A morning at the Al-Sholah Mall

Loved ones, friends and the merely curious -

I am indeed alive and well and settled in here in Riyadh, specifically Unit #154, the Yamamsa III expat compound, a quite comfortable but cookie cutter set of more or less identical villas with excellent amenities, including the equivalent of a GetGo convenience store with a wider selection of groceries and an excellent fitness center and swimming pools. The truth is that I have been feeling more relaxed, healthy and energized than for a very long time. Yes, I'm still adjusting to the heat and I'm not close to being oriented to the relative location of my key coordinates: my villa, the King Saud bin Abdulaziz campus, the shopping malls, the US embassy. As for the weather report: hot 90+ F, sunny and cloudless with 0% humidity - and that's for the entire month of October! - apologies to those who have already heard this one! To my surprise I felt an actually (well almost) cool (sort of) breeze this morning. This I'm told is the precursor to the ravages of winter (January and February) where on the most severe days the temp may drop to 60 F and rain might fall imperceptibly (.05 inches for the entire winter).

So what are my reactions to this new environment - natural, built and socio-cultural? The words that continue to emerge include: fascinating, perplexing, mysterious, dusty (as construction is ever-present at least in the venues I frequent as well as dahntahn Riyadh) and frustrating. Imagine for a moment the organization you most enjoy vilifying for its red tape, layered processes, inefficiencies, glacial rate of change, etc. - well I would give the 1st place trophy to the Saudi bureaucracy hands down, no close competition. I'm sure this topic will be revisited as this is only my 3rd week in the Kingdom.

On the plus side I have found my Saudi and expat colleagues to be extraordinarily courteous, warm and welcoming. This suggests another characteristic that took me by surprise: how cosmopolitan Riyadh appears, perhaps especially at the King Abdulaziz Medical Center and the University, both linked under the NGHA umbrella and within walking distance on the same campus. The nurses at the hospital are virtually all expats and just at the bus stop I've met and shared stories with nurses (and a few docs) from Ireland, Scotland, Slovakia, Canada and South Africa. Many if not the majority of the nursing staff and other nonmedical service staff hail from the Philipines, Malaysia and sub-Saharan Africa...

And yes, I have befriended an expat research administrator I met at the shuttle bus stop who is an actual yinzer and - this does strain credulity - is a distant cousin of Andy Warhol... Go figure the odds!

Enough for now but I'll be offering my own slices of Saudi life, impressions of the moment, and occasional poetic reflections while keeping whining and whimpering to a minimum. Please be advised of this disclaimer: I am unlikely to address any hot-button political or cultural issues since I'm not here as a journalist or scholar of Saudi society and serve at the pleasure of my employer, Saudi National Guard Health Affairs.  Enough said for now!

I would truly appreciate keeping up a conversation with you either in response to my ramblings or to update me on important developments in your life or in the 'Burgh. Brief is as good as lengthy (sometimes better), and spontaneous outpourings from the heart will always be welcome as will updates on Pitt football and basketball - as this gets limited coverage, to say the least. I did learn that the New Zealand All Blacks (their uniforms, not ethnicity) will be contesting the French team (really!) for the Rugby World Cup. Apparently, the French lads pulled off a controversial upset over Wales which being of Welsh heritage annoys me greatly! Well that's more than you wanted to know but that's sports (along with soccer and cricket) in the Middle East...

Wes