Stranger in a Not so Strange Land

Ahlan wa Sahlan, I just came from meeting with Princess Haifa and my new boss at the King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh, Mashail bint Turki bin Faisal. She is the granddaughter of the King whose life I will be researching. It is not that his life is unknown, it is rather that there is not complete record of his life and career in one place and what better place for the premiere archive of the life of King Faisal, than the King Faisal Foundation. They hope, with my poor help, to create a complete record of the King's life.

This is a picture of me trying to look cool with my sports coat and shades. As you can tell it didn't work. I left Washington, DC, at 4:45 from Dulles travelling on Air France. I have always dislaked flying for while I love the sensation of flying and the view, I hate being packed in like cattle. Then I flew Business Class and I rediscovered my love of flying. My chair reclined fully into a bed and I could stretch all the way out. I had a private TV with remote and movies on demand, real pillows and blankets rather than those flimsy little things they give the Hoi Polloi. Dinner started with lobster and a green salad followed grilled sirloin, green beans, potatoes and for desert a delicious peach tart. Later we had breakfast with fresh fruit, baguettes, and variety of cheeses and yoghurt. Life is tough.

After my layover in the depressingly dingy and filthy French airport, I flew to Riyadh. I knew the moment we entered Saudi Airspace, because the steward announced that alcohol could not longer be purchased. We came down through a dusty fog in the early dusk of a Saudi evening. I could see desert until the horizons criss-crossed by wadis (valleys) that shimmered green blue; all the more colorful for the sandy surroundings. For many people, their image of Saudi Arabia is a contradictory one: turbaned bedouins on camels living in tents in barren wastelands, tanned and wrinkled by the powerful desert sun or oil-rich sheikhs in their long white thobs and red-checkered head scarfs chauffered in black sedans from gleaming tower to gleaming tower. Both stereotypes have some truth, but the western visitor to Riyadh will, if anything, be shocked by how familiar the streets and shops appear. Were it not for the Arabic script, the roadway signs could be directing me to LA instead of Riyadh. Families drive minivans as the mother reaches back to dispense a treat to quiet chattering mouths and the father drives.



In fact, I don't really feel out of place here, not really much more out of place than anywhere else I have travelled. I have felt, whether real or not, that I am somehow apart from my surroundings, but here some things are strikingly familiar:

• The population lives in the narrow inhabitable regions surrouned by desert near springs and the few rivers which scarely deserve the name, much like Utah


• The population is conservative and religious and eschews alcohol which is difficult to come by, much like Utah


• Furthermore, most of the population follows the same religion which infuses whether directly or indirectly everything from the politics to the availability of certain drinks and foods; much like Utah


• Virtually all the places of worship teach the same thing; much like Utah


• Everyone here thinks they have the truth and everyone else is going to hell, much like Utah


• Families are large, much like Utah


• There is a real dearth of a nightlife, again, much like Utah


• The deserts are expansive and beautiful full of soaring peaks, lush forests in the mountain valleys, wild game, arches, ancient rock art and perhistoric ruins, again much like Utah


• In fact, the biggest difference between Saudi Arabia and Utah is the total lack of skiing and fry sauce in the one and the the real scarcity of good dates (the eating kind) in the other.

We so often see not only through the prism of our own upbringing and worldview, but because of that worldview, we see certain things and don't see other things. We see what is different and so construe others as being somehow in contrast to ourselves and our experiences. It is difficult for us to see the mundane and the everyday. We know, for example, that our daily lives are centered around family, grocery shopping, prayer (for some), our jobs, etc. However, when we look at others through the prism of the media or ever scholary writings and histories, we see what is different from us and we emphasis that, ignoring that for most of these people, daily life centers around family, grocery shopping, prayer (for some), their jobs, etc. Sometimes I think, though, that is not all bad. Scientific objectivity may not be able to understand a religiously imbued culture like Saudi, but a Mormon boy from Mormonville, Utah, has some insight that the secular scholar lacks. As I always say; it is good to listen to everyone, because insights come from all sources. Who knows, maybe I can learn something from all those godless heathen scholars!


Sunset over the desert outside Riyadh on my first day in Saudi.