based on this information I accepted the offer and notified AJ that I would be leaving one week before the end of my contract. A few days later my branch manager told me that if I resigned early, I would lose one-third of my benefits. I scoffed at this until he showed me the Saudi labor law which confirmed what he had told me. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Accordingly, I sent a link of the relevant law to the recruiter and notified him that I would not be able to start the new job on the required date. He phoned me and spent fifteen minutes trying to convince me to break my contract anyway. Eventually, when I would not relent, he went away miffed and muttering about wasted time. Since we were looking at me losing a substantial amount of money, I wasn’t too concerned about his hurt feelings.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In due course my contract ended, and I got to spend time in my accommodation with nothing much to do. I share the accommodation with three other teachers, all of whom are waiting for the money owed to them. By this time, my iqama (residents permit) had expired, and my final exit was getting close to expiry. If both my iqama and final exit expire, I become an illegal alien and subject to all sorts of nasty legal repercussions.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A couple of days before my final exit was due to expire, I made an appointment with a lawyer to see if it was possible to get my final exit extended. This would buy me time to find another job. The appointment was for 6pm and he send me a WhatsApp location. I took an Uber to his location, which turned out to be a parking lot. I walked up and down the street for 20 minutes looking for <i>Majid Law </i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-b0BCE4efDSK5BN5zZuTGeSbmgkLYJO3q-fg_6M7Hxi1CPdXE2GhkDjClbpuT1mIbN9CDI4cz0bsbVMiuLHgUuxngfWz6umqHyKWU5PJn7dXRWajMpHXPN9tXI8_g_HFJY7qhX90R8k/s4032/Shop.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-b0BCE4efDSK5BN5zZuTGeSbmgkLYJO3q-fg_6M7Hxi1CPdXE2GhkDjClbpuT1mIbN9CDI4cz0bsbVMiuLHgUuxngfWz6umqHyKWU5PJn7dXRWajMpHXPN9tXI8_g_HFJY7qhX90R8k/w200-h150/Shop.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></i></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Firm</i> without success. So, I sent him a picture of the shop I was passing to ask for clearer directions. He eventually came downstairs to find me. He explained that we could not have the meeting that night due to their offices being flooded. There was in fact a large pool of water in the street in front of their offices. I mentioned to him that it would have been courteous to have cancelled the meeting before I arrived at his location.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4hnFzf_Kqy9EnhtuCaPaO4Y3YsWdSAmP7MYSXd7cNI1cWBZT9PYT5wZIqPLjOVIkW9zY2D25xCpxbyoqNrhJeeeXTy96ei-CoXhOaWN5AxnEMRqFZxBrN7X1TzTUdLB2pMNNWqGnZKM/s4032/Money.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4hnFzf_Kqy9EnhtuCaPaO4Y3YsWdSAmP7MYSXd7cNI1cWBZT9PYT5wZIqPLjOVIkW9zY2D25xCpxbyoqNrhJeeeXTy96ei-CoXhOaWN5AxnEMRqFZxBrN7X1TzTUdLB2pMNNWqGnZKM/w200-h150/Money.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">The following day Al Jazeera summoned me for a meeting for us to agree on the amount of money due to me, this being one-year’s unpaid salary and end-of-service benefits. I sat in reception for about six hours while they calculated (?) and eventually they presented me with a figure that was about 35,000 SR less than my calculations. I gave them the spreadsheet of my <span style="text-align: left;">calculations and left for the day. The next day they called me in again and after another lengthy wait they presented me with an amended amount which was much closer to my amount. They told me that if I returned the following day, they would give me 50% of what they owed, in cash, and a commitment to transfer the balance to my SA account in four installments.</span></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Unfortunately, since my iqama has expired, my bank account has been frozen, and I now sit with all this cash in my accommodation. I am hoping that I will soon be employed again and that my bank account will be revived, allowing me to deposit the cash and transfer money back to South Africa.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-10582367301388843012020-10-08T04:02:00.001-07:002020-10-08T04:05:03.326-07:00Twenty-Twenty Continued<div class="separator" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This follows on from my previous blog, Twenty-Twenty.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eventually, in June we started working again. My weekly hours were reduced from 40 hours per week to 26 hours per week. Also, my salary was reduced by 40%, apparently this being an option offered to <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1svITTwZfQ_IdWwRKCUO0UAIjBewHTwd8Sgo5tyctTaOTyK2DURJXXvwbiqnp6qOcMAhXJHbiUZvtSphKS2vRi8fz6H94Jwd1c0S-GyByifO57-XpiRbM08URUgHVov1F3XzcKBA5xM/s275/download.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1svITTwZfQ_IdWwRKCUO0UAIjBewHTwd8Sgo5tyctTaOTyK2DURJXXvwbiqnp6qOcMAhXJHbiUZvtSphKS2vRi8fz6H94Jwd1c0S-GyByifO57-XpiRbM08URUgHVov1F3XzcKBA5xM/w200-h133/download.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>employers by the government due to COVID. As of this week, normal working hours have been resumed, although salary remains diminished (and unpaid). A friend and colleague, who had instituted legal proceedings against Al Jazeera Academy some time back for non-payment of salary and benefits, won his case. This after Al Jazeera failed to attend 4 hearings. They now have one month to appeal the verdict, but they really don’t have a leg to stand on. </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My previous contract ended in the last week of September. My iqama (resident’s permit) expired at the end of September. Al Jazeera Academy told me that they would renew my contract for 2 months, after </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">which I would be given a final exit visa. With straight faces they informed me that they would pay me 60% - 70% of what they owe me before<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUw0LxM5nEmd1YreTPfc-y2iVlCGVdh4GLLduoxkDlizCwsavG5ScKUQLtiJqFZbaP4kGvHhPNJxhD1SKsFcdo8fS1vMekxHvi61nibuYshIIVqbpOafdkej6NFa_KhzjhE4LogUb9Aao/s260/Thug.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="194" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUw0LxM5nEmd1YreTPfc-y2iVlCGVdh4GLLduoxkDlizCwsavG5ScKUQLtiJqFZbaP4kGvHhPNJxhD1SKsFcdo8fS1vMekxHvi61nibuYshIIVqbpOafdkej6NFa_KhzjhE4LogUb9Aao/w149-h200/Thug.jpg" width="149" /></a></div>I leave and would transfer the balance to my South African bank account in the fullness of time. I politely rejected this offer. The way it works in KSA, within a few days of a contract ending, they are obliged to pay end-of-service benefits, which in my case, after 9 years of service, is a considerable amount of money. Also, Al Jazeera has not paid me a salary since November 2019, so in total they now owe me in the region of SAR 200,000.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When Al Jazeera informed me that I would get a final exit in November, I sent an email to the MD and asked him if he would assure me that I would receive all my outstanding monies before I leave and that Al Jazeera would be willing to transfer my iqama to a new employer should I find another position. The response to that email was a phone call from HR to tell me that they would transfer my iqama if I paid them SAR 25,000 (about R110,000). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZssFHH48eJAr9QDvJGSfzcwNzkx57ttMV4mhc-0XBFOfyPEwcXPpsvs5V2hTLOJaMKWvqANxKcSnxSNnztM3R48eC2JlZODp7Jsu5ehKK4WSC58qiPI-Lh5rLNNRL_BjqcsLZtiMA4jQ/s236/arrested.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="214" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZssFHH48eJAr9QDvJGSfzcwNzkx57ttMV4mhc-0XBFOfyPEwcXPpsvs5V2hTLOJaMKWvqANxKcSnxSNnztM3R48eC2JlZODp7Jsu5ehKK4WSC58qiPI-Lh5rLNNRL_BjqcsLZtiMA4jQ/w181-h200/arrested.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>They also very cunningly made my contract expire one day before my legal residency in KSA expires, no doubt in the hope that I would leave the country before my ESB come due. So, it seems that the only way forward is to institute legal proceeding against Al Jazeera for my outstanding monies. I understand that one may stay in the country while a legal dispute in ongoing. </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I should also mention that I share an apartment with 3 other teachers, whose contracts expired some 8 months ago, but who are hanging around waiting for their money. Al Jazeera has effectively robbed them of 8 months of their lives. </span></div></span>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-50244465643537490532020-05-13T05:56:00.001-07:002020-05-13T08:51:48.127-07:00Twenty-twenty<div>
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After my Christmas vacation I landed back in Saudi on 18 January. At the company’s request I had included two weeks unpaid leave in my annual leave because they were trying to cut costs. To that end I had also not received any salary for December. I learned later that no one else had been paid either.</div>
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Meanwhile our company had just lost a big contract and had decided to terminate around one hundred teachers who were assigned to that contract. When a company in Saudi Arabia ends an employee’s contract, the employee is entitled to an end-of-service benefit depending on their years of service. </div>
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Daily, head-office was crowded with employees wanting the money due to them, back salary and end-of-service benefits, so that they could fly home. This process went on for weeks until eventually all had received their dues.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGw6XkJnHA_tsvITphw_xaA83YwpchH7FTYwLcM6jtnmfGmTBS_CMOK8jleNjxBZqvr6z27G-XOP4aYJvV2dHFO1r9xwigvKuvMj4KF9sLG1jO-qO0kKg2r0q95PcOOFDKDnq006gzzRQ/s1600/Empty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="180" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGw6XkJnHA_tsvITphw_xaA83YwpchH7FTYwLcM6jtnmfGmTBS_CMOK8jleNjxBZqvr6z27G-XOP4aYJvV2dHFO1r9xwigvKuvMj4KF9sLG1jO-qO0kKg2r0q95PcOOFDKDnq006gzzRQ/s200/Empty.jpg" width="129" /></a>The company had made an offer to a colleague and me that rather than terminating us, we could each work for six months of the year until the company found some new business. This effectively meant a 50% drop in salary for both of us. We both rather reluctantly agreed to this proposition in the hope that soon they would find more business. </div>
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My friend then left the country for six months unpaid leave with a fraction of the money due to him, getting one of the last flights out of Riyadh before lock-down. I continued working at the Academy, still without salary being paid. According to the agreement with the company, I would work till the end of August and then go home for six months while my friend would continue here.</div>
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Then in March Covid-19 arrived and on 9 March our students were told not to attend at the Academy until further notice. Teachers and admin staff, for some unknown reason, were still expected to attend<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhna_dCGBK57jJkM_Vo2IiIBDA6eg_CnCaSx6h3Q_O9vw1lhI7reeluhEoWe1_VLaXnC5DJOjMf5MA3EtqFeakgDVDSVtLgtSake-F5tlZAjtmoKg3Wdpj0m45bIAxkFl0VXnxlRAJc_30/s1600/overdrawn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="214" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhna_dCGBK57jJkM_Vo2IiIBDA6eg_CnCaSx6h3Q_O9vw1lhI7reeluhEoWe1_VLaXnC5DJOjMf5MA3EtqFeakgDVDSVtLgtSake-F5tlZAjtmoKg3Wdpj0m45bIAxkFl0VXnxlRAJc_30/s200/overdrawn.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>
at the office daily. Due to not having received any salary since November 2019 and the cost of my six-week vacation, I found my funds running low. Accordingly, I sent an email to our MD pointing out that I had received no salary for five months and that I would appreciate some of the money owed to me being transferred into my account. He promised that they would contact me soon. I was, in fact, contacted that same evening; I was told that I was required to take unpaid leave until August, while the rest of the teachers were told to take one month’s unpaid leave. This proposition was not met with any great enthusiasm and a letter was drafted to head office, signed by all, rejecting this idea.</div>
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Then on 18 March the government declared lock-down for the country with a curfew between 1700 and 0600. In April were told to complete leave forms for unpaid leave for April. Now we are in the middle of May and a leave form for May has been requested. I have now been nearly 6 months without pay and I do not see the country opening any time soon. We are still getting around 2000 new cases daily.</div>
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Lock-down, as everyone knows, is no fun. I take a daily walk to the local shop to buy the necessities and to get some exercise. The rest of the day is spent in my room. I don’t know when we will work again, when the airport will be open again or when our company will again be a going concern. I am sharing the accommodation with one colleague so at least I am not entirely isolated.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrtRawqmJvyoCg_A4ctUN9Ox9MrLOQ7RtIhWbB88oRkukrAgKQz9_K2knov5vCT2SYy8Y_pHTrthFeIWBzdnKvjVgfc8MimoXCcYZtFP0pAEYJGV7Tyw0pV5RwFa9DTe-CQjTmZ5pzTMA/s1600/20200513_132105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrtRawqmJvyoCg_A4ctUN9Ox9MrLOQ7RtIhWbB88oRkukrAgKQz9_K2knov5vCT2SYy8Y_pHTrthFeIWBzdnKvjVgfc8MimoXCcYZtFP0pAEYJGV7Tyw0pV5RwFa9DTe-CQjTmZ5pzTMA/s200/20200513_132105.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7z8kFd1gw9PcyHcSV5YG24zBE19GDyyMiX2g3k_QZqwnzld8r9f03_gPCgZRZinMMrE2Q4Bcpy057TGHSFr0sYjRQUd-5Zl7YlJWeQ9y8QqWrn0iT2M2T3QVD3cq9JMZNSqyU-XfUlk/s1600/20200319_085810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7z8kFd1gw9PcyHcSV5YG24zBE19GDyyMiX2g3k_QZqwnzld8r9f03_gPCgZRZinMMrE2Q4Bcpy057TGHSFr0sYjRQUd-5Zl7YlJWeQ9y8QqWrn0iT2M2T3QVD3cq9JMZNSqyU-XfUlk/s200/20200319_085810.jpg" width="200" /></a>On the plus side my potted plant, purloined from Bandos, is doing very well. Also, I have completed all the little chores that have needed doing for so long, getting a lot of reading done and my accommodation is pretty well spotless. My cooking is becoming<br />
more adventurous and my NFS skills are being sharpened. I’ve watched some good movies on Netflix, as well as some crappy ones, and my Kindle is proving invaluable. The supermarkets are not busy so shopping is a breeze. And I am still healthy and reasonably sane.</div>
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So now we wait for the COVID-19 chaos to play out. I somehow doubt that life will ever be "normal" again.</div>
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Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-9347964986121320202019-09-08T08:44:00.000-07:002019-09-08T20:54:49.122-07:00Transfer to Arar<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-d1YYdIcOOd3qzNSw4XBxi5xltVM0vxPGeP5Ri3YV-C4-zST4bH1u_4Uqc0r0GhG6oRhElPk3V9QIpbJv5MILRUEDw4BPtv6LMH52iAgDAW3_hK5WJSJs5QsUwVJZlgx0RkoFf1cUq8/s1600/20190827_085224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-d1YYdIcOOd3qzNSw4XBxi5xltVM0vxPGeP5Ri3YV-C4-zST4bH1u_4Uqc0r0GhG6oRhElPk3V9QIpbJv5MILRUEDw4BPtv6LMH52iAgDAW3_hK5WJSJs5QsUwVJZlgx0RkoFf1cUq8/s320/20190827_085224.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Tuesday morning at 0300 my driver arrived to transport me to
the airport and I set out on my new adventure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3IzSDB1d1Eu1JdoJ6Wyv-XdrywMSwEZnRH4X_3CA_tTrmip8LwTlb4xpWleLPOUV23ZCsdLoEfWRtoL-AbwMhTnv_rRsqCWbRFTQKCA6kFHmUUrqyv45zW67ObHc6UcBD2HjEPQmDbuk/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="704" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3IzSDB1d1Eu1JdoJ6Wyv-XdrywMSwEZnRH4X_3CA_tTrmip8LwTlb4xpWleLPOUV23ZCsdLoEfWRtoL-AbwMhTnv_rRsqCWbRFTQKCA6kFHmUUrqyv45zW67ObHc6UcBD2HjEPQmDbuk/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a>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). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcy8FGpYenypfSQVr4y-fM9lnWMJQ14LXcPgljfhm5cslIZdEKKaLZSdNcMU9bftLEgOoVSj7NoTm3mqkBVbm0oi2gpW1tckzG2WAfWjmwmxCRSJukdGyq-ja6Hy4ZdA3mbBWM5dFo54k/s1600/20190905_092905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcy8FGpYenypfSQVr4y-fM9lnWMJQ14LXcPgljfhm5cslIZdEKKaLZSdNcMU9bftLEgOoVSj7NoTm3mqkBVbm0oi2gpW1tckzG2WAfWjmwmxCRSJukdGyq-ja6Hy4ZdA3mbBWM5dFo54k/s320/20190905_092905.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-33116145785460323672019-08-24T08:30:00.000-07:002019-08-24T08:44:18.501-07:00Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7qAUP2tNQmbyVccfpW__bOYoxFRqUHfxg5QvzqGIBOG1SBmY9Wk1tToEJqrhhb_b_v-byaCxz_tkEiCil8UVCPcnjKnEPpHo4wguPWS_ARINNfVKg5P4UPcKkETKcZBGgIwIYdc5qJ4/s1600/Harbor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7qAUP2tNQmbyVccfpW__bOYoxFRqUHfxg5QvzqGIBOG1SBmY9Wk1tToEJqrhhb_b_v-byaCxz_tkEiCil8UVCPcnjKnEPpHo4wguPWS_ARINNfVKg5P4UPcKkETKcZBGgIwIYdc5qJ4/s400/Harbor.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyrenia Harbor</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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 </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then I made my way to a café/pub that I hadn’t tried before, Windows Restaurant. I started </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with a beer and then I ordered two fried eggs,
two sausages and some toast. The lines of</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjErzgPbvK2LtCSFTWcNq10NVtTcpvxQg4T5asjEVQgL6MYBbai5NT-L7YQ3F3d0UP6Y0QEifWMhGI8TrbuPevimLesS97hSef0IOaXzHg_vLi3Nan0BKwEjTZYTX5g2hrO3FFN6VrKvPU/s1600/Scrambled.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjErzgPbvK2LtCSFTWcNq10NVtTcpvxQg4T5asjEVQgL6MYBbai5NT-L7YQ3F3d0UP6Y0QEifWMhGI8TrbuPevimLesS97hSef0IOaXzHg_vLi3Nan0BKwEjTZYTX5g2hrO3FFN6VrKvPU/s200/Scrambled.jpeg" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Both my order and<br />the eggs were scrambled</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBC5HjuCor-OJDdM2tv6wYX7or3z9lfdssREb3ACOT0UjyS68XhD0FmpPqr2F0RtA6oDPx1KtrygnxkCJCAWgqLl6lYb-J4oZQ-IHpDZeLCQrKQGPqklSIwNy1PjIicHSALRBb-jsc9o/s1600/Omelet.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBC5HjuCor-OJDdM2tv6wYX7or3z9lfdssREb3ACOT0UjyS68XhD0FmpPqr2F0RtA6oDPx1KtrygnxkCJCAWgqLl6lYb-J4oZQ-IHpDZeLCQrKQGPqklSIwNy1PjIicHSALRBb-jsc9o/s200/Omelet.jpeg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8XjzEPT7-41R9dAMLOt1Ha26V5FulRAOoMs24AAJfbosQbilbM3YOgXACEvHvuMGncK5nCVXtAKNAsiVHHcUBWLVaf_IvCZS51oGUvRIx9yym829K3yLn6T1GWb5U1Aud82Bm2bqfYs/s1600/Pool3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8XjzEPT7-41R9dAMLOt1Ha26V5FulRAOoMs24AAJfbosQbilbM3YOgXACEvHvuMGncK5nCVXtAKNAsiVHHcUBWLVaf_IvCZS51oGUvRIx9yym829K3yLn6T1GWb5U1Aud82Bm2bqfYs/s400/Pool3.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hurried away to the pool where I spent the rest of the day relaxing and
swimming and sunning.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-22163288855232984922017-02-06T21:01:00.002-08:002017-05-30T01:58:41.040-07:00Adventures with STC<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before I went on vacation in December I bought a new data sim for my home Wi-Fi router as my current data plan was due to expire while I was on vacation. The idea was that I would have Wi-Fi when I got back to Riyadh after my vacation; just slip in the new sim and I’m good for another 4 months.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnmzPYCP0TVUXAwy045_orPVexzLNcuFyzbycSKqYsvHkxiXeB8BiRm9M6WFZfqtCmOwaWNdWlShn5WxSAf6jkerT4ERWjMGEpE7bz6LmnBZPbYtwFnkA_njVnadUREIp95krIiff368/s1600/Router.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnmzPYCP0TVUXAwy045_orPVexzLNcuFyzbycSKqYsvHkxiXeB8BiRm9M6WFZfqtCmOwaWNdWlShn5WxSAf6jkerT4ERWjMGEpE7bz6LmnBZPbYtwFnkA_njVnadUREIp95krIiff368/s1600/Router.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Things didn’t work out quite as I had planned. The new sim didn’t work because it needed to be registered with STC under my name and under my fingerprint. So I took myself off to STC (Saudi Telecomms Company) and asked them to please register the new sim under my name. They politely declined because I could not produce the invoice for the sim. Evidently there are concerns about black-market sims. They suggested that I visit the STC counter at Jarir Bookstore where I bought the sim. Further, STC had changed their system whilst I was on vacation; henceforth no one is allowed to have more than two sims registered under their name. I had three registered under my name: my personal phone, my work phone and my Wi-Fi sim. After some discussion I told the clerk to delete all but my personal phone sim. Fine, he said, allow 2 days and it will happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Three days later I returned to Jarir and they also would not register the card due to the lack </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wSQ9lOG7H-goySJhmmu43BSMKZaTELBRtjBcT9vtPlW7jh6e1eyTCEeE3NyWm_qHLq7UgVg0OUmZHqfQF6z7SY2oLrsHxyomXpxlPdMXXSmUu-48mZb1gGvh1wgGerW6stPG6Gzq4Z0/s1600/Jarir.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wSQ9lOG7H-goySJhmmu43BSMKZaTELBRtjBcT9vtPlW7jh6e1eyTCEeE3NyWm_qHLq7UgVg0OUmZHqfQF6z7SY2oLrsHxyomXpxlPdMXXSmUu-48mZb1gGvh1wgGerW6stPG6Gzq4Z0/s1600/Jarir.png" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of an invoice. Customer services at Jarir were pessimistic about the chances of me getting a duplicate invoice but they gave it their best shot. After about an hour they discovered an invoice that may have been the one we were looking for. The helpful clerk went off to print said invoice, only to return ten minutes later with the news that he couldn’t print the invoice due to their printer being out of ink and no ink being available. Did I mention that Jarir is the largest stationery chain in Saudi Arabia? The clerk suggested that I return the following day when we could take another shot at printing the invoice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next day we were back at Jarir. The clerk I had dealt with the previous day was not there (or maybe he was hiding from me) and the new clerk couldn’t figure out how to locate the elusive invoice. Eventually I gave up and decided to just buy another sim and write off the SAR300 I had spent on my December sim. I went to the counter where I had purchased my previous sim and got sent to another counter. There I was given the sealed card and sent to queue at the STC counter again. While I was waiting, another clerk came to fetch me and told me that they had located the invoice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Actually, they hadn’t located the invoice but the clerk had a lengthy discussion with the STC employee who eventually agreed to activate my card even without an invoice. I queued up yet again and eventually I was told that I still couldn’t register the card due to still having two cards registered under my name. The clerk suggested I return to STC.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1Qq61YFEIinOEyIVFikQoJt4wnzs5-wADqWn1T9yHqda_lOxYn_YWZq60d43X8bDc-Vs7wd6j3fqrJ6Tw6OI2SWshbN3Y0prsiWI9XsPn7FqVhTL1lBE4bZbyM-uL0MfLc0Yn8OuAhE/s1600/stc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1Qq61YFEIinOEyIVFikQoJt4wnzs5-wADqWn1T9yHqda_lOxYn_YWZq60d43X8bDc-Vs7wd6j3fqrJ6Tw6OI2SWshbN3Y0prsiWI9XsPn7FqVhTL1lBE4bZbyM-uL0MfLc0Yn8OuAhE/s200/stc.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I took myself back to STC. Did I mention that the average waiting time for service at STC is around 90 minutes? The clerk at STC was very sympathetic but told me that the unwanted sim was marked for deletion but that I would just have to wait. Rather grumpily I stalked out of the branch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some days later my colleague Pieter also needed to visit STC and offered to have a go at sorting out my issue while he was there. He told me that there was a huge crowd at STC and the mood was ugly. There were businessmen who had fifteen or twenty numbers registered on their names as they supplied their workers with phones. One large gent was escorted off the premises by security when he became unruly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As luck would have it two senior STC managers were present at the branch that day and Pieter had a lengthy debate with them. They told him that under the new rules it would probably take between one and two months to delete my unwanted sims. Pieter rather inflated my status and position at the university and an urgent email was sent by the managers to their head office asking them to give my case urgent attention. That was about two weeks ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A couple of days later I noticed that my phone data and air-time were running rather low so I went to my banking app to top up airtime as I usually do. This time it didn’t work – the link is down, said my phone. I tried again today to convert some of my airtime to data only to be told that due to error 4996385r this was not possible. Repeated attempts also failed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So now I sit with no WiFi at home, about 20meg of data on my phone and about SAR 35 of airtime and no way to recharge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>30 May 2017 - Update</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Around the middle of April I spoke to the STC consultant at the university. Radi, my colleague and friend accompanied me as translator. This individual told us that the only way to get the surplus sim deleted from my account would be to visit STC Head Office. Accordingly, later that week, we visited the Head Office in downtown Riyadh. After the standard wait of around 90 minutes I got to speak to a consultant who was able to delete the unwanted sim in under five minutes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two days later, filled with optimism and <i>joie de vivre</i> I again visited Jarir to register my data sim. All went well until I registered my fingerprint and the computer reported that I already had too many sims on my iqama. My protestations that I only had one number fell on deaf ears and I was once again obliged to withdraw, defeated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I again visited STC head office and after the standard wait spoke to a consultant. When he attempted to register my data card the system informed him that my card was invalid and had expired. So we consulted his superior who told me that all the cards in the batch where my card originated had been cancelled and invalidated. He then attempted to register a new card on my account only to be told by the system that I already had too many cards under my name. He then did a nationwide search using my details and confirmed that I had only one number registered under my name. At this I was advised to consult with CITC, Communications and Information Technology Commission who would investigate my issues. This is the government department who could solve my problem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I sent an email to CITC outlining the highlights of my five-month saga and they replied with a link that I needed to follow in order to register my complaint on their website. The first thing I was directed to do was to submit a written complaint to STC (using the CITC system) and allow fifteen working days for a response. This seemed to be a pointless exercise but as I had no choice I did so. Within a few days STC replied that I had too many cards under my name and they advised me to have the surplus cards removed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I then forwarded my complaint together with STC's reply to CITC for their speedy action. That was about three weeks ago and I am still eagerly awaiting feedback from CITC. Using </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-utnCFqQAl3jB6srj1IsydS1-19aTVckA3GdyJMFGJ1RR6sthHnA8Hzvww4b42CxviPmuBde7Xh7hmsrpfgqjQ_Id9dNTBPtoTv7TkPuoV86aiS4tcfUe5NO2rTnh7UKTnjzY8iD0NE/s1600/STC1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-utnCFqQAl3jB6srj1IsydS1-19aTVckA3GdyJMFGJ1RR6sthHnA8Hzvww4b42CxviPmuBde7Xh7hmsrpfgqjQ_Id9dNTBPtoTv7TkPuoV86aiS4tcfUe5NO2rTnh7UKTnjzY8iD0NE/s400/STC1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">their own system I have confirmed that only one card is registered under my name. I also have emails from the other service providers confirming that they have issued no cards to me. A small notation on the back of the data card I have been trying to register warns that I must use the card before the middle of July. An email I sent to CITC querying the status of my complaint remains unanswered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here I am, five months down the line and still trying to register and use the data card I bought last December.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-82299004547948207982015-11-25T23:55:00.000-08:002015-11-30T00:32:08.631-08:00Colleagues<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first gentleman I want to talk about has already appeared in two of my blogs - this is his third appearance. Someone mentioned that with the amount of raw material available to me, I should have registered for my psychology honors this year. I can’t argue with that reasoning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whilst working at our most recent project, this gentleman became friendly with a “union worker” type teacher and the two of them started exhibiting increasingly bizarre and paranoid behavior. They became convinced that "we" were conspiring against "them" and then they started to regularly take sick days. This, of course, placed an extra load on the rest of us. The company requires a doctor’s note for sick days, but with the right contacts, getting a sick-note is not a problem, although getting the correct information on the sick note can be problematic.This worthy would sometimes call in sick with, for example, a closed chest and then bring a sick note for gastro or earache. He once sent a photo of himself using a nebulizer to show how deathly ill he was, obviously forgetting that he had already sent that exact photo as evidence some months earlier. On one occasion I went to his class to tell the students that their teacher was off sick only for them to tell me that he had already told them the previous week that he would be sick that day. When another of my colleagues asked him to provide us with a schedule of his planned sick days for the rest of the year so that we could plan accordingly, he became huffy and left the room.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9njgWUcZwolKrEHbPoTe7CZEoIjlX8z4nzaOmi8XkYUqrS8MgEiPXLBgaWciEcDumyDPS9B4ajoDubQft053uioykcN5bKW57bbvkJClJGWjHpDRc2NlyTaTu2btCew19SYlvOo4ipmE/s1600/Sandwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9njgWUcZwolKrEHbPoTe7CZEoIjlX8z4nzaOmi8XkYUqrS8MgEiPXLBgaWciEcDumyDPS9B4ajoDubQft053uioykcN5bKW57bbvkJClJGWjHpDRc2NlyTaTu2btCew19SYlvOo4ipmE/s1600/Sandwich.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He is also particularly unwilling to help his colleagues, his stock response when asked for </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">assistance being: but when will I eat my sandwiches? This eventually became a standing </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">joke amongst the rest of us, and whenever someone asks for help we all chorus: but when will I eat my sandwiches. He also has the distasteful habit of over-sharing his personal life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Things came to a head on one of his monthly sick days when one of the other teachers suffered a stroke at work. He was taken to the hospital, accompanied by a colleague. This left two of us to teach three classes. My colleague had no option but to phone the malingerer and tell him to get his ass to his classroom pronto. He arrived an hour later, disheveled, apprehensive and coughing weakly whenever he remembered.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8epZ3czCT_V0L3hK5AGHUtn-oy_mAHxh5kfTqH_rR_uXh_kURqNyCigF6K4i5wMQhZRtV_VDkme5lWkp2o3y9CJF6qmPMhXeRf7xavymIj1wGDuP0QPqExnpyp4gEIWgUiiG8ywpGus/s1600/Honest.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8epZ3czCT_V0L3hK5AGHUtn-oy_mAHxh5kfTqH_rR_uXh_kURqNyCigF6K4i5wMQhZRtV_VDkme5lWkp2o3y9CJF6qmPMhXeRf7xavymIj1wGDuP0QPqExnpyp4gEIWgUiiG8ywpGus/s1600/Honest.PNG" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Realizing that we could no longer ignore the situation, my friend awaited an opportunity and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">called him aside one </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">day. He attempted to have a man-to-man with him; he informed him that he was ruining his reputation, that people were speaking about him, including management and members of the other teams, who sometimes referred to us a "cowboy outfit" because of the unprofessional behavior. Even some students had made comments about him. Rather than being grateful for the heads-up, he went storming down the corridor towards the supervisor’s office, effing and blinding all the way and nearly bowling over the new CEO who was being shown around the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">premises by the outgoing CEO. Once in the office he </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">continued blustering loudly and profanely while both the old and the new </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CEO </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">listened interestedly from outside the office. I took the opportunity to point out to </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1bwIUxUzodvwL7f9Rqmb89b1rlSPYgPmaIkd7BCLKIv3kRi1h3wQql1FAk2JZ_3sOhaycQa6ZXOn2hp7fHOng9MQaLhpAzR5ciuAH7XCUwAl-rQLXeQgIfNIpv9TQOSmQxYIMximagkA/s1600/Bluster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1bwIUxUzodvwL7f9Rqmb89b1rlSPYgPmaIkd7BCLKIv3kRi1h3wQql1FAk2JZ_3sOhaycQa6ZXOn2hp7fHOng9MQaLhpAzR5ciuAH7XCUwAl-rQLXeQgIfNIpv9TQOSmQxYIMximagkA/s1600/Bluster.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">him that he already had a dire reputation and that he needed to start with some damage control. Again, no gratitude was in evidence - the messenger (me) was shot on the spot. His last word (to us) on the subject was that “those two old c***s must never talk to me again” (I have noted previously that he lacks conflict-resolution skills, being limited to threats or sulking).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It so happened that I had a meeting with our CEO a few weeks after these events and in our discussions I requested that, if possible, I not work with this character in the future. When asked my reasons I simply said that I found it difficult to work with him. This obviously piqued his curiosity and he instructed our supervisor to produce a full report on the man’s performance. The report ran to several pages and included items such as deserting an exam he was invigilating to go search for his relief, arriving late and leaving early, parking in prohibited parking areas, ignoring the dress code, inappropriate relationships with students, excessive use of his cell-phone during teaching time, being uncooperative, not being a team player and, of course, malingering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This led initially to him receiving a hefty salary deduction, which probably had the effect of transmuting some of</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0S7RDq61CeXaLQfazhm7UlQVhZd8sRTHqAAmybQLtTojuH9jIgkm1uzIN1oIiY5A_rwq_PBx_ibD4bUL_G79j76HTSBFwdeqTBISpipopDHWiI4WrdUzoW5THf9QwnXSutFzuHEOLFE8/s1600/Sacked+Big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0S7RDq61CeXaLQfazhm7UlQVhZd8sRTHqAAmybQLtTojuH9jIgkm1uzIN1oIiY5A_rwq_PBx_ibD4bUL_G79j76HTSBFwdeqTBISpipopDHWiI4WrdUzoW5THf9QwnXSutFzuHEOLFE8/s200/Sacked+Big.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his malingering days to unpaid leave. Following this were several </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">meetings with the CEO, the outcome being that it was decided that, in the circumstances, a parting of the ways would be for the best. In short – he was sacked for exactly what we had tried to warn him about and for which he had cursed us. From his actions and comments since then he still can't believe that he has done anything deserving of sanction. He sees himself as a victim of malice and unfairness and feels bitter that no one else can see what is so clear to him.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMVW0nZKDlHVYbdOxm7OKn2CkMibcGtRCo7iQERR4IwVshAIF4GBkv746szELGhsL5MT2GZqTzBUG25Gpncy4mmuvfWbmAuzm3gyiPV7y4I8WW0IsK9cvc7nMoesDdLiXWgCrmCc7-K4/s1600/Ice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMVW0nZKDlHVYbdOxm7OKn2CkMibcGtRCo7iQERR4IwVshAIF4GBkv746szELGhsL5MT2GZqTzBUG25Gpncy4mmuvfWbmAuzm3gyiPV7y4I8WW0IsK9cvc7nMoesDdLiXWgCrmCc7-K4/s1600/Ice.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eventually he was able to convince management to give him a final chance. He was transferred out of Riyadh and consequently he found it necessary to fly home to Riyadh every weekend to take care of personal issues. Apparently still blithely unaware of the thinness of the ice upon </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which he blunders and showing absolutely no gratitude that he still has a job, he has been demanding to be transferred back to Riyadh and for the company to reimburse him his weekly air fares. The fact that the company has been magnanimously giving him a three day weekend every week is not sufficient for him, he sees it as no more than his due and he is happy to now make financial demands on the company. He has also now added yet another staff member (in HR) to the list of people to whom he refuses to speak, bringing the total up to seven or eight. We continue to follow his antics with morbid interest…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know the archetypal American that everyone dislikes – loud, ill-informed on anything that does not touch him personally, opinionated, know-it-all and generally annoying? (Just to be clear, most Americans I know are not like this). Well, this archetype has joined our happy team. In his first week here he was instructing our bus-driver how to drive, how fast to drive and which route was best – never mind that the company has been driving this route for around four years.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmdXML2zeSCTYO-Rql5bZWu3zyPj31ncL7C3SvSdiZMvl1pjX9WUZ-DRIvr_2_m9eXBRn-wE2PMsjinuabyJ8H_iMauOGTLXoYq4cTYf0_1ZU6a0vLxG5rLGMvi8eG1la0ljSHPLpzjs/s1600/Backpack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #888888; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmdXML2zeSCTYO-Rql5bZWu3zyPj31ncL7C3SvSdiZMvl1pjX9WUZ-DRIvr_2_m9eXBRn-wE2PMsjinuabyJ8H_iMauOGTLXoYq4cTYf0_1ZU6a0vLxG5rLGMvi8eG1la0ljSHPLpzjs/s200/Backpack.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="187" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Probably his favorite phrase is “But it’s not in my contract!” a refrain which one can hear him plaintively repeating loudly several times every week. Rather than opting for professional dress for </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">work like all the other teachers, he opts for safari suits and sneakers. Remember those from the seventies? When the weather turned cold we all wondered if he would be wearing two safari suits to keep warm. At home time he changes into </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mountaineering garb, wandering through the hallowed halls with backpack and shorts. He reminds us of Peter from the TV series “Heidi”, or a postman who has lost his bicycle. When told that professional dress would be more appropriate for teaching in an institution of higher learning, his response is “but it’s not in my contract”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Company policy is that if you want to vacation outside the country in your first year, you need to either leave one month’s salary behind or get someone to sign surety for you. This is to cover the company in the event that you don’t return. When advised of this restriction when he wanted to arrange a trip to Egypt, one could hear him plaintively crying in the corridors “but that isn’t in my contract”. This continued for several weeks with other teachers slamming their office doors several times a day to try to deaden the irritating whining. When he wanted to open a bank account he lambasted our poor HR man, demanding to know the location of the bank, how to open an account, banking hours, how he was to get to the bank and </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which branch he was supposed to go to. When told that our bank was </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Al-Rajhi bank he said, “What? The Russian Bank?” to the great amusement of all within earshot. Our HR stalwart, who has very little English with which to defend himself against this sort of harassment, tried to explain to him that teachers were expected to be able to find their own way around and sort out their own affairs and generally be independent adults, but he was having none of it: “it’s not in my contract” he bleated. Our HR man also had to try to explain that it is not in </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">his </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">contract to arrange transport for teachers to get to the bank and nor is it in his contract that he perform banking-type duties like arranging credit-cards for teachers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />He also quite obviously did no research on Saudi Arabia or its customs or religion before he arrived here. He first </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tried to organize a fancy-dress party for his "kids" and then he was all </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gung-ho to arrange a Halloween party. Said “kids” are young adults and university students and not really into fancy-dress. Anyone who knows anything </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">about KSA would also know that anyone promoting anything occult or resembling witchcraft is likely to suffer judicial decapitation. He has also embarrassed Muslim teachers (he’s too gauche to embarrass himself) by loudly (he does everything loudly) enquiring about their wives and daughters. He asked one teacher if he h</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ad any brothers, to which the teacher replied that he had only one who had died some years previously. “Oh! Do you have any sisters that haven’t died”, he enquired. The whole bus looked fixedly out the windows, at the ceiling, at the floor or plugged in their headphones and pretended not to hear. He is truly the most oblivious person I have ever met.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZW7t4QwK6mgZY_LVUp5AuuEm_Y4zPtIWHO-tQlL3HcjosSxC_Ub8N5d3o8MY_WXjtigX9ct9L2sNqYShcdoWYGhPeyCAtcAdPzTEIHyAtiyjDs7UPVVJmqyF_hjtBj0bk8TfPsmQW7I/s1600/Eat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZW7t4QwK6mgZY_LVUp5AuuEm_Y4zPtIWHO-tQlL3HcjosSxC_Ub8N5d3o8MY_WXjtigX9ct9L2sNqYShcdoWYGhPeyCAtcAdPzTEIHyAtiyjDs7UPVVJmqyF_hjtBj0bk8TfPsmQW7I/s1600/Eat.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Occasionally we have presentations in the university auditorium, and on these occasions snacks are provided. Protocol dictates that one partake of only one or two pastries, but since that was not specified in his contract he feels entitled to grab a whole plate for himself and munch away during the presentation. Further, if there are left-overs at the end of the event, he converts the left-overs into take-aways and proudly struts off with the spoils.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyGvsgPsHf0AQygGFPgwAtGIbAKKvWHsTf5H1nsFdunrnUjxUJrzO4sSNFotY1_Dkg3PcqC2z9AsZNzfn80hFi3bcm405d39UFCPMltfWFhqv4uIU4_BYr59me5SK6iYjjY_BYuUsSXc/s1600/Romeo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyGvsgPsHf0AQygGFPgwAtGIbAKKvWHsTf5H1nsFdunrnUjxUJrzO4sSNFotY1_Dkg3PcqC2z9AsZNzfn80hFi3bcm405d39UFCPMltfWFhqv4uIU4_BYr59me5SK6iYjjY_BYuUsSXc/s200/Romeo1.jpg" width="155" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps his most mind-boggling faux-pas happened just a couple of days ago. He was placed on a sub-project where he travels on the same bus as some female teachers. This had a marked effect on his hormones and a day later he asked our supervisor if he could be permanently assigned to the project and would the supervisor please arrange a love-nest for him and one of the ladies! The supervisor politely declined the opportunity to branch into new and previously unconsidered fields. The teacher has also had to be requested to stop trying to sneak into the ladies section while he is supposed to be teaching his (male) classes. As I mentioned previously, he has done absolutely no research on his host country or else has zero respect for their laws. Meanwhile he unabashedly continues evangelizing to anyone who is courteous enough to listen to him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps it is karma or poetic justice that these two gems ended up as flatmates. Since they both show narcissistic tendencies, bets were taken as to how long it would be before they had a meltdown. As it turned out, the implosion came in just over one month, about two weeks later that we had expected. Again, we all watch developments with morbid interest...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Despite having edited out numerous other mind-numbing anecdotes, this blog entry is still longer than I anticipated. I hope I have not rambled on for too long.</i></span></div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-41868282510154231762014-05-01T05:06:00.002-07:002015-02-06T22:27:17.286-08:00New Doves and New Roomies<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My flatmate moved out a few weeks ago leaving his room in a
condition that was pretty well representative of how it was when he occupied
it: looking like a partially rehabilitated landfill site and stinking of stale
cigarette smoke. I simply locked to door of his room and placed a table in front of it
and pretended it wasn't there. The utensils in the kitchen likewise all needed re-washing
as most had been given only a perfunctory</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> rinsing under the tap before being packed away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved having the flat to myself – I arranged things in a
way that suited me and it was wonderful not to have to consider anyone else; I
could keep my toilet paper and towel in the bathroom without worry and not have to clear my
dishes from the drying rack immediately for the next man to use. The place
stayed clean as I clean up after myself as I go along.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEcwtTyUKSKH_Yiv7FKd6B_mfm6eyJrLwwmTZe3wzwHT-scHM_aJswY_zeIote9g3ecXlinc0uCCMPZ1aOzUQRFlP8aZyzluxUbiTXYhj_bbCk2P05l1zrjW317vv64cigoTrHSnEGNrU/s1600/2014-05-05+14.59.55++(Large).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEcwtTyUKSKH_Yiv7FKd6B_mfm6eyJrLwwmTZe3wzwHT-scHM_aJswY_zeIote9g3ecXlinc0uCCMPZ1aOzUQRFlP8aZyzluxUbiTXYhj_bbCk2P05l1zrjW317vv64cigoTrHSnEGNrU/s1600/2014-05-05+14.59.55++(Large).jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The babies</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then there was the “mother dove incident” which is ongoing as I write this. She built her nest on a windowsill opposite the
kitchen window and deposited two eggs in it. In due course the eggs hatched and
two scruffy little chicks emerged. Then one day I noticed she hadn't been on
the nest all night. The next day I didn't see her at all so late afternoon I
decided I'd have to feed the chicks myself. This involved going to buy a
syringe, placing a chair outside the kitchen window and one on the inside
and then maneuvering myself through the window. I squirted egg-yolk down the
babies' throats and they showed their appreciation by crapping on my hand and
shirt. I repeated the process that evening and next day, as mom had spent the
night out again - I figured she'd been eaten or arrested or something. Next
afternoon I got a little box to house the chicks and was preparing to bring them
inside </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where they'd be easier to monitor. I also googled how to take care of
ugly chicks (story of my life!). When I went to climb out the window to fetch
them in who should I see but mom, making a big show of being the concerned
parent! She still has a busy social schedule, stays out all night and just pops in every now and again (a
flying visit) to give the kids fast-food before she pisses off again. Now when
the family see me at the kitchen window they all give me dirty looks, but at
least I won't have to teach them to fly! </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climbing out the window</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kitchen window looks out onto a very small courtyard
which is enclosed up to the roof of the building. Climbing out the window to feed the
chicks brought again to my attention the fact that previous flatmates had used this
courtyard as an <i>ad-hoc</i> dumping ground. About a dozen large empty water bottles,
hundreds of cigarette butts, old food, old bread and other miscellaneous crap that had been tossed out the window littered
the place. The <i>pièce de résistance</i> was a mattress which someone had put out to
air or dry or something on the roof and it had fallen into our courtyard. No one had come
to claim it and since it was too big to fit through the window, there it had stayed.</span><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided the time had come to clean the courtyard. I took a
long piece of nylon string, tied a stone to one end and flung it up onto the roof. I
then stabbed a hole through the mattress and tied the other end of the string
through it. I then went upstairs, up a very hot (from the baking sun and 40
degree temperature) metal ladder, onto the roof and wandered about until I
located my line. I then hoisted up the mattress, with bits of food and
cigarette butts stuck to it, and dumped it on the roof. I tossed the loose end
of the line back into the courtyard and climbed back down and back out the
kitchen window. The outside chair broke when I stepped on it this time, making
things a bit more challenging. I
threaded the string through the handles of all the bottles, tied it off and
went back up to the roof. I hoisted up the empties and cut the string so that I
could dump them. Unfortunately not all the bottles had made it onto the roof
and about half of them went tumbling back down with an almighty crash. Feeling a bit irritated I climbed back down again, back out the kitchen window and tied
them to the string again. Then back up to the roof, up the hot ladder blah blah blah. This time the enterprise was successful. Sweeping the
courtyard afterwards raised a huge cloud of dust that hung in the air in the enclosed
space and clogged my nose and mixed with my sweat. Did I mention it was hot? What the chicks made of these goings-on I have
no idea - they still weren't talking to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently Al-Jazeera was awarded a contract by SANG to implement a
new teaching project. They've recruited a bunch of English teachers and I was informed
that three of them would be my flatmates. In preparation for their arrival
Al-Jazeera’s maintenance people descended on the accommodation to check that
all was in order for the new arrivals (their comments when they entered the
room I described above were loud, rapid and incomprehensible, but their
expressions said it all.)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anti-glare window coating</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some incomprehensible reason they decided that there was a
problem with the sun </span><br />
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shining through the bedroom windows. I never experienced any such problem and in any event the windows are double glazed. There could be a
problem with street-lights shining in at night, and the way I solved this problem was to
put up a blind (and later curtains after my blind got lost in the disastrous move
described elsewhere in this blog). The maintenance people, however, took a more
radical approach. They sent a team of workmen
to cover the windows with black, self-adhesive vinyl, effectively converting potentially
pleasant rooms into dark, cheerless boxes. It also pretty well eliminated all natural light in the accommodation. No way did I allow them anywhere near my
windows! I was so appalled by this madness that I emailed our CEO to express
my feelings at this bizarre "solution", but it would appear that the
decision is final. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last night the maintenance guys returned to complete the
finishing touches before the new arrivals get here. Since I get up at 0430 I
tend to go to bed early. Just after 2100 the doorbell rang rousing me from bed.
There they were – armed with 200 gram packs of complimentary washing powder for
the new arrivals and 2 large bottles of Dettol for cleaning the place! The
Bangladeshi dude who was the nominated cleaner walked around looking at the floor
and the kitchen and saying wonderingly “but
it’s clean”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They then proceeded to tackle the three empty bedrooms. Two
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the supermarket downstairs joined in with enthusiasm.
They were obviously pleased to have the opportunity to see how I live and
wandered about the place examining everything, especially my </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">room and chatting to me in Arabic. I understood that one of them wanted my WiFi password. At this
point I decided “fuck it!”, closed my door and went back to bed. When
the hammering started at about 2330 I got out of bed and made the industrious workers
aware that I needed to get up in about 5
hours time and suggested that they may like to wrap things up for the night and finish off some
other time. Or never, for all of me!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I got up this morning the whole place reeked of Dettol –
for reasons that no doubt made a lot of sense to them but which escape me, they’d washed the floors
with Dettol. Washing is perhaps too strong a word; it appeared that they had
just spread water around using a dirty spaghetti mop and left it to dry. Also when I went
to the bathroom I found that they had used my facecloth as a cleaning rag! This
did not cause me to have warm and fuzzy feelings for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I get home today I’m going to have to clean the whole
place again to undo their “cleaning” and prepare myself for the arrival of my
new flatmates. Flatmates are always a pot-luck sort of proposition; you never
know what you are going to get. I do know though, especially after having lived alone for
several weeks, that I am not interested in having roomies and sharing a kitchen
and bathroom anymore. When my contract ends I’m going to be looking for something that
offers single accommodation and preferably in a compound. Or in another
country.</span><br />
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Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-43972630800093629122013-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:002015-02-06T22:05:39.133-08:00Flying, Driving, Moving and other disasters<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>18 August 2013</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGfx7-pNbvS4csKCU2VIkh93Nwa_jlWBM0b8DkddAD6WqEfmgHDfuoSEwT_9Of0SfyyxuQJromPztjx347xoMS47WsAJfOZED0yYWMuNKLdAmiUj9k5kt2HSWTJmbqKEOMu_yBHzl3Fo/s1600/2013-08-16+14.31.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGfx7-pNbvS4csKCU2VIkh93Nwa_jlWBM0b8DkddAD6WqEfmgHDfuoSEwT_9Of0SfyyxuQJromPztjx347xoMS47WsAJfOZED0yYWMuNKLdAmiUj9k5kt2HSWTJmbqKEOMu_yBHzl3Fo/s1600/2013-08-16+14.31.05.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always interesting to fly with with Ethiopian Air. After taking off from Johannesburg for Riyadh (via Ethiopia) we were diverted to Entebbe to pick up some random passengers who had been stranded there by a cancelled Ethiopian Air flight. <br /><br />This made us late for our connecting flight to Riyadh from Ethiopia. I was one of the last to board and found an Arab gentleman occupying my seat. He wasn't interested in moving and when I showed him my boarding pass with allocated seat number he just looked at me blankly and shrugged. Mafi Englisi (No English).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that the first few people on board didn't understand the concept of assigned seating and by the time cabin crew realized that there was a problem people were just sitting wherever the spirit moved them. Since random seating seemed to be the order of the day, I took a seat next to an SA lady - on the aisle and near the front, so that was good - one wants to disembark as quickly as possible at Riyadh airport.Then a rather disgruntled looking character came up and asked me to move as I was in his seat; he had just gone to chat to his friend further back. I gave him a blank look and shrugged and pulled my seat-belt tighter. When he complained to a steward he was unsympathetically led to a seat at the back of the plane and told to sit and be happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, just in front of me in Business Class a dude was complaining incessantly about his seat (what exactly his complaint was I don't know - I mean, he was in Business Class!). Eventually the steward asked him if he'd rather swop with someone in economy class. When he declined the offer the harassed steward told him to "just sit and fly". Furthermore he didn't want to hear another word from the passenger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After take-off the young dude who had hijacked my seat noticed that I was sitting next to a female. This caused him to remember how to communicate in English and all of a sudden I was "sir" and being urged to occupy my assigned seat - he would be only too happy to change seats with me. He seemed disappointed when I told him I was cool with my seating and he kept looking across the aisle wistfully where I was sipping my beer and chatting to the charming lady.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>23 Aug 2013</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFegkeRIhpUZdrYieweEhlYVy2_AGO2C7EHZ-xbVkiDNe2wxcAwBDpd4Kbydni6ceq6yZx3Eb5Vbn0ZEe_qrERBlMaaQjf3YTs-7M3Sp3D9IptGdgf6MwycXlivV3mzQMXoZqSdonDJUE/s1600/2013-08-22+14.22.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFegkeRIhpUZdrYieweEhlYVy2_AGO2C7EHZ-xbVkiDNe2wxcAwBDpd4Kbydni6ceq6yZx3Eb5Vbn0ZEe_qrERBlMaaQjf3YTs-7M3Sp3D9IptGdgf6MwycXlivV3mzQMXoZqSdonDJUE/s1600/2013-08-22+14.22.55.jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday was an interesting day. My driver arrived at SANG with a flat wheel. The spare was shredded from an earlier incident and had not yet, after several months, been repaired. We then drove for about 20km on the rim looking for somewhere to get a repair. The tyre places that we found were all closed so eventually I got out and looked for a taxi. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />An elderly party in a dirty heap stopped and offered me a lift, which I accepted. He chatted to me incessantly in Arabic, spraying bits of whatever he was eating over me. From time to time he erupted into song, singing loudly and tunelessly. <br /><br />When we got close to home he rather belligerently demanded money for the transport. I had nothing smaller than a 100 riyal note which I reluctantly offered (Tip: ALWAYS have small denomination notes when using a taxi in KSA.The larger the note you offer the more likely you are to be overcharged). The 40 riyals change he gave me was damp from his sweaty pocket and while I was still counting the change he snatched back SAR10.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once in my accommodation I needed the bathroom only to find that my flat-mate had been smoking in the bathroom thus rendering it unusable (by me) for half-an-hour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a full bladder, I decided to open a tin of spaghetti and meatballs for lunch (all the way from SA) but the tab on the can snapped off. Being resourceful I fetched my hammer and a screwdriver. After whacking the tin a few times with a screw-driver the top descended into the sauce at high speed, causing a gout of tomato juice to erupt from the can onto me, 2 of the walls, the cupboard and the floor. "Goodness me", I thought to myself as I cleaned up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After microwaving the remains of my meal I discovered I was out of bread, so I changed my spattered clothing and went downstairs to the local cafe. Sadly, they were closed for prayers and I had to wait for 20 minutes to get my bread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5 September 2012</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of my colleagues has a serious nicotine addiction and smokes incessantly. Although I dislike inhaling his second-hand smoke don't complain when he smokes in the kitchen or passage of our shared accommodation. As an ex-smoker I know how powerful the urge to smoke can be. However, when he smokes in the bathroom, there is a problem. The bathroom is small and has no windows, so when I go into it after he has used it it </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">really pongs and I find it unusable for the next half-hour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first time I spoke to him about this and asked him to not do this he rather vaguely said "ah well... we'll see what happens" (ins'Allah?). What happened was that he bought some air freshener to mask the smell of the cigarette smoke. Unfortunately the result of this strategy was that the bathroom ended up smelling of tobacco flavored citrus. Not too pleasant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />We spoke again and I suggested that he use the second bathroom when he needed to smoke whilst taking care of his ablutions. Things went well for quite a while and then he started smoking in "our" bathroom again. This time we had a fairly loud discussion about the issue and the problem disappeared again for a while. Then recently he has again felt the need to smoke in our bathroom and I again find it unusable several times a week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the same person who some time back chatted to our other flatmates about some issues that had arisen for him in the shared accommodation. We all want to smile when we come home, he told them, and this means that we need to consider the people we share with and be prepared to compromise. This, he asserted, will make life more pleasant for all. Yes, quite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 10 days ago we heard from one of our Egyptian flatmates that we were being moved to other accommodation. Initially we disregarded what he said because his English is such that we were not really sure what he was trying to communicate to us and secondly we had received no official notification from the academy. Then a second flatmate seemed to be saying the same thing, and when I inquired from the supervisor he confirmed that this was indeed about to happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity for my smoking flatmate and I to part company, especially since things had become a little tense between us. He could join a group of smokers or people who don't have a problem with inhaling second-hand smoke and I could cohabit with people who are happy not smoking in the public areas of the accommodation. A win-win situation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accordingly, I suggested this to our supervisor. I also asked him to where we were being moved and when, and when could I inspect the new premises. The date of the move was more or less confirmed but my repeated requests to inspect the new premises and my suggestion regarding the solution to the smoking issue were ignored. I kept nagging and was then told that the manager in charge of accommodation had been informed of my request. This also had zero results and the day arrived for the move. A work crew arrived, dismantled our furniture and loaded up our garbage bags full of our belongings. We were both headed for the same destination all! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />I traveled to our new digs with the first truckload of stuff. Words cannot describe how I felt as I explored my new "home". Opening the front door, my nose was assailed by an indefinable</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Curtaining kindly donated by previous tenant</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVv-sai2OgCkiNJZQ9H_0gmAF4eLS22-fS_Eokw6WpdIrym6gAmfsN6QdLDn1QNZA5bpmx2S4UnN1qe398rP48dPbrPkY-DI03094wHGzmst9zyrxyZZs86aNIqs8p_lUn-hkTaTY4PDU/s1600/2013-09-05+16.10.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVv-sai2OgCkiNJZQ9H_0gmAF4eLS22-fS_Eokw6WpdIrym6gAmfsN6QdLDn1QNZA5bpmx2S4UnN1qe398rP48dPbrPkY-DI03094wHGzmst9zyrxyZZs86aNIqs8p_lUn-hkTaTY4PDU/s1600/2013-09-05+16.10.46.jpg" height="200" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
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smell - sort of a mix between rotting </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">vegetation and the smell you get around a landfill site. <br /><br />The air-conditioner in one of the bedrooms wheezed asthmatically and barely produced a breeze. The air-conditioner in the other bedroom roared like a bulldozer and produced a weak breeze.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />One bathroom had a spectacularly filthy toilet and a washing machine perched on blocks above a squat toilet. The shower rose like a skinny apparition in front of the <div style="text-align: right;">
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window, thus preventing the window from opening. To shower one would need to stand between the toilet and the washing machine and use the washing machine as a soap dish and face-cloth rack.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />The pièce de résistance, however, was the kitchen. There was nowhere near enough cupboard space to hold our groceries and pots and pans. The cupboard that were there were broken, rotting and filthy. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />A white substance that most closely resembled pigeon shit was spattered on several of the<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkjZtoSpO7celSXzy4O5cc_DDvI_HcDFDrPycZOEj1gme8_MTROEVkT3hfPxlinmVxrYtkWuZrM3zqMd_JB0pZ1nxHe_TDEgVVw1lK8R6_SH8vCtcyKjCImuaQmeQE_7QGCzy7CKJ3No/s1600/2013-09-04+20.41.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkjZtoSpO7celSXzy4O5cc_DDvI_HcDFDrPycZOEj1gme8_MTROEVkT3hfPxlinmVxrYtkWuZrM3zqMd_JB0pZ1nxHe_TDEgVVw1lK8R6_SH8vCtcyKjCImuaQmeQE_7QGCzy7CKJ3No/s1600/2013-09-04+20.41.16.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. C. Roach agreed to pose for the photo</td></tr>
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surfaces. The walls, especially around the dirt-encrusted stove, were filthy with the ghosts of meals past. Some brown substance had also run down some of the walls. No hot water was available in the kitchen. I opened the fridge and cupboard using only one finger. Moving or touching anything resulted in mild panic amongst the cockroaches who would run excitedly for cover. The kitchen appeared to be the source of the pong (and the cockroaches) that permeated the entire apartment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was no way I was going to use the kitchen for anything, so I set up a table in the passage for my microwave and kettle and this became my pro-tem kitchen. I was afraid to leave my 2 boxes of groceries on the floor in case the cockroaches fancied upgrading their own accommodation, so I placed both boxes on a drying rack which would at least make it more challenging for potential cockroach squatters to move in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To round things off, I got a phone call from our HR department to inform me that they had received complaints about me smoking in the accommodation and inconveniencing the other occupants. Academy rules forbid smoking in any of their buildings and I was to cease this inconsiderate and unhygienic practice immediately! By now I was so dispirited that I meekly agreed not to smoke indoors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Going to bed and to sleep was another 'gedoente'. Since it was impossible to sleep with the noise of the air-con I switched it off when I went to bed. An hour later I woke up sweating in the heat and had to get out of bed to switch it back on. After listening to it for half-an-hour I again switched it off and slept for another hour. And so on for the rest of the night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before going to bed I had composed and sent a rather bitter email to our company CEO in which I bared my soul concerning my views of the accommodation and the message it sent me about my standing in the company. I was heartened to receive a call from him the next morning where he apologized for the cock-up and where he promised to remedy the situation without delay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True to his word I received another call later in the day to confirm that we will on Saturday be moving back to the place we vacated on Wednesday. Luckily I haven't unpacked much so repacking and resealing my numerous packets and bags should not be too much of a schlep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't believe that things happen "just sommer" or without there being a point. I believe that everything happens for a reason so I am looking for reasons that I needed to have this experience. What has changed in my life or my attitudes that wouldn't have changed without this event. What has happened that otherwise wouldn't have happened? Right now I have no answers, but I will keep looking.</span></div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-60643909398096768012013-05-28T01:54:00.000-07:002015-06-05T08:36:37.103-07:00An Embassy Affair<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some time ago, a colleague and I managed to get an
invitation to an event at the French embassy in Riyadh. It was a very formal
affair and when we got there almost everyone apart from the two of us was dressed
in tuxedos (I do not own a tuxedo).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eventually the gates opened and we all streamed in. After
being scanned and searched for cell phones, cameras and weapons we moved to the
outside bar area. We ordered a couple of beers and by the time I had taken a
couple of sips of mine my colleague had finished his. I should mention here
that alcohol is illegal in the Kingdom, apart from in the embassies, so this
was a rare treat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">After a quick visit to the bar my colleague returned with a couple of Chivas
for each of us which, for me, was nectar from the gods. I must confess that I
had smuggled a small plastic bottle onto the premises which I filled with
Chivas for my future enjoyment. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In due course the bar closed and we moved to
our assigned tables for the meal. We shared a table with ten other guests and I
found myself seated next to a rather introverted Italian guy with a rather extroverted Swiss
girlfriend. She proudly informed us that she was a sexologist and she clearly
enjoyed the speculative looks that this information provoked from all the males
at the table. Her boyfriend seemed vaguely discomfited by all the attention she
was receiving.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">My colleague, meanwhile, had bribed one of the waiters with
SAR100 for him to keep bringing drinks and at regular intervals he would leave
the table and reappear with more drinks for us. Sadly, each time I was ready
for another drink I found that he had finished them. Fortunately there was wine
on the table which I enjoyed with my meal. As the alcohol took hold, my companion’s appreciation of etiquette suffered and he became louder and contradicted nearly every comment made by anyone at
the table (with the exception of the sexologist).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Growing bored he drifted off again, and after he had been missing for about 30 minutes, a rather </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">austere
French gentleman informed me that he felt that my friend was in need of assistance. He
led me across a marble-tiled courtyard to where my colleague was sitting on a
step. Of his former exuberance there was no sign. His head was hanging, his
eyes were lusterless and his general demeanor was that of one who is not
feeling in the best of health. He promptly confirmed this assessment by
vomiting onto the marble tiling, said vomit splashing onto my shoes and
trousers.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">At this, the French gentleman opined that this would
probably be the appropriate moment for us to make our exit. I could not disagree with him so accordingly I returned to my table to get my jacket, only to find it was missing. I saw what appeared to
be my jacket on the back of another chair, but when I tried to take it the
owner of the jacket objected. Once he had proved to my satisfaction that the
jacket in question was indeed his, I returned to my friend where I found that
my jacket had been place next to him (fortunately, not right next to him). All
stops had obviously been pulled out in order to hasten our departure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I dutifully supported the inebriated one as we exited the embassy, him leaving damp and smelly footprints as he wobbled off
the premises. I found a taxi and off we went. Sadly, his stomach had not yet finished
rebelling against the evening’s insults and he abruptly wound down his window and
sprayed more vomit into the slipstream. The upside of this was that the cars
behind us kept a more respectable following distance following this incident. Eventually
we got home where I had to pay the irate taxi-driver a bonus of SAR30 for a car
wash. I managed to get my colleague up the stairs and into his room, where I
gave him a gentle push in the general direction of his bed, where he collapsed
like a dead man and immediately started snoring.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next day he asked me if I would like to chip in half of
the bribe he had paid the waiter to keep the booze coming. I politely declined. I
then waited for him to offer to refund the taxi cleaning fee which
I had paid on his behalf. In this respect I was destined to be disappointed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">We have not gone to any other social events together and
regrettably, I have been unable to get any more invitations to embassy events.
My emails to the lady who arranged our invitation to the French embassy appear to be
disappearing into cyber-space - surely she wouldn't be ignoring me...</span></span></div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-4074057674586666922013-04-28T07:01:00.000-07:002015-02-06T22:07:56.370-08:00Teaching the Military<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">After my harrowing experiences teaching
children at the Learning Horizons Primary School, I was apparently adjudged to be now tough and seasoned enough
to be able to teach at the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG). Working at a military
installation means that the day starts early. Accordingly my alarm goes off at
0430 and after a 45 minute drive we start work at 0600.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The company I have been palmed off on is
GBT (no one seems to know what the acronym stands for), a British
company which hires British teachers to work in the Kingdom. However, since they were experiencing
rather high levels of absenteeism they were obliged to temporarily take on other,
non-British native English speakers. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">On my first day I was introduced to the
incumbent staff (well, except for one gentleman who pointedly ignored me) and
shown around the premises. The corridors leading to the lecture rooms
are long and stark, and somewhat reminiscent of “The Green Mile”. Given the
feelings evoked by some of the classes, this impression is entirely
appropriate. All the lecture rooms and language labs have combination locks
fitted on the doors. There are strict rules about keeping the rooms locked when
not in use as expensive equipment tends to get either vandalized or stolen. It
is suspected that some cleaning staff are prepared to share the door combinations
with students for a modest financial consideration and so we still have some pilfering in some
of the lecture rooms.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The students at SANG are typical of
students anywhere, I guess. You have some who are really motivated to
learn and some who would rather be anywhere other than in a classroom.
In general the level of proficiency is pretty comparable to that at the primary
school where I was toughened up for this assignment, although there are some notable exceptions.Some students have remarked (rather astutely, I felt) that they are only obliged to take these classes to fill in time until the military can think of something to do with them. Be that as it may, we forge ahead undeterred by the inscrutable motives of the top brass. Irregular verbs and present continuous are the order of the day!</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">As one would expect in a military establishment,
there are sets of inflexible rules which we are expected to enforce. Some of
these you would expect to find in any academy, such as no cell phones during
teaching sessions. Others, however, I have not found elsewhere. For instance:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span lang="EN-ZA">“No sleeping, heads on tables,
comatose slumping or leaning on the back legs of the chairs.” </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span lang="EN-ZA">“No wearing of caps when seated
in the classroom, particularly in an MTV inspired gangster rap manner, or use
of caps as missiles.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">To help with the enforcement of these
regulations we have “jizza” forms. These are forms on which we report the
infringement of any of the rules such as sleeping, refusing to work or being
disruptive. Students who are jizza-ed get disciplined by SANG by, for instance,
being locked up for the weekend. Teachers are looked at askance by SANG if they don't issue a handful of jizzers every week. The students are prepared to do their part by breaking the rules on a regular basis.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">I have learned that students frequently
stay up till the early hours and come to class having had only 2 or 3 hours of
sleep. I have seen some literally doze off in the middle of answering a
question! One of the popular late night activities here is “drifting” - driving
at high speed and then causing the car to drift sideways (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwV4ZqbCmY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwV4ZqbCmY</a>).
Did I mention that the biggest killer in KSA is traffic accidents? Ahead of heart attacks?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Driving to and from SANG is also an
experience. The Saudi driving style is unique – the lane occupied by any given
driver does not necessarily bear any correlation to the direction in which he
wishes to travel. Red traffic lights are seen as no more than a tentative suggestion to slow down. Merging with traffic is also a concept that is rejected with
contempt – you simply drive in the direction you wish to go and trust that the
other drivers will sort themselves out. Driving home the other day our driver
was obliged to swerve to avoid a “merging” vehicle on the freeway. He then
noticed high speed traffic approaching from the rear and had to swerve back, causing us to whack into
the “merging” driver. Even this event was treated rather cavalierly and after a
cordial exchange of gestures featuring middle fingers we both continued on our
way. Did I mention that the biggest killer in KSA is traffic accidents?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the main reasons that alcohol is illegal in the Kingdom. If this is the situation with everyone sober, one can only speculate with horror at the mayhem there would be on the roads if drinking was legal. As it is we see one or two accidents almost every day on the way to or from SANG. And of course the fact that women are not allowed to drive has nothing to do with road safety. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdSNVXd0Dt66VMugfbdQmzqMbkjiywE1fikzW39fB26VgAoWZ-F1Eg2yMGEcT_8zdUwOlFVPtqi3B_c4xFleY2V2lHvHk8DSi5-hVTUsEXkEqezf5NzzjM5u60SARI-If4vJmuVjMwGM/s1600/Khalid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdSNVXd0Dt66VMugfbdQmzqMbkjiywE1fikzW39fB26VgAoWZ-F1Eg2yMGEcT_8zdUwOlFVPtqi3B_c4xFleY2V2lHvHk8DSi5-hVTUsEXkEqezf5NzzjM5u60SARI-If4vJmuVjMwGM/s1600/Khalid.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Despite manic drivers, SANG managers not
speaking to each other, flatmates not speaking to each other, getting up at an
obscene hour, trying to motivate disinterested students and preparing for UNISA exams, I find that life is good. I find
myself in company of people who are pleasant and helpful and I am doing work that is
challenging without being too stressful. I don't see myself spending the rest of my life in the kingdom (I miss going for a beer with my mates and I miss female company too much) but KSA and Al Jazeera have been good to me.</span></span><br />
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Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-60853313562322030362013-02-04T06:59:00.000-08:002015-02-06T22:10:28.203-08:00Teaching in Primary School<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">After my two-month vacation I had mixed feelings about
returning to Saudi Arabia. Obviously I was sad to be leaving family and friends
again and saying goodbye to my lovely botanical gardens, but on the other hand
I was ready to start working again. Twelve hours after tearful farewells at
OR Tambo, I was back in KSA.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2ZtQQGRe9KRXJugYdFmpvomXYNbwPCiZZ1KFl5GoJjdQf7JsuTSdSquekHt915i8GzWfW2enFKGOerYQS0ncwauQKy5Q8Qi59i6tNPSnETWNs3jMGO5cbDntdvRFP6ekiF8oMn79uh4/s1600/20130126_093329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2ZtQQGRe9KRXJugYdFmpvomXYNbwPCiZZ1KFl5GoJjdQf7JsuTSdSquekHt915i8GzWfW2enFKGOerYQS0ncwauQKy5Q8Qi59i6tNPSnETWNs3jMGO5cbDntdvRFP6ekiF8oMn79uh4/s1600/20130126_093329.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">On my first day back at work I was told that I was to be
teaching at an elementary school that Al Jazeera had acquired. I know that I’m
not very good with small kids but I figured that the experience would be good
and besides that it would look good on my CV. And just maybe I could learn how
to work with small kids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">My first couple of days at the school were pretty easy. I
simply accompanied one of the existing English teachers to his classes and
observed. I was given to understand that this would be the pattern for the rest
of the week until the roster had been drawn up and some sort of curriculum had
been devised.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">On the third day I was sent to my first solo class. Walking
into a classroom of 30 six-year olds who don’t understand a word of English (and who aren't particularly interested in getting to understand it) is
pretty daunting. I’m here to tell you that I was not feeling safely ensconced
in my comfort zone at that point!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I thought to play some games to establish rapport with the
kids. In a way it worked and in a way it didn’t. I didn’t realise how quickly
things can get out of hand with a bunch of six-year-olds. Getting them to shout
out answers to simple questions seemed like a great idea, except it’s much
easier getting them to start shouting than getting them to stop. I looked in
horror at my creation; the kids were having a wonderful time yelling "A-B-C..." at the tops of their lungs, jumping up and down and totally
ignoring me. Mind you, since they certainly couldn’t hear me over the racket they
were making it was hardly surprising. I limped through the rest of the week
in similar fashion and seldom have I been so happy to see the weekend.</span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">This week started with the instruction that they were to be
taught how to introduce themselves in English. It was decided that their
existing English text books were worse that useless and that we would be
working without text books (Angie </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="st">Motshekga </span>would have nodded in approval had she been
consulted).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The first class I walked into was total bedlam. Kids were all
over, screaming, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgzgPMg60Rs1qJ4_XYVUbDj1DPoJCsM3V-NsyOXXWQ0YWMO-1ebgMpGpjU0FgUFZTFS64dGiA9uE8hwIX1b6tNzOx8DUCwbVCLPGipeKXY4EzY8E5HITQFYyOZOMItLd5VJx__fKuQVo/s1600/20130204_120743.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgzgPMg60Rs1qJ4_XYVUbDj1DPoJCsM3V-NsyOXXWQ0YWMO-1ebgMpGpjU0FgUFZTFS64dGiA9uE8hwIX1b6tNzOx8DUCwbVCLPGipeKXY4EzY8E5HITQFYyOZOMItLd5VJx__fKuQVo/s1600/20130204_120743.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">throwing things, hitting each other, fiddling with the
computer, running in and out of the door and one or two were crying. Each time I got one
half of the classroom more or less settled the other half would again erupt into a fair facsimile of Dante's Inferno. I went
back and forth several times before I realised that I was on a hiding to
nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">After about twenty minutes I felt that I should probably try and
teach them something before the end of the period. So despite the rather negative portents I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and started by introducing myself. “My... (pointing at my
chest) name... (drawing a label on my forehead) is Gregory”. This produced fits
of giggles and whispers as they looked at me inquisitively. Nonetheless, I persevered. After several repetitions
they seemed to grasp what I was driving at. I then pointed to one of my students and asked “What... is... <i>your</i>...
name?” He responded with “What is your name?” “No-no”, I said tapping
him on the chest, “what is YOUR name”. He responded by tentatively tapping me on the chest
and asking “What is YOUR name”. So I slowed down and coached him word for word: "My-name-is... What?" "My name is what", he replied confidently. So I repeated the exerci<span style="font-size: small;">s<span style="font-size: small;">e</span> without the <span style="font-size: small;">"</span>what?" "My-name-is......" "GREGORY" he yelled <span style="font-size: small;">triumphantly</span>. </span>The thinking seems to be that repeating the teacher's words is a pretty safe bet.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikL469rD1dOIbTcDE2QkX7NXhoL61k-A3yZIsY01gv1Wpddx9jYaCYo1r68YhVq6gSFUTPLmLaX4HZ6UjRiDgX2u4LoYHvZGbsvWadUG8Ff_LnhcInF9vG_6heJC3aE3sKuO9VQ5QkEqo/s1600/20130204_094933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikL469rD1dOIbTcDE2QkX7NXhoL61k-A3yZIsY01gv1Wpddx9jYaCYo1r68YhVq6gSFUTPLmLaX4HZ6UjRiDgX2u4LoYHvZGbsvWadUG8Ff_LnhcInF9vG_6heJC3aE3sKuO9VQ5QkEqo/s1600/20130204_094933.jpg" height="149" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the rest of the class were taking advantage of
the fact that I was distracted and were clicking every icon on the computer,
drawing on the smart-board and beating each other up. Some were standing on
their desks screaming and some were trying to climb out the window. Others were throwing books and plastic water bottles at each other. One little guy kept pulling on my sleeve and
asking me something in Arabic in a rather breathless voice (there’s one of
these in every class). I had no idea what he wanted so I said “No! Sit down!”
He seemed devastated by my response and kept nagging me every few seconds. Eventually I gave in and said "Yes, OK”. Sadly, that also didn’t work. (Eventually I got a bilingual teacher
to translate for me: it turns out he’d had enough of school for the day and wanted to go home). Others
ask for permission to go to the “WC” and giving permission to one seems to
be blanket permission for three or four to rush off hooting and screaming loudly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">One little fellow thought that he would help me deal with
the discipline issues and ran around the classroom screaming “shut up” and “sit
down”. He probably made more noise than the rest of them put together and when the other kids ignored
him he attacked them. He left off these self-imposed altruistic duties when one on his
peers punched him on the nose. At that point he lost all interest in the
proceedings and vacated the classroom howling and snuffling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I then bravely moved onto their ages. “How... old... are...
you?” I asked a student in the front row. I raised my fingers while suggesting “Six?
Seven? Eight?” With sudden insight he grasped what I was driving at and
screamed “1-2-3-4-5-6-7...” This incited the rest of the class and they all started
counting rather haphazardly from one to ten loudly and compulsively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of course, not all of the classes are this rowdy and some
barely reach the same level of noise as a jet taking off. I treasure these
classes. And my afternoon classes at the academy have become so much more pleasurable than they ever were in the past; productive, peaceful and pleasant. I have applied for a license for a dart gun and a supply of Ritalin, but I have had no response as yet.</span></div>
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Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-28282875112872352122012-05-03T00:31:00.001-07:002015-02-06T22:23:06.297-08:00Baha Uni Open Day: April 2012<div style="text-align: left;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SbLX7biVBqEeq-tuxVMxHQPWU1oPZFuLrH9c7WgoPsL11XmDFAzYkEZ9ETYBmr-NBqWZGyLzbggJgjK__dEgs0LYoJfTYXUF4H9y_ESGr5OQEK6-NDa59Tn-ablpd9BT5oUanfwHpIg/s1600/DSCF4456(small).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SbLX7biVBqEeq-tuxVMxHQPWU1oPZFuLrH9c7WgoPsL11XmDFAzYkEZ9ETYBmr-NBqWZGyLzbggJgjK__dEgs0LYoJfTYXUF4H9y_ESGr5OQEK6-NDa59Tn-ablpd9BT5oUanfwHpIg/s1600/DSCF4456(small).JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the (mostly) Egyptian teachers involved in Open Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first open day at Baha University was in December 2011. This week we had the second. It was not truly an open day in that it was not open to the public, parents, family or other interested parties (there are no events in KSA where the possibility exists of a male and female meeting and socialising). However it was an opportunity for the sudents to show-off their English skills in front of their peers and university management. Events were organised by the teachers and performed exclusively by the students. It was also a good marketing opportunity for Al Jazeera as the local TV stations were on hand to record the event.<br />
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The festivities commenced (predictably) with speeches praising and lauding our achievements. Pass rates were up, teachers were enthusiastic and highly skilled, students were motivated and thirsty for knowledge. This was followed by a recitation from the Q'ran and an Islamic song sung by a choir of students.<br />
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There was a debate, which was unfortunately marred by poor sound quality, between students about whether KSA is a desirable tourist destination or not. Arguments for and against were evenly balanced and when the audience was asked to express an opinion by a show of hands the result was a resounding "aye" for apathy.<br />
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The students then presented a tragedy, Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". I was initially involved<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFJIXQE3QVFemhDE1ZxENhPixTKWG-z4hvWfzv2Jg93J34nX2aYh2xtkjsw691ikfjququMP2n9kHgvFTRlCj4GBUYpkT_8lJuoT30MtPN0Gp0iQQNeXxYafGZJ3n2tpkv7BZdsuMlXs/s1600/2012-04-28+11-46-50.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFJIXQE3QVFemhDE1ZxENhPixTKWG-z4hvWfzv2Jg93J34nX2aYh2xtkjsw691ikfjququMP2n9kHgvFTRlCj4GBUYpkT_8lJuoT30MtPN0Gp0iQQNeXxYafGZJ3n2tpkv7BZdsuMlXs/s1600/2012-04-28+11-46-50.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shylock</td></tr>
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in the production of this play and selected the scenes to be presented. However I had nothing whatever to do with the actual presentation of this work. The students were enthusiastic and clearly enjoyed themselves in performing the different roles.<br />
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We had a game show where Team Smart and Team Bright answered general knowledge questions. The quiz master, also a student, was lively and vainly did his best to generate some excitement and enthusiasm in the audience as he quizzed the contestants. Eventually Team Bright was declared the winner, a result which appeared to stun the audience into deathly silence.<br />
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Between all of these acts we either had the singing of Islamic songs of
praise or a game of "Who am I?" Students dressed as various popular figures such as The King of KSA, Yasser Arafat and Adolph Hitler and
acted the part of the characters.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMBBEH3oIHhihaB2uDFKW7GeZTqC-koCa6Q_JYJrf-zlZFWTgxi2ZtAznyvRN4Do4D323HViCYm4YXMskLybBirZZ7I7uO3QYNCP6aSi-PVM6AaUlgMeHBDRKf7SsMqD0DxUJFwXXtc0s/s1600/Hitlet(small).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMBBEH3oIHhihaB2uDFKW7GeZTqC-koCa6Q_JYJrf-zlZFWTgxi2ZtAznyvRN4Do4D323HViCYm4YXMskLybBirZZ7I7uO3QYNCP6aSi-PVM6AaUlgMeHBDRKf7SsMqD0DxUJFwXXtc0s/s1600/Hitlet(small).jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adolph Hitler (holding a microphone)</td></tr>
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Hitler strutted around the stage and proclaimed that he had started World War II, had been responsible for the death of millions, including millions of Jewish people in the holocaust.<br />
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Arafat cheerfully shared with the audience that he had dedicated<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tSRXubDWO6Q9uRn_Zg2JMA-SH7MvpG_Lml-M2uGTQl0qYr56nAehYS9X0BWnmeTd-NbvZNki2aO9JXDM4nFahblCy6QpWLAIwxQgm0Xmwx0dFmZiHH-cuqaGhmRFmUjgPRwOPWrHyWw/s1600/Arafat(small).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tSRXubDWO6Q9uRn_Zg2JMA-SH7MvpG_Lml-M2uGTQl0qYr56nAehYS9X0BWnmeTd-NbvZNki2aO9JXDM4nFahblCy6QpWLAIwxQgm0Xmwx0dFmZiHH-cuqaGhmRFmUjgPRwOPWrHyWw/s1600/Arafat(small).jpg" height="199" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Y Arafat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
his life to fighting the Jews and performing other noble acts. After they had described themselves they thundered "WHO AM I?" and the audience was required to shout out the answer.<br />
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Ironically, this was followed by a student singing "What a Wonderful World" (Louis Armstrong)!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6N2WvV9ct26Z0OO9ZLg8eDVRyYNxAruF7lcbqSt6oMmMeJD5X0y_Vyn-ztupf5hcrMcoF92TU-5nFeOJTbSxh_qzeLDUPQLtC7iqa2QwV5RzywW2sunQcKkbb9mdDw0Cxgc69vEbnn8/s1600/IMG_0938+(2014_04_26%2B08_50_50%2BUTC).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6N2WvV9ct26Z0OO9ZLg8eDVRyYNxAruF7lcbqSt6oMmMeJD5X0y_Vyn-ztupf5hcrMcoF92TU-5nFeOJTbSxh_qzeLDUPQLtC7iqa2QwV5RzywW2sunQcKkbb9mdDw0Cxgc69vEbnn8/s1600/IMG_0938+(2014_04_26%2B08_50_50%2BUTC).JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had a small part in the festivities facilitating a debate<br />on the importance of English</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Music is not allowed in KSA so he sang without the benefit of any musical accompaniment. In the circumstances he did very well.<br />
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Events were concluded with the awarding of diplomas for outstanding students by the Dean of the university and the honouring of the top act. This turned out to be one of the choirs who sang an Islamic song of peace.<br />
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May the sentiments of the songs that were sung during the course of the event, peace, love, understanding and tolerance find fertile soil amongst the future leaders of this country.Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-37771165940374232752012-04-26T03:11:00.001-07:002015-02-06T22:24:24.738-08:00My Flat-Mates<br />
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In the time that I have been here I have associated mainly
with western teachers; South Africans,
British and Americans mostly. About half of these are determinedly pessimistic and are usually unhappy about something or other, things real and things gloomily foreseen. Just ten minutes ago I was chatting to one of my flat-mates; a few
days ago he was complaining that decisions take forever "in this
place". This morning he was complaining that decisions "in this place" are made on the spur of the
moment ("in this place" is a much used phrase amongst the westerners.)
He also tends to talk in italics: "Why did no one<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">tell me</span>? </i>I never <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">knew</span> </i>that<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">" </i>(he seems permanently bewildered);<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>"When I got there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">nobody was there</span>!".</i></div>
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He had a rather traumatic introduction to Al Baha. He was
conducted to our flat by the caretaker of the building, Barakaat, and
accompanied by my other flat-mate, Timothy. Timothy felt that the newcomer
would be better off in another flat. Accordingly, he slipped into the flat
ahead of the other two and locked the door in their faces to prevent them from entering while
he phoned our manager to try to change the sharing arrangements. Barakaat
wasn't having any of it and proceeded to kick the door to gain access. Timothy
was unfazed by this and continued with his phone conversation. Eventually
Barakaat kicked the door down and our new (traumatized) flatmate was duly
installed.</div>
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However, that was not the end of induction day. Another
colleague later came to visit us and in the course of the conversation he
testified that Al-Jazeera management were a bunch of thugs and crooks that cared
nothing for us teachers. They cheated, lied and broke promises as a matter of
course. The contract he had signed meant nothing because foreigners have no rights in KSA. Finally,
Baha is the arsehole of the world with no opportunities for recreation or fun -
it is a desolate and miserable place and will inevitably lead to thoughts of
suicide.</div>
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This then was our new flatmates first day in a foreign and
strange (very strange) country. Little wonder that the whites of his eyes were
clearly visible and that he wore an expression of disbelief and horror. He
asserted that there was no way he would part with his passport and that at the first opportunity he would get a local sim card for his phone so
that he could contact his embassy to send in the marines to rescue him if necessary. He wasn't
joking when he said this.</div>
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His predecessor in our three-bedroomed flat was an English gentleman
whom I nicknamed "Pigpen". We always could tell what Pigpen had been
cooking as bits of his last two or three meals were always in evidence on the
stove, on the floor and in the sink. We would look at his dirty dishes every
day with morbid interest for the first signs on putrification. Fortunately he
only showered every two weeks or so, so at least the bathroom stayed clean. </div>
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On occasion I would ask him to please clean up after
himself. I would also leave notes for him and I printed large notices which I
stuck up around the place, all urging him to clean up his act. All in vain. When confronted he would run his tongue around the
inside of his cheeks (which reminded me of a cat moving under a blanket) and gesture with jerky and random movements
of his arms. The most frightening thing I have heard was when Pigpen told me that in his last
accommodation he had been the one who was always nagging the others to be less
slovenly!!</div>
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The accommodation itself is more than adequate. There is an
entrance hall which leads into a lounge with air-con, couches, table and a TV.
The kitchen has a gas stove and fridge and sufficient cupboards. It always has
a faint smell of meals past. Continuing
down the passage you get the odor of stale tobacco smoke from the first bedroom
and further down the more pleasing (to me) smell of incense which I burn daily. At the end
of the passage is the bathroom with a rudimentary shower, two toilets (one
western, one squat) and a twin-tub washing machine. My shirts are terrified of
this machine - after being washed they always have their arms wrapped tightly
around each other and can only be separated with difficulty.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The local Saudi companies like Al Jazeera have to pay over the odds to tempt westerners to come and live in what is not
only a foreign environment, it is actually an alien and rather grim environment. Once here some become overly critical and quickly
forget how grateful they were to be offered the job in the first place. They instead choose to ridicule our
hosts and their (admittedly strange) customs which effectively outlaws any
activity that can be seen as fun. There's no going for a beer with your colleagues on the weekend, no social events, no opportunity to associate with any of the fairer <ahem> sex, no parks to relax or walk in, no music.... The few social amenities are reserved for families only. Entertainment and diversion for the unmarried is pretty much limited to internet and shopping malls (on non-family-only days). Working and living in KSA is, to say the least, a unique experience.</div>
Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-6153138429491193092012-03-30T00:23:00.003-07:002012-03-30T07:46:21.958-07:00A Quick Visit Home<div class="MsoNormal">Three of us left the University for Baha airport around midday; I was bound for SA, one colleague for USA and the other for Qatar. My flight was at 1700 so it was quite a long wait before I got going on the first leg of my trip which was to Riyadh. We got to Riyadh about 1830 and took a leisurely stroll from domestic arrivals to international departures. Leisurely because my connecting flight was only leaving at 0430. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When I went to check in I was told that I couldn't check in before 0100, so that meant I had 6 hours to kill. I also couldn't enter the transit lounge and there was no waiting area for passengers who were waiting to check in. We (Alan and I) ended up in a small coffee shop and had to pay SR10/hour to sit in the "TV lounge". The TV lounge was a two-seater couch and two armchairs in a semi-circle around the TV and about 2 meters from it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While we were there a football match was being broadcast - KSA vs Iraq. I wasn't particularly interested, but most of airport security were enthusiastic fans and were gathered around the TV. Some had brought their own chairs and there was lots of excited chatter and cheering. An unexpected window of opportunity for smugglers and other baddies!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Eventually one 'o clock came around and I drifted back to the check-in counters. I was disheartened to see that the queue waiting to pass through security had grown from zero to about 100 passengers while I was languishing in the TV lounge sipping Pepsi. While I was gazing despondently at the crawling queue a Pakistani gentleman offered (for a small consideration) to help me. He grabbed my bags, forced them onto the conveyer and then pushed me through the metal detector. Total time taken: about 1 minute. Of course if I had been in the queue and seen someone else pushing through like that I would have been seriously pissed off, but since I was the one benefitting...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In due course I boarded my Ethiopian Air flight. As I was making my way down the aisle a hostess asked me if I would mind sitting by the emergency exit since I spoke English. In case of emergency I would be asked (in English) to open the exit and see the other passengers safely off the potentially blazing and toxic-smoke filled aircraft. I was OK with that but I was a bit alarmed at how easily the door could be opened in flight. For all she knew I might have been flying to get my regular ECT treatment to alleviate my suicidal depression and irrational behavior! I considered telling her that I would only open the emergency exit if the voices told me to do so just to see how she'd respond, but I resisted the temptation.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My thoughts were interrupted by a commotion on the opposite side of the cabin. The same hostess was stridently explaining to three Arab gentlemen that they would have to move from the emergency exit because they could not speak or understand English. Since she was doing the explaining in English, she was not enjoying much success in getting her point across. Her frustration made her all the shriller and she declaimed loudly that the safety of the entire aircraft and the hundreds of passengers depended on these three gentlemen vacating their booked seats. Eventually someone translated and they sulkily found other seats while replacement, English speaking passengers took their place.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Once we were airborne and the set-belt light was turned off, a large Arab gentleman required these three passengers to vacate their seats. It turned out he wanted to pray and needed space to bow and prostrate himself. I watched this with some alarm; I know we tend to stereotype, but when you are on an international flight and you see an Arab praying and prostrating himself, potentially making peace with his maker, one does feel a certain amount of unease.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A bit later breakfast was served. This was a warm, grayish-brown sticky paste and a few thinly sliced pieces of potato. All the potato slices were stuck to each together and the bottom one was stuck to the container. Trying to prise them loose with my springy, plastic knife resulted in me almost flicking the entire potato cluster-bomb across the cabin to where the three original passengers had reclaimed their seats.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We landed at OR Tambo on time and I quickly passed through immigrations and customs. I always feel a bit uneasy when the drug-sniffing Bassets are around my luggage or the customs officials give me the evil eye as I pass them in the "nothing to declare" line. I know I'm innocent but what if the dogs pay me too much attention? I always say things like "what a clever boy" (to the dog, not the handler) to try to establish cordial relations with the sniffer.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I passed into the arrivals hall and was a bit deflated to see nobody was there to meet and greet. I drifted around grumpily for a while and finally sat in a quiet corner. There I tried different sims from different service providers in different phones to try and find a winning combination so that I could ascertain whether I was, in fact, expected by my loved ones. It turned out that I was expected and an hour later I was on my way and all was well.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I only had five days in Johannesburg and I didn't see all the people I wanted to see, meet all the people I wanted to meet or go to all the places I wanted to go. Nonetheless I had a magic visit where I got to see green plants, trees and grass, had a cat sleep with me, spoke to women AND saw their faces. I went to pubs and ate in restaurants. I had a Wimpy breakfast with pork sausages and bacon. I could drive my car and go wherever I wanted. It was refreshing to be back in a "normal" society. And it was wonderful to spend time with my loved ones.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All too soon I was back at OR Tambo again. Saying goodbye at the airport is always a heart-wrenching business, but this time we managed it without tears (or very nearly). I was once again appointed the guardian of the emergency exit, along with a lady who was going to Riyadh to teach English in a ladies university. Soon after we were airborne (Ethiopian Air again), the captain came on the intercom and made a lengthy announcement in Arabic. Then he switched to almost inaudible and incomprehensible English. All I could make out was "Lusaka" and "technical issues". Apparently a flight from Lusaka to Riyadh had been scrapped and we were on our way to pick up the stranded passengers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We parked a good distance from the terminal building at Lusaka Airport. The aircraft doors were not opened. No new passengers came on board. No baggage carts appeared and no additional baggage was loaded. Then the captain asked us to switch off all electrical equipment as we were refueling! Based on the evidence, I surmised that they had forgotten to fill up before we left (or maybe fuel is cheaper in Lusaka) and we had been in danger of ruuning out. One of the hostesses told an American lady I spoke with that we had landed to change a tyre?? WTF? There's an Afrikaans saying that summed up my feelings: "Ek ken modder en ek ken kak, en hierdie is nie modder nie". After they finished doing whatever it was that they were doing we took off again with no explanation. The lost time meant we had to sprint for our connection in Addis Ababa. We got to Riyadh at 0230 where I waited till 0730 to fly back to Baha.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Eight days later I'm back "home" with a stock of South African groceries: chutney, Simba peanuts, Cadbury Chocolates, Knorr stock cubes and various other bits and pieces. And most of all, lovely memories fresh in my mind.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-72354291107343643892012-01-01T06:51:00.000-08:002012-05-03T00:47:43.064-07:00Internet in KSA<br />
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<u><b><span style="font-size: small;">KSA - Internet </span></b></u><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">As I mentioned in my <a href="http://gregory-peru.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Peruvian blog</a> last year, the internet
is very important to me while I am away from home. It is my only link with home,
family and friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Internet access is provided by Al Jazeera in our
accommodation block. The downstairs area has been designated the recreation
area with plastic garden furniture, a table-tennis table and a pool table. It
is a cavernous room with large pillars which support the building. Running down
some of these pillars are all the toilet pipes from the dwellings above. When upstairs toilets are flushed, one can hear the merry gurgling of water, soggy toilet paper and waste
matter rushing by on its way to the underground septic tank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The recreation area is a non-smoking area and as such there
are no ashtrays. This does not deter the smokers (99% of the teachers) in the
least. A variety of containers have been pressed into service as ashtrays; bottles,
cold-drink cans and various lids are filled to overflowing with cigarette butts
with a tasteful sprinkling of butts and ash on the carpet. The area has no
ventilation or windows and consequently smells permanently of stale tobacco smoke
and stale farts. The couple of waste-paper baskets are also filled to overflowing
and there is an interesting variety of litter spread across the floor; paper, plastic
bottles, bottle tops, cans, wrappers and plastic bags filled with miscellaneous
crap and the ghost of meals past. Various unidentifiable liquids have stained
the carpet with Rorschach-like patterns. One wonders about the home environment
and upbringing of some of our colleagues!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This then was where I initially accessed the internet when I got to Al-Baha. Several
of my colleagues had their own Wi-Fi routers from STC (Saudi Telecommunications)
which gave them internet access in their rooms. This clearly was the way to go.
The only problem was that to purchase an STC router one needed an iqama, the Saudi
ID and work-permit, which I had not yet received. I spoke to my next-door
neighbor and asked him if I could share his router until I was able to get my
own. He agreed and I had reasonable internet access in my room, although the
signal from his wireless router was somewhat attenuated by the several walls in
between. Also, if he went to bed before me that was the end of my internet for
the night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I then went to STC to get a sim card for my BB (Blackberry) and
to get my BB service activated. An iqama was needed for this too, but a
colleague kindly used his iqama to get me up and running. There are some
problems with BB in KSA; the Facebook app does not work here, neither does
Twitter, AppWorld and various other downloaded applications. HTML emails are
displayed as text which means you have to sift through several pages of text to
find the body of your message. However, apart from these caveats it (BBM and
internet) worked reasonably well, and since I was on a prepaid plan they simply
docked my airtime balance each month to fund my BB service.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In due course I got my iqama and immediately went to STC to
get my router. When I got home I discovered that my apartment did not receive a
very good 3G signal – I could only pick up an EDGE network which is dead slow.
However, I persevered and eventually found a location where I got HSPA+ (fast) and
I happily surfed with my own router.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I did, however, experience huge differences in network speed
from day to day; some weeks I had really fast access where I could download a
1gig movie in 15 minutes, and then for several days I would be stuck with effectively
no internet access. Each time this happened I could be seen wandering around
morosely with my router in hand trying to find the magic <ahem> 3G-spot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In December I decided I would buy myself an iPhone 4s for
Christmas. As part of the package I was given 250meg of data per month for 6
months. I figured that would be more than enough. The reality was that I had
used my month’s allocation within 3 days! So I returned to STC with a view to
purchasing more bandwidth. In this I was totally unsuccessful and the only
winner was the language barrier. The consultant I spoke to (the only one with
any English) eventually told me to buy SR200 of airtime which would, he said,
give me 5 gig of bandwidth. In retrospect, I suspect he told me this just to
make me go away. Using airtime for data is undoubtedly the most expensive was
to access the internet; I was paying about SR1.80 per meg of data and 24 hours
later my SR200 was gone (SR 1.00 = ZAR 2.00)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This last weekend we went to Tief (a large town a couple of
hundred kilometers from here) and when I spotted an STC office I decided to pop
in and get some advice from another consultant. This worthy told me that I
could buy 1 gig bandwidth for SR100 – all I needed to do was to top up my balance to fund
the data purchase and come back to him so that he could activate the service.
By the time I got back with my airtime voucher (they don’t sell air-time at
STC, you need to go to a café or supermarket) they had closed for prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">After
prayer I went in and we tapped in the voucher code. When the SR100 did not
reflect on his computer screen, the consultant (Abdullah) concluded that the
money had gone towards funding my BB service. Although I assured him that my BB
balance was enough to cover this month’s subscription he insisted that I would
need to buy another SR100 for my iPhone. This I did and after entering the
code, he found to his consternation that my balance still hadn’t been updated
on his computer, although my phone now showed a balance of SR225. He drifted
around the store seeking advice from the other consultants who were apparently
just as baffled (or who were simply disinterested) as he was. At this point he
conceded defeat and said that he would consult with his manager after the
weekend and get back to me. Much to my surprise Abdullah has not to date
contacted me, and the saga continues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In the meanwhile I am being viewed with great suspicion by
some of my online contacts who are muttering darkly and hinting that I am
avoiding them when they are online. Hah! My wish for them is to have STC as a
service provider and to deal with a non-English speaking Arabic consultant, instead
of Vodacom or Telkom. Then again, tis the season of goodwill so I wouldn’t
really wish that on them. Ho-ho-ho…</span></div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-89795700970580570322011-11-17T09:42:00.001-08:002012-01-01T07:00:50.323-08:00KSA - The First Month<br />
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Teaching at Bahah University initially was chaotic – it was
quite common for two (or more) teachers to arrive at a lecture room and have no
students, or to be assigned to a room that was already in use. The students
call us “doctor” – this is how they translate “teacher”. I rather enjoy being
Dr. Gregory! The students face a daunting task in learning English; apart from
the grammar and spelling, they also have to learn an alien alphabet and learn
to write from left to right. Many of them cannot write their own names in
English and in general their handwriting resembles a 7 year-olds in the west.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Things have, however, improved and we are now much more
organized. There is however some resentment between the various nationalities
regarding pay and perquisites. At the
top of the food chain are the westerners. Then come the Egyptians/Syrians/Jordanians etc. who earn half
of what we earn. They are disliked by Al
Jazeera as being trouble makers and lazy. Then come the Filipinos who earn
about half of what the Egyptians earn and have even fewer privileges but hold
responsible administrative positions.</div>
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</div>
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Al Jazeera is also big on paperwork and admin. There are
always reports to be written, forms to be completed, papers to be filed… The type
of criteria that teachers are evaluated against are: dress, neatness, reports
submitted on time, all paperwork completed, all filing up to date, signing in
and out on time, relationship with supervisor, relationship with supervisor’s
boss… the quality of the teaching seems to be largely overlooked in their zeal
to generate documents.</div>
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Warning letters are also issued at the drop of a hat and can
entail a fine by means of a salary deduction. You can get a warning for going
to the wrong room (no matter that your schedule says), speaking to university
staff or breaking any one of dozens of rules of which you have no knowledge. So
far, I have navigated this minefield safely! Having said that, the work is not
difficult, the students are reasonably well behaved and the salary and
perquisites are good.</div>
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One of the points of travelling to other lands is to experience
different customs and KSA certainly offers many opportunites to experience these differences. It is quite usual to have to vacate a supermarket or other shop at
prayer times. You leave your trolley right there and go outside for
half-an-hour or so till prayers are over. I have frequently been locked in
restaurants during prayer time. The owner lowers the blinds and dims the lights
so the Mutawa can't see in and evict the patrons while prayers are in progress (5 times a day); you are required to abandon
your meal / shopping /work / teaching until after the faithful have
concluded their discussions (broadcast loudly over external loadspeakers) with the Almighty.</div>
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Contact between the sexes is strictly prohibited. An
unmarried couple meeting in a coffee shop could be arrested by the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice</i> (Religious Police) if seen. Pleasure spots (!) are mostly
for family use only and off-limits to singles. Fun fairs and such are for
family only. Most malls have family days
when singles are barred from entering. Apartment blocks are segregated. Bank
branches are segregated – there are even ATMs reserved for women only; if your bank
card identifies you as a male the ATM won’t dispense any cash. No wonder the
Saudi divorce rate is around 70% - when a couple get married they don’t have
the foggiest idea of what to do with this alien being with whom they now cohabit. </div>
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And while no effort is spared to keep the boys and girls apart, it seems that,
despite being an offense for which you can be beheaded, homosexuality is
widespread and (unofficially) tolerated. And if a homosexual couple is bust, only the
“receiving” male is considered homosexual - the "dispensing" (?) male
is deemed to have been led astray. Despite all of this, I am told that
prostitutes, male and female are readily available in larger cities if you have the right
contacts.</div>
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One of the ways to discourage the boys from panting after
the ladies is to require all females to wear the black and voluminous <i>abaya </i>to conceal their figures and a <i>hijab</i> to cover their hair and faces from the bridge of
their noses to their necks, leaving a thin slit from which
their eyes peer. Lest even the sight of female eyes inflame the lusty Arab lads
beyond endurance, many ladies wear an additional veil that covers even their
eyes and black gloves so that not the tiniest speck of female flesh is visible.
The only titillation available is to try to imaging them wearing the most
outrageous and wildly erotic underwear underneath those acres of black cloth! </div>
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In the
larger cities like Jeddah attitudes are much more liberal. One even hears music
in the malls that are owned by the princes since the mutawa are banned from these
(music is considered <i>haram</i> - against the laws of Islam, which basically
covers anything that may be seen as fun. This includes bells (ding-dong bells,
not the Whiskey), drinking, smoking, movies, dancing, flirting, singing…)</div>
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Since alcohol is illegal in KSA there are no pubs and no
going for a beer after work or on the weekend. I have been offered a bottle of
vodka for the equivalent of R1500. Considering the exorbitant price and the
potential 200 lashes if caught, I have resisted the urge. I understand that some ex-pats brew a rather horrible
homemade wine from fruit juice, sugar and yeast. And to be found in
possession of narcotics will lose you your head (I believe about 70 heads have
rolled so far this year in chop-chop square.) </div>
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<br /></div>
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The authorities are cognizant of the fact that this
lifestyle is very alien to most westerners (and indeed, human beings in general!)
and that since they require certain western skills here, they have made
concessions. These are in the form of “compounds”, which are fortified villages
for westerners. Saudis are strictly prohibited from these dens of decadence. In
the compounds a western lifestyle prevails – normal dress, pubs, shops, males consorting with females (!!)… in short, a western oasis. Most people who inhabit the
compounds are sponsored by companies as they tend to be expensive – around 6000
riyal per month for a studio apartment.</div>
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Some cities are more liberal than others - Jeddah, for
instance, is considered to be probably the most liberal city in KSA. When I was
there I found the malls to be lively and "vibey" with many women
having uncovered (and expertly made up) faces. There was a Yemeni
"band" performing at one of the malls while I was there one evening and the young girls, faces
uncovered, were cheering and shouting and swaying like young girls anywhere in
the world. I found this encouraging - it confirmed to me that you cannot legislate
against human nature. I suspect that there are going to be large scale changes
in KSA within the next 10 - 15 years. Who knows, maybe women will even be
allowed to drive cars!!</div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076309814215948587.post-42730786861518545332011-10-07T06:52:00.000-07:002012-05-03T00:47:17.483-07:00Arriving in Saudi Arabia<div class="MsoNormal">
The plane was a bit late in landing at Riyadh. At immigration control I stood in a queue of about 50 people for about an hour with absolutely no movement. Then a military type in a colonel’s uniform who had been strutting around the entrance hall all night barking instructions waved me to a much shorter queue. The immigration control is by far the most slapgat I have seen. The officials slouch in their chairs sleepily, then wander off to go chat with their buddies in the next cubicle, let their cigarette smoke drift into your face and very obviously discuss you in Arabic with their buddies. </div>
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I got out of the airport at about 4am and was met by Mohammed (there are many Mohammeds here) who took me to my accommodation. It had 4 bedrooms, 3 of which had 2 beds. On a few of the beds there was a sheet & pillow slip set – 1 sheet and 1 pillow slip. The sheet was about the same length as the mattress so tucking it in was out of the question. Also, the edges weren’t hemmed so they were unraveling. Both bathrooms and toilets were encrusted with dirt, as was the kitchen. The rubbish bin in the kitchen I threw out with the rubbish as it stank like week-old road kill.</div>
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The next day Mohammed took me shopping – luckily it was a “singles” day so we were permitted into the mall to do shopping. "Hyper Panda" in Riyadh is very large and modern and you can get about anything there. On “family” days no singles are admitted to the malls. The temperature in Riyadh is about 40 during the day dropping right down to about 30 at night. Happily aircons abound, including one in each bedroom.</div>
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The school is an impressive building – very modern and clean. The academy itself is very bound by rules and everybody is called “mister” – Mr Gregory, Mr Mohammed, Mr Achmed… The whiteboards in the lecture rooms are smartboards – electronic and computer controlled. The different coloured pens are actually dummies and you can even write with your finger if you like. You can also scroll up & down, save sheets and recall them, and the textbooks are also on the computer. Very impressive.</div>
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Everyday at 12pm and 6pm is prayer time. The devout gather in the lobby and face Mecca and the prayers are piped through the PA system for about 20 minutes. All the shops and malls also close for the duration of prayer time.</div>
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The first few days I had a couple of “remedial” classes to teach - these are students who missed classes and need to catch up. Then on Monday evening at about 20h30 Mr Ayman told me that I would be flying to Al Bahah in the morning and the driver would pick me up at 5h30. Also, 4 other guys would be sleeping at my place that night and flying with me in the morning. I stayed awake till 12am and when no one had arrived I went to sleep. Just after 1 I got a phone call – the first guy was waiting outside. I helped him carry his stuff up 2 flights of stairs and after half an hour went back to sleep. An hour later the next traveler arrived (these are all Egyptian English teachers and had travelled about 500km in a cab to get to Riyadh). </div>
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When my alarm went off at 5 I wasn’t feeling too chirpy. Anyway, we got to the airport and after some discussions with airport officials regarding baggage weight we took off for Al Baha. Al Baha airport is small – 1 runway and the plane has to make a U-turn to get to the terminal.</div>
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We were picked up and taken to the university, which is very large, with lots of construction going on and in the middle of nowhere. We were introduced to herds of people and then left to our own devices for the better part of an hour. Then Mr Reda told us that he wanted us to start teaching immediately. This was not a popular idea with us. We were all dressed in casual clothes, needed a shower and were knackered from lack of sleep. He kept on at us and I asked him if he’d like me to unpack my suitcase is the sandy parking lot to find my suit and wrinkled shirts. Eventually he gave up and sent us home.</div>
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Home is like a double block of flats – one block for married couples and the other for singles. I share with an American (Tim) who is health conscious and very into cleanliness (for which I am grateful - the place was spotless). The other is Sam, a young English guy. The flat has an entrance hall, lounge with flat screen TV and couches and chairs, kitchen with a gas cooker and fridge and there is also a washing machine. My room also has a “sun room” which eventually I intend to make “nice”.</div>
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The shower head is broken and Sam had rigged something with a wire hanger. The first time I showered the whole thing fell down which distressed Sam when he went to shower the next morning. Also, the toilet leaks if you don’t close the tap and the remains of a previous explosive movement seemed to be embedded in the porcelain. So yesterday I used a brand new hanger and made a more stable arrangement for the shower (I also put in a request to get it fixed), fixed the toilet and bought a toilet brush to clean the toilet.</div>
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We are also over the road from a mosque and just before 5 in the morning the first call to prayer rattles the windows. This is followed up with further mournful chanting at about 5h20 for a further 20 minutes. No danger of oversleeping here…</div>
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Downstairs we have a large recreational area with Wi-Fi, a pool table and a table tennis table. All that's missing is the fridge stocked with Amstels.</div>
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The university (men only) is about an hour away from our accommodation and a bus collects us at about 6h30 and brings us back again about 17h00. There are about 100 TEFL teachers on contract at the university and they are recruiting more. There is a very large contingent of Egyptian teachers. A bus is also available to take us into town (about 10km away) for shopping twice a week… singles and families on different days obviously.</div>
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The first day was chaos. Nobody knew what classes they were teaching, no teacher’s guides available, students wandering around aimlessly… I was told to go to lecture room 2123 and start teaching. When I asked for copies of the relevant books, what level the students were at, pens for the whiteboard and directions to the lecture room I was told to just go there and start teaching! So after wandering around for 15 minutes I found the lecture room and my students and gave a class. There was no white board to write on as the room was equipped with a smart board which was not yet functional. So instead I had to write stuff on sheets of paper and hold them up for the students to see. Loads of fun. I believe the smartboards will soon be functional. I can’t wait - I can’t teach without a board!</div>
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Anyway the next day I was given my office and tomorrow I get given a laptop – for school and personal use!</div>
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There’s a few South Africans here –a good bunch of guys. It’s nice to have compatriots to talk to. There are places worth visiting around here but transport is a challenge at the moment – unlike Chachapoyas nothing is in walking distance here, but I will sort something out. We are in a “mountainous” area (Peruvians would laugh at that description) and there are forests and mountain passes that are worth a visit. </div>
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We will get to them.</div>Gregoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453194539277401540noreply@blogger.com2