alternative use of garments

The Iraqi journalist attending the Bush press conference in Baghdad demonstrated an alternative but effective use of footwear. Saudi men wear sandals most of the time, which may not perform as well as missiles aimed at detested foreign dignitaries. But they have their own imaginative ideas about unconventional use of garments, as reported in two news items in The Arab News of 1 December, 2008.

In one incident, a prisoner sentenced to jail for drug trafficking hanged himself from the prison window while the guards and other inmates were busy praying. The man used his ‘ghutra’, the head scarf worn by Saudi men, to end his life.

In the other, more bizarre incident, a Saudi patient in his 30s went to see a doctor at a hospital. The doctor, a 56-year-old Egyptian national, refused to see him because he did not have referral papers from the hospital administration. Such impertinence infuriated the Saudi. So he locked the door of the room and began to beat the physician with his ‘igal’, the headband worn by Saudi men. Hospital staff and other patients who heard the screams of the doctor and his nurse broke the door open to save the poor doctor. The irate patient was later arrested by police. Good thing he wasn't wearing a belt.

street with no name

I have rented a house. Unfortunately, it does not have an address. If you want to call me I can give you my phone number, if you want to send an email, I'll give you my email address, but if you want to visit me at my house or send me a snail mail, sorry, I can't give you an address.

I scanned the form lease deed in Arabic that I had signed but found nothing that resembles an address. There is no number on the building and no sign on the road revealing its name. I hear that this is common in Saudi Arabia. Most people rent post boxes for their mail. People give directions to their homes from well known landmarks. Turn left after the mosque and then right at the third intersection and then left after the pharmacy and my house is the fifth one on the right, or something like that.

This is a big inconvenience. I am buying furniture at stores and cannot give an address for delivery. Instead, I write down the nearest landmark and my mobile phone number. When the van arrives at the landmark, the driver calls me and I have to direct him to my home, which is not an easy task when do not share a common language.

I thought maps might help. In Japan, every house has an address, but since the roads are not always neatly arranged, finding an address can be difficult. So they rely a lot on well prepared detailed maps. I prepared a map of the area surrounding my house with the landmarks marked. But the delivery people, it seems, are not accustomed to reading maps.

For a telephone connection, I was told I need to give the telephone company my water connection number. I was confused because I could not see any relation between telecommunications and water supply. Now I know that the water meter number, which is prominently displayed on the water meter and visible from the road, serves as a surrogate address. If you can get to the general location of a house, you can track it down by looking at the water meters.

So if you want to visit me at my place, let me know and I'll give you my water meter number.