I Will Survive!

Sorry for the late entry. It was a tough weekend. I should say it ended rough. It started out great! Our work & school week here, as in all of the middle east, is from Sunday-Thursday. We’re off on Friday & Saturday. Friday here is like our Sunday. Most places are closed. It’s a day of prayer. It was tough adjusting to this schedule, but we’re pretty much used to it now. Going to church on Friday is still a little weird to me. Anyhow, on Saturday we decided to head out to run some errands and cash my paycheck. I am paid by check in Bahraini Dinars. I was told I could go to the bank where the check was drawn and they would cash it for me. I then would take the Bahraini Dinars, convert them into American dollars and deposit the money into our account on Base at the credit union. A few extra steps than I’m used to, but no big deal……so I thought.

We arrived at the bank at about 12:35ish. Parking was horrible, but nothing out of the ordinary for here. We decided that I would run in and cash the check & Scott would wait for me in the car once he was able to park. Should’ve been quick, right?! Well, I walked into what looked like the DMV but with horrible body odor smell filling the air. People were sitting in auditorium like seating, others were standing around in clusters and there were about 10 number screens, like those at a butcher’s counter, all over the place. I had no idea what to do. Hundreds of people all around me. People asleep on chairs. Women clutching their heart or forehead. Very dramatic! I stepped outside to make sure I was at the bank. Sure enough, I was. I approached a friendly looking man who was standing in a cluster of people in the vicinity of what were the teller’s windows. I asked him if he was in line for a teller. He looked at me like I was nuts. I explained that this was my first time here & I did not know what to do or where to go. He kind of waved his hand in a certain direction and told me to get a number. I went to where he waved and sure enough there were people pushing to get to this machine. There is no such thing as a line let alone an orderly “line” here. I pushed my way to the front, finally, and there was the machine. I had no idea what to push on it. There were 3 options. I pushed them all and got 3 tickets with 3 completely out of sequence numbers. I went back to my new buddy and asked him what to do now. He told me to look at the number screens and wait for my number. After watching for a while I finally figured out what was going on. One ticket was for customer service, one was for accounts, and one was for a teller. OK. Now I just had to wait my turn.

I was number 623 and they were on number 572. I called Scott in the parking lot and explained what was going on. We decided to wait and see if the numbers moved quickly. They were moving. Not as quickly as I would have liked, but they were moving. The main distraction slowing the numbers down was the ridiculous amount of people that would walk up to the tellers (all male by the way) and in the middle of a transaction with another customer, shake their hand, ask how the family is doing, share pictures of their kids that were stored on their cell phone. Social hour while a couple hundred people were waiting! I really felt like walking up to a teller at one point and saying, “Come on…..move it!!!!” I didn’t. I’m doing my best to remember that I am a visitor here. Anyhow, the numbers were moving and then suddenly 3 of the 5 tellers disappeared. Then they all disappeared. For about 5-minutes no one was helping anyone. We were just stuck. I have now been waiting close to an hour to cash my miniscule paycheck. But at this point, I was not turning back. My back was killing me from standing around. Not one man offered his seat to any woman. On top of it all, I was the only non Bahraini, Indian or Pakistani person in there. I stood out like a sore thumb. Finally, I went up to a security guard to find out what the heck was going on! He told me, “Shift change.” Shift change? In a bank? I was a teller for years while in college. There was always at least 1 window opened to serve the customers. About 5-minutes later, 3 different men came out with metal boxes. They went to their windows and started hand counting all their money. I thought I would die. I would not leave! My lower back was killing me, but I was 10 numbers away from my turn. Again, men were going up to these guys and socializing with them as they were trying to get set up. I have never seen such a thing. My bank manager would poke us in the back with a pencil as he walked by if we were not moving the line quickly enough or if we were chatting too much with the customers (a hobby of mine).

Finally, it was my turn. It took what seemed like 10-minutes to change from 622 to 623! I ran up to the window. The man made no eye contact with me. Did not greet me. Nothing. I handed him my paycheck & ID. He did what he needed to do with it. Had me sign it & put my phone number on it and gave me my cash. That was it. After all that waiting, it ended so quickly. I was exhausted. I really felt as if I had just worked out…..a hard workout! I was pooped. I hobbled back to the car and we were off. The idea of doing this every month….it’s a killer!!!!!

We went to a mega market called, Geant to buy food & household stuff. You can pretty much find everything there. Right when we got there I had to get Starbucks coffee and a piece of dark chocolate. I had to calm my nerves. We went in. Scott & I separated because I do not have the patience to wait around while he looks for stuff. He reads EVERYTHING! I can’t deal with that. So, we usually separate & find each other later. As soon as we separated, the Admiral’s wife comes up to me and starts talking my ear off. I stood, again, in the same spot for about 30-minutes! Worst of all, she talked me into joining this committee that meets Wednesday nights. I could not say no….not to the Admiral’s wife!

I needed to just get home & collapse. Scott took care of dinner. Benny was so happy to have us back home. We left him for quite a long time. Poor guy!

We are all fine here. Work's good......some funny stories to share next week. It's been freezing over here as we see it is in most of the world. Global warming? Uh-uh!