What dictates our lives in Saudi Arabia

As I mentioned in my previous post, a pharmacist couple from India have a job opportunity in Saudi Arabia, and the male member, a Dr. Arif, called me to ask me if coming to Saudi was a good decision or not. He was worried about the "strict" Islam that is followed here, but the opportunity was a big one; according to him, they would both be employed as assistant professors in a medical college near Riyadh, and their joint salaries would be more than twice what they are making now in India.

After encouraging him to definitely take up the opportunity (we even had a skype chat), I brooded about this whole issue and here is what I think about the pluses and minuses of working as a doctor with the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom. I think that this might also selectively apply to other professions, and even labourers.

The first thing is that one has to be prepared to face some hardship. Whether it is about the strictness of Islam, or the comparative non-tolerance to other religions, or about the nature of the food that is readily available, the climate (the heat in summer), the culture (virtually completely different from the cultures of all the other 220 countries, the language (it is Arabic, of course, but there are so many dialects that, even with experience , you can sometimes fail to understand a single word) ... I can go on .,, there will be a learning curve which you will often not completely master even after being here for years.

The second thing is that you have to plan your stay well in advance. The money is great, but how much of this you will save depends upon - a) whether you will be alone or with your family b) whether your posting is in a large, multi-dimensional city or in a smaller town or village c) what kind of money are you planning to save ... I mean how much and over what time-frame and d) your particular requirements. At the same time, you also need to plan for what you will do AFTER  you complete your goals here and want to go back to your own home country. If your plans are in place soon after you have reached here, or, preferably, as in my case, BEFORE  you even come here, it is the best option, since you will be working to realise your local goals as well as plan for the goals to reach later on after you have left the Kingdom.

The third thing is relevant for those who work in the smaller, rural areas. They should plan about what they want to do with the spare time. There is always sleeping, watching the TV and surfing the net (if available ... I have heard that only about 60% of the population has access to the net). However, these are idle things. It might be a good idea to develop as a human being doing things like studying for a higher qualification, learning new skills outside the field of medicine (cooking, drawing, painting, new languages, driving, camping, travelling, hill-climbing, etc.) and acquiring life-style changers like a better, trimmer body/thicker body (if you are fat/extra slim respectively), adopting meditation, exercising, dieting, training yourself to be a better person (calming techniques, public-speaking, teaching, blogging, etc.). You can also, by interacting with citizens of different nationalities, imbibe diverse cultures, have a better understanding of the peoples of the different parts of the world and learn about their quirks, their culture, their habits, their attitudes, etc.

If you are a religious Muslim, Saudi Arabia is the final stop in this life. You can easily do Umrah as often as you want, visit Madinah (the Prophet's mosque) as often as you want, and perform the Hajj at extremely low costs and overheads ... perhaps more than once. Spiritually, this country is like heaven on earth for the devout Muslim.

Finally, it is all about how YOU feel. If you feel stifled, no matter what the environment, then this country is not for you. If, however, you learn to adjust, to assimilate, and to evolve, then, sure, you can not just survive, but even thrive in this country. I mean, if you discount the human rights and woman-rights problems and the language problem, Saudi Arabia is technologically advanced, culturally stable, and has great financial strength and stability. In the big cities, you will see malls better than those in the advanced countries of the Americas and Europe. They have great roads, an amazing infrastructure, superb housing and industries, trade and commerce, transportation, and the cheapest petrol rates in the world.

Hope this post will be of help to other people who are still weighing their options on whether or not to come to Saudi for work. And to those who are already here, this post may help them to seek out better things to do than just laze around or while away their days without any productive results.

Thank you for reading. Do leave your comments.

May Day, May Day, May Day

The first of May this year fell on a Thursday. Dear readers, you must be wondering about the title of this entry. I will presently come to it. Let me first begin by thanking all of you who have been following me through almost two and a half years now on this blog. It is thanks to people like you that I am nearing 30000 views of my blog. I know of at least three or four other people aspiring to come to Saudi Arabia as doctors who have contacted me because of this blog and have sought advice from me. Compared to some stalwarts whose blogs have crossed a million views, I am still small fry, but I am happy I was able to help even a few people take the right decision about whether or not to come to KSA to practice their professions, and to make more money.

Also, some of you kind souls have been clicking on the various ads that are seen on my web-pages, and this helps me to slowly but surely reach the payment threshold for Adsense by Google, whose ads I publish on my blog. In the last seven odd years I have been on Blogger (my first blog was Seriously Joking), I have managed to earn about USD 55/=. I will receive my first payment only when the total crosses USD 100/= so I guess it will be after another 7 years, LOL. Whatever, if the ads look promising, why don't you just click on them and help me?

My kitchen saw a bit of activity during the last few days. I made a mean Alu Muttar on Thursday, and a nice 3-egg omelette today morning. However, for the most part, I have a full refrigerator and I am not cooking much. Yesterday, I made chapatis. Now, let me tell you that on 2 previous occasions, I tried to make chapatis with the chapati maker machine that I have brought from India ... but I cannot seem to get the hang of it. The chapatis turn out very hard. I am still experimenting with the proportions of the various ingredients.

On Thursday night, Dr. Magdi and I went out to buy shwarma from the local shop and then we sat in the garden to eat it. While I had one, he had three of them! After this, we split up as he was called to the hospital to go with a patient to Taif (he was on referral duty). I dropped him at the hospital, and returned to the garden to participate in the send-off function of Dr. Yasser Mahmoud Al Shibiny, my outgoing colleague. He was quite calm, and a bit withdrawn, or so I thought. 

Now he is really, officially gone. My panic will increase, and I just might radio in for help. Now, do you get the title? It is about the first of May, isn't it?

Here are some photos of the send-off party.

All on my own

As I write this on the early morning of the 1st of May, I realise it's been almost a week since Dr. Yasser left the employment of the MOH (Ministry of Health) and so, here I am, working alone as the only specialist Paediatrician in Al Muwayh. The feeling of independence has somewhat ameliorated the despondency of the situation. I am now the Head of my department, and can implement certain changes right away. At the same time, I am perpetually on call, so that I cannot go away from Al Muwayh unless they arrange for a replacement for me, even if it is for half a day. This thought has kept me gloomy ... and brooding in temperament.

Only six days have passed since Dr. Yasser left, but it looks like a lot of time. I can honestly say that I have not once gone to my upstairs office in my capacity as the Patient Safety Director. I am able to co-ordinate the work of PS directorship from my O.P.D. office, and that is working out fine.

Since the last 2 1/2 days, my back has thrown a spasm, and although I have taken physiotherapy all the three days, I still find myself in a lot of pain. Today, I requested my Medical Director for a half-day off, and he was kind enough to grant it, so that I left the hospital at noon, and was not called for the afternoon shift. The rest that I got ... I lay supine on the floor for nearly 4 hours in the afternoon ... has helped, and the spasm seems to be less as I sit and write this post in the wee hours of the morning of Thursday. 

So, what else is new? Two of our ER nurses have also finished their final contracts and are in the exit process. They are both Filipinas - one is Sherell, the intelligent, good-looking, single and short-tempered (at times) woman, and the other is Mary Jean, the sauve, married, intelligent one who I got on the wrong side of a year or more ago, but with whom I made amends and a friendship that we both mutually respect. The attrition from the ER is rather rapid; last year, too, three of the ER nurses left us. This is easy to understand, as the prospects of nurses who have ER experience is good in other countries too, esp. Canada and the U.S. Among the rest of the staff, there is little to look forward to.

This is all I have to share with you.

P.S. I paid my fees for the final installment of MRCPCH examinations. Also, within a few days, I would be paying fees for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam that I propose to take in Mumbai in June 2014. I am also successfully going through my current two online courses: one is called Community Change in Public Health, and is run on Coursera. The other one is Engaging with India and is run on edX.org. Both have completed their first weeks and I am looking forward to the next one.

Kindly leave behind your comments. Thank you for visiting.