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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Days 56, Tuesday 10th January and 57, Wednesday, 11th January, 2012

The last two days of the working week were as routine as the previous three, but there are a few things to note, and hence, I am entering those things here.


First off, Dr. Asadullah is a pleasure to chat with as he is very soft-spoken intellegent and kind hearted. It is sheer coincidence that he comes from the same geographical region of Pakistan as Dr. Niaz. When they meet, they speak in the seraki tongue, a type of language that takes from the Punjabi and the Multani languages. Dr. Asad loves his tongue, for he is a member of the Causes group on FB that wants the Seraki dialect to be an official language of Facebook. He has, within four days of his arrival in Al Muweh, already performed two appendicectomies. The case he did on Wednesday was a case of gangrenous appendix, and he told us that had he not performed the surgery, the patient would have perforated even before reaching Ta'if. Hats off to his courage and judgement.


The second thing is that I have prepared papers for demand of the House rent allowance and Furniture allowance to submit, via Mr. Md. Nawaf, to the Muderiya Sahat. Md. Nawaf is probably the most approachable person working in the administrative department of the Al Muweh General Hospital, and he helped me with the forms to be filled. The person who actually prepared the applications in Arabic and helped fill over 7 forms was, however, Dr. Aala, the E.N.T. specialist from Egypt. He is a portly, 55-year old doctor hailing from a small town north of Cairo. He is one of the most humble Egyptian doctors working in the hospital. Not only that, he is eager to help other doctors - especially non-Arabic speaking ones like me - guiding us, helping us to draft applications, write letters, and so on, and I have never seen or heard him procrastinate or avoid such requests for help. Hats off to him for being such a dear person. I pray that he lives long and that all his wishes and prayers are answered by the Almighty. 


The third thing is that in the last working week, there has been a decline in pediatric OPD patients as well as admissions. On Tuesday, I had about six to eight patients in the OPD and no admissions or calls from the ER. On Wednesday, there were just three OPD patients and one admission, which, too, did not require me to visit the ER, as the admitting resident, Dr. Measser, had already assessed the child correctly. He simply called me and admitted the child and endorsed the treatment recommended by me. 


Fourthly, 10th January was my wedding anniversary (the court marriage one ... I will be celebrating the actual Nikaah anniversary on the 20th January). Nishrin and I completed 22 years of marriage. I spoke to her on Skype, and as a token of the anniversary, I also had a chicken burger that I had bought in Ta'if on my last visit there. I also had a large chocolate to observe the anniversary. I miss being with her on this important day. The family plans to celebrate it with a dinner at some nice place on the 20th, and I extracted a promise that they would send me photos of that day's celebration. ;'-)


Finally, a word about the weather. Over the last ten days or so, the weather has changed - gradually, but perceptibly. The cold wave has passed, and the nights have become warmer than they were back then. I had to wear two or three layers of clothing to go out for the evening walks, now these are not needed. In the night, I simply wear my Tee shirt and my half pants and cover myself with the blanket. The fan is on throughout the night. 


Thus, it seems that winter is already over before mid-January. And they told me that the cold season would last till February end. What a pleasant (?) surprise.

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