My relationship with the Middle East began more than 40 years ago, when my husband accepted a position as a Cardiologist with the Ministry of Defense and Aviation Hospital near Khamis Mushayt, then a small city located in the Asir Mountains, at an elevation of about 2, metres, or 6, feet, and a two-hour drive from the Red Sea.
I lived in this region for one year, before returning to Canada in to set up my company. I have probably romanticized the expat life in Saudi Arabia during the early s, but it was the best time to be there. Jeddah had no street signs. As a woman, I sat in the back of the bus. After we landed, we stayed at the Sands Hotel, where Idi Amin, the notorious, deposed former leader of Uganda was also staying.
At the hotel pool, my two young sons were fascinated by Amin and the bodyguards who surrounded him and his suitcases full of money, or so my sons said. The shopping in Jeddah was wonderful: authentic copper trays with Arabic calligraphy, straight from Iran, magnificent rugs, and so on.
Since there were very few Western people in the city, we always spoke to each other if we met on the streets or in the shops. Khamis Mushayt which means Thursday Market was an old town with crooked sidewalks and narrow back alleys filled with shops which sold all kinds of products: gold of course , rugs, Arabic-style clothing, and the tastiest fruits and vegetables I have ever eaten especially the cucumbers. Because Hepatitis B was endemic in Saudi Arabia, I soaked all produce for 20 minutes in a mixture of water and bleach.
The hospital staff lived in a specific area on the military base. We had a pool, squash court, and tennis courts. I played tennis for an average of four hours each day. We had a tennis team that competed with teams from other expatriate companies in the region: Ballast Nedham a Dutch company, which had strong players who became grumpy if they lost ; British Aerospace which, of course, were a bunch of jokers ; COFRAS a French company, and most of its tennis players couldn't - or wouldn't - speak English.
