The view from my hotel room
I'm now staying at the Hotel Savera. While not as upscale as the Park Hotel I find it more appealing in a number of ways - larger rooms, more quiet, and less expensive. It is also located in a more residential area of town so I see people out on their rooftops getting air in the morning. I have completely adjusted to the time change so I'm going to bed around 10 and getting up around 5 or so. I'm sleeping less than I normally do but it doesn't seem to bother me. It is nice having the hotel, a good change of pace from the hospital. On the food front, I haven't been too adventurous with the food, sticking to Chicken Curry and a lot of fried rice. For breakfast it is strictly an American affair - eggs, ham, potatoes and a whole lot of black coffee. The hospital food isn't too bad - I'd recommend their omelette.
The language barrier has been a bigger problem than either of us anticipated but I will say that the people have been very helpful and service in all aspects has been good. The doctors all speak English, as expected, but a surprise to me has been the lack of English among the nurses. There was one nurse, Chrislin, who spoke pretty good English. The rest, however, don't speak much English. That has made for some comical bedside communications between Neil and the staff.
For me this experience has been about what I call 'Managing Expectations'. The first reaction upon seeing the traffic is to see a chaotic mess. After you get past that reaction, however, and spend time in it you begin to see that it isn't nearly as chaotic as you think (there are still some pretty harrrowing moments). It works. I won't speak for Neil but my first reaction upon seeing the hospital was one of near panic. Again, one instantly sees an old building with old equipment. It's only once you get beyond the facade that you see top-notch doctors and very good care. There are very few of the eletronic medical devices that you find in the U.S.. Neil was not hooked up to a monitoring machine, instead for the first two days he had a nurse in the room at all times. (More on that in a later post).
One reason for the language barrier is that this hospital isn't really geared for Westerners. I was under the impression that this particular hospital targeted Westerners but that isn't the case (at least not to a large extent). According to one of the nurses, she sees around 50 Americans a year. I asked her about Europeans and she said that there are very few. The foreigners that do come, however, appear to be the Saudis. Neil is the only Westerner that I have seen in the hospital during our stay.
To answer your question Ellen on transportation. One can walk. Watching people try and cross the street can be a spectator sport in itself. One can take a bicycle. (No comment - my mind is empty - Karma at work). Scooter. This is a very popular mode of transportation. I have seen entire families on one scooter, including children as young or younger than Kieran. Auto-rickshaw. Car. Bus. Watching all of them interact on the streets is something. Horn hocking is a constant, used mostly as a tool of communication and not of anger.
More later...
