Grocery Shopping in the Kingdom

Certainly not all but, thus far at least, a good majority of my interesting experiences have happened while grocery shopping. The kind of experiences that make one stop and say, "Right, I'm not in Kansas any more." But then there are some not-so-strange experiences that have made me stop and say "Right, maybe Kansas isn't so unlike this place after all"

Then again, when was I ever in Kansas?

Take for instance the other day. I had promised my 5 year old a day out shopping. She really wants a Ken doll. (What was once dismay at the love for Barbi my daughter has developed is now utter admiration at how she can get so involved in play with 5 Barbis simultaneously---her imagination does not quit!). Anyway, here in the Kingdom Barbi can be found in a mass of varieties, there is also the Islamic verstion of Barbi, Fulla--she's also pretty snazzy. And then of course there are the Hanna Montana dolls, the High School Musical Dolls, and a gazillion no-name dolls that, well, I don't know the name of.

Not being able to drive I called our driver and asked if he could spend 1/2 a day with us. He took us around and no luck finding a Ken doll. We had some other errands, so we did those and then finished up at the grocery store. I had my cart filled with the items I wanted to buy and since it was a new store that we had never been to before we just killed some time looking around. There are some amazing sweets here and of course we had to put a couple of new varieties in our cart..and then, the eyes of a 5 year old spyed some fun girlie dresses and the toy section. Nope, no Ken doll. Then we mozied over the the check-out...right in time to see the doors lowering, the cashiers closing up shop and the lights dimming... PRAYER TIME!!! When will I learn??

In this country in which prayer heppens 5 times a day, there is no time for browsing, otherwise you get locked in where ever you are until prayer time is over. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but I was feeling rather dumb for not paying attention. I guess I have to start setting an alarm or something. I called the driver, told him we wouldn't need him for the next 45 minutes because we were locked in. Opened up some snacks and water for my duaghter and waited. Thank goodness she didn't need to go to the bathroom until after the doors opened!!!

Now, just in case you're wondering, we weren't the only people locked in. No, not every muslim runs off to prayer time at prayer time. But, places of business do close for prayer time at prayer time.

When the tills were opened again we were quickly shown to the front of one of the lines (I can only guess that because I am a woman and because I had a child with me, I got priority). The man in line behind us came over quickly and unloaded all of our groceries onto the band for us. This has happened many times. Nice, nice helpful people.

Then there was the time when neither my credit card nor debit card would work at the check-out at the grocery store. The check-out clerks were all very nice and helpful running this way and that trying to find a point-of-sale machine that would work..supervisors were coming by trying to fix the situation. Then, the woman behind me in line asked if I didn't just want to borrow the 700 (200ish dollars) some odd riyals and take her phone number so that I could call her when I wanted to pay her back. I ended up waking to the ATM while my bagged groceries waited for me and paid in cash. But, when has any stranger ever offered to pay for my grocieries before???

Today I planned a little bit better, or at least I thought. I called the driver and asked him to get us to the grocery store right before prayer time...then they could lock us in at the begining!! Yeah! Good thinking! So, we got dropped off and I said that we would be about an hour...My 5 year old and I started with the toy section...lots of Barbis, no Ken doll...no boy dolls for that matter. Then we shopped in the piece and quiet of a locked up grocery store. When we were coming out of the dairy section a woman stopped us and asked where we purchaced my daughters shoes. I was, I must admit, a little impressed with myself. I remembered the name of the mall and the name of the store :-) ...what a pro! Then my phone rang.

"Ma'am, please, 10 more minutes only"

I looked at the time...it had been 1 1/2 hrs since we had been dropped off, the driver had been waiting for us for 30 minutes !! I hadn't kept track of the time, and hadn't called to tell him we were running late. I suppose I could have asked him to come back later but, I really didn't want to wait for him to do something else and come back. So we headed for the check-out..hoping over, veggies, fruit, and bread.

I guess it will be a trip back to the grocery store tomorrow.