Here is a random piece of trivia for you… Car accidents are the leading cause of death in Saudi Arabia. Don’t believe me? Come on over and see how these people drive. It.is.insane! So from the moment I first got into a car here in Saudi, I knew I would inevitably be involved in at least one accident while I am here. I’m not scared of accidents; I’m actually a car accident survivor extrordinaire. My first car accident was when I was in high school; my older sister was driving, I was in the front seat, boom, pow, totaled car, ER, blah blah blah. Since then, I have been involved in the totaling of at least 5 cars and that was all before the age of 22. (Side note – in the soundtrack of my life I am currently playing a mashup of Destiny’s Child “Survivor” and Carrie Underwood “Jesus Take the Wheel”, and it is amazing!)
So yesterday we were on our way to see the Jazan Dam. It is freakishly close to Yemen so I was already mentally prepared for insanity, but I had no idea I would encounter the drama before we could get to our destination. Long story, short version; we were sitting in the left lane at a stop light & homeboy to our right decided that he wanted to make a u-turn in front of us! I know, sounds bizarre, so just take a minute and process it. And then take another minute to realize that people pull that move all the time over here. Now take one last minute and imagine my face when he hit us… WTF buddy?!?!
We all pulled over to the side of the road and we were promptly greeted by a group of nosey Ethiopians who wanted to get all up in our biz-nasty. The Saudi who hit us looks at the car and says “Ok. No problem. I go.” to which I promptly responded with “Wrong. This is a big problem. You stay!”. The man didn’t speak English so I was basically just saying that to Daniel and about half of the Ethiopians, but I didn’t care… I was fired up! I guess my outburst embarrassed Daniel because he told me I needed to calm down, which made me a heartbeat away from loosing my mind. I cannot stand when somebody tells me to calm down or stop stressing or just let it go… it’s like, I hear what they are saying, but I begin to have an out of body experience and I transform into Teresa from The Real Housewives of New Jersey “prostitution whore!!!!”.
Well, the next bit was just a blur because I am pretty sure I almost blacked out from the rush of adrenaline and mid-day desert heat combo. The police came, Daniel’s friend came to help translate, we all went to the police station and we got a report saying the Saudi man was at fault. We then continued our journey and attempted to find the dam. After getting unnecessarily close to Yemen, we called off the search and retreated back to town and went to McDonalds where I continued being a stereotypical American. I was conned into super-sizing my value meal so that I could get a Coca-Cola Olympic tribute glass (USA! USA! USA!). I love the Olympics and I love Coca-Cola glasses, so basically the choice made itself.
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