As any immigrant to the US knows, your green card is your ticket to freely living and working in the US without fear of the government with limited worry about USCIS. Well I've learned of a different green card over here. Yesterday I gave the sister of our school secretary a ride home from her college that's five minutes or so away from our school. Silly me, I thought it would be a matter of getting there, picking her up and driving back to Ghayathi...simple as pie. WRONG! lol I think I get accustomed to things, slip into my western way of thinking and forget where I am sometimes. Honestly the fully veiled women no longer hold any wonder and I can figure out who's under each veil. I've adjusted to Arabic time where 5 minutes really means one hours. their penchant for over staged productions only slightly fill me with a mix of amazement and distaste. I've learned the flexibility of their truth...what I perceive as a lie is simply a way of not being rude/causing an uncomfortable situation. But the green card incident shocked me back to reality.
As we pulled up to the school her sister called her to come out. She walked out of the building and was immediately greeted by a security officier who escorted her back inside. Well after calls back and forth it turns out that she did not have her green card processed yet. What is this magical green card you ask... My people it's a card that says she has permission to leave the school premises. This card allows her to go for walks around the community and be picked up by whomever. Sounds great...if she were in high school, away at boarding school but this is a married woman with children. Who gave her this permission??? Her husband had to sign. Her sister went on to explain that your husband, father, brother...whatever man is in charge of you can sign for it. My brain started to hurt a bit. As a result of her unprocessed green card I had to give the security guard my license so they could record who she was leaving with. It was a big ordeal, as most everything here is and it brought me back to where I am.
Once we finally got going though it was a most pleasant trip home. Listening and participating in their conversation made me miss my own sister dearly. They are really very funny and now I've been told to come over on the weekends so we can hang out and have a language exchange. I think I'll take them up on their offer.
As we pulled up to the school her sister called her to come out. She walked out of the building and was immediately greeted by a security officier who escorted her back inside. Well after calls back and forth it turns out that she did not have her green card processed yet. What is this magical green card you ask... My people it's a card that says she has permission to leave the school premises. This card allows her to go for walks around the community and be picked up by whomever. Sounds great...if she were in high school, away at boarding school but this is a married woman with children. Who gave her this permission??? Her husband had to sign. Her sister went on to explain that your husband, father, brother...whatever man is in charge of you can sign for it. My brain started to hurt a bit. As a result of her unprocessed green card I had to give the security guard my license so they could record who she was leaving with. It was a big ordeal, as most everything here is and it brought me back to where I am.
Once we finally got going though it was a most pleasant trip home. Listening and participating in their conversation made me miss my own sister dearly. They are really very funny and now I've been told to come over on the weekends so we can hang out and have a language exchange. I think I'll take them up on their offer.
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