Sunday, April 12, 2009

An angel

I've been having serious car problems for well over 3 weeks. I tell myself that's what I get for buying a very used car. Yet, ironically, my car didn't start having problems until I brought it to a mechanic for an oil change. After the oil change I was told the water pump would need to be replaced, but it could wait. 24 hours later the water pump was broke along with all the cylinders of the engine. The only thing good about major auto repairs in the West Bank is that it's cheap.

Upon entering into areas "C" on the West Bank (administratively controlled by the PA and security controlled by the PA....apparently, but that is another blog entry for another day), there are plenty of signs warning you that you are entering area C. One says no Israelis are allowed in. Another warning is translated as, "Warning you are entering area C. If your car breaks down in this area, it is illegal to hand over to Palestinian authorities for repairs." I couldn't understand what this message meant. I mean, for all I know, the PA government does not own some grand scale auto repair place. I thought it had something to do with terroism issues. But, no, come to find out it is because the stealing of cars in and outside the West Bank is so rampant, and the theives bring the cars into the West Bank, rip them apart, and sell the used parts. And thus the reason car repairs are so cheap.

But, to make a long story longer.....

My cylinders were repaired, and within 24 hours of that repair being completed, I run over a pothole that could have swallowed my VW Golf in one piece. That cost me $6 for needing to replace the power steering fluid hose which broke.

Another 24 hours passes and a distinctive thump develops under the left hand wheel. The thump becomes even louder. I try to bring it to the cylinder repair man, but he's booked for the day. So I'm instructed to drive slowly home and bring it back tomorrow.

On my way home from the office, I'm certain the car is about to collapse on its chasis any moment. At a T intersection, a car pulls up on my left and tells me in Arabic that there is a problem with my tire. I wave him off and tell him, "yeah, yeah, I know." Another kilometer down the road, the guy has pulled over the side of the road and is standing outside his car, and waves me down. I'm pretty annoyed at this point but tell myself, "heck, let me entertain this guy." Before I can even step out of the car, the guy has the hubcap pulled off. The tire is missing 1 lugnut, and 2 more are so loose they can be pulled out.

The guy tells me his is a car mechanic, "I own a big garage. If you want, you can follow me, I'll fix your car. If not that is ok, but this is big problem, very big problem." I'm skeptical, very skeptical. Is this guy trying to rip me off? I'm convinced every Arab man that sees a western woman is just waiting to rip her off. With nothing to loose but the entire chassis of my car, I follow the guy, and 2 hours, $100 bucks, 2 cups of tea, and a half hour worth of conversations about family, my car is fixed.

Today an angel took the form of a car mechanic.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Look

There's a look that comes over men's faces in this part of the world when a woman starts trying to make a point beyond any mere statement about the weather or what is being served for lunch. When I see that look come over a male colleague's face, I know that I am no longer being heard. I may in fact be sitting there speaking Chinese at that moment. And at the point, I have to clearly resist the desire to give the guy a good shake. Even more annoying is when that look comes over the man's face, and then he begins speaking, interrupting me in the middle of the dialogue, and he usually repeats the same point that he was making before I started speaking.

To be fair, it is a phenomenon that sometimes happens with women, but much less often.

The odd thing is, I don't know how to respond other than to basically speak over the man and keep asking him to let me speak, repeating myself until he complies to my request.
This type of conversation usually begins when we don't agree on how to proceed with some task at hand - the latest case was a survey. For me, a conversation is about each of us expressing our point of view and then coming to a consensus on how to proceed. But for the man, its as if its a conversation for everybody to agree with him, thus the reason he turns off his ear drums and just keeps repeating himself?

The most frustrating thing for me is the waste of time it takes to go through the process of getting the man to a point that he will actually 1) listen and 2) understand what I have said. I repeat myself, he repeats himself, I repeat myself, I am interrupted, I wait for him to finish, I try to re-phrase what I've said, I am interrupted, I then interrupt him, and on and on. Is there a better way to do this?