At the end of November a bunch of people from King Faisal Hosp. went to Hofuf - about a 3 hour train-ride east of Riyadh.
Camels at the camel souk.
The desert at dusk.
Pottery maker.
Me - climbing a palm tree.
And, the train ride home.Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Train Trip to Hofuf
Camels at the camel souk.
The desert at dusk.Pottery maker.
Me - climbing a palm tree.
And, the train ride home.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Eid and a Stabbing
A couple of days after I returned from Canada, the Holy Month of Ramadan came to a close. To celebrate the month of fasting, Muslims have a celebration called 'Eid'. It is kinda the equivelent to what Christmas is to Christians.
Everyone is happy during Eid...not just the people who were fasting, but us westerners as well. Patients and staff are much less grumpy when properly fed. It's also nice to not have to worry about when and where you can take a sip of water. As non-muslims we can only drink and eat in private where those fasting will not see us. And this rule is enforced by the police.
Muslims are not allowed to even chew gum, smoke a cigarette or have IV fluids running into their viens between sunrise and sunset if they are fasting. Some of the extra religious ones do not even swallow their own saliva. (Their is an exception for people who are sick, old, pregnant or menstrating. But they are supposed to pay an extra amount of money to the poor to compensate).
I was once sitting in the back staff room (I had forgotten to close the door) having a cup of tea. One of the doctors walked in and caught me. He jokingly gave me a really hard time for it. Thank goodness I spent most of Ramadam in Canada!
So Eid has come as a big releif for everyone concerned. People celebrate by wishing each other 'Eid Mubarok!'. The security gaurds hand out chocolate. And the Children get all dressed up in traditional clothing. Most people are happy, but not everyone (foreshadowing).
Enter Stabbing:
Last night at work I was peacefully preparing my medications in our medication room, when I heard a comotion. I stuck my head out the door and I saw one man in the corridor holding another man who was shaking. I thought he was having a seizure (this is not uncommon on the neurosurgical ward). Then I saw alot of blood. I thought it was some kind of medical emergency.
But it registered in my mind that that senario wouldn't make alot of sense. The Saudi men had taken their head-peices off and were using the thick black cords that keep them in place to beat each other! (I have seen them do that on our ward before). They were also using the thick tin hospital plate warmers to beat each other on the head.
It made me nervous to see how many people were involved...about ten. And the mob was moving closer to the nursing desk where I was standing! They were in between us nurses and the exit. Two nurses had already managed to run off the ward to go find security and one was on the phone trying to contact someone.
I was still standing by the desk with my mouth open when someone yelled 'he has a knife'. And sure enough, one poor man was getting stabbed. I really just wanted to climb under the desk and hide till it was over.
I thought I should go look for security because the minutes were ticking by and they still hadn't showed up. There was a security desk right around the corner from our ward, but strangely it was empty. There were other people standing outside the ward peering through the window, but no-one actually wanted to go in and break-up the fight. I even went into the hospital mosque to see if the guards had left thier post to go pray. But they were not there either. By the time they got to the ward, both the attacker and the victim had fled.
It took us a while to figure out what had happed. But the story we got was that it was the result of a long-standing family fued. The attacker had come to the ward looking for the sitter of one of the patients with the intent of attacking him. The patient who had witnessed the initial exchange wasn't able to give us any information. He was just a frail, confused, little, old man. Infact he was so frightened that he spent the rest of the night with his blankets pulled over his head.
One of my patients who had a brain tumor and left-sided weakness happened to be walking by when the fight started. He tried to break up the fight but only managed to loose a shoe and get blood splattered on his robe. What I first thought was a mob of people fighting each other, was only two attackers with the rest of the men trying to break up the fight. I thought it was interesting how, instead of standing by and watching two strangers fight, all the Saudi men who witnessed it got involved. It didn't matter if they were sitters, visitors, family or patients.
None of us have heard what happened to the man who got stabbed, but as far as I could tell he wasn't stabbed in the chest or head. It looked like the blood was coming from his shoulder. We heard that the attacker was arrested. I think his visiting priviledges will be revoked for some time!
Everyone is happy during Eid...not just the people who were fasting, but us westerners as well. Patients and staff are much less grumpy when properly fed. It's also nice to not have to worry about when and where you can take a sip of water. As non-muslims we can only drink and eat in private where those fasting will not see us. And this rule is enforced by the police.
Muslims are not allowed to even chew gum, smoke a cigarette or have IV fluids running into their viens between sunrise and sunset if they are fasting. Some of the extra religious ones do not even swallow their own saliva. (Their is an exception for people who are sick, old, pregnant or menstrating. But they are supposed to pay an extra amount of money to the poor to compensate).
I was once sitting in the back staff room (I had forgotten to close the door) having a cup of tea. One of the doctors walked in and caught me. He jokingly gave me a really hard time for it. Thank goodness I spent most of Ramadam in Canada!
So Eid has come as a big releif for everyone concerned. People celebrate by wishing each other 'Eid Mubarok!'. The security gaurds hand out chocolate. And the Children get all dressed up in traditional clothing. Most people are happy, but not everyone (foreshadowing).
Enter Stabbing:
Last night at work I was peacefully preparing my medications in our medication room, when I heard a comotion. I stuck my head out the door and I saw one man in the corridor holding another man who was shaking. I thought he was having a seizure (this is not uncommon on the neurosurgical ward). Then I saw alot of blood. I thought it was some kind of medical emergency.
But it registered in my mind that that senario wouldn't make alot of sense. The Saudi men had taken their head-peices off and were using the thick black cords that keep them in place to beat each other! (I have seen them do that on our ward before). They were also using the thick tin hospital plate warmers to beat each other on the head.
It made me nervous to see how many people were involved...about ten. And the mob was moving closer to the nursing desk where I was standing! They were in between us nurses and the exit. Two nurses had already managed to run off the ward to go find security and one was on the phone trying to contact someone.
I was still standing by the desk with my mouth open when someone yelled 'he has a knife'. And sure enough, one poor man was getting stabbed. I really just wanted to climb under the desk and hide till it was over.
I thought I should go look for security because the minutes were ticking by and they still hadn't showed up. There was a security desk right around the corner from our ward, but strangely it was empty. There were other people standing outside the ward peering through the window, but no-one actually wanted to go in and break-up the fight. I even went into the hospital mosque to see if the guards had left thier post to go pray. But they were not there either. By the time they got to the ward, both the attacker and the victim had fled.
It took us a while to figure out what had happed. But the story we got was that it was the result of a long-standing family fued. The attacker had come to the ward looking for the sitter of one of the patients with the intent of attacking him. The patient who had witnessed the initial exchange wasn't able to give us any information. He was just a frail, confused, little, old man. Infact he was so frightened that he spent the rest of the night with his blankets pulled over his head.
One of my patients who had a brain tumor and left-sided weakness happened to be walking by when the fight started. He tried to break up the fight but only managed to loose a shoe and get blood splattered on his robe. What I first thought was a mob of people fighting each other, was only two attackers with the rest of the men trying to break up the fight. I thought it was interesting how, instead of standing by and watching two strangers fight, all the Saudi men who witnessed it got involved. It didn't matter if they were sitters, visitors, family or patients.
None of us have heard what happened to the man who got stabbed, but as far as I could tell he wasn't stabbed in the chest or head. It looked like the blood was coming from his shoulder. We heard that the attacker was arrested. I think his visiting priviledges will be revoked for some time!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Canoeing the Assiniboine
For Trent and Colin's 10th birthdays, Sandi and I took them canoeing down the Assiniboine. The river current was in our favour, but we had to put a bit of effert in against the wind. We also had the challenge of trying to avoid rock - most of the time successfully. At some areas the river was so shallow that we were scraping rocks with the bottom of our canoe. The guys did great. Not only did they help us navigate rocks, but they were great paddlers!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Hanging Village
This village was built into the side of a mountain. It was only accessable to visitors by cable car. The rooms that you see at the top are built so that Saudi families can have their picnics in privacy and the female members of the family can take of their veils to eat.
Animals of Saudi
Until I moved to Saudi, I had no idea that baboons lived there too.We came across these on a drive through the country-side.
In Abha we also visited an animal souq where camels, goats, sheep and cows were being sold.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Bling Bling
We visited a gold souq (market place) in Abha. The jewelers were very friendly and let us try on the gold.
This girls is wearing over 100,000 Riayals worth of gold. This is an ensamble usually worn by Saudi brides.
This girls is wearing over 100,000 Riayals worth of gold. This is an ensamble usually worn by Saudi brides.People I met in Abha
In Abha last weekend, it wasn't uncommon for the locals to come up ask to have their pictures taken. As westerners we were as much a novelty to them as they were to us. According to Saudi culture, it's not appropriate to take pictures of the females. So that explains why I mostly have pictures of the one gender.Friday, September 7, 2007
Abha
This weekend I visited Abha - located south/west of Riyadh. It's the popular destination for tourist from all over the country - boasting the only national park. It was a lovely respite from the heat of Riyadh. And it was really nice just to see some new scenery.
Notice the mineret along the skyline? Every town and city in this country usually have a couple.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Aramco
In May of this year a couple of us girls from work went to Dahran for the weekend. Dahran is located about a four hour drive east of Riyadh, close to the island country, Bahrain. Dahran is home to Saudi's largest oil company also known as 'Saudi Aramco'. It produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day! Formerly the US owned 50% of the shares. Now it is solely owned by the kingdom. But there is still alot of American influence in the town.
It is one of the only places in the country where you will see women driving. Americans and Saudis live side-by-side on the same street, and women and men sit next to each other in the movie theater. Yes! There is a movie theater! One of the only real ones in the country. So besides watching a movie, we also went bowling in public. As the picture below shows, we sat outside without abayas on and drank our coffee. These are things we could never, ever do in Riyadh. But the most interesting thing is that we went to a huge church that is completely sanctioned by the Saudi government. The Americans made the agreement back in the 70's that if they were to work for the Saudi's they must be allowed freedom of worship. 
May had just a little too much freedom. Here we are raiding the left-over food from the women's brunch we attended.
May had just a little too much freedom. Here we are raiding the left-over food from the women's brunch we attended.
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