They call me Alison

For the last week, I have been attending one hour of driving class each night after work.  5 nights, one hour each night.  (My punishment for being American) As frustrating as it was to work all day, go straight from work to driving school and get home late each night- it was worth it.   My driving instructor, Ycel, was a Filipino girl about my same age and extremely nice.  She used to be a bar tender in the Philippines but moved over here with some friends to work at this driving school and get paid pretty good money.   Each night she taught me a new technique, that without- I would not have had a shot at passing the actual test.  One night I was running really late for class (after an all day adventure into the desert and swimming in the Persian Gulf, that’s another blog entry) and instead of lecturing me- she gave me gummy worms and chips because I was so hungry.   From that moment on, Ycel and I were buddies.  It was a secret junk food bond that no one could mess with.  Ycel kept calling me Alison and telling me  that I looked like a girl, Alice, from the show ‘The L Word’.  I accepted my nickname and before long, all of the instructors at the school were calling me Alison.  For five days I learned a lot of secret techniques for the driving test in Qatar and also made a lot of friends from the Phillipines.

Today was the day.  The testing had arrived.  I woke up at 3am, showered, studied, and arrived at the driving school at 5am.  The tests are given two or three times a month so each test day is full of anxious students ready to get it over with.  Today there were about 100 women taking the test with me.  We first lined up and were called one by one for the sign test (this was the part I dreaded the most because they were so different from the US).  When it was my turn, the Egyptian police officer began pointing at signs for me to name.   I tried to open my mouth to say them, but nothing came out.  I was so scared I thought I might faint…I get so nervous around these Arabic police officers- they are so serious and stern.  Finally, words started coming out and I was naming signs like I had known them all of my life.  Done- I passed. 

Next step, parking.  We waited until 7:30 for them to weed out those who had failed then we were all assigned cars and entered them for parking.  First I did what they call an L park, which is parking on an elevated hill, and then I did the P park which is just regular parking in a very small space.  Both of these may sound easy, but many people fail during this part of the testing.   Passed this part!  I was on a roll. 

Last part of the test, driving on the real roads.  We piled what was left of us into two buses.  About forty women were on mine.  The next three hours would be spent with one of us driving a car with a police officer and the rest of us following close behind on the bus.  Each person drove for a total of 5-10 minutes.  I was last.  As the only American on the bus, I was the entertainment for all.  All of the girls wanted to hear my stories and listen to me talk.  (Anyone who knows me, knows I love to be the center of attention so this was fine by me)  Finally it was my turn.  In the car was a 60 year old, angry looking police officer with one of the driving school teachers in the back.  She was there for supervision, since men are not allowed to be left alone with women in Arabic cultures- unless you are family.  The moment I got in the car she lightened the mood, by saying to the policeman “This is Alison.  She is my friend and a good driver.”  The police officer smiled and said something about Americans in Arabic and off we drove.  After about five minutes of me making right turns-he said “Good driving Alison.  Finished.”  I silently screamed from the inside.  The moment I had been waiting for over the past month was here-  I passed the driving test!!  I feel so liberated in a not-so liberal destination.  It is wonderful....

Note:  Only 12 women out of the 100 that took the test today actually passed.