I SWEAR THIS REALLY HAPPENED

In a multi-cultural working environment, such as in Saudi Arabia where many expatriates form part of the workforce, unique and very peculiar goings on happen. This was one of them.

This is a story of what happened to Vincent Krol, a Dutch national who used to work as executive assistant at the office of the president of our company here in Riyadh. He phoned another company located in Europe. His call apparently was taken by a lady there in Europe. They spoke and had what many people refer to here as a telecon (telephonic conversation - another weird goobledygook in these parts). Finally, they agreed that the lady in Europe will send Vincent a fax. Before that however, the lady needed Vincent to spell out his name. Vincent, who has been used to spelling out his name over the phone using the military code for the letters in the alphabet to avoid certain confusion, proceeded to tell the lady that his name is spelled V as in Victor, I for India, N for Nancy, C for Charlie, E for Echo, N for Nancy (again) and T for Tango. He also said that his last name is spelled K for Kilo, R for Romeo, O for Oscar and L for Lima.

A few minutes later, Vincent received a fax addressed to Victor-India-Nancy-Charlie-Echo-Nancy-Tango Kilo-Romeo-Oscar-Lima.

I swear it really happened; we just weren't able to keep a copy of the fax.