Walkabout

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Dr. Will and Students on Strike

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Well, as all you hospital peeps still reading this blog will appreciate, I am once again known as "Doctor Will." That's right, for my second consecutive job, my name is Dr. Will. I'm thinking of asking U of C for an honorary doctorate!

For those that don't know, the Dr. Will trend started when I was at Foothills talking to patients. I guess I come across so authoritatively on the phone that people just assumed I was a doctor and often called me as much. But since I never used my last name, I became Dr. Phil's slightly more handsome counterpart (although I possibly have better credentials than THAT hack....) Anyway, apparently the name has stuck. The students over here call all the teachers Doctors, so after a brief hiatus while travelling, I'm back to my under-qualified, over-inflated roots!

In other comic news, the students (who as you may recall get paid 1000 riyals a month for attending university) are expecting a late paycheck this month. As such, there is much talk at the school of a student strike starting tomorrow. How 'bout that! The students are sad they're not getting paid for school so they've decided to make their tragic cause known! I know they can count on all of your support! There's also a rumor on the grapevine that they're having some unexpected problems getting solidarity. Seems the slackers are much more keen to strike than the really good students. Go figure.

I will let you all know how it goes down.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Out in the desert

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Today is March 19, which means I've been seeing Sedef now for 6 months! 6 months! Not sure how times goes so fast. And it was 3 months before that when I left Canada... So yeah, within the next week I will have been gone 9 months. It's a long time and I know I haven't been the greatest at keeping in touch with everyone, but rest assured I'm having a great time, even though, right now as I write this a dust storm rages outside and the smell of dusty smoke is penetrating my room, even through tightly shut windows. Anyway, I digress:

Yesterday I had a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to share it with you as I know many of you will never make it to Saudi Arabia. It started last week, when some students offered to take us out to the annual Janadriah festival just outside Riyadh. It's the biggest cultural festival in the Kingdom and a must see if you're in the area at the right time. They then offered to take us out to the desert to one of their uncle's farms. Needless to say three other teachers and me, hastily agreed.

Two days ago, wanting to look the part, us four teachers went out and bought some throbes. You know, those really long pure white linen type things that everyone wears over here? They put us out 70 riyals or about 20 dollars. But they look smooooooooooooooth.

3 students on the left, 3 teachers (alex, me and Matt) and two more students on the right.

Yesterday was the first day the festival was open to the public. Unfortunately the camel races were only on the vip day on wednesday. However we did see plenty of crafts from different parts of the country, met lots of strangers, enjoyed a cup of arabic coffee and dates in a tent, wandered through a couple museums anda couple old buildings (well new buildings but manufactures in an older style), saw some cultural dances and some military gets flying in formation for us. Overall, it was a pretty cool experience. No, a very cool experience. Some photos follow:

A central eating courtyard

My new snake friend and I

Chillin in a United Arab Emirites style tent.

Jets over rooftops

Traditional Arabic dancers

Part of the dancing group. They raised swords up and down with the music.

I never even saw one of these in Canada!!!! But Saudi has them!

A traditional style room and vase

But all that was nothing. The real adventure started at sundown. 10 of us piled into two SUV's and we took off down the highway. About 10 minutes into the drive, we pulled over at what looked to me a fairly random point, and started off-roading. We travelled in the packed dust along the side of the highway for a few kilometers then turned away from it, and headed into the empty desert along roads that were nothing more than a few sets of tire tracks marked by old cement blocks every few hundred meters so you don't get lost. For the next 15 minutes we passed..... nothing. Other than a few shrubs or rocks, there was nothing. Eventually a few camps, lit with electric bulbs in tall treelike shapes came into a view. We passed a couple of them and continued on until we reached a large field of sand, lit by a circle of a dozen floodlights all powered by gas generator.

The SUV's turned in and we found ourselves parked inbetween a makeshift (sand) soccer pitch, a giant bedouin tent and a halfdozen shacks, haphazardly constructed with scraps of metal and wood. The farm's owner, was a very friendly middleaged guy named Aish. He invited us into the tent, a place where they often spend their weekends, he said, and we drank some more arabic coffee and ate some more dates, under the soft glow of electric bulbs and a television set. There was a fire pit in the middle of the tent and the smoke blew out the many opened flaps.

He introduced us to his dogs, his two arabian horses and his many camels, one of which he milked on the spot and gave us some to drink only seconds from being extracted. It tasted surprisingly good and not as warm as I would have expected. With a big grin, Aish joked it tasted like women's milk then looked around for confirmation... We returned with blank stares, completely unprepared for any kind of sexual comment from anyone in this incredibly sexually repressed culture.

We returned to the tent where he brought out his horses again and we were able to ride them. At first he had them bareback but upon seeing my apprehension went to fetch a saddle (although I have to admit I was kind of eager to ride an Arabian bareback. nonetheless I got on and after a few minutes the horse and I quickly bonded. His name was Mantar. We rode around the large soccer pitch and after a short jaunt returned to the tent. I went inside to relax with some tea while others took their turn. Prayertime came and Mantar was tied up. I went over to keep him company and later, throughout the night, whenever I was sitting in the tent, and made eye contact with him through the open flap he would whinny eagerly and I would go out to meet him. Later I rode around again, and we went for a much longer ride. He was great with me and after settling in for another few minutes we were galloping across desert full tilt. The other teachers now call me horsemaster Will.

Anyway, once again i returned to the tent. We ate a full sheep with rice that was prepared for everyone in the traditional manner. They don't use utensils here so we dug in with our hands, ripping off pieces of meat and shoveling rice into our mouths. It's even more challenging then you would think though because it's extremely rude to eat with our left hand. So everything is done entirely onehanded. Of course we washed it all down with a cold pepsi! Guess brandname marketing has even reached the middle of ass-nowhere. Afterwards, we kicked pack on the comfortable pillows and carpets in the tent, and after midnight, were driven back to the hotel. All in all, a perfect day.

If you don't travel...... You're missing out.

The camels

Matt, Aish and I with a new camel friend

Getting some camel love

A blurry Mantar and I

The bedouin tent

TV? Why not, it's the 21st cenury

from left to right: ??, Michael, Alex, Aish, Me, Matt - the four teachers that went

Dinner!!!!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Kingdom

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A true color image of the street outside my hotel during a sandstorm.

Yes, I know "The Kingdom" is a movie title and somewhat overdramatic name for Saudi, but you have to admit it is cool. And since I plan to talk a bit about the country, I thought maybe it was appropriate.

So..... What the hell is the deal with Saudi Arabia? Well, in many ways it's much better than I expected, in many ways it's worse. But it's entirely different.

The culture here is very restrictive and entirely segregated. Since I arrived here nearly one month ago I have not talked to one woman in this country. I haven't said a word to one, nor heard a word from one, and that includes the occasional western woman I see in the supermarket. In fact it's rare to even see a woman on the street or in a store, let alone her face or hair. It really is... different.

In general the people here are friendly although they are quite distant. I can't help but get the impression that for the most part, they don't particularly wan't foreigners here, and don't particularly want to talk to us. Most of the locals I talk to are other ex-pats, either from another middle eastern country, or from the phillipines.

Saudi's rarely work in the service industry. Instead they hire foreign workers from poor countries that will do the job for very little pay. Every adult male gets a fairly significant annual payment from the government for... well... for being Saudi I guess. About 20,000 USD. Students also get paid by the government to go to university and since all their positions are based on who you know ie. inheriting your father's business (as opposed to WHAT you know, or how capable you are) they have very little motivation to learn or excel. I foresee this being a huge problem for the country as globalization increases and foreign influences exert themselves.

Nonetheless, living here, you can feel the history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than any other place I've been too, Saudi Arabia has a distinctive flavour. They're proud of their country and extremly proud of Islam. However, despite their extreme passion for the religion, I would say I have yet to meet anyone I would classify as extremist. For the most part they seem to do an extremely good job of focusing on the positive aspects to the religion. Of course they're extremly uneducated about any other religion or way of thinking and don't welcome other opinions.

One of the first things I was told upon arriving was "don't talk about religion, government, or women. Chances are any positive or negative discussion of any of those subjects will get you fired and sent home." As such, I avoid talking about them.

On the plus side, I have an extremly fortunate opportunity. It is extremly difficult to get a visa to this country, and little about this place is known throughout the world. Especially the western world. I have a great chance to really see one of the last, true, purely independent cultures in the world and that in itself is an exciting prospect.

My room here is far above par, and all of my needs (except food) are covered and for the most part covered well. Money never seems to be an object of debate here, so they are quite happy to provide me with whatever I need. I will talk more about some of the places I've been soon. For now I've included a few pictures of my hotel room, so you can get an idea of my accomodations. Yes I am staying in a hotel. Isn't it expensive you ask? Yes. Yes it is. They why does my company pay it you ask? Because someone with my visa can't live anywhere else.