Finding Religion

As we should all know, Saudi Arabia is a religious state.  Sometimes I forget that this is very central to their culture and traditions.  Prayer is 5 times a day (at sunrise, midday, mid-afternoon, sundown, and an hour after sun set).  During prayer no stores are open, no men are allowed to be working, all the men MUST go to the closest mosque and pray.  I didn't realize how strict this was until recently. 

The Matawa are the religious police.  They dress only slightly different than the usual Saudi man in that their white throbe is showing their ankles and they don't have the black coil over their white and red scarf on top of their heads.  Regardless they are very easy to spot.  I think they are appointed by the king and their job is to enforce conservative Islamic law. 

I went to a restaurant with a friend the other night and we arrived 40 minutes before the next call to prayer.  They didn't want to seat us since it was so close to prayer, but my friend knew the owner so they sat us and told us we had to eat and leave within 40 minutes before prayer started.  Honestly I didn't understand the big deal.  But the owner has apparently been caught by the matawa on 2 different occasions serving customs during prayer time.  Prayer time, remember is only for prayer, closest mosque, make it happen!  This guy is in jeopardy of being deported if he is caught serving customs during prayer on a 3rd and final occasion.  Everything was fine and we got out of the restaurant within time. 

Then last night after work I wanted to run to the grocery store really quick.  The grocery store is across the street from the hospital.  But really I should say this is more like a busy highway, it's Mecca Road, one of the big streets in town.  So on the hospital we can walk around in our scrubs and it's fine.  But once off campus ladies need to wear an abaya.  Last night I was too lazy to run home to get it before going to the grocery store and walked over in my scrubs.  Unfortunately, I arrived to the store during prayer time (stores close).  Also I didn't know that prayer time was really when the Mattawa come out to you know, enforce the laws of the land.  So I'm in the parking lot, practically naked in my sexy white nurse scrubs, no abaya.  Four Matawa in an SUV swoop up police lights flashing and they all hang out of the window to yell at me in English to cover my hussy self and where is my abaya.  I really had no excuse because I know better.  They told me to go home immediately.  Seeing as though it was still prayer time no taxi drivers were around for fear of getting taken to jail for working during the holy sacred prayer time.  So I couldn't do anything but stand there.  A woman in a car called to me and told me to get in the car with her and her driver.  She was appropriately covered and said she would take me home and pick up my shopping for me.  Really if you think about it, everyday people are kind and go out of their way to help when they really don't have to. 

In talking to Muslims originally from outside of the Kindgom of Saudi Arabia, I have found most disagree with the strictness placed on society here.  Proclaiming the country they come from is far more religious than Saudi because of their freedoms.  In other countries you can pray where you work or live, you can wear what you want, business can continue during the call to prayer.  They've said they don't understand because Allah is everywhere and not just in the mosque.  Also on international flights women will be fully veiled at the beginning of the journey to disembark the plane only wearing a headscarf.  Is this a "when in Rome" mentality?  I am not discrediting their religion or beliefs but it seems inconsistent at times.

The J O B

So I've been here in Saudi for about 3 months and I've been having so much fun I sometimes forget what I came here to do...work.  Oh ya that.  That's the thing that gets in the way of all the fun, right?  Yup!  And I didn't come here for the work, I came for the overall experience, which is for sure what I've been getting.  I'm also getting excited about traveling here soon, too.  They don't let us out of the country for 3 months (they...hmm the hospital? the Saudi government? The Al Saud Family?  I don't actually know...I just know I was photographed and fingerprinted at the airport and "they" have my passport).  Anyways, I am not focusing here, I'm trying to write about the J O B!

Let's start big.  I'm at a tertiary care center which here means everyone is referred to the hospital.  It is also a government hospital.  But funny thing about the government being run by a royal family, that family also owns the hospital.  Hence, they can dictate what happens inside of their home.  I hope you can use your imagination as to what exactly that might mean.  Much of the nursing care is very similar as  the states. However, there is no deescalation of care, I think this is an Islamic belief.  Modern medicine can keep people alive for a really long time, do you remember the Terri Schiavo case?  So I'm in a Medical ICU.  There are several ICUs, the one that would typically take the VIPs is currently under renovation because the king didn't find it up to his standards.  So many of these patients end up in the unit I work in.  VIPs travel with an entourage, not unlike the show.  Private nurses, family physicians, personal sitters,  and multiple family members all accompany these patients to the hospital.  The hospital's doctors make orders for these patients but sometimes the palace has be contacted in order to get consent on any number of procedures, changes in medication, plans, etc.  When I was a kid I always thought I would love the day a princess would call me....now I wish all day for that not to happen!  Woah, it sounds a lot weirder now that I'm writing it all down.

Ok so going back to how this is a referral hospital.  Most of the patients have multiple problems, cancers, metabolic disorders, and genetic disorders.  Many of which I didn't know existed, however these diseases exist at a very high rate in Saudi Arabia.  Ah, see the post about dating, there is close genetic mingling.  Also being a referral hospital means not just anyone can be accepted.  A friend had a boy patient who was giving his kidney to his mother.  He was betrothed to a relative.  There was a girl that visited him in the hospital, she was pregnant.  This was his girlfriend.  So while she was visiting she was pale, dizzy, etc and a nurse took her blood pressure, 50/30.  Basically this girl was probably miscarrying and bleeding a lot.  But the charge nurse got mad at the bedside nurse for taking the BP because they can't do anything for this girl.  She had to leave the hospital and go to another hospital or go home.  She could not stay, even with the ability to save this girl, she was turned away.  On a cultural note, she was an unmarried woman, who was pregnant.  The worse case scenario for her would be she would die, either from blood loss or from being the victim of an Honor Killing, which apparently sadly still happens here.

On a lighter note, squat toilets are pretty popular in Saudi Arabia.  Gezz I'm actually going to have to take a picture of this thing.  But just think of a hole in the floor, that's it.  So friends work in a pediatric unit and found a kid using a normal western toilet in the traditional Saudi way.  He was standing on the toilet and squatting over it.  She really didn't know what to say to this kid except "don't hurt yourself on the way down."

When I was in nursing school I was thinking about working in Saudi Arabia.  I had a clinical instructor who was from Afghanistan and when I asked her about what she knew about working in Saudi she said the patients are very needy.  I didn't know what that meant at the time.  But don't get me wrong I'm not trying to put everyone into one category as everyone is different.  I'm generalizing and giving an overview so you can get a idea of how it might be like here.  I think growing up with people around you to tend to your every need can create a person who does not understand the concept of the doctor has other patients besides you.  On that note, the vast majority of the patients I've come into contact with have been really pleasant.

Oh so when I was a kid my mother used to get my friends all confused claiming we all looked alike and she couldn't keep us straight.  Ugh, I'm sure we were very individualistic at 13 right, she just wasn't seeing the subtleties.  When I had to go find my patient's sister in the female waiting room I had a flash of this anecdote.  A bunch of women shrouded in black veils, the distinguishing feature being a handbag.  Nevertheless I didn't find the sister, I think she was in the bathroom.