I take my fork and gently poke the grilled fish in front of me. One of the top 10, maybe top 5 fish dishes I ever had, including all sushi I ever had in Japan.

Faisal sips from his glass filled with a non-alcoholic apple cider lemonade and continues in his monologue.

“You know Michal, it’s not easy. Sometimes I think that the previous generation had it much easier – they had a firm set of values and all they had to do was to make sure that their kids are aligned with what their own parents told them.”

I look into his eyes. He keeps looking down, almost hypnotizing the half-empty plate in front of him.

“Today, it’s not easy, Michal. Sometimes I don’t know which way to educate them. It’s really difficult, with so many options, you are not sure which way to educate them. And moreover, not like the kids are going to listen to all you tell them to do, right.”

I take a bit of the fish, and close my eyes for a second. Delicious, fresh, crunchy, yet juicy. “Yeah…”

“I know some basic values that I want them to have, but you are right, it’s difficult to assess what’s right and what’s wrong. The previous generation is fine – they are 50 years or older, they have their perception of the world, and most probably it won’t change anymore. The young generation, 30 years and younger have basically grown up with the internet. They are much more open, willing to try new things. But we, I will be 40 in 2 years, and sometimes it feels like my generation is stuck… somewhere in the middle.”

I take from the other fish – deep fried with a soft, tender crust – and answer, comfortingly.

“That’s perfectly understandable Faisal. It’s natural to be unsure if stuck between the changes. There is so much going on right now in the kingdom.”

“With the gradual opening of the country, you meet people you normally wouldn’t meet. You suddenly have to answer questions that you weren’t even thinking about before – the system worked in a way, it more or less worked, and you didn’t question whether it’s right or wrong too much. That’s why I’m not able to answer all of your questions immediately Michal – for some of them I need to think about.”

“Like why are Arab men so protective regarding their families?”

“Exactly.”

“Quite a lot is happening, right.” – I smile silently.

“Yeah. The changes sometimes feel just… too fast. What happened in the past month hasn’t happened in the past decades.”

“Oh, the Ritz-Carlton adventure in Riyadh. But it’s funny that you mention it – you mentioned before that you like the change.”

“Of course, you are glad that you see some movement. You see that that is the right change to the right direction – everybody knew about the corruption but nobody was doing anything about it.”

“Do you think it’s only about corruption?”

“Well, that I don’t know. But what I want to say is that I want to see more of the basic stuff. The infrastructure still isn’t working as it should. Have you seen the flood in this city last week?”

“I heard that some people died. To be honest I was even considering postponing my trip to Jeddah.”

“Right. Now we are talking about the second largest city in the Kingdom. Can you imagine happening something like that in any larger European city?”

“Depends on the country, but at the same time European cities were build over a span of multiple centuries, not three decades.”

“Ok, but still. And that was just a rain. The same about electricity. Say an investor comes to KSA and wants to build a factory. Imagine he comes to the electricity distribution company and asks them for a medium voltage connection. It takes months and it should take weeks. Tops. These are the changes I want to see. I’m afraid that the Kingdom is rushing somewhere, but the basics are not there.”

I poke the fish again with my fork, this time in its eye socket. I take a breath and try to push the conversation a bit further.

“That’s right, but at the same time you do understand that the time is running out. If you don’t change the way how the whole country works, in 30 years you will be in the same place where you have been before 30 years – with plenty of camels and some sand all around you.”

“I know what you mean. Yet you do understand the feeling Michal, don’t you.”

“I think I do. It’s funny, sometimes I think that Saudis live in a magic triangle.”

“What do you mean?”

“On one side, you are afraid of all the social, economic, and structural changes.”

“Yes.”

“At the same time, you are enjoying the changes, and you want to see more growth.”

“Uhm.”

“And at the same time… you kind of don’t want to push yourself too much, because, well, it’s hot and someone will do it inshallah.”

“Michal, you can’t imagine how I hate that word.”

“Right?”

“Right.”