Some things that have surprised me about Coo.

Some things that have surprised me about Coo.

• The small community of Westerners. There’s approx. 1 Westerner in each department within the hospital, including the administration teams where I sit. The majority (80-90% I would guess) of staff are from the Philippines.

• The management structure within the hospital. I don’t think it’s unique to the hospital environment; rather it’s a Coo or Arab style of “rubbish rolling down hill” and role titles meaning much more than education, experience or ability. Last week one of my superiors used some entirely false ‘facts’ about my workload to imply that I was lazy even though he knew exactly what I’d been working on. Some of my female colleagues told me that it was a common event from management to encourage staff to work harder. I’ll learn to not take some comments personally and I’ve been told it’s not clever to respond or question.

• 25.12 songs from a car at full-volume in the desert.

• Doo Homies who seem to believe that the louder your car horn and the further you can hang out of the car window at full-speed, the cooler you are. I hadn’t seen this fascinating group of boys until last night. It shocked me. The veiled girls in the area reportedly send their pictures (minus the veil) to the boys via Bluetooth on their mobiles.

• The weather. NO ONE, and I mean no one told me that it gets to 0 degrees Celsius during the day here during winter. Most of the girls that arrived with me didn’t even bring a long-sleeve jumper. It’s currently a very pleasant mid-high 20s most days, but apparently, it will drop dramatically within the next month. Brrr.

• The difficulty of obtaining a sick-certificate for work. If you wake up feeling too unwell to go to work, you must:
* Go to work and obtain a pink slip from your director requesting permission to visit the Employee Health Clinic (a 20min walk away).
* Go to the ‘zoo’ of the Employee Health Clinic, wait for an hour or so until they can see you.
* Obtain your sick certificate (maximum 2 days it seems).
* Return to your director with the slip, at which point you can go home to bed. The process alone would make me sick. Imagine if you were vomiting……or worse?!
One of my colleagues was very unwell the other day and a very senior exec was in a bad mood so refused to sign the pink slip!
* Yesterday I was diagnosed with pneumonia and a throat infection. The Dr looked at me as if I was a few sheep short of a paddock when I requested sick leave. Don't get me started on this discussion.

• The amount of bullying that goes on between the majority expats and westerners. Everyone knows someone who has left within 3 months of arrival primarily due to being bullied out of their jobs. I’ve met two women already who have broken their contracts and are departing soon. Two of the women I arrived with are considering it. The bullying takes many forms, but the most common one seems to be reporting falsehoods to superiors about another employee. The managers reportedly always take the first report as the true one, rather than seeking the actual truth.

• The litter. People seem to think nothing of dumping rubbish anywhere. Cans and food bags are thrown out of car windows regularly.

• The toddlers who sit on the driver’s lap while he steers the car with one hand and talks on his mobile with the other.

• The staring. I’d expected some staring since my hair is generally uncovered and I don’t look Arab (!), but certainly not on the scale that I’ve experienced, let alone from some Western men. I often cover my hair and face to avoid the stares. I know that’s not why women wear a veil here, but I’m definitely warming to the idea.

• The neon lights. The streets are at least 8 lanes wide and every store is lit up like a **** tree with the store name, advertisements etc. Similar to Times Square but all over the city.

• The inconsistencies in speed-of-action. The gardeners at the hospital are capable of trimming the plants and bushes every few days and replacing all the flower-beds every season (yes, replacing) like clock-work, but the builders have been constructing a new compound and recreation centre for 2 years, and my bank or mobile service provider frequently tell me casually to come back tomorrow insha’allah (God willing).

• That permanent markers (textas or felt-tip pens) would be known here as Fellow Masters. LOL.

• The feral cats. They’re everywhere! I’ve found a very friendly one who wraps itself around my leg when I see it and purrs like a car. Perhaps it belongs to someone.

• That I would have so much difficult finding hommus here. What is the first food you think of when you think of the Middle East? I think it’s actually impossible to find it fresh here in the supermarkets (apart from the occasional ‘instant meal’ packet). You can buy it canned, but most people seem to have their maids make it fresh. I’ve been told to visit the Lebanese market but haven’t yet had time. So tomorrow is hummus making day. I explained the variety and quantity of dips in Australian/NZ supermarkets to Norah and she couldn’t understand it and seem surprised that we would eat hommus.

• That the only thing that I’d wish I had brought with me from home, so far, is soft tissues and coffee bags. Where’s the Kleenex Aloe Vera when I need it?? I’ve got the standard new-arrival cold and it is nasty. We got offered Nescafe in a top high-end restaurant the other night :D.

• That the natives would be so determined to be correct and not lose face that they would argue daily that their English is correct and ours (Canadian Glenda’s and mine) is not. One of my superiors was so determined last week that I was wrong about the plural for leave when referring to sick leave, annual leave, holiday leave etc. I explained that it wasn’t leaves as this refers to more than one leaf on a plant. He initially acted surprised and agreed to let me change the 50 or so ‘leaves’ in the handbook we were publishing. Two days later he called me into his office and said that he was convinced that he’d seen leaves written somewhere, and perhaps it was because I wasn’t experienced at using U.S. English. I agreed to check with a U.S. staff member who laughed out loud and said something to the effect of, “they’re so stupid”. When I told my boss that she’d agreed with me he paused, then looked up www.dictionary.com that was unable to provide him with a plural. So he went to some U.S. dictionary site that still couldn’t confirm my inaccuracy. He then phoned the Associate Director of Nursing (an Irish woman) who agreed with me also. At that point, when steam was building within my orifices, the fire alarm went off. Since we write the policies that direct employees to leave the building when an alarm rings, I was a little surprised to see only two members of my team outside. My boss refused as he was too busy. During the evacuation I met a native woman who was new to the hospital. She had a strong American accent and excellent English. I asked her where’d learnt English and she said she was a TV addict! She agreed that the plural was leave. Enough said.