Loading

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Two months plus in Saudi Arabia now

Most of my friends already know that I am currently employed by the Ministry of Health, Government of Saudi Arabia, as a Pediatrician in Al Moweh town in the Ta'if/Makkah region of that country. I have been working in the Al-Moweh General Hospital for almost 50 days now, and the journey so far has been full of downs and ups. Mercifully, the current level of my comfort in this country is high. I have a residence permit, my salary for the last 2 months, a fairly well-appointed house taken on rent, and blessings from Allah. The work is not very strenuous, and I get about 2 full days off every alternate week. In addition, I cook my own food, splurge money on snacks, biscuits and the like. 


I talk to my family every day, skype with them every 2-3 days, chat with my parents at least twice a week, and spend the evenings walking, jogging, networking, reading, surfing the net, watching movies, spending time at the supermarkets and so on.


I have overcome the resistance of not wanting to make chapatis; have made them thrice so far, and am enjoying consuming them. I eat sometimes at the Kerala hotel (fish curry/rice/dosai or their sambar/dosai/vegetable curry for breakfast). Once or twice, I had chicken hamburger/keema roll at a Yemeni fast food joint located near the garden - the one and only garden in the town.


I have become a lot more pious here and do my namaaz at least 80-90 per cent of the time, excluding the morning prayers, which is an obstacle I have not yet overcome. I also read the Yaa-sin chapter from the Qur'an, and read the other sections of the Qur'an whenever I can. 


I still do not have TV in the house, and therefore get bored at times. I do have about 60 movies on my laptop, many of them still unseen, and I do see them regularly, This helps to cut the time and end the evenings. On a few occasions, I invited Dr. Narendra (an Ortho surgeon who is from India) to my house for dinner and he has done likewise for me.


Nothing else of note to write here, so I will sign off this entry. I hope you liked the encapsulated history of my tenure in Saudi so far. To read more, go to my blog on Saudi Arabia. Click here.

No comments: