When the going gets tough, the friends pitch up

‘IWON’T be able to attend the 4.30pm client meeting – unless you don’t mind my 11-year-old doing part of my presentation, my 8-year-old taking minutes and my five-year-old constantly asking if Blaze and the Monster Machines can be played on the big screen. Your call…”

Fortunately, my chief executive has a sense of humour, and a kind heart, and allows me to slip away early to take care of my kids. Their mom was in Cape Town for a few days, meaning I was juggling deadlines, clients and general work madness with school pickups, extramural activities and general home madness.

And if I found myself off track, there were the regular WhatsApp reminders from Shihaam about dates, times and places to be. “Thursday 4pm, Yaqeen has swimming. Friday 8am, Yaqeen has football. Friday 12.15pm, Saabirah has football. Saturday 11.30am, Aqeel has swimming. Saturday 2pm, Saabirah has Scouts. Saturday 4pm, Aqeel has football. And don’t forget you’ve got to confirm the times for their Qur’an lessons, and please make sure all homework is done.”

Tired yet? Imagine how I felt. And that was on the weekend (which is Friday and Saturday in Qatar), so I was bit more flexible with my time.

But not so much when the working week kicked in, hence my appeal to miss the meeting. I think the rings around my eyes, peanut butter stains on my shirt and generally dishevelled appearance probably helped me get out of it. I wasn’t exactly client-facing material in my present state.

Welcome to expat life, where you don’t always have the luxury of calling on family to help out when you need it, which can be fairly often when you’re living 7 000km from home.

“I managed to leave work early to pick up the kids from school,” I text Shihaam, “but I will need help with Yaqeen until you get back. I don’t think I can fetch him at 12.30pm and then go back for Aqeel and Saabirah at 3pm. Any ideas?”

Micromanager Mom replies almost immediately with contact details for the parents of two of Yaqeen’s classmates.

“I spoke to them before I left, asking them to be on standby in case you needed help. They’re only too happy to take Yaqeen home from school for a few hours.”

I send a thumbs-up emoji (okay, and a kissing one, too), and breathe a sigh of relief. Now that’s sorted, I can move onto dinner preparations.

Thankfully, I don’t have to find out whether I can stand the heat in the kitchen. The bell rings and I open up to find the Arendses, South African friends who live a few doors down in our compound, at the front door. “Salaam, Ridwaan, all okay? Hope you haven’t eaten yet, we made lasagna and chocolate cake.”

Yep, you can’t always have family around when you live the expat life, but friends are never far away.