Arabic Coffee Makes the World Go Round

Yesterday I took a trip with a British colleague of mine (John is quite the crack; I think I’ll be using British idioms for a bit now as I’m hanging with him rather a lot), to the offices of the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, our partners in this project. The office was a classic government edifice. Sterile walls and floors, puke green colored doors, tons of people milling around, few actually working. I guess government jobs are the same all over the world.

However, business is conducted a bit differently in the Middle East. You see, we are working with WAJ to obtain record drawings of existing water and sewer systems in Amman, as well as three other smaller cities or towns called Jerash, Tafilah and Ma’an. You’d think that it’s an easy thing. Request the drawings in either hard copy or electronically, and there you have it. Oh no, this is not the case. First you must go and get a full run-around; meeting one person who sends you to another, who sends you to another. When you finally get there you realize that their office has moved to a different floor. Eventually you find the right person and you think you’ve got it. But no, now it’s time to talk and get to know one another. First Arabic coffee is ordered, or tea if you’d rather. Did I mention the stuff’s the bomb? Yes, I did, in my last entry. What I failed to mention though is that I’ll be bringing back a full kit to prepare and serve this delicious elixir back in Boston.

Anyhow, then cigarettes are passed around. You don’t have to take one but when you do they say, “You are my friend.” Everyone smokes here, everywhere, all of the time. Even the countless stray cats roaming around smoke for Allah’s sake. You sit and talk about family, life, a little of the project and then of course it’s time to get down to business and request the data. Wrong again. What I’ve now realized is that you must first build a relationship with these people before they are willing to work with you. Many of my American counterparts are having trouble with this. The American way of, let’s hit the ground running, here’s my agenda let’s get it done’ does NOT fly here. I on the other hand enjoy this in a way. Something different and I’m willing to fit in and learn this style of business.

So now that we’ve made friends we are taken to another office where we are introduced to someone clearly very important in the agency. More Arabic coffee, more cigarettes, more chit chat. We learn the best time to visit the Dead Sea, the nicest vacation spots on the Sea of Galilee, the best place to smoke argeeleh in Amman, etc. All the while John is calm and patient. You see he’s worked in Amman before and lived here for two years, so he knows the drill. As we are sitting there someone else comes in with a couple of CD’s. A quick conversation takes place in Arabic and then he disappears. It turns out that they managed to produce a few AutoCAD files on disk for us. We’ve no idea what they are but are happy to take them. The meeting ends by us promising to return the next day with the borrowed CD’s and we head back to the office.

Not to brag, but John and I went back today to return the CD’s and got more information than has been gathered in the five weeks prior. Loads of drawings, electronic files and more. Follow the protocol and remember that you’re visiting their country, so things must operate the way they want. So now a few of our subcontractors are sorting through the plethora of information that they gave us. We’re well on our way now to actually making some progress.