There are many things about life here in Saudi Arabia that are inconvenient, difficult to accomplish, and time consuming. But then on the other hand, there are other things that are so much easier to get done, as well as being much cheaper than in the states.
For example, the other morning my husband left to take my son to school, but he came back in much quicker than usual. Turns out he had a flat tire on his SUV, so he sent Adam to school in a cab. Hubby then called his Nephew to come and assist him in getting the flat fixed. Nephew arrived within 15 minutes, much to the pleasure of my Hubby. In the states, we never really had any family living close to us who would be able to show up like that at the drop of a hat. Together Hubby and Nephew dismounted the deflated tire and drove off to see about having it repaired. In less than an hour, Hubby returned, smiling from ear to ear. He proceeded to tell me about the saga of the flat tire. Hubby told me that he and Nephew had taken the deflated tire to a nearby garage. Immediately the guy at the garage took the tire and began working on it, without discussing first what work would be involved and what the charges might be. So when the Gargage Guy was about half-way through, Hubby, ever the Joker, started giving Garage Guy a hard time, saying that he didn't have any money with him to pay for his services.
"No problem!" Garage Guy told him. So basically Garage Guy was saying he would do the job for free if Hubby had no money. After a bit more of friendly banter, Hubby pulled out his wallet and looked inside. "Oh!" Hubby said. "I've got five riyals (about $1.25 US). Is that enough?" "That's fine!" declared Garage Guy. "Whatever you can afford," the agreeable Garage Guy offered. When Garage Guy was done fixing the flat tire, Hubby gave the man a 50 riyal bill (about $12.50 US). Garage Guy reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet and counted out 45 riyals in change and handed it back to Hubby! Because Garage Guy was so good natured about everything, Hubby gave the change right back to him.
"This is why I love this country!" Hubby declared to me. "Would something like this happen in America? I don't think so. First, I'd have to take a number, then I'd have to wait maybe a couple of hours, and probably have to prepay the gouged up charges before any work would be done." Hubby got the tire back on his car and it's been just fine since.
Of course there are many reasons why my husband enjoys being back home in his country - this is just one example why.
Source: susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com
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