Life as a Woman

I just bought a niqab, the black covering for a woman’s face here. In Riyadh, many women wear it, probably 60%, though it’s not required.

There are several styles of niqabs (niqabat). The most common version is a simple cloth with a large hole cut for the eyes, and it ties behind the head. Many younger women will use a black scarf that they just drape over their entire face, which allows them to remove it easily and provides protection from this blasted sun. This one gets bonus points for being very light and breathable but is much harder to keep in place properly if it’s windy. Other women will just tuck the end of their scarves over the lower half of their faces like they’re walking in a cold miserable winter, except it’s the dry miserable heat, instead. Miserable is the common denominator. I got a niqab that converts between the first two types. I can cover my eyes if I don’t want anyone to know I’m definitely a foreigner (Husband calls this ninja mode), but I can also lay the front piece back over my head for normal use.  Here are some pictures of me wearing my new toy.

 

There’s actually a lot of freedom with the niqab, I have discovered. First, people don’t stare at Husband and me as we walk around (unless I do something stupid, which is fairly often). Then, I can people watch more freely, especially if my eyes are covered since no one knows I’m watching. It is also excellent for Arabic practice since people automatically address me in Arabic when I have the niqab rather than in English. That means I have to up my Arabic game in a hurry or just sound foolish every time I open my mouth. 🙂

Husband the Plumber

On another note, Husband has been enjoying learning the ways of the handyman in this country. Our washing machine drains through a hose that runs into the middle-of-the-floor bathroom drain that is common here. That works brilliantly until the floor drain accidentally gets closed. Then you have a flood. We were quite fortunate that we didn’t lose anything important, most of our furniture is on legs, and that we don’t have any carpets. Husband took care of the cleanup and got to rework the drainage to prevent a recurrence.

He is currently talking with plumbers to get our dishwasher hooked up to a water source since our kitchen doesn’t have a place for the machine to sit except out in the open. Looks like we get to have a couple pipe running along our counter from the sink to the dishwasher,. Husband is talking about doing it himself, but we shall see how adventurous he gets in that regard.

Husband has a job!!! He’s having fun getting to know all his new coworkers and remembering how employment in Saudi is vastly different from in the US. It’s usually much more relaxed here, with some employees going so far as to take a nap in their offices during especially slow times. That does mean that work doesn’t happen at the quick clip we’re used to in the States. For a company that needed to hire someone ASAP, they sure did move glacially. We laugh when we wonder how long it would take to hire someone if they were taking their time!