Getting fuel

Fuel here is subsidised; it sells for less than it costs to produce, and we can fill the tank of our Golf for less than $8. All fuel stations are marked with the sign in the first photo, and the forecourts (second photo) generally look the same as any you’d be used to, except less branding and advertising, and the little shop isn't full of snack food and trashy magazines (you usually pay the attendant anyway, rather than having to go up to the counter).


I spent a panicky little while trying to get fuel; the nearest fuel station in Janzour is quite far away (there is a new one being built much closer, and it is much needed, though as to when it will open, that's an inshallah), and I arrived at it – after taking the wrong exit, which I consistently do and have to drive up and do a u-turn – with my fuel gauge right on the red line … and the fuel station was out of fuel. Cars were lined up at the gates and it did look like a tanker was there re-filling the stores, but waiting would have involved queuing across a busy road, so I made the somewhat foolish decision to go to the other fuel station on the other side of Janzour.

Back through heavy traffic, watching the red line … got to the second fuel station, out of fuel, gates closed – what, does every station in the area get its deliveries on Wednesday afternoon? This time I did join the queue of two or three cars and it opened about five minutes later. As soon as it did, a ton of other cars showed up, as if the news is sms-ed around (or as if the times the stations are closed are widely known).

Now, the one and only time I previously got fuel (the Ambassador normally does it), it turned out to be self-service, possibly the only self-service station in the whole of Libya, so on this occasion, when I lined up at a unattended bowser, I figured I could easily do it myself rather than wait for the attendee to get done with the car in front of me and then the car on the other side as well.

But when I picked up the nozzle thingo, I was well and truly told to put it back and wait (this is how I learned the sign for 'wait'). I don’t know if that’s because the bowser was out of order or that women shouldn’t be expected to pump their own fuel (I saw some guy pumping his own fuel so it wasn’t disallowed for everyone).