Did Bahrain really happen ....

I really struggled with this in Bahrain- apologies to all those I screamed at

......or was it just a bad dream??

I often wonder this as I reflect on my 12 years in Bahrain.

Let me tell you about a typical week. I ran courses on Weds and Thurs and then I got ready for the next week which started on a Sunday. There was once a booking in my training room for 3 days before my next course so I emailed the concerned people and got passed form pillar to post. No one knew anything about it. Then at 3 pm on Thursday an email is found- they want round tables , which we don't have. So I tell them to go and buy a saw and clear the room and go home.

Our two hard working janitors, Rakesh and Suresh

I felt guilty on Friday so I went into work on my day off to check the booking. Finally I find out its a double booking so we set the room back up as it was. The whole team are there, and the new GM, working unpaid on their days off, and its normal practice. I stopped bothering to clock in when I worked my days off because we did not get paid. It was expected at my grade to work extra, my boss told me at my last appraisal. Pity she didn't tell my two new colleagues who arrived late, left early, took two hours for lunch and go around disrupting everyone else . In between disrupting everyone else they held endless meetings, meetings to prepare for the meetings and meetings to discuss what was said at the meetings. When I left early Nooralhuda deducted my pay, even in my final week. The payroll team were so amazed they credited me the money she deducted in my final pay!

Send in the Clowns, Don't bother, they are here

I was given a new Intern to assist me, my tenth in 10 years. She did not have a log in which takes a week and five emails to get so I give her some photocopying to do. She did not turn up on day two so I found her in another office working for someone else. I ask why she didn't come to work for me and she replies "You have to call me if you want me". I ask why she is working for other people "They are all soooo busy". "So am I, come to my office tomorrow". She arrives , does some work, texts her friends, chats to Evan , or rather is chatted up by Evan ( Ev she is the same age as your daughter) and then goes for lunch and to pray and comes back two hours later. By then I am running a course so she goes home.

The next day she did not come back so I phoned and ask where she was. She replies that she did my work the day before. I tell her she is there for a month, and there will be new work very day, not just once a month. She comes back the next day and tells me she cannot do what I want her to do as she is only a trainee and doesn't know how. Eventually she types 10 words on an A 3 sheet for the lunch order and sends it to me to check. Then I discover she has typed the name of the wrong soup . So I send her home and do it myself.

Rawan setting up the ILM files for 2019 which she designed

Thankfully not all our internes were this hopeless and we had several excellent ones like Rawan and Ali who did some amazing work, creating new logos, printing, updating handouts, finding new visuals, making folders and helping Zainab with Blackboard, Massar and all our administration.

In the morning I get asked if my training room is free, so I say "yes, how many people do you need it for?" I set the room up again and get the janitors to supply tea and coffee. When no one has come by 2 pm I ask Lulwa why, and she says, "oh we used another room". Again I remember the basics of my anger management course. Never hit a Bahraini , and walk away to bang my head against a wall.

So that's 4 hours wasted setting up a room 3 times, 1 hour answering email queries , like "what is the ILM course we run called? " ( that came from my manager!) and an hour finding stationery for the highly paid consultants using a training room in our building. A further hour was spent cleaning the toilet and chasing the janitors to mop the floor as we have 100 people using 2 urinals and 3 cubicles and the place is constantly flooded. When we complain we are told we are getting a Security Guard to look after the building, and he is going to have a desk. ( he really needed a clean mop and a supply of toilet paper and tissue paper as well.) As I proof read this blog some months later I realised the promised Security Guard never materialized like so many things Maureen promised.

No caption needed- it did make me smile though when I saw it

Next I wrote to 42 delegates to ask which of 3 days they wanted to make their presentation on. 10 reply so I write again and another 10 reply. I type up the list and remind Evan he is marking 42 presentations on the three days that are in his diary and he says "Oh, no , I cant do it now, something else ha come up, you will have to do it"

I go to the hospital to see the specialist before I hit Evan . Unlike Evan I was at work at 6 am, did not have lunch, didn't go to any meetings, and didn't spend all day on my mobile and what's app ( because I don't have one) . In the Hospital they tell me the Specialist didn't turn up so they cancelled all the appointments. I ask if they told the patients. "yes, we sent them all a text". What number did you send mine to?" "Oh , you don't have a phone do you" . Then they started laughing and asked if I wanted to come back next week. I explain , no I wanted to see the specialist today, that's why I booked for today"

Eventually I just loose the will to live and go home, then a friend calls me and asks if I would like a massage. Ah, maybe Bahrain wasn't that bad after all.

But I would rather be waking on a beach in Palawan any day- until the next blog, Kita kits.

I should have moved to Palawan before I went insane. However that was not to be either. I sent my belongings in December, Moved out of my house and stopped work in February, and then went on a very long and much needed series of Vacations until my Philippine visa eventually arrived a year later.