Saudi By Numbers

Aug 26th, 2010

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.

What Time Is It?

Right. So it's Wednesday, just after a lunch the school provided of stirfry veggies and quail eggs with rice and ham-flavoured chicken. Are people that desperate for the taste of ham? And quail eggs . . . delicious. Are there flocks of quail somewhere in the desert? Secret quail farms, far from prying eyes?

But it hasn't all been quail eggs and ham since we got here. There has been work too, complicated by the fact that the new school we were to move into this week is not ready, so everything packed into boxes has to be unpacked so we can use it all again. Then sometime soon we'll get to pack it all up again for the move. But Saudi time, it turns out, isn't quite like what we're used to, especially during Ramadan. Everything slows down to accommodate the fact that no Muslims get to eat or drink during daylight hours, not even water, so they tend to stay up quite late at night making up for it. As a result, we are told, students live a kind of upside down life and can't always be trusted to be present or if present not always to be awake.

The long flights to get here, the seven hour time difference, and the associated jetlag have left the two of us pretty upside down as well, in terms of our sleep and general state of alertness. I discovered, for instance, last night while Rose struggled to get a few hours without waking up, that there is a lot to watch on tv between 2:30 a.m. and 4. I didn't even know there is an National Basketball Channel, and why it is available here in Saudi is an even greater puzzle. BBC World News is excellent, even that early in the morning; the same cannot be said for Fox (at any time of the day or night). The point is, Rose and I are still pretty muddled as to our body clocks and daily rhythms.

While our sleep patterns are messed up, our living quarters are not at all. See that lovely blue pool just steps from our door? Yesterday, just home from work, that pool looked so appealing I couldn't resist. Too hot to go for a run and too tired to try, I decided to go for a swim. It was like climbing into a bowl of soup, in terms of temperature that is, but a treat nonetheless. I won't bore you with details about the very spacious rooms in our villa other than to point out that our bed is the size of our deck in Owen Sound. Rose has to roll over and over and over to get close enough to hear me snore. It's like we've been given an acre, or is that a hectare, to sleep in. An air-conditioned acre, I might add.

Staff at the school have been very friendly and helpful, all the way from Paul Thompson, our Principal, to Johnny our head custodian. Everyone, it seems, wants us here and wants to do whatever it takes to make our stay and our work the best they can be. Paul has made it quite clear that he defers to his teaching staff regarding setting the curriculum, making the decisions about how best to teach the material, and what content is worth teaching. It's a bit of a strange feeling to be so trusted professionally.

Which brings me to the camel crossing signs. We've seen the signs but not the camels, and since the land here is as flat as flat can be, a camel should be pretty easy to spot. Alas, it hasn't happened yet.

How It Happened

After an intense weekend interview experience at the Search Associates job fair in Toronto at the end of January, Rose and I have selected the Yanbu International School in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, as our place of employ for the next two teaching years, beginning mid-August '10. You can see by the map we'll be right on the Red Sea, just north of the Tropic of Cancer.

To give you a sense of scale, Yanbu to Jeddah is about 240km.

It was a very difficult choice between Yanbu and Chengdu in China, but it came down to the fact that in Saudi we'd be teaching straight English. As our interviewer John Chapman put it, "Brad is the high school English Department and Rose is the middle school English department." As I put it, this should make for some interesting department meetings (over breakfast?).

Here's an excerpt taken from a very informative website with information about life in Saudi Arabia in general and Yanbu in particular:

YANBU

This was developed along with Jubail in the Eastern Province as an industrial city. Built on a smaller scale than its eastern cousin Yanbu comprises petrochemical & non hydrocarbon facilities plus a refinery & also the terminal of the East-West pipeline.


The precepts of Islam, together with deep rooted traditions founded on the customs of centuries, give to the Arab a deep respect for social dignity and courtesy. It is therefore important for foreigners to familiarise themselves with local custom. In particular, every personal contact, in all spheres of life begins with some form of courteous greeting and it is always much appreciated if foreigners take the trouble to learn Arabic forms of the greetings and responses which are, for this purpose, fairly standardised. Furthermore, a person visited must always stand up to greet and shake the hand of the visitor of any kind. Omission of this phase of the social or business contact give rise to automatic mild social offense. Arabs are understanding if a foreigner unwittingly commits a social blunder and make considerable allowances for shortcomings. Efforts to follow custom are highly regarded.

It is customary in Saudi Arabia for male relatives and close family friends to greet one another by kissing and for them to hold hands while walking and talking together.

The position of women in Saudi Arabia is far different from that in Western Countries. From an early age they live in extreme privacy and are not normally seen by men other than their husbands and close male relatives. In the houses of rich and poor alike, women have separate quarters into which only intimate members of the family are permitted, Accordingly, mixed social gatherings or parties are rare. The custom of purdah prevails in Saudi Arabia and women appear in public completely veiled from head to foot. It is most impolite to stare at them and on no account should they be photographed. European ladies are not expected to adopt purdah when outside the home but are expected to adopt sober, unrevealing dress, i.e. long sleeves, covered legs and high necklines. Except for taking part in sporting activities, European men are expected to appear in public with only arms and head uncovered.

The Arabs are justifiably famous for their hospitality and, while the standards of hospitality are set by custom, the Arab applies them with a warmth which reflects his enjoyment in entertaining his guest. The most usual gesture for the entertainment of an individual or small group is the serving of Arabic coffee or tea (sweetened and without milk) or soft drinks in offices and shops when the occasion arises. It is impolite to refuse these important tokens of hospitality.



Rose said early on in our search for an alternative teaching experience that she wanted to do something that put her "outside of her comfort zone". Well, I think we've succeeded in this. This should make for an experience both interesting and challenging.