Our number 3 has its origins, as do almost all of our numbers, in the Arabic system of numbers dating back well over a few thousand years. I selected three because in our first few days living in Saudi Arabia, or as the locals call it, The Kingdom, this number kept cropping up in curious ways. For instance, last Thursday, the first day of the weekend for those of us living in The Kingdom, we went grocery shopping at a couple of local supermarkets, similar in many ways to Zehrs or Metro, but different enough so that we were constantly aware of being in a foreign place. It was during this shopping trip that three numbers stood out for me.
The first number is 115. This is the speed our new friend Borden Hasiuk, science teacher at the school, drove along a pretty standard strip of road through a shopping area, much like driving 115km an hour along The Sunset Strip on a Saturday morning just after ten o’clock. And we had several drivers zip by us at what must have been 140 or 150. This was somewhat startling, as you can well imagine, especially if you are pulling out of the IGA lot or trying to turn right out of the Beer Store/McDonald’s entry road.
The second number relates to the first in that it is the price per litre in Canadian currency of the gas we bought to drive that speed: 3.68 Saudi riyals to one Canadian dollar, according to a recent newspaper, The Arab News 35 (the only national paper we can get locally), and 33 Saudi riyals per litre, resulting in a Canadian price of just under 9 cents a litre.
Nine. Per litre. That is absolutely loony, if you’ll pardon the Canadian coinage.
The third number is the price I paid for the most unusual item on our shopping list: camel meat.
We travelled along a busy street at 115 km an hour on gas costing 9 cents a litre to buy, amongst other things, camel meat for which we paid about 42 SR per kilo (about $12). Now, there’s nothing special about that number, but I thought you should know how much it costs to eat a camel. It’s the sort of information that, once you’ve got it, you realize how useful it is. And if anyone tells you it tastes just like chicken, I’m here to let you know it doesn’t; it tastes like chewy mild beef, sort of. See if Cottenie’s can get some in. You’ll see I’m right about this.
Here’s the best bit, though, about buying camel meat. To let the customer know that it’s available, the camel’s head is put on display in the meat counter, alongside its innards. Now why don’t they do that at Zehr’s? I’ve included a photo of the meat counter for your enjoyment, but I’ve put it at the end so you are warned ahead, sorry, of time. The picture right here is of the meal Rose and I enjoyed.
That’s Saudi by the numbers, so to speak, or at least our experience of it in these first few days of living in Yanbu on the Red Sea. I could have written about four numbers if I’d decided to include yesterday’s high temperature of over 45 C, but some numbers just don’t bear thinking about, even in the land where those numbers were invented.
Mmmm....Camel Head. He/She looks delicious.
ReplyDeletehahah John I was just about to write "mmmm...camel head." It does look like she/he is smiling a bit in a "look how awesome my innards look" sort of way. Keep up the posts, dad!
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