My Saudi Life (Part Four: Features and Focus)

But are we Saudi Arabian? Only in a few examples. We are easily ignored yet unmissable, following our own codes of (shaving) behaviour. If I think carefully about the incident with the clerk, I realize that he was not just fooled by the extra hair. My skin was also a feature that was tied in with his speculation. My other features are not a pretty sight and do not speak well of the male population in Saudi Arabia: bad skin, fat lips, bulbous nose. But there may be some sort of genetic link to a culture outside of the Dominican/Lesser Antillean domain of my parents. I do recall all of those photos taken of my grandmother where she appears as a rather pale(r) young lady in comparison to my father’s side of the family. And she did like to travel, once sending us a picture of herself in Holland sporting wooden shoes. Did she ever visit the Middle East? Perhaps not. I never did discover a picture of her in an unnamed swathe of desert.