INGULFED
(Notes for the Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah)Archive for no complaints
No Complaints — بلا شكوى
When life gives you pillows, you chaperone them.
Hi, my name is Adam, and I am a pillow chaperone.
Last week, among my many programs to coordinate sat eight large decorative pillows that needed supervised transportation from one part of campus to another. Unfortunately, I was not the supervisor. I was assistant to the supervising advisor of the facilities manager who facilitates (and manages) such transportation. And I was totally useless.
But I’m not complaining. I’m learning.
اسبوع مرحبا — Marhaba Week
الجزء الثالث — Part Three
In my job, I wear many ghutra. “I’m a Program Coordinator,” I tried to explain to an Egyptian security guard, Hasan. “I… coordinate programs.”
“What kind of programs?” he asked.
Going from here to there, that’s a program. Gotta be coordinated. Setting up rooms: program. Staffing an event: program. Telling people things: program.
Just then a parent of one of the students rushed in holding empty boxed lunches, looking around for a place to throw them out.
“Where’s a trash can? I should’ve just left this on the bus.”
I told her she could just leave it with me, no worries. And there I was, business casual and holding (oddly warm) trash.
Hasan smiled. “Welcome to your new job!”
A store full of ghutras, as worn by many Emiratis and the mannikin on the right.
Known elsewhere as a keffiyeh, this plastic man is wearing a ghutra (white) and iqal (black).
