Norman P. Lewis, Ph.D.
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  • Kuwait

The Taxi Driver

9/21/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
Visa issues have plagued my first month in Kuwait at Gulf University for Science and Technology. When someone with pull in the Human Resources department resolved the visa issue favorably, I journeyed out by taxi that evening, when the temperature was still above 100, in search of a chocolate shop to buy a thank-you gift.
 
No luck. The nearest mall had nothing. Neither did any of the shops for blocks around. I returned to the mall to seek help.
 
A cab driver was outside, having a smoke. Did he know of any chocolate shop nearby?
 
His gestured in Arabic but I couldn’t understand a word. After a couple of attempts, I surrendered to language barriers and gave the driver the name of the hotel where I was ensconced for a few more days.
 
As he pulled into traffic, the driver made a phone call. After a minute or so, he handed me the phone. “English,” he said.
 
On the other end of the phone was someone who spoke some English. I said I hoped to find a store to buy chocolates for a gift. Pause. I repeated. Pause.
 
Finally, I guessed that he wanted me to hand the phone back to the driver. They talked more in Arabic.
 
The cabbie drove past the hotel. After a few blocks, he stopped in front of a chocolate shop. Gift baskets were visible through the windows.
 
The driver motioned to the bench seat in his taxi. “Stay,” he said. I thought he was asking, so I said, no, he could drive on and I would walk back. It looked to be about six blocks.
 
No, he gestured. Stay.
 
I went inside, bought the first box I saw, paid in Kuwaiti dinars, and returned to the waiting cab.
 
I saw the taxi fare meter had been turned off. I asked, “how much,” and hoped he would understand. He just shrugged his shoulders. I gave him more than I had paid the other taxi to head to the mall. Was that fair?
 
“No problem,” he said in English and shrugged again. “No problem.”
  
This Kuwaiti taxi driver could have just settled for collecting another fare. He could have privately grumbled about a visitor not speaking the language. He could have bemoaned his station in life, earning a subsistence living dependent on the whims of the carless while hanging around a fancy-pants mall.
 
Instead, he called a friend who understood some English. He had his friend find out what I needed so he could translate it for him. He drove me to the shop and insisted on waiting while I bought the chocolates. And he asked for nothing but gratitude.
 
That’s a real gift.

2 Comments
Amanda Kirk
11/17/2018 06:01:41 pm

Dr.Lewis! So happy to have found your blog. What an incredible human moment you shared here. Thank you. Amanda

Reply
Rosie
4/16/2019 08:08:07 am

Hi Norman, I share your driver and apartment building actually. Our driver, I’ve known him 3 years now, does go over and above his duty. He rings and waits if I oversleep for work. If I’m bored and ask for suggestions from him to go somewhere, he comes up trumps and surprises me. He’s looked after my visitors from the U.K. and met them at the airport. I agree, he goes over and above his call of duty. He knows when to talk or be quite in the early mornings going to work. He has never let me down in the 3 years I’ve known him. His other ‘workers’ are as courteous and yes, they ring him as they have little English knowledge. If there was an award for taxi drivers, he would be top of the list. He deserves a medal. I’ve been lucky to have met his daughter as well, very sweet. He also never stops working as when he goes back to Sri-Lanka, he’s still working on the phone to make sure we are all happy and he’s still arranging lifts for when we want to go somewhere out of school hours.

I miss him when I go visiting other countries as the service is never the same. He is unique. Long may our driver continue and I wish him the best with everything he strives to do as I have witnessed many times here and in other parts of the Middle East how taxi drivers and others, with colour get treated.

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    Fulbright Blog

    This is a periodic blog of my experiences in Kuwait as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2018-19 academic year.

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