Not So Talented

This past weekend was the first ever KAUST Talent Show. Granted, so many things are the "first ever" because this is the university's first year in existence. Regardless, a talent show might sound like something quite inane and even high school-ish to many but here in KSA it's downright vanguard!  I participated and lost. I've never lost a talent show before, but at this one I didn't even place among the top three (and there were only 13 acts mind you). So it got me to thinking about what is talent and how do we recognize it.

There have been quite a few things this past week that might be come under the definition of "not so talented." First off, we can talk about maintenance here at KAUST, but before we do we should probably discuss the construction of the houses we are forced to live in. Many of you may not know, but KAUST was built in about a year. The whole place (which is quite large) was built in under 12 months. As a result, things were sloppily put together and hastily (if not haphazardly) done so that the university would be functional by opening day (which was sometime early September 2009). What we are seeing now are the results of what was a rush job. Many of the houses that were designed for staff were deemed unlivable and were torn down, which is why I am currently in student housing. Granted, the housing looks nice and on the surface it seems quite lovely. I live in a bi-level one bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, a living/dining room and a study area. However, once you live here for a few weeks you start to notice the cracks in walls (both figuratively and literally). Things just don't have the craftsmanship that you would expect from a new apartment building. I am actually one of the lucky ones, my housing issues have been minimal when compared to some of my friends, but this blog is not about them...

So on to maintenance. I noticed earlier this week that the ceiling above my kitchen was looking a little damp that seemed to have mold growing on it. I called maintenance to tell them that I had a leak. The first thing they asked me, was "where is the leak coming from ma'am? Is it the A/C or the plumbing?" Now, how the expected me to know this is still a mystery to me, so I explained that I had not actually looked in my ceiling and as such was unsure what the source of the leak was. They said they would send someone over immediately. I should mention that when I called them, I was at work so I had to tell them that I would be unavailable until 5pm, they did not seem very amused by this. So 5pm rolls around and I rush home. I arrive at my apartment and there is now a leak. I wait. Finally at about 5:50pm three men knock on my door, I let them in they look in my ceiling and say "ma'am this is an A/C problem and we are with plumbing, we can't fix this. We will have A/C come." Great, I respond, what time will that be? "Probably around 7:30pm?" What?! I had purposefully called asking that someone show up at 5pm so that I wouldn't have to stay in my apartment all day. They looked at each other, at the order slip in their hands and then at me, "ma'am you said 5pm, it says 5pm." Yes, thank you, and what time is it now? "Oh, ok, ma'am, we understand." I'm not entirely sure they did, but ok. 8pm rolls around and I get a call "sorry ma'am but the A/C people have left for the day, can they come tomorrow morning?" No, I work. "Ok can they come before 5pm?" No, I work. "Ok, ma'am they will be there at 5pm"

Next day, I again rush home from work at 5pm. This time at 5:15pm the A/C guys show up. There are two of them. One of them promptly gets on a ladder and starts to soak up the leak that has obviously left quite the puddle in there. He uses a rag, which he hands to his partner who wrings it in the sink. This takes about 30 min. Once this is done, the first man looks at me and says "ok ma'am we have to go to dinner now, we'll be back at 8pm." Huh? You've been here 30 min and now you have to leave for two hours? Great, how much longer do you think you'll be? "Could be two hours ma'am" Lovely. But what was I going to do, tell them not to eat dinner? So they leave, I call maintenance and give them a piece of my mind, poor operator guy didn't really know how to respond to me... Oh well. Finally 8pm, they come back and "fix" my leak by basically taping a rubber tube around whatever was leaking in my ceiling. They were using "special A/C duct tape" but let's be perfectly honest, it's still tape. I'm skeptical that the problem has been fixed.

And so I go back to my question, what is talent? I realize that it is probably not the maintenance workers' fault that the work is shoddy, they probably don't even know any better. So who's job is it to help them? Or is a matter of talent? Are they really just bad at what they do, but they are willing to do it, so why question it?

In writing this entry, I realize how superficial this may sound and how really we've all had our share of less-than-ideal landlords and maintenance crews. But what makes this a tough pill to swallow is that I have to deal with maintenance as often as I do and this apartment was built less than six months ago. But again, I have it pretty good, my leak was minimal. My apartment has not flooded, my ceiling did not cave in, I have hot water and no rats (all of which have happened to friends of mine).

As with everything, even daily living has become an adventure and while I came here knowing that things would be different and hard, this is certainly not what I had envisioned my life would be like. Talented or not, bring on tomorrow.