As I’ve been writing this blog about my memories of Saudi Arabia I
thought I better look up the places I knew well on the web. Youtube seem to have a reasonable selection
of video clips and I was shocked Khamis Mushayt a village at a cross road that
I loved is now a modern city with hotels and great shops. To think I was there
when the first “Supper Market” opened, yes that was the way they spelt it. A
large roofed space filled with piles of everything you could think of, the
supply of goods was a little uncertain. I remember a rumour going round that a truck
of Golden Syrup had delivered it’s cargo to the “Supper Market” and you better
get down there pretty fast if you want some. When Syb joined me out there straight
from the UK, she decided to have a bath “Look at this insect I had to shush it
on to the side while I had my bath” it was a scorpion. We had a lot to learn
and I’m glad to say both she and my daughter Karen caught my enthusiasm for the
place.
I don’t know what it was that appealed to us as life was pretty
basic and perhaps that’s what made it so special a simple life with genuine
people, the fact that we didn’t speak the same language made no difference., It
was the first place we had lived in Saudi and in many ways I wish it had been
the last when we understood more of the culture. Somehow looking back on it we
lacked some of the understanding we gained later.
I was fortunate in having Ali Badi as a friend, he gently
introduced me into their way of life, religion and culture. In those early days
before Syb and Karen joined me Ali and I spent a good deal of time together at
his house where we had to chase a goat out of his lounge before we sat down to
a small cup of Arabic coffee. I never saw his wife as she would make the coffee
and leave it behind the door for Ali to collect. I never stayed overnight at
his house as I lived close by but I was there for breakfast one day when we
planned to visit Wadi Mahala the only stream in Saudi to run throughout the
year; it came up out of a hole, ran for maybe a couple of miles and disappeared
down another hole. In parts it was wide and shallow, Ali parked his car in the
middle and threw water over it “Look Mike Saudi car wash”. That was his sense
of humour, one day I found him sitting in a deck chair stripped to the waist
“To day I’m English” he said as I approached.
I often wonder how my Saudi friends are getting on, we’ll all be
old men now and their neck of the woods is now full of modern cities and has
big trouble just round the corner. It’s a very different world.
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