A few days ago at ladies' lunch on the compound, two nice women who live here invited me to join them to go on the ladies' bus to the Souk today. Every Wednesday at 900AM there is a bus that will take the women from the Nassim Compound to the Mall or the Souk for a few hours of shopping. I was under the impression that only my husband could take me shopping which was not the optimal situation, since I want to browse and investigate all of the items and my husband, being a man, just wants to get the experience over with as quick as possible.
The bus meets everyone at the CF (central facility) on the compound. I got there 30 minutes early in order to feel out the situation. The CF is about a ten minute walk from our villa, so I had packed my abaya in my bag to walk down there thinking everyone else would do the same. However, they all showed up wearing theirs and most of them were wearing veils or scarves covering their hair. In fact, only 4 of us did not cover our hair out of the 13 women on the bus. I quickly wiggled myself into the potato sack that is my abaya and went to meet the rest of the women. Some of the women had on sparkly abayas, some had on ones with slits on the side, some had on shorter ones where their ankles shown, and one woman had on floral pattern one that was awesome. I definitely need to get a more jazzy abaya and hem the ones I currently have because I am constantly tripping all over them.
On the bus, the majority of the women were Filipina. There were four Americans, a south African, and a Venezuelan. There was also one man on the bus who I felt sorry for because he had to endure all of the squawking and chatter of 13 women who were very excited about the big activity of the week. In Saudi Arabia, we as women cannot drive or go anywhere for the most part without our husbands. To be able to go shopping for a few hours a week with other women is the most freedom we get outside of the compound walls. The trip to the Souk was not long and the bus driver told us to be back by noon and set us free.
A Souk, Suk, or Souq (choose your spelling preference) is an open air market or bazaar typically found in arab countries according to webster's dictionary. When you go as a woman, you buddy up or get in groups. My group was with two American women and one of them, like me, did not cover her hair. We went to a pharmacy, to a spice and tea store (I still have not found saffran), a bunch of gold stores where the women I were with haggled and bartered and got amazing deals, and fabric stores with the most beautiful and gaudy fabric I have ever seen.
I do not know if it is because I do not cover my hair, or if it is because I am nearly six feet tall, or if it is because I am obviously not from here, but I have never been stared at the way that people stare at me here. The third country nationals (people from India, Pakistan, etc.) glare at me intensely as if they want to keep my head as a token in their freezer. The Saudi women seem to have mix feelings about me, some mean eye me through their veils while others (typically the younger women) will walk up to me, say hello in English, and then smile and walk away. Saudi men seem indifferent to me which is a nice relief. Rarely will you encounter a Saudi actually working in an establishment. The store clerks and always the restaurant staff are always third country nationals. I have seen Saudis working at jewelry stores, in administration roles at hospitals, and today there were some Saudi women in the lingerie store and bodyshop in the mall.
The scariest part of the day was not any encounter with any one person. In fact, for the most part I found shopping in the Souk like shopping in any other foreign country I have been in, just maybe a bit dirtier and with lots of women in black all over the place. The most frightening aspect of the day was crossing the streets. There are no traffic laws that are obeyed in Saudi. People drive fast, switch lanes, don't drive in a designated lane, stop when they want, go when they want, let 7 year-olds drive, don't pay attention, don't stop at lights...it is complete chaos. However, to really get your shopping on, you have to cross the streets.
Basically, what you do is jump in front of the first car and hope it stops and then proceed to play Frogger with yourself to cross the additional 3-6 lanes. I thought I might throw up after crossing the street to the mall, and for the next hour all I could think about was that we were going to have to do it again. I hear ex-pats talk daily about seeing people run over who didn't quite make it across the street here, and it doesn't help to be wearing a long black dress that is impossible to be stealthy in. I am just glad I was wearing tennis shoes today.
As it approached noon, we had to cross the death street again and returned to the bus. There was some confusion about the pick-up location and then the bus driver drove to KFC where all of the Filipina women were with buckets and buckets of chicken. By this point, I was starving and despite that I never eat KFC, it smelled so good and it was the only thing remotely American I have seen since I have been here. I sat there pouting in my Abaya in the back of the bus wishing I had got the KFC memo. I was comforted by the thought that I could get some if I really wanted to in two weeks, when the bus would return again to the Souk.
Once the bus comes back to the compound, the bus driver drives everyone to their apartments or villas so they do not have to carry their bags which is really convenient especially if you have 4 bags of KFC like some of the women.
Next week the bus will go to the Oasis Mall and the Panda. It is the little things here that you have to appreciate and have to look forward to.
1 comment:
Sounds pretty accurate to me.
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