"Do it for the stories."
That's what I tell myself when the going gets rough - and the going got rough today... and I have a story.
My wife and I are having trouble finding a permanent place to stay while working in Saudi Arabia. We've been contacting strangers, seeking help through our university and co-workers, and asking around, but with little luck so far. And now it's crunch time. We have to check out of the employer-provided hotel tomorrow, or pay a hefty rate of $160/night.
Being accustomed to the renting process at home, we thought we could do a quick Google search, call some phone numbers, set up some meetings to view apartments, and take our choice. But we quickly realized that we're not in Kansas anymore.
We left Craigslist on the other side of the world, and phone numbers are nothing but dead-ends. Here in Jeddah, you have to go out and find people to help you. One friendly stranger leads you to another, and after a handful of lost in translation moments, you may come somewhere close to where you need to be. More importantly, you've probably made at least one new friend.
So after doing some googling this morning and writing down some notes, I ventured out into the city with my piece of paper and a rough idea of where I should go. I drank a lot of water, put on some light clothes, and set off on this little adventure.
I asked the bellhop at the hotel to flag down a taxi, tell the cab driver where I was heading, and away we went. My first stop was Carrefour, the French version of Walmart. I got out of the cab and walked around the neighborhood looking for two places which I had researched in that area, the Salmia Compound and the Mubarakia Village. These "compounds" are places where Islamic laws and restrictions do not apply. After about twenty minutes, a man noticed I was lost and got my attention. He didn't speak much English, so he asked another man nearby to help me out. The other man obliged.
My new friend spoke English really well and communicating was pretty easy. We called the compounds, he got directions, and told me where to go. But I needed a taxi. Luckily his personal driver had just pulled up and we all hopped in. I thought he was taking me to the compounds himself, but they just took me to the main road to find another taxi. He and his driver tried for about 10 minutes to find me a taxi to no avail.
So they began to give me directions so I could start walking. It was going to be about a mile or two, which was fine with me, even in the blazing hot sun. But just as I started walking, a cab pulled up. The nice man explained to the cab driver where I was heading, I thanked him SO MUCH, and we said our goodbyes.
I was delighted to find out the cab driver also spoke just enough English to makes things easy. We found the first compound after some looping around and a handful of u-turns, but they said come back tomorrow morning to see an apartment (Friday isn't a good day to get things done around here, not too different from back home ;) ).
Then he took me to the second compound not too far away and I was able to see a unit there. It was a three story villa and it was NICE. The community had a swimming pool, gym, tennis court, and recreation room that both my wife and I could use (outside of the compounds, these facilities are strictly men only). The cab driver waited while I checked out the place and then brought me back to the hotel.
The effort hasn't directly paid off yet, as we haven't made anything official, but some good luck started coming our way when I got back to the hotel. The man at the front desk knows the guy who rents out daily units for pretty low prices just down the street and close to our university. He also changed our checkout time to 5pm tomorrow so we didn't have to scramble in the morning. He said he will personally walk us over tomorrow evening to get us set up there.
Meanwhile, another gentleman at the front desk overheard our conversation and jumped in. He said he lives 5 minutes from where we work and knows of places available in that area. I gave him my contact information and he said he will let me know if he finds out anything.
We were also contacted by another local on internations.org who helped us out BIG TIME. He came and picked me up from the hotel and drove me around in his car to look at a few places. (Yes, I got in a car with a complete stranger at 10pm in a foreign country). Anyway, he did the negotiating with the real estate agent and landlord, drove me around, and brought me back. He even offered us his other car until we buy one ourselves! He said he was helped out a lot when he first went to the US of A and is just returning the favor. We're all people after all.
We have met so many friendly and helpful people and it makes us love it here so much more.