I bet some of you thought, “Wow! What an independent (and crazy) woman Julie is to be moving off to the Middle East by herself.” I know I thought that – probably even a bit too arrogantly. But since I arrived here I have felt anything but independent – really.
I am continually shocked at how many different people I need to rely on to get anything done here. At times it’s maddening. I just want to do whatever it is by myself and get it over with – but I can’t. I honestly can’t do everything I need and want to do alone. And that is really hard for me to admit and accept. It is something that I struggle with daily here. I try to see it as a growth experience, and clearly one I need to learn because it just keeps coming up. But I will honestly admit I’m an impatient student at times.
A really good example of this came up when I was planning for a long weekend away. I just wanted to get out of the city and see something new. It started with talking with my Arabic speaking coworker, who then volunteered to call her travel agent friend to get me the best hotel deal on this holiday weekend. It took about 3-4 calls between the two and in turn the hotel of their choice to get me an $80/night room for $45.
I then had to call a friendly driver I know and ask him to go to the train station and buy me a train ticket and to arrange to pick me up the morning of my departure. Train tickets must be purchased in advance in person at the train station, only. It’s much easier to hire someone who knows what their doing and where they are going then to get a taxi there and back myself.
I then had to arrange for another taxi to take me to the above mentioned travel agent to pick up the hotel “voucher.” The voucher is this handwritten piece of paper that says I have paid the travel agent the agreed upon price and guarantees me a room when I arrive at the hotel. These vouchers are required. VERY few hotels accept online reservation; and everyone prefers cash.
Since I was dealing with a new taxi driver with limited English and my Arabic is still lacking, I then had to enlist a neighbor to translate and help direct the driver to a location where I had never been before. And just for good measure the helpful apartment building security guard looked on and chimed in as he saw fit regarding directions - in Arabic-only of course.
At the travel agency there were two men both named Mohamed awaiting my arrival – late of course. Believe it or not I haven’t been on time for anything since I got here which is SO unlike me. But the Egyptian time warp story is for another day. So these two businessmen could not complete one task without the other - it was a little like Laurel and Hardy. “Pass me the phone, no the other phone that is actually closer to me then you. I can’t find the number dial this number for me. I have a pen but where is the voucher receipts?” It was weird. They of course called back the hotel again to finalize everything. They gave me a story about, “Oh you’re late. Not sure we can guarantee that same rate anymore, blah, blah, blah.” They did.
I count 8 people and I still haven’t gone anywhere yet!
It's exhausting. Oh, and I can’t forget the call to the coworker’s family who lives in this new location who will be my “tour guide” upon arrival. That’s 9!
Admittedly, and thankfully not all outings are this complex but this is a pretty typical experience.
I am truly grateful for all those that help me every day. Really I am. I could not get things done without them. And some of these helpers have become good friends, likeShaimaa and Hamdy (who you’ve heard a lot about).
I am continually shocked at how many different people I need to rely on to get anything done here. At times it’s maddening. I just want to do whatever it is by myself and get it over with – but I can’t. I honestly can’t do everything I need and want to do alone. And that is really hard for me to admit and accept. It is something that I struggle with daily here. I try to see it as a growth experience, and clearly one I need to learn because it just keeps coming up. But I will honestly admit I’m an impatient student at times.
A really good example of this came up when I was planning for a long weekend away. I just wanted to get out of the city and see something new. It started with talking with my Arabic speaking coworker, who then volunteered to call her travel agent friend to get me the best hotel deal on this holiday weekend. It took about 3-4 calls between the two and in turn the hotel of their choice to get me an $80/night room for $45.
I then had to call a friendly driver I know and ask him to go to the train station and buy me a train ticket and to arrange to pick me up the morning of my departure. Train tickets must be purchased in advance in person at the train station, only. It’s much easier to hire someone who knows what their doing and where they are going then to get a taxi there and back myself.
I then had to arrange for another taxi to take me to the above mentioned travel agent to pick up the hotel “voucher.” The voucher is this handwritten piece of paper that says I have paid the travel agent the agreed upon price and guarantees me a room when I arrive at the hotel. These vouchers are required. VERY few hotels accept online reservation; and everyone prefers cash.
Since I was dealing with a new taxi driver with limited English and my Arabic is still lacking, I then had to enlist a neighbor to translate and help direct the driver to a location where I had never been before. And just for good measure the helpful apartment building security guard looked on and chimed in as he saw fit regarding directions - in Arabic-only of course.
At the travel agency there were two men both named Mohamed awaiting my arrival – late of course. Believe it or not I haven’t been on time for anything since I got here which is SO unlike me. But the Egyptian time warp story is for another day. So these two businessmen could not complete one task without the other - it was a little like Laurel and Hardy. “Pass me the phone, no the other phone that is actually closer to me then you. I can’t find the number dial this number for me. I have a pen but where is the voucher receipts?” It was weird. They of course called back the hotel again to finalize everything. They gave me a story about, “Oh you’re late. Not sure we can guarantee that same rate anymore, blah, blah, blah.” They did.
I count 8 people and I still haven’t gone anywhere yet!
It's exhausting. Oh, and I can’t forget the call to the coworker’s family who lives in this new location who will be my “tour guide” upon arrival. That’s 9!
Admittedly, and thankfully not all outings are this complex but this is a pretty typical experience.
I am truly grateful for all those that help me every day. Really I am. I could not get things done without them. And some of these helpers have become good friends, likeShaimaa and Hamdy (who you’ve heard a lot about).
But some days I long for the ability to just hop in my own car and just go.
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