Firstly, we are there quite early and actually only have a few minutes to get ready as the driver is waiting for us. We rush out without breakfast and arrive at the college to pick up a few other Canadians. Once we get there, we learn that there are two areas-one for the males and another for the females. Ovaise and fellow Canadian, Chris, are ushered to the male side, with a Sudanese guide from the college, Muhammad. However, my fellow Canadian, Stephanie, and I are thrown into the chaos and given 500 riyals to work with. I am very thankful that Stephanie is with me, because otherwise I would be lost. We get in and it is pretty crowded. Since neither of us can speak arabic, it makes for an interesting scene. We manage to get ourselves in an initial lineup, which, when we get to the front, the lady's only concern is if we are pregnant and when our last period was. We both inform her we are not pregnant and tell her about our cycles. Good thing we aren't prego, as all the pregnant women are being handed a blue pill to swallow!
Next we are given a paper and have to wait in another long lineup. We pay for the bloodwork and yet again wait in another lineup. Our only concern is that they wear clean gloves when taking our blood. After the bloodwork is done, the chest x-ray is still required. This poses a problem as the x-ray room is overflowing with ladies. We proceed to follow two french ladies who have a guide with them. They lead us to another x-ray room which is empty at the moment. Steph and I are about to go in, when I am very forcefully told that Ibrahim cannot come in. Of course not, he is a male, over the age of five. I tell Steph to proceed without me and go outside where I am able to locate my husband and Chris, amongst the crowd. They have finished quite sometime ago, thanks to Muhammad, their guide. I leave the children with Ovaise, who gets them some well deserved breakfast and go back to the x-ray room. I sneak in and am greeted with a room overflowing with women. The lady who works there very harshly tells me in arabic, then in urdu to take off my clothes! There are women crammed in removing their tops and putting on gowns, which don't look all that clean. Stephanie is nowhere to be seen, so I attach myself to an older Indian woman who speaks english. I tell her there is no way that I am going to take off my clothes in front of all these people and put on that gown. Thankfully, I am wearing cotton under my abaya, so I manage to get off my bra and stuff it into my purse and I am fine. Well, almost, considering the crazy pushing and shoving going on behind me. The Indian woman is quite vocal about it, although it doesn't help the situation. At last, I get the x-ray done and am re-united with Stephanie once I get outside. We all get back into the van with the driver and get some food. Yummy! Some nice desi food from a local cafeteria. You wouldn't want to go in and see how the place looks, but the food is delicious!
There is only one thing left to do, which is to get our blood types, and we have to go to another clinic for that. However, I had not understood Muhammad when he mentioned to me that first I needed some typed documents from the hospital. So, back in we go and shove our way through the crowds to get in. I am sent to a room on the other side in which I met some Sudanese sisters and pay them to get the documents typed. Again, the language exchange is quite the scene!
Finally, we arrive at the clinic, get our fingers pricked and are taken back home.
What a day, but the next day iss yet another adventure-we would hit the Doha shopping malls!
I don't remember which hospital/clinic we were intially taken to that day, but since then, I have visited some very nice hospitals here, one in particular which looks like a hotel!
Al Ahli hospital-check it out!
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