In SA we drive on the left hand side of the road, our cars are right hand drive and weekends are on Saturday and Sunday. Friday and Saturday nights we party, Friday nights are ‘piggy nights’ for the kids (they do not bath) and Saturdays they swim, we watch rugby and braai at 11pm. ‘Ons gaan nou braai!’. Then Sundays we wake up late, or if our conscience bothers us enough, storm to church while nurturing a hangover. (Well, some of us).
On parents’ evening we parked our separate cars facing the road, thinking it would be easier to get out in the school traffic. When walking to our cars, we are now at least used to left hand drive, but we walk to the same spot every day, now the cars were facing out and we walked to the wrong door. Force of habit.
Weekends begin on Thursday afternoon until Saturday evening – back home Saturday is party day – change of mind here. Fridays everything is closed as most people go to the mosques to pray, Saturday it is business as usual, and so is Sunday. We need to break the habit. Talking to friends locally it is easier – they are in the same place, mind frame and time zone. When thinking or talking to friends in SA we have to consider it is 2 hours behind the local time zone. No grace in calling at 6am – it would be 4am in SA. Calling at 10pm makes it 8pm locally in SA, but bedtime in Oman.
On crossing the border to the UAE there are electronic retina scanners and passport scanners, while at the police station fingerprints are taken electronically – even signing in and out at school is done with an electronic finger scan. As they say on the old SA ad for electronics: ‘I like technology that works for me’. Yet opening a bank account is the old fashioned waiting session. You open an account today and you can collect the card in 4 days’ time. Could we not find a way of expediting that process? The mind boggles. As an ex patriot you also cannot earn interest at the bank, it seems… If different cultures with their nuances, ideas and beliefs cause misunderstanding, imagine the barrier that language causes to communicating clearly. Sometimes even in our own cultures miscommunication is a common error, even more so when the language, and its written form, and culture are foreign. But it only makes us different and the challenge to learn greater. Vive le’difference.
Sultan Qaboos of Oman has a palace in Sohar (where I live) and was said to return to the palace on Thursday. Some schools even closed for the occasion. He is known to hand out wads of cash to locals when he is about. No wonder people want to be there. All was quiet but there was a strong military vehicle presence in a local parking lot. His birthday is on 18 November which also becomes a public holiday – what a leader! Holiday is our favourite pass time.
Presently there is still construction on the main highway heading through town which leads to several road works and headaches as to navigate town. At some places the storm water causeways under the highway are big enough for a normal sedan or commercial vehicle to drive through. This becomes a common pass time and easy route to follow to cross the highway. At places it is also the easiest route to the beach.
I’m not sure if these routes show up on the GPS…
People on my mind today: Marina and Spike Troutman, Ignat Pohl, Cornel Menge-Hibbert, Albert Hibbert, Lynette Spencer-Coetzee.
