Mike's Saudi (43) Back to work in Saudi

Our holiday over it was back to work and get to know my new boss. In my new post I had a new large office and two Pakistanis to work with, they were great lads once we got to know each other we worked well as a team. In fact at one time three of us talked about setting up a secretarial agency in Karachi when we left Saudi. Apparently much of the official documentation in Pakistan was in English and most of the population needed well written letters in English, we thought it would be quite a good market and pretty close to what we were doing for the boss. The way things have worked out over there I’m pleased it got no further than talking about it.

Our job was to support the boss in whatever way he wanted, his written English wasn’t so good at the time so I would compose his letters for him and the boys would type them. Then I’d explain the content to him and he would alter it to say precisely what he wanted to say as time went by I got to know him so well that there were fewer and fewer alterations but I always checked with him. This new job of mine was not a BAC contractually recognized position but we called me an advisor which in fact I was and the actual work developed as his trust grew.

One day quite unannounced a couple of large cabinets with keyboards and TV screens built into them. These were word processors of a very early type. Soon we got down to learning how to use them, they were ingenious contraptions that would work in English or Arabic which when you think about it is very clever as English reads left to right and Arabic right to left. Of course they did not translate it was one or the other at the flick of a switch. One day two Saudi girls showed up and offered the boss 10,000 riyals for one of the machines to help them with their school homework. However they believed that the word processors translated, but it just shows what country of contrasts Saudi was at the time when school girls could stump up 10,000 riyal for a machine to help them with their schooling. (Riyals were 7=£1 or $2)

Mike's Saudi (42) The end of the holiday

We took Mansour and Fateeha up on the South Downs, a rolling set of hill ending in cliffs falling to the sea. It is common land covered with short grass and now a national park popular with holiday makers and locals alike. Naturally there was the ice cream van selling that soft ice cream they squeeze out of a machine and stick a chocolate flake bar into it. Fateeha had never come across this sort before and fell in love with it, this entailed us visiting the area on several more occasions. Mansour asked if there were any pubs like the one we visited in the Lakes, there was one we knew of in a little village at the back of the downs. It had a history of smugglers and ship wreckers and was off the beaten track. We were mistaken it might have been off the beaten track but it was heaving with people Mansour and I went in to get the drinks while Syb ad Fateeha sat outside where it was still crowded but less so. In side we had to fight to get to the bar with the crowd unavoidably pushing us from all sides, Mansour looked distressed and I can’t say I was particularly happy, we looked at each other and left. It was not what we had in mind and in marked contrast to that wonderful evening in the Lakes.

Syb’s Mum lived in a semidetached house in a typical suburban street. It had a long narrow garden as had the neighbours with low fences and plants of various sorts dividing them. The sun was shining so we went out on to the lawn at the back, as soon as the neighbours saw Mansour and Fateeha they lifted their noses and went inside. It was an unfriendly action typical of suburban families at that time, it was also something that Syb’s Mum was to berate them for later. She had really fallen for these gentle Arabs on their side neither Mansour nor Fateeha could reconcile the way Syb’s Mum and elderly people in general lived on their own, it was totally against their belief. The elderly members of the family should be looked after and their experiences learned from, they were treasures to be valued. We could only say that she liked her independence and we could not be in Saudi if we had to stay in England to look after her. Fortunately Karen called in to see her nearly every day now she as she lived close by. It did however trouble us for some time and Mansour often referred to it when we were back in Saudi.

As I remember it we seem to spend our time with Karen, visiting cafes, walking on the Downs, generally relaxing and avoiding her boyfriend. But soon the time had come for our friends to move on to France so we took them to Heathrow and wished them a safe holiday, saying we would see them back a Dahran. The rest of our holiday we spent with our daughter.

Syb's Saudi the land I loved

I am now writing my seventh book but of all the books I have written the first means the most to me because it was written in Saudi. It is a tale about Saudi and its life style at the time (1974) based on many of the things we experienced as described in Mike’s Saudi.

At the time we felt there was a big divide in the understanding of the expatriate and the Saudi’s we were sent to teach. As we can see today Islam and Arabic culture is often badly portrayed and misunderstood in the West, no doubt helped by the more radical views of disinfected followers of the terrorist fringe. It was my experience that these do not represent the views of most Muslims who now seem to find it difficult to convince others of the true religion as written in the Koran. By selecting abbreviated passages from any religious text it is possible to support any view no matter how far from the true dedication of the text and often read in a context often means the opposite.

In Inshallah I tried to express in an unlikely love story of the normal family life of many Saudis and their acceptance of Islam, not always as strict as the Matawa (religious police) would like. However I tried to make it acceptable to the Western mind set as possible without deviating too far from the facts as actually experienced by myself. To me at that time they were friendly generous people who accepted me into their families during the time I stayed with them I wore purdah when we went out, and divided into separate rooms when none family members were present. Life of course was different to what I was used to but no worse for that.

I loved my time in Saudi, no doubt things have changed now after all it was forty years ago. But if as Christians or Muslims we stuck to the words of our Profits and didn’t infect them with our own agendas the world would have been a much nicer place.

Inshallah available from  amazon.com/dp/B007OIX3XM   

Mike's Saudi (41) Fateeha at the Supermarket

Fateeha had her moment too when Syb and Mum took her to the Supermarket, Of course in Dahran there was Safeway full of American products so she knew about them and used them when she was home. But Booths was a rather different type of prospect being a rural institution and of course the product range was totally strange to her. Not to allow the strangeness of the produce throw her and much to Syb and Mum’s dilemma she took the tops of the jars, dipped her finger in and tasted it. Syb rescued the opened jars from the shelf where Fateeha had returned them and put them in her trolley, explaining that it was not done here. Fateeha continued on her merry (but reformed) way filling a second trolley with everything she fancied. At the checkout she paid cash said something to Syb who turned to Mum and said “Fateeha says they are all for you”. I believe Mum still had some of things Fateeha bought for her when she died years later.

Pork is considered dirty in the Quran and no Muslim would touch it or anything made of it. However Mansour understood that we did not share this view and said we should not hold back knowing that we had not been able to enjoy bacon in Saudi. He suggested that we should have an English breakfast; next morning we took him up on it and had what to us was the usual fry up. We were sat at the table opposite the two of them and could see the discomfort on their faces as we tucked in, they were literally on the verge of being sick. We hurried our breakfast and never touched anything to do with pork in front of them again. It just made me realize how psychological indoctrination can really affect the human mind but it was a very low price to pay for our guest’s happiness.

Mike's Saudi (40) Mansour and Fateeha visit an English pub

On another occasion we took them to a typical Lakeland pub. It was a beautiful evening ideal to impress our guest with. A low sun across the field with cows grazing, in the distance the church bell ringers were practicing and all was quiet with not too many people about. I got us a round of drinks the girls had Pims and we had scotch, as we sat there enjoying the scene Mansour said “Seeing you don’t drink, how come you know so much about them?” In Saudi at this time I didn’t drink just to be on the safe side and had told him that I didn’t touch it. Fateeha loved the Pims and of course her husband wanted to know what it was. “When I was young we used to call it a leg opener” I told him. His eyes widened “Really get her another one.” I did but after sometime we left only having two rounds, the evening was so perfect it needed a clear head to enjoy it to the full.

One of the things that both of them were enchanted with were the acres of green grass, in fact Mansour used to enjoy rolling in it. Whilst the landscape in Saudi had its attraction for Syb and me we loved the desert and used to drive into it and stop out there where the silence made your ears hurt but to Mansour and Fateeha it was nothing. However the Lake District is one of the most beautiful areas in England, with its lakes, trees and everywhere the green grass and it truly impressed our guests. One day I had something to do so Dad looked after Mansour “I’ll show you our souk” he said meaning the local village market. Naturally Mansour loved it he came across some everlasting socks which intrigued him so Dad bought him a pair which proved to be his prize possession for the rest of the holiday.