Multi-tasking on the job

Today was a big day for me, as I managed to submit all of the paperwork for the carte de séjour, get my boxes of teaching materials from the Fulbright office, take the boxes of teaching materials to my ESI office, and get a load of useful appliances and groceries from the Super Walmart-type store on the outskirts of town.

I like to think that I'm a bit of a multi-tasker, but some of the folks I ran into today really took the whole idea to a new level, for better and for worse.

Customer service: I stopped by the post office in center city to mail some letters, took a number, and waited my turn. While I was waiting, customers wandered in, wandered up to the counters without bothering to get a number, talked to the agents, did business, and went away. I sat. Then, when I was actually called, my agent felt obliged to stop and sell stamps to at least three other customers. It was hot and there was no air-conditioning. It was better than being outside, and probably quicker than an American post office (honestly), but there definitely was the notion that "customer service" and "waiting one's turn" have a different meaning in Morocco.

Taxis: The stand this morning (across the street from my house) was full of people, so when a few taxis came up, I resigned myself to wait, letting my neighbors vie for a spot. With one passanger in his cab already, a driver asked where I was going. I told him, he said he'd take me, and I climbed in. Taking more than one passanger isn't rare if the passangers are going in the same direction. The other guy got out before I did. In the past, I'd still been charged full fare, but this cabbie took it easy on me, and reduced my fare by the amount that my co-rider had already paid. That's good multi-tasking, from my point of view, anyway.

The cabbie also regularly took out his newspaper at red lights and read through it as if he were in his own salon marocain at home. I guess when the story's good and when multi-tasking is a way of life, it's just too tempting not to multi-task as much as possible when on the job.