(Alison has written a guest post! In fact, she may become a regular author. Keep your eyes peeled!)
On Sunday, two days before the official Eid holidays, we decided to do some errands during the day (Since Josh is a teacher, he gets this whole week off. Normally he would work Sun – Thurs). However, since it's still a business day, governmental government offices are open and we decided to try to get some tasks done that normally get put, such as getting our car registered and insurance paid, and getting mine and Eva’s visa worked out.
Both the visa place and the insurance place are next to each other, so Josh dropped Eva and I off to get our residence permits worked out, while he took care of the car. I enter the LMRA (Labor Market Regulatory Authority) which is always filled with tons of people – mostly laborers. The place where I have to take a number just to wait is already a line 10 deep. Often when I go to these government establishments, there is usually a line for women only. But I’m never quite sure where it is (I think women actually just walk right to the front) so I tend to hold back and hope that I get called forward. And I do – almost every time. (At the Dubai Airport I have NEVER waited in an immigration line more than 5 minutes with Eva – no matter how busy - before an Emirati official comes and ushers me to the front).
And sure enough, the guy working the counter asks several men to move out of the way so that I could come forward and then he smiles and coos at Eva and pleasantly hands me my number. I make my way up to the waiting area, where I expect around a 30-40 minute wait (there were probably 40 people or so waiting in the same room. As I find a chair, I notice my number has already been called. I go to the desk and Eva & I get our visa’s sorted quickly and then we leave. All the while having kind Arab men volunteer to help me get my stroller up and down the stairs of the building.
I love the fact that Arabs rarely let women wait in line. And if you are a women with a baby – it’s almost as if they are apologetic that they didn’t get the thing you came to do done before you got there. It’s fantastic. And this is not just true about older grandfatherly Arab men who are preferential to women and babies. Single guys in their twenties will coo over Eva and ask to hold her. It was a little bit of a shock to me at first – as that kind of behavior isn’t exactly the norm in the US.
1 comment:
Yep. The only unfortunate thing is there's usually no such man around when I'm walking up 2 flights of stairs with a week's worth of groceries, and 1-2 children in tow. Ah well, it's good exercise (what's that, Force x distance = Work?)
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