neurotic Iraqi wife
October 17, 2004
Just One of Those Days......
Woke up yet again today from a horrible nightmare. My sub conscious mind is over working, and so is my normal one.....UGHHHHHH. I NEED TO DE STRESS BIG TIME. I really am looking forward to our vacation. Wowwwww, it will come extremely handy. I tried calling HUBBY but his mobile aint functioning then I remembered that he told me, he is going somewhere outside Baghdad. I have no clue where since, we stopped specifying places incase anyone is eavesdropping. But he is a smarty pants(with pleats, god, eeewww) cuz when he was telling me that he is off somewhere and I asked where, he simply named all the counties he knew in Iraq,lol....At first I didnt get it, then it hit me.
I didnt go to work, I decided that Im better off doing the new assignment from home, since I have ADSL line and my own laptop. The assistant has been giving me weird looks lately and has been acting slightly rude. I think SHE thinks that her job is threatened, but in reality it really aint. Her attitude changed 180 degrees from the first day I met her up until yesterday. Im only a volunteer, trying to do what I can to help this NGO out. She on the other hand is very valuable to the organisation cuz she does all the admin work and all the Arabic typing, which Im not proud to say, Im crap at. I mean I speak and write Arabic fluently but when it comes to typing, ummm, I think even my 7 yr old nephew is better than me. So basically there is no intention what so ever to take her position. And besides Im only doing this temporarily until I seek a solution with HUBBY.
What Im in charge of is organising events to publisize the NGO. So I do most of the liasing with International organisations and governmental bodies. Then there is the issue of the office space. Since the NGO is quite new, there isnt really a permanent office where we function from. One of the founding members was generous enough to provide some office space. So we are basically using HIS office space, HIS computer, HIS internet line, HIS stationary. We are still waiting for a permanent space to be provided, by the authorities here.
Therefore, I dont want to invade the assistant's privacy by taking over the computer she is using and I dont want to go to the office just to sit around and do nothing. I have been busy all day in my room planning for the next event thats gonna be taking place soon. I hope this time it will be better organised.
I was flabbergasted to find out that the delegates who came from Iraq spent so much money while here. Although their hotel rooms were paid for by the local government, their food and expenditure wasnt. Their food was provided by some organisations who offered to invite them and their expenditure was provided by donations from the members of the NGO. But I cannot fathom how their hotel bill came to almost $4000. My god!!!!! All the necessary things were already provided for, so what was the $4000???Well, apparantely they took advantage of everything available, like the mini bar, the room service, the international phone calls. They didnt leave one thing out, and they have the nerve to tell us, the ones who left Iraq long long time ago that we dont care about the country!!!!!!!!!!Im soooooooooooooooooo pissed offff.
They presume that just because we left our countries we are so damn well off, WELL WE AINT. We aint sitting on an open tap of oil nor money. I see families here who barely are living. Everything is relative. The incomes are definitely without a doubt higher than Iraq but the prices of goods and services are high. So they cant really compare. Umhakima, I hope you dont mind me putting a link to your " done with shopping" post but it really hits the nail right on. I cannot generalise ofcourse cuz there are people who are intelligent enough to realise that we too need to live and feed our children.
I cant remember who said this in one of the comments, but either sami or Baghdad, (Im sorry if you guys dont like to be mentioned, do tell me to stop), mentioned that most of our families and relatives in Iraq when asked for help it was us, the ones who were outside that helped them out and sent them things, be it money or other things, and we did it without even thinking about it. We did it without even expecting anything in return.
I hope the delegates that are coming next month will know their limits and will know that the NGO is NOT responsible for their extreme expenditure. I mean hellloooooo, we have only started and the organisation itself is seeking funds.....I absolutely hate it when people take advantage of the situation, GRRRRRRRRRR
Anyways, Im just mad as hell. I better go now and finish my assignment, I have a meeting to go to in a few hours. I guess Its Just One of Those Days.......
I didnt go to work, I decided that Im better off doing the new assignment from home, since I have ADSL line and my own laptop. The assistant has been giving me weird looks lately and has been acting slightly rude. I think SHE thinks that her job is threatened, but in reality it really aint. Her attitude changed 180 degrees from the first day I met her up until yesterday. Im only a volunteer, trying to do what I can to help this NGO out. She on the other hand is very valuable to the organisation cuz she does all the admin work and all the Arabic typing, which Im not proud to say, Im crap at. I mean I speak and write Arabic fluently but when it comes to typing, ummm, I think even my 7 yr old nephew is better than me. So basically there is no intention what so ever to take her position. And besides Im only doing this temporarily until I seek a solution with HUBBY.
What Im in charge of is organising events to publisize the NGO. So I do most of the liasing with International organisations and governmental bodies. Then there is the issue of the office space. Since the NGO is quite new, there isnt really a permanent office where we function from. One of the founding members was generous enough to provide some office space. So we are basically using HIS office space, HIS computer, HIS internet line, HIS stationary. We are still waiting for a permanent space to be provided, by the authorities here.
Therefore, I dont want to invade the assistant's privacy by taking over the computer she is using and I dont want to go to the office just to sit around and do nothing. I have been busy all day in my room planning for the next event thats gonna be taking place soon. I hope this time it will be better organised.
I was flabbergasted to find out that the delegates who came from Iraq spent so much money while here. Although their hotel rooms were paid for by the local government, their food and expenditure wasnt. Their food was provided by some organisations who offered to invite them and their expenditure was provided by donations from the members of the NGO. But I cannot fathom how their hotel bill came to almost $4000. My god!!!!! All the necessary things were already provided for, so what was the $4000???Well, apparantely they took advantage of everything available, like the mini bar, the room service, the international phone calls. They didnt leave one thing out, and they have the nerve to tell us, the ones who left Iraq long long time ago that we dont care about the country!!!!!!!!!!Im soooooooooooooooooo pissed offff.
They presume that just because we left our countries we are so damn well off, WELL WE AINT. We aint sitting on an open tap of oil nor money. I see families here who barely are living. Everything is relative. The incomes are definitely without a doubt higher than Iraq but the prices of goods and services are high. So they cant really compare. Umhakima, I hope you dont mind me putting a link to your " done with shopping" post but it really hits the nail right on. I cannot generalise ofcourse cuz there are people who are intelligent enough to realise that we too need to live and feed our children.
I cant remember who said this in one of the comments, but either sami or Baghdad, (Im sorry if you guys dont like to be mentioned, do tell me to stop), mentioned that most of our families and relatives in Iraq when asked for help it was us, the ones who were outside that helped them out and sent them things, be it money or other things, and we did it without even thinking about it. We did it without even expecting anything in return.
I hope the delegates that are coming next month will know their limits and will know that the NGO is NOT responsible for their extreme expenditure. I mean hellloooooo, we have only started and the organisation itself is seeking funds.....I absolutely hate it when people take advantage of the situation, GRRRRRRRRRR
Anyways, Im just mad as hell. I better go now and finish my assignment, I have a meeting to go to in a few hours. I guess Its Just One of Those Days.......
7 Comments:
Your delegates story and their profligate spending was very interesting. Seems when people get a little power it goes to their head.
I've read through your blog entries and hope your new husband will soon come back to you.
I've traveled a lot, and sometimes I've stayed in hotels as the guest of another company for a conference. It's generally customary (at least here) that if the host picks up the hotel bill, the guest is responsible for their "incidentals": mini-bar, laundry, phone calls, Internet access, etc. Usually, I'd check in and the front-desk would ask me for my own credit card for the incidentals. Of course, it would be okay if I did't provide a credit card, but I wouldn't be getting the mini-bar key, the phone would be locked out, and there would be no room service or laundry unless I paid cash for it.
You may want to talk to the hotel your guests will be staying at next month about setting up something like this, especially since your guests now have a history of abusing your hospitality.
Shawn.
So much for one of those days Neurotic Wife...It's always been one of those days that now I don't know what to talk about on my blog lol..It's rare for me to talk about what I did during the day here...there's simply nothing when it comes to live with someone like my dad who is going for his post graduate. Life is plain for me lately.
I'm not too sure if I recently did say about our relatives asking for help constantly but I did mention such a thing long ago. But it doesn't matter, must be Sami then lol. But yes, you're right...one time my parents decided to live in UAE where my two aunts lived. One aunt was in good living conditions while the other was not. Just when we came to UAE from New Zealand for 'work' with better salaries, my aunt kept nudging my parents to help out her sister who is my dad's sister as well. We did at first, but we continued this for years...until we ended up in major problems where this big move didn't do much of a difference to the family. I don't mind Iraqi relatives from Iraq asking for money, but someone who's living outside Iraq and the other sister keeps pulling out her hand to help her sister in need to raise her children? They really thought we came with bags filled with money in our luggage..didn't they. Well they were wrong anyhow. Instead, they should have been NICE enough to give an offer of help to us at least!
Anyway, most important thing is at least you can speak and read arabic, mashallah. The writting can be worked out some day lol. I actually improved a lot ever since I went to live in the middle east for 3 years, before I went, I could barely speak an arabic word after being raised in this long lost country..but now I'm asking for too much...lol..where I 'demand' to be taught more arabic lol...errrrr, for free too :-) hehe
Sara.
Brian,
I don't think I misunderstood any person's writing or typing including Neurotic Wife who recalled me or Sami mentioning something about relatives in Iraq. I don't recount if I had said that myself which was why I wasn't sure if I was the one who said it or not.
I've known many Iraqis to be naturally stubborn which plays a lot in their decisions, including my own. The rest of what you said is correct though. That's all I have to say for now I guess.
Sara.
Yeah I said it, and its an issue with so many Iraqi families I know. They have aunts and uncles or great aunts and great uncles and touns of parent's cousins etc fighting over land, money etc. They call you abroad asking for money and you know you are most probably never going to see it again. My parents always send things back to Iraq, so its upsetting when a man who has been given a ministiral post would say such silly things. To be honest I have a couple of relatives who are ministers in the current government and I hear that the problem they have now is seperating whose good from whose bad in Iraq and this is not just in politics but in all areas of Iraqi soceity.... they are finally starting to realise that NOT all 25 or so million Iraqis are good brave people and there do exist big time number of klawcheeeyeeen.
IDEA:
My wife came up with an idea. Take a credit card and reduce the spending limit for the card to $1000 or some low number. Then give the card to the delegates instead of giving them money or agreeing to pay their bills.
Kenjiro
Shawn and ken, these are great ideas, I will definitely suggest them to the members of the NGO. I guess because they were short on time, and it was the first time they are involved with bringing delegates from IRAQ, they didnt know what to expect. But after what happened they learnt their lesson. Thanx...
Norma, Baghdad, Sami and Umhakima, yeah its sad how people assume things that aint true... Although you expect that officials should have some brains to think who is gonna pay for all of this, they simply dont.
Brian, Baghdad never skims through my posts she swims through them,lol. Just kidding Baghdad...And yes you are right Brian, we should be blunt and frankk with these people next time. Although I kinda feel guilty since they have suffered through real bad times, and I guess they didnt know that everything has to be paid for by someone....Well next time they will be informed...
And dr saif, welcome to blogging....Cant wait to read your posts. but a word of advice be extremely careful with posting stuff, u never know who is reading it....
Keep safe and take care....
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