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.

Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country

Yesterday BBC published a very interesting opinion piece from Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz - the youngest daughter of the Saudi Arabia's second king and niece to its current ruler: Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country Definitively worth a read!

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.

Together Against Corruption

It is a widely accepted fact that in Saudi Arabia (and for that matter, in the other Gulf countries, too) bribery and other forms of corruption have long been the primary mean of pursuing one's matters in government offices and also in private companies. But the attitudes seem to be changing.

For instance, over the past 1-2 years Saudi media has given much more attention to debate about corruption, uncovered abuse of public funds and so forth. Here is a recent article from Arab News: Man caught taking bribe red-handed

Still, I was somewhat amazed when I saw the below advertisement in a major local newspaper some time ago:

A new governmental body, The National Anti-Corruption Commission, was set up by a royal order last March. Apparently they are at least trying to fulfill their mission of combating corruption.

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.

Wadi Hanifa

For the most short-term visitors, Riyadh appears as a dry (scorchingly hot during the summer months) and dull car-oriented mega city. Too many ten lane highways, too many people with "only me" attitude, chaotic driving habits, awful traffic jams... you name it.

From this perspective it might be a bit odd to hear that Riyadh literally means "gardens" in Arabic. But as in any good Thousand and One Nights story, Riyadh is a city of hidden treasures. One such treasure is Wadi Hanifa, a some 120 km long valley cutting through the city from north to south.

The January/February 2012 issue of Saudi Aramco World (a periodical published by Saudi Aramco - the world's largest oil company) includes a very interesting article about Wadi Hanifa, its history as a Riyadh's collective garbage dump and sewer and a 10-year-long restoration project with a budget of around $1 billion.

Definitively worth the read!

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…