Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Apparently the trick to having a positive arrival experience in your new posting is finding the right mentor.
They can take you under their wings, share their local knowledge they have learnt over the years and help you to navigate your way in to your new community whilst avoiding the potholes.
Finding the right mentor – now that’s easier said than done.
Experience has taught me to tread cautiously, as you may find yourself wearing dark glasses and hiding behind the aisles in Alosra to avoid a wrong mentor. It’s a fine line indeed and Bahrain isn’t that big a place!
It’s confession time, an acquaintance from my last posting had kindly fixed me up with an expat friend of hers via Facebook who, for some strange reason, thought would be my perfect mentor here in Bahrain. Alas, it was not to be, although I was extremely grateful to be heading out to lunch to chat with someone-else other than my family and school administrators.
For weeks now I had been making that extra effort with my appearance, making eye contact and smiling profusely to mums in the playground in the hope that someone would say ‘hi, are you new?’ I even considered having a T-shirt printed with ‘Speak to me’ on it.
You may ask, what happened at lunch? Too many rules were broken:
* negativity – avoid mentors that are negative about the place you have just moved to. It’s not healthy and whilst you are struggling to adapt to your new life, you want to be surrounded by positive and encouraging people.
* reputation – you really don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as someone who has built up a bad reputation within the community.
* too much free time – be wary of someone who has all of the time in the world for you and is instantly planning a social calendar for you her new BFF.
So, can anyone tell me where I can get a T-shirt printed?
