The First Week

There are some stories that I don't want to tell anymore because they happened last week and now seem old to write about. In order to make the writing of this blog more meaningful for me, more like a creative writing opportunity rather than a report, I'll have to talk about what happened from yesterday onwards.

*** I step from the over-air conditioned school into the wet-hot air. My hands immediately start to go from cold to warm as though I were holding them in front of a fire, or maybe running them under the hot tap. It's a relief for the first 4 seconds. Then the hair at the back of neck tickles with sweat and if I don't put my hair up immediately it will be all I can think about. Discomfort is not something to which I have become accustomed. I wipe the sweat off my sunglasses and then off my face with my scarf which I am about to cover my head with, not for modesty, although that is always welcome, but to keep the sun off my face - it's 40 degrees celsius. I need to get to HR on the little busses that pass by every few minutes in the hour (no, 50 minutes) that I have before everything closes.

The room that I have been sitting in since 7:30 am (ironically) wasn't well air-conditioned, so we slowly wilted as the day progressed. My colleagues and I have been taking computer training for the last 3 or 4 days - teachers being taught, teachers staring at a computer screen in 8 hours shifts. We work in a different context now.

The hardships are unpredictable here in the university compound, and I think they are due to the fact that it's so new and systems are not yet in place.

What I've found: a good deal of redtape and hoop-jumping with paper-work set-up, keeping western business hours in the hottest time of the year in the desert, and a steep learning curve for processes that are meant to make life easier, but serve only to complicate until the tool is mastered.

So far there have not been any significant challenges with Saudi culture. Wearing an abaya is easy. In fact, inside the air-conditioned buildings it's nice because it can be chilly. Plus, looking like everyone else is important when they are all wearing the same thing. Just imagine if you were in the mall and someone walked by with no pants on! We would be shocked - and maybe someone would say something about it to them. The people I have encountered in Jeddah at The Mall of Arabia and IKEA (yes, seriously) treat me completely normally, friendly in fact. "Welcome, mum (ma'am)" they say. And as we return on the bus along the 80km strip of 6 lane highway with mad men driving 140km/h, cutting each other off from all angles, I look out at the expanse of desert (which looks like tan coloured gravel) and hope we make it back to the main gate of the university to present our ID's to security personnel without rolling the bus.

Life here is easy when you aren't trying to get something done! Too bad I can't have a stiff drink after days like this!