I do it the Arabian way

     On Tuesday I had some work in Dubai. Exactly it was a blood test. Everybody who wants a work visa has to pass through chest x-ray and gives blood sample to test it for HIV and other sicknesses. So we drove with Elsa my Filipino colleague to Dubai office from where Nilo took us to the clinic in the old town. There we should meet Envac’s local sponsor Sultan. Basically his function is artificially created for local people by the government. A person like him is needed to have a company in UAE and he then acts as a contact person between the company and the government in things like visa, labor cards and another state related documents.

            The appointment was at 10am and he wasn’t there. But we didn’t expect him to come on time. He is an Arab, so it is absolutely unthinkable that he comes on time. We also saw a huge crowd of Pakistanis and Indians waiting in several queues for registration, x-ray or the test. “Better to wait an hour for him than be waiting six in the line with others” said Nilo and that was a clear sign of something Arabic in the air.

We were lucky. At 10:45 he came typically dressed in white robe with those two black rings on his head holding the hood and winked us to follow him outside on the street. I was always wondering what they do in a shop where is written “Typing” on a signboard. After passing several of those unidentified shops right next to the clinic, Sultan lead us to the last one, gave them some forms and our passport copies, they immediately stopped working on the other’s forms and started filling every detail into our forms. Now it was clear what they do. They earn their living by filling various forms for lazy or maybe illiterate people.

After ten minutes there we moved back to the clinic and show started. First we went to the registration room. Imagine a huge room with many rows of chairs for waiting people, in front of them like ten counters with an Arab behind the glass and a big display with the sequence number. Behind the chair lines a desk with another Arab giving such numbers. Sultan picked one and I saw with the corner of an eye 2000 something. I looked on the displays where there was something around 1300. “Oh no…we will be here forever” I was thinking when I for a first time heard mysterious and whispered “COME”  from Sultan who seated us to the first row. Before I could have looked around what was happening on the display in front of me blinked 2066 out of nothing and I saw Sultan going to the window. After a minute I heard another“COME”  spoken in the same cryptic way and we followed the white robed figure.

We shortly stopped by an importantly looking uniformed policeman. There was a line too to him, but Sultan just come to him, told him an obviously funny joke, they both laughed, he got a stamp and we moved again. “COME”  and we followed Sultan like in trance along a looong line of poor black moustache laborers directly to the x-ray door. “YOU GO”  said Sultan to Elsa when the door opened. Nobody said anything and whole the line was just silently watching how they are being jumped. I tried to avoid angry looks saying “Without him you would be so dead” and felt so small and bad. “YOU GO”  like during an airborne invasion and I was inside. Imagine being there as a doctor and doing the same chest x-ray the whole day in frequence one per minute. I would go crazy!!

“COME” sounded in my ears again and with eyes downcast to the ground I passed once again the voyage along the waiting unfortunates. At least at the blood test I waited humbly with six others. But there were also six doctors so I didn’t wait at all. Damn:) “COME”   and we were out. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes and I felt like after a rollercoaster ride.

Now I have to wait two weeks until I get my visa stamped in the passport. Hopefully and assuming that I don’t have lungs cancer or AIDS. And after that I can go try to get other documents necessary like the labor card and the identity card. But I can’t imagine myself doing it without Sultan :)