The Kingdom

"A nation prospers under a righteous and just King!"

We entered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a B747 stepping off into the July blast of 136F heat onto the tarmac. The year was 1982. Our little family then went through customs.. and boom. Our passports were confiscated to be put in the Riyadh central police station. We then went to our little “American” village next to King Faisal Specialist Hospital for me to start my second year of training in the famous Michael DeBakey cardiac surgery program. Resident surgeons need a certain number of congenital and pediatric heart cases and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston couldn’t provide the numbers. Turns out the Saudis had need for a program as they had no “in country” hospital program. They had to send all the kids out for care. Dr DeBakey was a first generation American, born to Lebanese Christian parents and he was fluent in Arabic. He was the perfect surgical diplomat for the USA in the Middle East. I was so blessed to have two superb Professors to teach me while there. Dr. Gene Guinn and Dr. Arthur C. Beall who was responsible for my even getting into such a prestigious program. Our Professors rotated on schedule to go to Saudi Arabia. Of course the Kingdom provided them plenty of monetary reasons to go. Even we, the lowly residents had a nice bump in our salary when we were there.

I had to get a driver’s license because one of the men had to drive the car we had there for the female nurses to go to the store to shop, and to get around. Fortunately the Kingdom paid for all of this not just for me but also my wife and two little girls to be there. What an experience for them! I learned enough Arabic to make rounds.. which were laid back and easy with the culture. The patients often sleep on the floor next to the bed instead of in the hospital bed. If the old man asked us to stop and drink coffee… we dang well stopped and drank coffee on rounds. We mainly only spoke to the husbands or fathers about the surgery. “Amaliya boukra inshallah” - the operation is tomorrow if God wills it. Of course the outcome whether good or bad was always “il ham du Allah” or praise be to God - whether the patient did well or not. Thank goodness they all did well during the time I was there. The training was spectacular. The cultural experience topped that even more so.

We often took trips not only to shop in the Souq, but also to eat out in restaurants. Carefully.. The women were looked down upon and most cafes had a room in the back where we could take our wives and the nurses. Sometimes the best food was on the street corners were you could buy Schwarma - delicious.

We took trips out to the desert, saw camels riding in the back of Toyota pickups… women dressed up like “black humps” under their “Abaiyah” covering their head in public. Even our American ladies covered their head when out in public. The picture below has Susan without the head covering, briefly for the picture.. Nothing like sliding down the Red Sand dunes at sun up with the kids! Or going to old abandoned cities.. thus this story and how it relates to today. We had a picture snapped as our little family stood in front of the “Gate” at Diyahria - Where the Kingdom was established (early in the 20th Century) as the soon to be King finished off the last enemy of the Kingdom with a sword. I think I saw the blade tip still in the wood. Here is a picture of that event, in front of the Gate. More on the Gate in the Tablet reference below.

So I remembered that outing (and others like it —finding “desert diamonds” by taking the entire crew out early and being in the desert as the sun rose in the east to identify the little sparkles and pick up these jewels. A real diamond has a hardness of 1.0 but these desert beauties are only 0.9 so they are not true diamonds. Some of our Indian nurses were going back home to Houston through Thailand where they got the diamonds cut and polished.. and many of us had them mounted as ear ring jewelry for our wives and girls..

I have recently been reading a magazine from Israel about modern events. It is superb and the journalism is WAY better than the PRAVDA type garbage out of the American media. The TABLET is superb and a recent article just really hit home. As you read it you will see the results of a righteous and just King and how Saudi Arabia is prospering - on its own.. not through US taxpayer dollars. Note the author had been to Saudi Arabia much earlier.. like us. His experiences were much like ours. That car I drove, I had to get a Saudi drivers license. Fortunately it didn’t involve learning Arabic signs.. because there weren’t any! Directions were usually like “Go down this road to the wrecked blue Mercedes and turn left, then go to the Toyota pickup trapped in an embankment and the restaurant is right across the road from there. No street signs. And traffic lights? The Saudis said they were Christmas lights for the Americans driving around (that meant they didn’t pay attention!!!) so we were very careful!. And the driver’s license… I had to give a pint of blood to get it - no kidding. When I did I saw about thirty US Army troops in there lined up giving blood… 1982?? we were there???? oh yeh. They were getting about 100 bucks or so for a pint- all I got was a drivers license. But hey.. the Saudis didn’t want to give blood so much.. and we needed that to do our heart surgery.

Now to go to the Tablet article, click on the link below. Either one should work.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/man-no-name-revisits-kingdom-saudi-arabia-jeremy-stern

Jeremy Stern in the Tablet

Obviously Jeremy Stern was the “Man with No Name” - in fact, in 1982 before we left Houston we were prepared by a three day course in Arabic courtesies and thou shalt nots… Like Don’t lift you foot up to allow others to see your sole of foot. And don’t touch food with your left hand.. it is dirty and used for cleanliness rituals. And only speak to the men… and on and on. As I read the article I thought.. oh yeh, I remember that… like confiscating our passports.. Kinda scary.

Ours was a fabulous experience.. and yes, one day before our departure back to Houston, we got our passports back. Actually the girls and my wife had to leave earlier than me to get back to Houston for elementary school which was starting - and that went fine. So did my trip back. Several of my cardiac surgeon buddies read this so they might have further comments. I disavow from confirming any of the hijinks that might be put online! Chuckle..

The point is the present King is doing a fabulous job with his kingdom. I was impressed when I was there and even more so now. It is to him I say “Shukran” for all the wonderful progress…Look at what they are planning for the Diariyah gate project. Billions of Saudia “dollars” Heck I won’t even be able to afford to go have a meal there, much less stay in one of those luxury hotels! If Dr Art Beall and Dr Gene Guinn could only see… but they have passed on.