Saudi time

Over the past couple of weeks, I have begun to notice what I call "Saudi time".  Tasks that seem like they would only take an hour, end up taking three or four hours to complete.  The other day, we all had to go to a clinic to get a blood test and chest x-ray.  This is standard procedure for new workers in the country, and was required for our medical insurance (I finally have my insurance card!).  We were told last minute that we were going to this clinic for a blood test.  We thought we would need to give them our medical reports we had filled out prior to arriving in Saudi Arabia.  Turns out, they only needed copies of our passports - which we luckily had - and 3 passport sized photos - which we didn't have.



After getting blood drawn, which was only the second time I've had this done and the first time in a foreign country, they took chest x-rays of us.  This we were not expecting, but it was no big deal.  However, that just added to the time it took for all 11 of us to get blood work and chest x-rays done.
After this was completed, we needed to get passport photos.  Thankfully, there was a photoshop a couple doors down.  We crammed into this tiny shop while the owner took our pictures with a digital camera.  He was then going to print each of us at least three copies to give to the clinic.  Shouldn't take long to print 33 pictures from a digital camera, right?

Wrong!  We waited in the air-conditioned bus while he printed them, eyeing the bakery across the street.  Would we have enough time to sneak over there while we waited, and buy some bread?  A few of us decided to do so, and boy am I glad we did!  Each pastry or roll cost only 1 riyal, and they were hot out of the oven.  We even got free samples.  My favorite was a cinnamon and raisin filled roll that was still warm.  Yum!

Crossing the busy street (no crosswalk, mind you), we arrived back at the bus to discover that the photoshop guy had run out of photo paper for his printer.  How do you run out of photo paper when you  run a photoshop?  He ended up leaving his store to go to another store to buy more paper before he could finish our print job.  Meanwhile, we enjoyed our warm pastries, wishing we were home to enjoy our "Friday" night (our Wednesdays are the start of our weekend).  Finally, he came back with the paper and printed the rest of our photos.  During that time, a couple of girls bought fruit from a street vendor wheeling his cart down the busy street.  By that time, we were going stir crazy, and began to laugh about everything and nothing in particular.  At long last, we dropped our photos off at the medical clinic just before it closed for prayer, and headed home.  This quick stop to the clinic turned into a 4 hour ordeal consisting of lots and lots of waiting.  Sometimes, I feel like all we do here is hurry up and wait.

I have come to realize that I must expect things to take at least twice as long as they should, and if people say something will happen at 3pm, expect it to happen at 4 or 4:30pm.  This is what I have deemed "Saudi time".  I am not completely adjusted to it yet, being the prompt person that I am, but am definitely learning patience.  There is a famous saying in Arabic that sums this up nicely: "Inshallah" which literally means "God willing", but more often means "Whenever I get around to it".

Things to lift up to our Father:
* The two Arabic teachers I will be working with this year: F~ and H~ (I'm using initials for security reasons).  H~ was asking me what her name meant in English and what mine meant in English.  This sort of lead to a discussion of this B~lical characters.  I guess she had heard of them from the Assistant Principal.  She asked me who they were married to in the Book, and explained to me what the names meant in Arabic.  An interesting and totally unexpected conversation.  Lift up my relationship with the two teachers, especially H~ who seems to have a rudimentary knowledge of stories from the Book.
* Personal relationships with all of the Canadian teachers.  Everyone is a little stressed and experiencing stages of culture shock.  Ask that there will be peace and we will get along well, despite differences in personalities.
* For my spiritual growth.  I already see Him chipping away at my selfish tendencies.  Ask for humility and patience in all areas of my life.

P.S. For you teachers reading this, I have decided on a frog theme this year.  Partly because I have boys and there are lots of great ideas for frog themes in the classroom, but also that I will be reminded throughout the year what the acronym F.R.O.G. stands for: Fully Rely On G~.