Staying in Missan - Days 2 to 7 (June 2 to June 7, 2013)

Readers of my blog must have already read the last post before this, where I described the circumstances surrounding my going to Missan as well as my arrival and the first evening spent in the room inside the Male Ward. In this post, I am going to describe how my next six days went ... and at the end of week, how I returned to Al Muwayh.

Each day was like any previous (or following) day. What changed were the faces I saw, the people I met, and the experiences I accumulated. On the second day evening, I encountered a child who had accidentally ingested an unknown but potentially dangerous quantity of a skin lotion; we gave him the goods, and he emerged unscathed. On the third morning, I discovered that unlike other locations I have worked at (including Al Muwayh), Missan hospital has established an unique and very robust morning conference, where the Medical Director convenes a meeting of all the specialists in a specially designated "conference room" and turn by turn, the specialists present the cases seen by them the previous day. I also met many new doctors and nurses, both in the ER and in the OPDs. Some of them I have stored in my brain as casual contacts, and a few, I grew slightly more close to, so that I can perhaps be good friends with them, should I need to go to Missan again in the future.

One of these was Sister Aimee, who was on night duty in the male ward on my second night. She and I hit it off rather well, and I learned something of what she calls the "Law of Attraction". Don't get me wrong ... it has nothing to do with attraction between people in the way you think; rather, it has to do with an unique policy everyone should adopt ... believe in your own self, and think positively, because, if you do so, the universe conspires to bring that which you truly desire, to you. I was reminded of Paulo Coelho's book which deals with some of the same things (The Alchemist). The next night, she prompted me to watch a 90 minute documentary on the very same topic, and I was almost convinced that the philosophy seemed workable. I resolved to start acting more positively from then on.

I tried for the first few days to liven my stay by connecting the room TV set (which only showed one channel - the Kaaba channel) to my set-top box, but in spite of numerous efforts to get the thing going, I was unable to fix the problem. I resigned myself to shutting off the TV altogether.

The lack of a good internet signal was extremely frustrating, and the search for a site with a better signal ultimately took me outside on the road, where they have made a pedestrian bridge to cross the road. It is not in use, and I climbed up this till I was fairly above the road. To my utter surprise, when I tried to link my laptop from there, the connection was established rather easily, and I completed all my "internet based work" here before returning to my room. Over the next few days, I would return to this location repeatedly, but always after Maghrib prayers, to surf the net. However, it became increasingly more cold out in the dark, and I was therefore forced to look for alternative solutions. It was then that I discovered that many of the nurses had WiFi in their rooms in the hostel within, and it would be possible to sit in the hospital grounds and access this WiFi, provided I knew the password. It was on the penultimate day that I received the password from one of the nurses (Sister Nursia from the D.R. or the "delivery room"), and I was able to do some amount of surfing as a result of that. 

To tell you the truth, I also went twice in the week to Dr. Bala's house, and we had dinner together. Those two evenings, I used his internet connection to surf the net and do my work. On the first occasion, we ate leftovers of food from his refrigerator, and on the second occasion (Thursday 6th June), Dr. Bala prepared sada dosa with chutney and sambar, and this was delightful to eat. In fact, we had a third outing together to a local Sudani/Yemeni restaurant, where we ordered chicken and rice. While one of the chickens was a simple tandoori preparation, the other was cooked over a row of hot stones kept astride the fire that burned from below. We rounded off the meal with a cold drink.

The flow of patients was very, very poor, and this made the passage of time very slow indeed. However, it was my good fortune to meet four very nice ER doctors ... they kept up the conversation with me and helped me pass the time. These doctors were Drs. Akil (the ER head, a Pakistani), Shafi (a M.D. Gen. Med. from Bihar, India, who is working here in the Kingdom as a ER doctor), Eftikhar (a Sudani young woman who is here since the past eight months) and Erama (also a young, Sudani woman who is here since a year). Over the four or five days that we interacted, I think I gelled well with all of them, and also a few more doctors such as Dr. Shadi (a Syrian ER doc who is a friend of Dr. Measser from Al Muwayh), Dr. Shahaar ( who works across the road in Missan's Dialysis center) and Dr. Lubna (ALSO a Sudani ER doc). 

From among the specialists, I began to get acquainted with most of them, but I guess I was relatively closest to Dr. Bala. His colleague Dr. Ummu-Salma also seemed to be a happy-go-lucky individual, as also Dr. Ghulam Reshi (Kashmiri Indian) from Medicine and Dr. Ghulam (Radiologist and sonologist from Pakistan). 

Among the nurses, it was my observation that as this hospital is an old set-up, many of the nurses here are relatively senior in age and experience, but there is young blood too. There is a system here where the pediatric nurse is the one solely responsible for the pediatric work. She not only works in the OPD, she also attends the pediatric rounds with the consultant, helps stabilise and if needed, resuscitate the newborn in the delivery room, helps vaccinate the babies and also maintains records of all kinds - not just for local storage, but also for submission to the Ministry. My peds nurse was Sister Eleonor. She was with me all the six days. With over 18 years under her belt in Missan, you can see she was good at her work. 

During my stay here, I also went out and up a road that ascended behind the hospital. I think that was on my last day, a Friday. I took photos of the scenery around me and of the hospital below, and I am taking the liberty to post some of the pictures right here: do feel free to comment on the photos if needed.

A hill in the distance

The hospital seen from behind and above it

A close-up of the view above

Cactuses on the hill's ledges

A nice flowering plant

Nice inflorescence, isn't it?

A beautiful compostion of rocks and grass

On Saturday morning, my replacement arrived by nine, a benign, sixty year old Egyptian pediatrician from a place called Qariyah, and it was almost another hour and a half before a driver arrived to take me back to Ta'if. I was taken to the MOH car garage, where my driver coordinated with the director to put me on a SUV to take me to Al Muwayh, but this took another hour, so that it was 2:30 p.m. when I started on the return journey, armed with all my luggage, and about 9-10 water bottles, collected over the past seven days. I arrived at my house at half past six. 

It was the culmination of an extra-ordinary week.

Trip to Missan: a new place, and what an experience! Day 1

A day after my return to Al Muwayh after my five day stint in Ta'if, my medical director informed me that I was being sent to a place called MISSAN. This small village, located 100-120 km south of Ta'if, is one of the southernmost places administered by the Ta'if Health directorate. I was going there because the pediatrician over there was either away or not available. My duty would be for the WHOLE week, from Saturday, 1st June to Friday, 7th June 2013.

I was understandably peeved, as I had just unpacked my bag just a day before, and here I was being asked to get ready once again to leave my house. However, I had already been intimated about this duty a month ago. so I had to agree. I went back home to pack my bag. This time, I decided to take with me my water boiler (for tea), some packets of biscuits, a box of cereal (Kellogg's Special), tea bags etc. and also my cable TV receiver. I wasn't sure what facilities would be available there, and what would not, hence the overkill!

Missan, with a population less than half of Al Muwayh, promised to be an utterly boring place, and I was not very hopeful that I would be able to access the net either. Also, it is almost 350 km away from Al Muwayh, and I wasn't going to offer to take my car there. I told my medical director to send a hospital vehicle to my place within an hour, when I would be ready to leave. Thus it was that the driver came over to my place at half past eleven. He informed me that he would only leave me till Ta'if, where he would co-ordinate with a person from Missan, who was waiting at Ta'if to take me to his village in the south. Well, that was a sensible arrangement, wasn't it? Who was I to complain?

Accordingly, we completed the first leg of the journey in under 2 hours, and then, we were met by one Mr. Abdul Aziz, who is the Head of Nutrition services in Missan General Hospital. An employee of the MOH, Abdul Aziz lives in Ta'if and goes to Missan periodically to meet his job requirements. He turned out to be a young, dynamic person. When I suggested that we have a meal before proceeding further, he readily agreed, and we had a typical Arabian meal of rice and dry chicken with a side order of cooked okra in a nearby Bukhari restaurant. He footed the entire bill in spite of my protestations not to do so.

The second leg of the journey is about 130 km if you access the eastern approach, and about 100 km if you take the western, alternate route to Missan. Abdul Aziz took the first option. The road starts winding up the mountain sides and narrows down to just one lane on both sides. However, the road quality remains excellent as you drive up and down the curves and the narrows. What does enthrall you, however, is the complete change from a barren desert environment into a cooler, greener one with rows of trees, farms and grass ... did you just ask if I really wrote that? Yes, well, I did. And here are some pictures to prove it.

My glum demeanour had already transformed into that of an eager, excited person, who is seeing something for the first time! And it was like that. I have never before seen that much greenery in the kingdom. So, here I was, being driven past green farms, trees, herds of sheep feeding on the grass and such other sights.

I reached the portals of the Hospital at a little after 2:30 p.m. I was acquainted with the Hospital director, the Medical Director and one of the senior nurses. The nurse took me around the place, showing me the wards, the OPD, the delivery room, the ER and the OR. I realised that this hospital is an old one. because it resembles the hospital I had been posted to earlier this year - the one at Khurma. However, I rather liked this set up because the hospital is built like a square block rather than the long structure that we have in Al Muwayh.

The rest of the day passed without any active incident. I met the various doctors in the OPD as well as the ER, met many of the nurses here, some of whom are Indians. In particular, I would like to mention Dr. Bala and Dr, Ummu-Salma, both anaesthetists from India, Drs. Eftikhar, Akil and Sahar, all ER doctors, all from Sudan, Sisters Jocey, Aimee, Virginia, George, Mercita ... from the Philippines and India (Jocey) and others. The M.D. Dr. Qaiser, is a Kashmiri doctor. Over the coming days, I would meet many more doctors as I went about my work, but the first impression I had was rather nice. The subordinate staff helped me set up my "room" ... one of the in-patient rooms in the Male Ward that has been given up permanently for doctors who come to Missan as substitutes for the Pediatrician. It is then that I discovered that their Egyptian pediatrician actually passed away a few months ago, and different doctors from various places have been substituting for him since then. 

The room was a patient room, yes, but it had all the facilities one would look for, including a hot water geyser, a TV, working A/C, 2 beds, a small but adequate almirah, and so on. There was no ventilation, and this was causing some stuffiness, so I "borrowed" a table fan from the Nurses counter in the Female ward. The bath drainage was choked and I had a tough time with this, as, by the end of the bath, I was standing in ankle deep water.

My first hospital meal was today's dinner. It was the typical hospital meal with rice, khubz and a big piece of chicken and a side dish of some overcooked vegetable. There was a sugar-free china grass dessert (the only dessert they seem to make, since I had it over 10 times over the next 13 meals), a fruit and a chopped salad. 

After dinner, I spent time chatting with Sr. Jocey, who was in the \male ward. Thereafter, I returned to my room and discovered to my horror that the Mobily internet signal was NON-EXISTENT in the room. I went out with the laptop, but the signal never improved, no matter in which part of the hospital I went, and I was forced to gnash my teeth and retire hurt to my room, where I glumly saw a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy Season 8 before going to sleep.

It was a week that I was looking forward to, as I would be able to relax once again after a week of work in Al Muwayh. Dr. Yasser has been very cooperative of late, and he immediately signed my leave form. The only problem was that he wanted me back in Al Muwayh on Wednesday night as he wanted to go to Ta'if on Thursday morning.

I decided to make the best of the next few days. I left for Ta'if in the afternoon, reaching there on Monday evening. I took my usual room in Hotel Ahle Saif, which, as my readers might already know, is located right above the Asian restaurant in Aziziya area of Ta'if. It also has free, fast wireless for its guests. It is in close proximity to a Kerala restaurant known as the Thara restaurant, and is right opposite the Makkah/Jeddah taxi stand. It is close to Tahweel-Al-Rajhi, the service counter of the Al Rajhi bank which caters to thousands of non-Saudi men and women who wish to transfer money to their families in their home countries. It is also close to Babariya area (where you can purchase fresh meat and fish), Shubra (with all its myriad collections of shops that sell food, clothes, shoes, etc.), Abu Baker Siddiq St. (with its Vitamin Palace, electronics shops, clothes shops and what not). To top it all, the managers there know me well, and charge me a very reasonable lodging rate.

In the night, I ate dinner (mince meat with roti) at the Asian restaurant. Back in the hotel, I spent time blogging, playing Criminal Case on FB, facebooking, downloading some movies, and surfing the net). Slept late.

I went to the Muderiya the next morning, and by early afternoon, I was in possession of the muqafa of Dr. Narendra. I finally wired him the money by evening. A fruitfully spent day. However, some knots are still left to be untangled. Let's see how we can retrieve some more of his money from the Ministry of Health. In the evening, I met up with Dr. Asadullah who is a friend, and hails from Pakistan. He took me to a car mechanic by the name of Choudhary Shabbir, who organised and repaired some of the glaring problems in my car. He also offered to take Dr. Asad and me to a new place to eat. Our original plan was to eat Chinese food, but when we reached the place where the restaurant is located, we discovered that it was closed for renovation.

The change of plan then took us to "Kababjee" a Saudi-owned, Turkish managed place on Shahar St. The photos below are from there. As you can see, this place makes no bones about the fact that they sell meat. Raw skinned carcasses of goats adorn the display windows! 

Dr. Asadullah

Self with the companions enjoying a mixed tandoori platter with rice

The main sign-board of the Kababjee restaurant

Those are goat/lamb carcasses hanging in the display

The interior with tables on one side and the serving area on the other.

Mr Shabir Choudhary, whose treat it was

What we ordered was a rice and mixed platter of kababs for four. However, the quantity was too much, and we could only finish half of the food served on the plate. As a side dish, we ordered some mince-mutton samosas, and these were very delicious. Service was great, and the food arrived piping hot. Of the platter, the chicken seekh and the lamb seekh were both fantastic. The tandoori chicken pieces and the mutton pieces were average.

The next morning, I relaxed, visiting Panda (Ta'if's Heart Mall) and enjoyed window shopping, eating snacks at Al Baik, etc. In the afternoon, Dr. Yasser called up to inform me that his plan to go to Ta'if on Thursday had been cancelled and therefore I was free to stay longer if need be. I was overjoyed, as I had originally planned to go to Jeddah on Thursday to meet my cousin Juzer and get back my car documents which were lying with him.

Accordingly, I went to Jeddah on Thursday afternoon, reaching Juzer's place very late at around half-past eight. En route, my front right tyre burst after colliding with a kerb, and two men, probably Pakistanis, helped me to change the wheel with the stepney. After collecting my documents from Juzer's place, I decided to brave it out and drove the same night back to Ta'if.

Both my journeys - to Jeddah and back - were via Hada and the mountain route, which is something that some of my colleagues in Al Muwayh had told me not to try as it might be "difficult". On the contrary, I realised that if I kept to the speed limit that was actually displayed, I was able to go very easily. The return journey, which I had thought would be more difficult as night had fallen, turned out to be event-free too. I reached Ta'if at about midnight.

My last day was spent sleeping in the morning, then going down for breakfast, and finally, eating my lunch at the Asian restaurant and picking up some parcels of food to take back to Al Muwayh. However, there was one more assignment to do: after Asr', I went to Maard street and got my stepney replaced with a new tyre, thus undoing last night's damage in toto.

My drive back to Al Muwayh was accomplished without any further trouble and I reached home at 9:00 p.m. on Friday night.