At first it sounds quite normal: Nine working hours and eight teaching hours a day. Not much of a difference from the typical working day in South Africa. But I think it is the distribution of the hours that gets to me. In the mornings the first shift starts at 8am and ends at noon.
From noon to 4pm it is as if the whole Saudi comes to a complete standstill. Everybody is enjoying Siesta. The streets are quiet and although the majority of shops are open you still get that intense funeral atmosphere. It is during this break that you need to squeeze in doctors’ appointments, grocery shopping, exercise, a quick lunch and a very necessary nap (you can’t get enough of it in this heat) before the bus picks you up at 3:30pm for the 4 o’clock shift.
When the bus drops you off at 9:30pm, you grab the nearest thing to eat because you absolutely lack the energy to prepare a decent meal. Then, it’s off to bed. It’s kind of sad when your main aim to teach in a foreign country was to escape the rat race.
Prayer time is another big thing to take into account when planning your daily activities. There are five prayers during the day – sunrise, noon, 3 o’clock, sunset and 7 o’ clock. Everything must close when it’s prayer time and, although the idea behind it is very pure, it can break your speed tremendously. Patience is something you have to learn very quickly and you learn to respect your time to the last minute.
The academy where I’m teaching requires us to attend a training course on Thursday mornings form 10am till noon. The weekends in the Middle East fall on Thursdays and Fridays thus it’s the same as attending a course on a Saturday morning in South Africa. Fair enough, you might think, but nothing can be more frustrating as when you get there and all you are doing is sitting around and staring at the clock. No course whatsoever. The employers believe that if it’s stated in the contract it has to happen every weekend – no exceptions. So there you are sitting and waiting for time to pass so you can enjoy what’s left of your weekend! If you don’t show up they deduct two days off your salary. Any traveling should be done in a day in a half.
Now, speaking about time, the Arab people tend to leave everything for the last minute. They will know long beforehand about a certain deadline but will only inform you on the 11th hour. It’s a sort of wait, wait, hurry, hurry kind of thing. What’s that I hear you saying about African time?
In retrospect, I believe there’s not a big difference between my day and a typical day in the life of someone in the city in South Africa. And maybe it is selfish to complain when getting paid for doing nothing on a Thursday morning. I’m just longing for an afternoon or evening with no rush in which I can sit down and spend quality Zarius time.
