Staying Healthy in the Kingdom

A few more words about Saudi hospitals.

Luckily we have been able to steer clear of Saudi hospitals mostly. Prior to the ear infection episode we had only really visited the hospital for iqama (residence permit) routine check-ups and some minor throat aches. Overall the experiences have been pretty positive. Usually the doctors speak English well enough and there is plenty of staff around to guide you from one room to the next.

A few curiosities… 

1. The other hospital we’ve been to has a separate waiting area for men and women.

2. The Saudi staff (female) is covered in black from head to toe. They work behind the counter, not as nurses.

3. Doctors seem to be non-Saudi, but from Arabic speaking countries. All male so far.

4. They will prescribe a lot of pills… antibiotics seem to be the magical cure for everything. It’s up to you if you actually take any of the prescribed pills.

5. As for the abaya… it stays on in the hospital. K almost caused a heart attack in one Philipina nurse when trying to take it off when the doctor wanted to listen to her lungs for the routine iqama check-up. He just listened through all the clothes... wonder what he heard, if anything.

6. Blood pressure is also taken through the abaya.

More Inshallahs...

Our recent trip to a scuba diving paradise resulted in an ear infection for K. Back in Riyadh, K had a chance to go see no less than three doctors because of the infection. What an interesting experience… all doctors were men and had Philipina nurses doing all the practical work for them. Every diagnosis ended with “inshallah” so it was something along the lines of “in a few days it should get better, inshallah”. When the ear did get better it was of course “the infection has cleared up, hamdullah”.

Inshallah and Hamdullah

The above are the two phrases you can’t avoid hearing quite often here in the Arabic speaking world. If you want to sound like an Arab just start using them all the time in any context. We are told that inshallah can be loosely translated as “if god is willing” and hamdullah as “thanks to god”.

Not sure how to use these phrases? No worries, it’s easy. Just throw in inshallah when ever you want… and especially when you are making a promise that you have no intention to keep. Some examples: “Yes boss, inshallah I will make it to the nine o’clock meeting” or “we will be able to meet the project deadline inshallah” or “I will call you in a few hours inshallah”. Also, it’s useful for anything that you feel is out of you immediate control when it actually isn’t, like “this plane will land in Riyadh at 8PM inshallah” (that gets to you every time the captain announces it) or “inshallah she will do very well in this week’s spelling test” (it’s not like her practicing for the test will do anything to help, right?).

As for hamdullah… you can throw it in whenever you want. Some examples: “hamdullah she has learnt to read” (yeah it’s not like practicing had anything to do with it) or “hamdullah we have landed at Riyadh airport”.

Until next time… inshallah.

Muttawa – Winds of Change

Throughout our stay here in the Magic Kindom K has been disappointed by the lack of encounters with the muttawa, aka religious police. So far, K in a year of coming and going between Riyadh other places has been asked to cover her hair once. And even then it was done in a very polite manner. It seems that the good old times when foreigners were beaten with sticks for revealing too much ankle are in the past. The new boss of the muttawa has according to some random reports gone as far as banning the muttawa from entering shopping malls. So it seems to be getting harder and harder to see any muttawa around.

However, last weekend we went abaya shopping and after that decided to go and check out Tahlia Street, which is a street very close to city center where people like to spend time during weekends. It’s almost like a normal shopping street anywhere else in the world where there are plenty of small cafes and people sit outside chatting and walking around. We found a nice little café right before prayer time and managed to get drinks at the family section and sat outside enjoying the weather. Then prayer time started, so the café closed and we starting making our way back to our car. We were in luck… all of a sudden from the other side of the street we stared hearing “haram, haram” (forbidden) and “salat, salat” (prayer). K was thrilled to see that it was no other than the muttawa themselves yelling at people sitting on the closed cafes’ terraces. Ha! We walked alongside (on the other side of the street) the patrol car and it was quite interesting to see how people all of sudden disappeared when the muttawa approached. We also witnessed some really cool motorcycle guys running away from them a little bit later.

Family Only

Some of you might have heard in the news that Saudi Arabia has now started implementing a new policy that lingerie shops selling women’s underwear will have to start hiring women shop assistants. This is a law that was actually passed several years ago but is only being implemented now. It’s been exciting to see that shops really have started putting this law into practice. On women’s lingerie shop doors, we’ve seen new signs appear with the text “Family Only”. For those of you unfamiliar with the family vs. singles jargon here, it means that only women, couples and families are allowed to enter. Single males cannot enter these shops because that would mean that the female shop assistants would have to come into contact with men and who knows what the end result of that would be. Here’s a picture of one of the signs. I even managed to get the shop assistant’s head in the same picture. Shop assistants are naturally covered in black from head to toe.

Social Gatherings

There are no parties in Saudi, only social gatherings. Embassies arrange social gatherings, as do some private people. We can’t disclose any details, but here is a picture of a water dispenser at one of the social gatherings we attended about half a year ago. This was at someone's private residence. The water must have been contaminated with something to give it such an unhealthy color… rusty pipes or something... some guests also reported an odd headache and dizziness the next morning. Some had even suffered memory lapses.

Note to self: from now on do not drink water that doesn't taste or smell like water even if it comes from a water dispenser.

Where have all the muttawa gone, long time passing? (sing to the tune of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)

Wanted to share this picture taken in Riyadh a few weeks back when we went muttawa hunting. We (well K mostly) wanted to see some angry muttawa telling people to go pray, so we on purpose timed our arrival at an expensive shopping mall just as the evening prayer was starting. Shops were closing and shop assistants were gently asking customers to leave because of the prayers. We hovered around the main entrance the entire 25 min in hopes that we’d see some muttawa come in. We have been told that they love this particular shopping mall and that there might sometimes be two patrols in this mall at the same time making sure that nothing sinful happens. To our disappointment they never showed up. But we managed to snatch a picture of people sitting around waiting for the shops to open up again…



And a picture of some ladies praying in front of a shoe shop…

Hashing

Hashing is a very popular pastime here in Riyadh. Contrary to what you might suspect based on the name it actually has nothing to do with hashis. Hashing is a term for a random bunch of foreigners who get together in the middle of the desert and do some running/walking together in the nice dry Saudi scenery. There is usually a run/walk leader called “hare” who leads the way. Hashing is a nice way to spend one of the 360 sunny afternoons of the year. It’s a good place to meet people and friends and spend some time together. Today’s hash took us to place called End of the World. Check out the pictures. I overheard some Americans actually saying that it looks a lot like the Grand Canyon. 

Saudi Post

 

We have used the postal services in KSA a few times. The success rates are pretty erratic. Some postcards have not reached their destinations but some have. Most of the mail that has been sent to us has never reached us or has reached us after some considerable delays. The other day when T was leaving KSA for the weekend he decided to take his chances at the King Khalid International Airport and buy some stamps for postcards. The first step in this process was to wake the guy behind the counter up. After the business had been conducted successfully (stamps had been received and paid for) he received some pretty interesting literature (without specifically asking for it). Here’s a picture:

This made us wonder if the true purpose of the post office is something else than carrying mail from place A to place B?

Lingerie

An interesting piece of news about underwear:

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/saudi-pursues-crackdown-on-male-lingerie-clerks-430955.html

Magical Moments II

Ok, so life in KSA can be less than glamorous some times despite the colorful fake diamonds on our abayas. Yes, you read that right, it’s not all beach parties and cheap beer over here. But then there are the moments. Oh those moments.
One of them that I (K) personally like a lot could be described as follows:

It’s a warm spring night. Why not go for a swim you think. In the land of abayas and white dishdashas, you jump into your bikins and walk down to the compound pool. The compound is quiet around you. You’re the only person in the pool area. The water has been heated by the sun the entire day so it is warm. The sky above you is black, broken only by the shining stars staring down at you. The last prayer call of the day starts. From all around you, (remember there are quite a few mosques in this country) you hear the calls. Soft in the spring night, the calls echo around the pool area over and over again coming from all directions at once. That’s a piece of Saudi magic for you.

Oh and by the way, the magic doesn’t work in the winter when the water in the pool is freezing cold.

Magical Moments

Most of the time life in Riyadh is not that glamorous. A lot of it centers around sitting in a car and trying to get from place A to place B while trying to avoid some of what must be the worst traffic on the planet. I mean honestly, driving against the traffic on a street where the speed limit is 100km/h, in the dark without your lights on? Where else than Riyadh do you see that every single day? I honestly don’t know.

There are some magical moments here too though. A fellow expat of ours who has lived in Riyadh for more than 15 years describes one of them like this: sitting by an unnamed country's embassy pool waiting for the party to start with a cold beer on the table in front of you, you bite into your bacon hamburger when the last prayer call of the day starts. That’s the moment when you feel like you’ve outsmarted the system in so many ways, and it feels equally good every time. (Remember, there’s no alcohol, no parties and no bacon in this country.)

More about magical moments in the next post.

Saudi Billionaires

There seems to be a prevailing assumption in the west that basically every individual here in the Middle East has his/her own oil well that can be turned on when ever one is short of cash. The reality is often something else. Many families here live a comfortable life in a house that is bigger than what they'd be able to afford in North America or Europe and many have nannies for their kids and maids to clean the house. But... there are also those who are struggling and it seems that there are more and more people who are struggling. Here's a link to an interesting youtube video of poverty in Riyadh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlSBqgW5xx0

Naturally, if you've visited South East Asia, South America or Africa you have seen poverty far worse than this.

Family Sections

This is something I’ve (K) been meaning to write about for a long time already. It’s about Saudi restaurants and cafes. Most restaurants in Saudi have two separate entrances. One is for single males and the other one is for families. All non-married males are to eat in the singles section of the restaurant. All married men who are out with their wives or families will eat in the family section of the restaurant. In the family sections, there are usually booths that have curtains to protect the privacy of the womenfolk. If you are female and alone, (or with friends) you will use the family section of the restaurant. When I initially got to Saudi hubby was very excited because he got to see a side of Riyadh that had previously been out of limits for him: family sections of restaurants. Here’s a picture of the Starbucks family entrance so that you know I’m not making this stuff up…

And here’s a Starbucks family booth. This one’s pretty liberal because the entire side is open and there aren’t any curtains.

And here’s a Saudi woman waiting for her order at the same Starbucks. Covered in black from head to toe.

Black Magic and Demons

There’s been an interesting discussion going on for several weeks now in Saudi Arabia concerning hiring domestic workers from Morocco. Saudis believe that Moroccan women practice black magic and that they should therefore not be allowed into Saudi homes. Now that domestic worker recruitment from Sri Lanka and Indonesia has been halted there is, however, a need to get workers from somewhere. It’ll be interesting to see how this debate ends and whether or not Moroccan women will be allowed to work in Saudi Arabia despite the black magic.

Speaking of black magic… last week, at K’s internship place one girl had some kind of a waking dream experience in the middle of the day. The girl in question had completely freaked out in the cafeteria during lunch break running out screaming “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”. Can you guess how this was perceived by other students? That the girl was possessed by a demon. Yup, that’s right, a demon on campus going around possessing students. For the rest of the day, they were too scared to go into the bathroom poor things.

“Madam, you may take your abaya off”

Fasalya Tower is what I guess could in Saudi terms be called a skyscraper and one of the landmarks of Riyadh. It’s a tall building right in the center of the city and on top of the building there’s a ball, which is actually a fine dining restaurant. Here’s a picture to illustrate:






After the weird semi-encounter with the muttawa downstairs we took a lift to the restaurant, sat down and were brought hot towels to wipe our hands with. At this time, the waiter turns to me and says: “Madam, you may take your abaya off”. My mind is racing a hundred miles an hour thinking “oh god, oh god… this can’t be happening… no, no, no”. The reason? At every other restaurant in Riyadh, even at FourSeasons, western women are asked to keep their abayas on. So, I wasn’t exactly dressed for an evening at a nice restaurant underneath that abaya. Let it be officially known that I have now dined in a fine dining restaurant in golden stiletto heels, gym pants and a faded t-shirt. Very comfortable if you don’t count the shoes, and best of all… no-one ever knew but hubby.