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Thursday, August 08, 2013

On the eve of the Eid in Saudi Arabia

The peculiar employment rules of the Ministry of Health require those who are doing their duty during the Eid holidays to work for six hours in two shifts on the last two days of Ramadan (as we did during the rest of the month) and to work for eight hours (as we do during the rest of the year) on the first and second of Shawwal, the ensuing month ... the first of Shawwal being also the Eid feast day. Thus, this time, I did the split duties on Tuesday and Wednesday, but on the Thursday and Friday, I would be doing the full day's duty. 

This is then compensated by the management granting us 4 days' leave. This is the so-called MURABTA. Thus, while my colleague is enjoying his leave in Egypt, I'll be busy doing work - including the next two days. However, I should probably not complain, since that's the way the cookie crumbles out here.

Anyways, Ramadan was quite interesting. There wasn't much work. Dr. Yasser was here with me for the first two weeks, and it is only after that that he left for Egypt on his annual vacation. Just before he left, I was able to travel to Makkah for my Umrah, alhamdolillah.

Back at work, emergency calls were few and far between. There were a few challenges, but that was it. During the long afternoons that ended with the return to duty at nine p.m., I slept, surfed the net, studied (a little), chatted with online friends, called my family and so on and so forth. I fasted as usual, and broke my fasts at home except for a few days, when I was invited to break the fast with my friends Salman (from the pharmacy) and Dr. Emaam (from the ER). Both the experiences were fantastic.

I cooked very little food, as I had lots of food leftover from the past month, as well as the items that I had brought from the Asian restaurant during my last visit to Ta'if. In addition, I was unable to eat a lot of food on account of the different eating hours. In the end, I cooked barely 4-5 times during the entire month, not counting snacky items like fried potatoes, samosas, etc. 

To sum it up, it was an interesting month. And now, I am looking forward to what happens during the next three months.  And that's it for now.

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