Twenty-twenty

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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
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.

So now we wait for the COVID-19 chaos to play out. I somehow doubt that life will ever be "normal" again.

Transfer to Arar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus

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

Kyrenia Harbor

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

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

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

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

Both my order and
the eggs were scrambled

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adventures with STC

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.

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.

Three days later I returned to Jarir and they also would not register the card due to the lack

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

30 May 2017 - Update
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.

Two days later, filled with optimism and joie de vivre 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.

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.

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!

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

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.

So here I am, five months down the line and still trying to register and use the data card I bought last December.