THE BAHRAINI TYPING SCHOOL FOR MEN

The Shop Around the Corner

Dearest Friends,

One day when I was out exploring my neighborhood, I came across an interesting shop called Beaute'.  Actually, it was two shops in one, with a connecting door.  On the left was a little boutique that carried lady's fashions from Paris -- tres chic!  On the right was a "salon de coiffure."  The clothing was well beyond my budget, but what grabbed my attention was the sign in the window -- the one that said the owner was looking for an assistant!  She wanted someone with experience in fashion retail, who could speak English, handle correspondence (some of which would be in French), do a little bookeeping, and who could manage the shop when she was away on buying trips.  How perfect was that?  The job just screamed Becky Thomas Lane!  I had a degree in fashion merchandising, I'd worked in retail since I was sixteen, and I had two years of high school French!  I was born for this job.  Well, there was that pesky little business of not being able to type, but I was sure that, once she met me, the owner would decide that wasn't really important.  Get this!  Not only was it in walking distance of my house, but also, most of the time I'd only be working until noon, and I would be entitled to free services at the salon!  I jotted down all the pertinent information and ran straight home.  The next afternoon my friend BD helped me pull together a resume', and I sent it straight off.  I never even got a call from them.

After getting similar results from most every job I applied for, I finally faced the facts.  If I wanted to work, I would have to learn to type.  So, I went in search of a typing school.  I found one, too, but it sure wasn't what I was expecting!  I fully anticipated being the only American there, and I wouldn't have been surprised if I were the oldest woman there, but it never, ever occurred to me that I might be just about the only woman there!  Of course, it made sense when you thought about it.  If Bahraini men wouldn't even take their wives and daughters to a restaurant or movie theatre with them, they sure as heck weren't going to send them off to work in an office full of men, now were they?

Are any of you familiar with Alexander McCall Smith's delightful series, The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency?  Well, if you are, and you have read The Kalahari Typing School For Men, you have a pretty good idea of what my classes were like.  Every afternoon, for about two months, I'd catch a ride downtown to class, and John would pick me up on his way home from work.  After a week or two, we even went out and bought a typewriter, so I could practice at home each morning.  I couldn't bear the thought of any of those cocky young guys passing me up in class!  If only I had listened to my mother, when she begged me to take typing in high school.