Expat Life: BASHAWAT! (Aug. 17, 2020)

Come with me at Bashawat. Here you can buy anything from cat food, bedsheets, baby shampoo, plants, to kitchen wares. All Sr. 11:50 and below. August 17, 2020.

In My Opinion: The Possible US Strike on Syria

I was supposed to blog about the 'leche flan' that I made the other day, but weird as it sounds, could my leche flan be of more significant than the current tension that is happening now here in the Middle East? I'm talking about the possible US strike on Syria. As an expat here in Saudi Arabia for over ten years, and a born again Christian at that who is familiar with some Biblical prophecies, I'm not anymore shocked about the news, in fact, it's eagerly anticipated, at least for me.

I believe that the US strike on Syria could possibly become a proxy war between different Middle Eastern countries. We all know that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (a Sunni Muslim) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (a Shia Muslim) are arch-enemies (as both love to battle in unending word war). Iran and the Muslim world at large want to obliterate Israel from the the face of the earth - though only the former brazenly expresses so. Russia and China have always been  allies of Syria from the start.  And not to mention the instability in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan could also contribute to  triggering the World War 3.

I'm against the US strike on Syria, but honestly, the thought of it excites me in a way because of the end time prophecies in the Bible and the second coming of our Lord Yahoshua. Everything that is happening right now in our world (wars, famine, earthquakes and the increase of wickedness) had been prophesied before in Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelations; and Yahoshua said in Matthew 24:6:

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,
but see to it that you are not alarmed.
Such things must happen,
but the end is still to come."  

A lot of questions come up in my mind every time I think about the situation, like, what will happen to me if the war in Syria spilled over to Saudi Arabia and a full blown war broke out in the entire Middle East? How about the other 3 Million Filipino expats in the Middle East? Can my government afford to repatriate all 3 Million of us? And how about my family back home, will they be affected too? (That's actually the Devil trying to mess up with my mind and injecting me with fear.)

Every time there is unrest in the Muslim world, Christians have always been a natural collateral damage as the chaos precipitates into a war on the 'infidels' - as Egypt epitomizes. It scares me sometimes when I think about what the consequences might be, but then again, I'm not like the heathen anymore as the Bible says, whose concerns are the material things on earth rather than putting their trust on the only true God. I have to fix my eyes on things which are unseen, rather than the physical things. I'm a new creation now, I should not be afraid of anything, God is in control. I just have to put my trust on Yahweh. And in this time of uncertainties, what a relief and comfort to ponder on God's promises in Psalms 91!

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you

from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

Vote For My Photos On the National Geographic Channel Asia Photo Contest 2010!

Please vote for my photos on the National Geographic Channel Asia's Great Migrations photo contest on Facebook. You just have to 'LIKE' each photos, but before you can like them, you have to 'LIKE' the National Geographic Channel Asia page on Facebook first. As simple as that. Here are my entries, and please vote on all of them.

Title: The Cleaners

Category: Race To Survive

Location: Jeddah Saudi Arabia

Caption:  Photo taken at the paking of Andalus Mall, Jeddah, K.S.A. February 20, 2010.

VOTE

Title: Stray Cat On A Trash Bin

Category: Feast Or Famine

Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Caption: A Stray cat on a trash bin infront of my apartment.

VOTE

Title: Wanderlust

Category: Born To Move

Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Caption: Photo taken inside the detention cell in Jeddah, K.S.A. Nov. 7, 2009.

VOTE

I Have Already Voted!

Yesterday I cast my vote for the national elections in the Philippines via OAV, or Overseas Absentee Voting here at the new building of the Jeddah consulate. The voting process was very easy, there's not a lot of people who voted that day, so there's no queue.

Before I proceeded to the polling precinct, I searched first for my name in the list of voters, this is to make sure that I am really a registered voter in Jeddah. While searching for my name, a man came up to me and tried to help find my name, which I thought a gesture of kindness, but then after I found my name and my sequence number, he secretly showed me a piece of paper with a name of a candidate from his hand, perhaps a senate candidate or a party list candidate which I didn't quite read.

After searching for my name and sequence number, I went straight to a small room where the actual voting takes place. The 2 members of the BEI (Board of Election Inspectors) who take charge of the precinct asked my name, sequence number and my ID. After checking, they gave me an empty folded ballot. It only took me less than 10 minutes to vote for president, vice president, 12 senators and a party list group. After I completed writing my candidates on the ballot, I dropped it inside a small brown paper box (and posing for the camera while doing it. lol!).

It was a great experience. That was my first time to vote outside the Philippines and only my second to vote in any elections. I've done my part. I really feel that I've fulfilled one of my duties to my country, I just hope that everything turns out the way it should be.

I Voted And Insist It To Be Counted!
(A Friend's Blog Post) 

The Yucky Part On Eating Out In Saudi Arabia

Ever since I've seen how these people handled and served their food in these small restaurants, or what the locals called here in Saudi Arabia, "Boofiah", I've really lost interest in eating in some of them. People working in such establishments don't have any idea about hygiene and cleanliness.

Here they serve mostly sandwiches, drinks like sodas and fruit juices in tetra packs, but some also have Shawarma, a rolled sandwich (that looks almost like the Mexican Burrito), or Paratha, a flat, fried dough with different fillings and roasted chicken called Maquina, just like the one in the photo on the left. They are actually quite delicious.

One of the first things I've noticed, was some of the people working in boofiahs do not wear plastic gloves when handling food, they're touching the food with their bare hands. You don't know where those hands came from. Some of the people who cooked the food are even the one who take the money when you pay, the same hand that they used to handle your food.

On one occasion, I bought a paratah in a boofiah near my apartment, I saw the cook kneading the dough on a dirty counter top, I immediately lost my appetite. And just a couple of months ago, in Balad here in Jeddah, when both my friend and I were eating out in a boofiah (which I thought was clean), I really can't believe what I saw, a guy working at the boofiah profusely spraying insecticide exactly where the foods are. I think he was trying to kill more than just the bug. What was he thinking?

There's a lot of illnesses you can get from eating contaminated food, but the most common of all is Salmonellosis or popularly known as Salmonella Food Poisoning and Escherichia coli Infection or E.coli and many others. It's no joke, we are talking about our health here, so you better be careful with what you put in your mouth.

So if you still want to eat from these boofiahs because you don't have any choice, or may be because of some other reasons, I think the best thing to do first, is let others buy ahead of you and then observe, so that you would know if they are handling the food properly.

Related: Foodborne Illness, Food Contamination
and Foodborne Illness Prevention

NOTE: This post does not in any way intend to degrade anyone or any food establishments, especially the boofiahs. There are a lot of very good and clean restaurants around Saudi Arabia to go to, depending on your budget. Food Contamination happens not just in Saudi Arabia, but everywhere. It's just that boofiahs have to make sure that the food they are selling to the public are clean and will not make us consumers sick.

My 11th Christmas In Saudi Arabia

It's Yuletide season again. This will be my 12th Christmas away from home, and my 11th consecutive Christmas in Saudi Arabia. The first time I celebrated Christmas here in the Kingdom was in 1999 in Riyadh. It was December 23rd when I arrived, 2 days before Christmas, so I think you could almost imagine what was going on in my mind, and what I'm feeling during that time.

There I was, a Filipino Christian, alone in a Muslim country which is synonymous to stern strictness on almost everything you can imagine, so Christmas is almost non-existent, (I said "almost" because even though I'm in a Muslim country, there are also a huge Christian population here, and Filipinos make up the huge percentage of that). And because of some Filipino co-workers who welcomed me to the company, my fears and sadness had been eased a little, even for just a moment.

I remember during that Christmas eve, I was still working from 8 PM up until 2 AM, because the Yuletide season then coincided with Ramadan, and you can't imagine how tired I was. I didn't even have the energy to celebrate it with some of my friends, I just ate my dinner and then went to bed. So sad.

My Christmas celebration this year will be a different one, although the loneliness is still there because I'm still not celebrating it with my loved ones. In a way, I've gotten used to it through the years, but not totally. I'll just call my children back home and greet them Merry Christmas. This is the season when I miss them the most.

There are just two Filipinos in our company, and we are living in the same apartment. We've been through all this Christmas thing many times before, and we'll get through this again. We've already gone to the supermarket this afternoon, and bought the ingredients for the Pancit Guisado that we will cook for our Nochebuena on Christmas eve. Delicious!

While driving to the supermarket, we were listening to Christmas songs by The Jackson 5, Mariah Carey and The Carpenters. Wow!, it really brought back a lot of memories, especially Jackson 5 when they sing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "Give Love On Christmas Day", I loved that feeling!

For now I want to say, Merry Christmas to all, especially to all OFWs around the world. I leave you with a quote from Calvin Coolidge,

“Christmas is not a time nor a season,

but a state of mind.

To cherish peace and goodwill,

to be plenteous in mercy,

is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

MALIGAYANG PASKO!

Link: My Top 10 Christmas Songs Of All Time

* The photo above was our living room, taken a year ago. I still live in that very same apartment.

"The Kingdom In The Closet" by Nadya Labi

A friend of mine came across a 4 page article on The Atlantic Monthly (on-line) dated May 2007 and I want to share it with all of you. It is called "The Kingdom In the Closet" by Nadya Labi, about homosexuality in Saudi Arabia and her many interviews with different people.

Related: Saudi Gay Scene, In You Tube

Pictures from Jeddah Corniche

The humidity level at the Corniche was way off the chart, never in my entire life have i ever experienced that humid before, I swear!... Well anyway, it's nice to experience things like that sometimes. And here are some of my pictures taken along corniche road this afternoon by a friend of mine.

Beside a lamp post....

...with a whatchamacallit at my back ?

On a foot bridge...

......on my super, extra, muy pequeno car... LOL!!!

Beside the lamp post... again! (and i'm getting good with it.)

See more of my photographs from our Corniche adventure. Click HERE.

Agua por favor!, Agua...!

It's been 4 days now here in this part of Jeddah (where i live) without water and our containers are almost empty (we usually stock water in big plastic containers to go around this problem). If you think that this is an isolated case, think again! Sometimes we don't have water for 2 days and sometimes even for 5 days in a week, but the longest days without water that i have ever experienced in my almost 10 years stay in this country was 7 days, a whole week, it was horrible and unthinkable. But I can understand why this thing happened, oh yes i do, simply because we live in the desert and that they still have to dasalinate sea water before even people can use it, but longer than five days without water is crazy! You might say, why i'm still here or why shouldn't i go home if i don't like something here. My answer is simply because they need me and people like me (Expat), as much as we need them. This is Jeddah one of the primier cities in Saudi Arabia with more than one million people living in it, we are not in Darfur. This is a Mega City having a problem with their water supply. And beside, it's not just Expat who are suffering from this problem but also the Saudi Arabian People, who happens to thinks that it is just "normal". There is always room for improvement.