Bureaucracy and (dis)Organization
This post is going to be about administration, organization, and bureaucracy here in Kuwait.
When we were interviewed, the superintendent told us that on the surface for everyone’s day to day, life here is very similar to most other countries. You can get to the store or you can find the food that you want, you can drive around town(there will be another blog about drivers in Kuwait!!!!), etc. and if everything is working well, then it’s pretty normal. However, as soon as you peel back that top layer and you start to get into something dealing with the administration, bureaucracy, etc. that is when you realize that you are not in the US anymore(not to say the US bureaucracy and organization is top-notch....).
As part of our orientation and onboarding here at our new school we have gotten a first-hand look as to what that means. Brigitte and I have been broken out into two separate groups and on different days we have had to go and get our fingerprints taken with the Ministry of police and then on a separate day, we had to go and repeat the medical appointments that we had in the United States here in Kuwait. That in and of its self is a perfect example, but in order to get our visa, we need to go have our blood checked for diseases as well as a chest x-ray for TB. Now that we are here we learned that we have to have all of those things duplicated as part of their process to get our civil ID. Things like driver licenses, Internet contracts, etc. require that civil ID so until that happens we are essentially visitors in a strange land and can only pre-pay for any services or we have to wait.
So all of the returning staff have been talking about how long and torturous the process is for most of the fingerprinting and the medical. They talked about bringing comfortable clothes, food to eat things to do, and plenty of patients. So my group got to go first for the fingerprinting and I was all geared up for several hours of long boring waiting etc. and it turned out that my group possibly made the record for getting in and out the fastest for any previous group here at our school. That is not to say it wasn't crazy town, with various groups all there for the same thing and their "handlers" jockeying for position and faster completion for their groups.
On the next day, Brigitte's group went to do the exact same process that my group had and they ran into the historically bad, incredibly frustrating, long process that everyone had been warning us about. They left school at 9:30 AM with a short drive over to the fingerprint building and they did not get back to school until 1:30pm! She says that there was a lot of sitting around and a lot of people yelling otherwise it was just a huge waste of time.
So a few days later it was my group's turn to head out for our medical appointments. Originally the bus was supposed to leave our apartment at 6 AM but then they change that and they turned the departure time to 5:15 AM. I and 14 others loaded the bus and we headed over to the medical building and sent outside and waited and waited. The clinic doesn’t open until 7:30 so we knew that we were going to be waiting until at least that time. All morning, additional vans and buses arrived with other teachers from other schools as well as plenty of migrant and local workers willing to do the same medical test that we were waiting for. Finally, at 8:30, our handler came out and told us to come inside and lineup. Once we were inside, our group got off to a pretty smooth start getting our passports stamped and our pictures taken but then, for the next half an hour, it was mild chaos as various groups jockey for position and their handlers try to get them through as fast as possible.
All in all the blood test section was pretty painless, then we drove about a half an hour away to a hospital for a very brief visit at the TB hospital where everyone had their chest x-rays duplicated.
All in all, in the three hours of sitting in the van waiting in the morning it was pretty smooth again everyone at the school was shocked at how fast and smooth our group and got through the two appointments. This morning was Brigitte‘s turn to head out for her medical. She and I assumed that the bus would pick them up at 5:15 but that assumption was wrong. The women in her group went outside the building and waited for the 6 AM bus and they waited and they waited and waited and finally came to pick them up at 6:40. Once again, she drew the short stick, and her group was delayed at each stop and they didn't return until after 1pm...
I don't know how many other routines such as these that we will have to do, but I am hopeful that my string of good luck continues :)
When we were interviewed, the superintendent told us that on the surface for everyone’s day to day, life here is very similar to most other countries. You can get to the store or you can find the food that you want, you can drive around town(there will be another blog about drivers in Kuwait!!!!), etc. and if everything is working well, then it’s pretty normal. However, as soon as you peel back that top layer and you start to get into something dealing with the administration, bureaucracy, etc. that is when you realize that you are not in the US anymore(not to say the US bureaucracy and organization is top-notch....).
As part of our orientation and onboarding here at our new school we have gotten a first-hand look as to what that means. Brigitte and I have been broken out into two separate groups and on different days we have had to go and get our fingerprints taken with the Ministry of police and then on a separate day, we had to go and repeat the medical appointments that we had in the United States here in Kuwait. That in and of its self is a perfect example, but in order to get our visa, we need to go have our blood checked for diseases as well as a chest x-ray for TB. Now that we are here we learned that we have to have all of those things duplicated as part of their process to get our civil ID. Things like driver licenses, Internet contracts, etc. require that civil ID so until that happens we are essentially visitors in a strange land and can only pre-pay for any services or we have to wait.
So all of the returning staff have been talking about how long and torturous the process is for most of the fingerprinting and the medical. They talked about bringing comfortable clothes, food to eat things to do, and plenty of patients. So my group got to go first for the fingerprinting and I was all geared up for several hours of long boring waiting etc. and it turned out that my group possibly made the record for getting in and out the fastest for any previous group here at our school. That is not to say it wasn't crazy town, with various groups all there for the same thing and their "handlers" jockeying for position and faster completion for their groups.
On the next day, Brigitte's group went to do the exact same process that my group had and they ran into the historically bad, incredibly frustrating, long process that everyone had been warning us about. They left school at 9:30 AM with a short drive over to the fingerprint building and they did not get back to school until 1:30pm! She says that there was a lot of sitting around and a lot of people yelling otherwise it was just a huge waste of time.
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| Early dawn, time to load the buses |
So a few days later it was my group's turn to head out for our medical appointments. Originally the bus was supposed to leave our apartment at 6 AM but then they change that and they turned the departure time to 5:15 AM. I and 14 others loaded the bus and we headed over to the medical building and sent outside and waited and waited. The clinic doesn’t open until 7:30 so we knew that we were going to be waiting until at least that time. All morning, additional vans and buses arrived with other teachers from other schools as well as plenty of migrant and local workers willing to do the same medical test that we were waiting for. Finally, at 8:30, our handler came out and told us to come inside and lineup. Once we were inside, our group got off to a pretty smooth start getting our passports stamped and our pictures taken but then, for the next half an hour, it was mild chaos as various groups jockey for position and their handlers try to get them through as fast as possible.
 |
| Lines curled down the stairs then double backed up the stairs... |
All in all the blood test section was pretty painless, then we drove about a half an hour away to a hospital for a very brief visit at the TB hospital where everyone had their chest x-rays duplicated.
I don't know how many other routines such as these that we will have to do, but I am hopeful that my string of good luck continues :)
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