In Kuwait

 10 percent

About a 1000 Bhutanese people - give or take - applied for this job opportunity. From that, 150 of us were shortlisted. From that very short list, 15 of us were luckily/qualified to get the chance to go to work. That means only 10 percent of the shortlisted candidates got selected. This is the competition in our present time. As we were preparing to board the plane at Paro Airport, I had a good look around. 11 girls and 4 boys were flying to Kuwait.

I looked at my friend beside me as the white dragon of Bhutan soared into the sky.

"Now, we're flying!"

"Yes, we are!!!"

This article is written in point of view of a Bhutanese who worked in Kuwait. Our writer was able to get an interview with him, as he had to return to Dragon Land because of the pandemic.

Mirage

The flight landed in India. The layover was in Delhi, and later, Dubai. When Druk Air reached us in Delhi and Dubai - I began to realise just how small our aeroplanes were. The Bhutanese plane looked so small compared to these other titans of aircrafts. Large Boeings so imposing that we couldn't even feel the slight turbulence associated with landing and take-off. The flight from Paro to Delhi was impressive - but the rest of the journey was a whole 'nother experience. 

Our seats had televisions and individual earphones. It makes sense to have earphones, no one wants to listen to the comedy show the person beside me was watching. I looked around - children were given soft toys to play. I've been doing a lot of looking around. Later, I learnt that the toys were given back to the airline upon landing, but it's still pretty amazing how they took special care of all their customers - even the 3 feet ones. 

They offered us wine, and for those who didn't drink, fruits. The air hostesses were ethereal, and I'm not joking. I couldn't quite place a finger on why they looked so godly. Once I mustered up the courage to look them straight in the face - I found out that they were wearing make-up. It wasn't like any make-up work I'd seen back on East Asian land. It was amazing. I found out that air hostesses are required to wear a certain standard if make-up. And a friend told me that they get money specifically for make-up.

After disembarking on middle eastern soil, I looked back at the airplanes. There were two lines of people exiting the plane, like a swarm of ants. Each wing was bigger than the other and from my view, the other end of the wing looked like a mirage.

Vehicles and Vinegar

Once we were shown our rooms, we got settled in. I once got (sort of) lost in the building because all the floors looked the same - meticulously clean. Thankfully, we had taken note of the room numbers. For a few days we didn't go out to roam lest we get lost in the big city.

Vehicles would come to take us to the place of work - a hotel. Of course, we had be very punctual. Sometimes we had shifts of upwards of 12 hours. Some shifts started at 6:00 a.m. and we had to awake and ready by around 5. If we are late we had to work extra hours to make up for our tardiness.

Everyone drove very nice vehicles. Sports cars. There were no beggars on the street.

Interviewer: There were no beggars?

Yes. It was very hot there. Why would anyone beg outside in such conditions? Forget beggars, I didn't see people in the streets.

Interviewer: No people?

Yep. Everyone drove to wherever they wanted to go. In fact, the only people walking the streets were us - the Bhutanese.

Interviewer: So, the streets of the Arabs are filled with the Bhutanese?

Laughter.

Anyway...

Our job was fairly simple. We started out in the kitchen. We were given vinegar and cutlery. The room for the interview is nice. The amount of cutlery we were given were spread over the area of this room. We had to dip them, clean them, shine them and dry them. Girls cried when they couldn't finish their job in the given time.

Gradually we graduated to other types of work such as serving, handling food, ushering and even handling actual money. We were taught to use an electronic device to get the money from the customer. My hands shivered at the thought of handling this complicated hardware.

My manager, an Italian named Jean Marco (this is not a made up name) came and said, "Don't worry. It's actually very simple." And he handled the customer given to me. I learned how to use the device, it was easy we just had to type the amount due from the customer and the money would get transferred.

However, we also had to give reports to the financial managers and if they found an inconsistency this evening, we'd get a complaint the very next day. It was scary business.

Fire

We are/were working in a kitchen. Of course, there was a hot fire there.

One of my friends, a boy got into an argument with the supervisor. He was fired.

Another fellow had an attitude problem. He refused to work cooperatively with us, and also had run-ins with the supervisor. He was fired.

Oh. By the way, if we continued working well and they liked our performance, we also have an opportunity to become supervisors. The pay gets increased from 130 KD to 250 KD, and there is a lot less cutlery being dipped in vinegar for supervisors. Anyway, that dream is still a long ways away.

Boys weren't the only ones getting fired. There was a girl at the front desk, or reception. Her language fluency wasn't up to par. By language, I mean English as that is what most people communicated in. Arabic was also taught, but we were instructed that it is alright to just know the greetings. 

Anyway, this girl was not very fluent in speaking. She was fired.

Females

In Muslim countries, there is gender discrimination. I mean, there's gender discrimination worldwide - but there, it was more visible. Polygamy is allowed. A man can have up to four wives. Only he is allowed to see his wives as they are covered with burkhas - showing only their eyes.

When we showed them the seats and offered them the menu, we offer first to the women. However, for the actual order we would ask the man. We aren't supposed to talk to the women.

Also, if you're a woman working there you shouldn't greet the man, and vice versa. 

Rules

There are some rules, regarding which, you have to be very careful.

While the people are praying, do not cross in front of them. 

And you never ever eat pork.

I didn't understand the consequences. But I believe that the punishments are severe. I heard jail time being mentioned too.

Takeaway

There was this incident that one time. A lady came to the restaurant and we served her food. She ate some and asked for "takeaway" I had difficulty understanding exactly what she was saying. I understood just "take-away" the food. So, I did. 

The food was mostly good so I offered it to a coworker and we ate it. 

However, the lady was quite irritated after waiting for a long time. She called me back and asked, "Where is my food?" I didn't have any difficulty understanding this question.

I suppose I could have said, "It's inside us" as that was the only truthful answer. I realised what the mistake was. I had not properly understood the phrase 'takeaway'. I saw a waiter of African origin coming up, so I said, "Your food is with him." to stall for time. I had to figure out a way to get out of this situation. 

The lady looked at the African waiter. He looked at me.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya might have been there - I can't remember, I was too shocked.

Luckily for all of us, our manager came. I explained the situation to him. And he was quite helpful. He was very understanding. He diffused the situation by telling the lady that the hotel doesn't do takeaways and all the food has to be eaten there itself. I was so relieved, and didn't get berated either.

The African guy smiled.

So, that's how it was. I had earned some money there because we didn't have to spend much, up until the COVID pandemic went to great proportions. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue working when it all blows over.