Happy Halloween

I ran into my friend at the compound grocery store yesterday and she was buying huge amounts of candy for the little kids and their big Halloween party over at her school for today. That was when I remembered it was Halloween time! She works in the office at an American/British school in the area. She and her husband have been here for 40 years! Saudi Arabia is really their home even though they grew up in the West. So many different stories unfold out here.

This morning I chatted with a woman form India. Her husband is from Kerala India and she is from Bangalore and they have been here in Saudi 30 years. She worked for five years as a secretary at ARAMCO, and then her family in India arranged the marriage with her husband, who is from Kerala India. He works for ARAMCO. She and her husband live in an apartment in Dammam, not on the ARAMCO compound. He has some kind of administrative job on the ARAMCO compound and a bus carts him back and forth daily form Dammam to Dhahran and ARAMCO. Lots of people work for ARAMCO, but do not live on the compound as their work is contracted out. This couple's adult sons, who went to boarding schools in the States, now live and work in Canada. So she and her husband are now in the middle of a cultural conflict of Western kids who want nothing to do with India and a Dad that wants to return to India forever in two years and a Mom who DOESN'T at all. I have seen movies on this subject. It was actually overwhelming listening to her and all that she has to deal with. Their own marriage was arranged and Dad now wants his sons to hook up with nice girls that he and his wife will find for them in Kerala. Sons think Dad is so out of it and no way will this ever happen. They do not even like to visit Kerala anymore and Indian food gives them stomach aches. Mom is on the side of the kids, and did admit that her husband vents all his frustrations to her, but not to his sons. She in turn tries to calm him down. He can't wait to return to Kerela, however, she wants to live in Canada close to her sons. Dad hates Canada as it is just too cold, and on it goes. She spends three months out of the year in Kerela and during that time she tries to meet and chat with the women in the area, but these women can only sit still for just a few minutes at a time. They keep checking their watches and then they have to take off to tend to a goat or a cow. Having been to Kerela, I know exactly what the environment is in the villages where she visits. She gets very lonely there. She and her husband have two years to work things out. Spooky!

I have another friend here that came to Saudi with her husband when they were both in their 70's. They have only been here about six years. Now they are looking at being 80 years old in a couple of years. I had a hard time guessing her age, but she told me today. I thought she was MY age, and I certainly am not even close to 80 years old. Yeah, I do feel it at times. So, on the positive side, working overseas, even in Saudi, can keep you active and certainly very young at heart, if my friend is any indication. However, I think at a point in time, being here can also start to strip your youth and health away and have a negative effect. I know it is time for us to be leaving for good. Just a few more months. I am all filled up with Saudi Arabia.

My electric mixer went out on me today. Certainly not going to replace it. Not worth it and I just won't bake anymore. My iron went out on me about a month ago and I have taken a few things to the dry cleaners to be ironed. However, they came back sub-standard, so I hauled out my travel iron and touched them up. I am enjoying seeing the other end of our circle of life here as I pare down to the bare essentials we arrived with. Scary!

Hope you have a charming and not-too-spooky Halloween!

Oil country

Here is a picture we took along the corniche in Al Khobar. The structures like this one are always so dramatic out here in such a flat desert country.

Life has fired up again on our compound as Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr are ended. Today, Saturday, is the first day of a normal work schedule in a month. No more fasting and restaurants are now open for breakfast lunch and dinner, closing only for the prayer times. Still have to be pretty sharp and alert to know when to plan any eating out so we aren't met with locked doors.
Everyone on our compound who went out of country for the month is now back and cars are once again moving around the compound and I even waved to a friend who was walking on the sidewalk today as we drove to the clinic. I really realized what a ghost town our compound has been for a very long time.

Now that we are back on track with our normal schedule of work and running errands, I have a great feeling of moving forward instead of just being stuck.

It has been almost two years since we had a dermatologist on staff up at the clinic, and today we went to see the new Doc. Had a couple of skin problems taken care of. Next on the list is to set up getting our teeth cleaned. We will do this at the fancy modern Saad Hospital's Dental Clinic. We have been going there for years and we get a good discount. Our own compound dental clinic is ok for any emergencies, but Saad has all the state-of-the-art cleaning equipment and the same Filipino has been cleaning our teeth for many years. There has been a pretty steady flow of dentist through the Saad, but we have always felt in good hands under all the different ones that took care of us.

No doubt about it, there are going to be certain things I will really miss when we leave here. Like last night when I had to call maintenance and leave an automated phone request as the knob on our oven broke. Bita-bita-bing! A new knob was delivered and put on my stove first thing this morning. Ah, what luxury. Of course, the reason the knob fell apart is that my stove is ancient, but, it works GREAT!

It is still very hot outside here and not suitable for me, anyway, to go for any walks outside. So, I have been on the treadmill here in our home.

Oh dear, my driver is on his way home from his office to take me to the store for milk, veggies and fruit. Have to hurry, as sunset is not too far away and things will shut down for prayer time number four.
So goes my life.

Hot Stuff

On the first day of Eid Al-fitr we took a little car ride off the compound and out to Al Khobar. Amazingly quiet as the streets were empty of cars and the sidewalks were empty of people. Perfect time to go for a ride. Unfortunately, the weather was about 100 degrees so when I would jump out of the car to take a few pictures, I would get very hot, very fast. Amazing how the pictures do not show how hot it really was. but they do show how empty the area was. At night there isn't an inch of empty space on the streets or sidewalks and we hate being out and mixed up in it all.
I am going to try and post a picture with every entry for a while just to show some of the sights here in the city of Al Khobar. I think some of the buildings are very interesting, set against such a start background.
We had a guest over for dinner last night. I made chili. In my mind's eye I knew I had chili powder in my kitchen cupboard. We had gone out food shopping earlier to gather some odds and ends. Unfortunately, the kitchen I saw in my mind's eye that had the chili powder was not my kitchen here in Saudi Arabia, but my kitchen in the U.S.A.! Now the problems get more complicated. Usually the chili powder sold here in Saudi is pure cayenne pepper and two table spoons of that added to a dish is volcanic! I know, I did it once not knowing what the heck I had bought. The label said 'chili powder' and it looked like what I buy in my own country. My dilemma was could I get my driver to go out again in this heat to find the proper powder in the very American store over at ARAMCO. This store is the only grocery store here that does not close during all the prayer times. It was prayer time when I needed my powder, and our guest would be arriving soon. The other problem was, could we park outside ARAMCO and walk through a certain building and out the other side, right to the store without being stopped because we are not ARAMCONS. Entering this building is tricky and we have to walk with a huge amount of confidence, no eye contact with the guard stationed inside and with great purpose we have to continue walking through the building and outside the other end. The only other way to enter into ARAMCO is by car and it is impossible to be let inside without calling a resident to 'sponsor' your entry. Anyway, everything worked out perfectly and I got my powder plus a can of Libby canned pumpkin for my Thanksgiving pie. About every expat living here from all the different countries can find their own special foods. Just takes a lot of shopping to do so and a lot of patience.

Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever is starting. This last week of Eid Al-Fitr is a corker because everyone is still gone around here for the Ramadan break, my Bridge group and Fellowship group are not meeting this week and I find that the walls are starting to really close in on me. My mate doesn't get this Fever like I do, but he is nice to cater to my whims of going for rides just to get out. I just joined up with the Fellowship group over in ARAMCO a couple of weeks ago just to have something to get out to and interact with other women. Fellowship is the acceptable word over here for Bible Study. I was involved in this nine years ago as a newbie here in Saudi. I lasted about a year until I had built up relationships and friendships with women on my own compound. Now the atmosphere on my compound is so different. The majority of my friends are gone and the few others I know here have crawled into their homes and shut themselves away so tightly that they have become unreachable. It is time for them to leave as well. I know some of this behavior has to do with the Ramadan time of year and the extreme heat. When it cools off more we will all come out more and I will probably go back to taking the shopping buses to town more around February and March. The American Women's Group is still active and their once a month activities will still be going. Such a small group of women now from nine years ago. I have a real strong sense that currently all the women I know are working so hard to not have their life totally sucked out of them over here in Saudi. We are all older, there are less Americans over here and the oppression is being felt on the once very open compound of ARAMCO. Now that it is becoming more Saudized over there as well, I find more women there are feeling the pinch. I also know that the older women here, as we all have more grandchildren in the States and our own children are getting older, we all want OUT! So, the good part is that I am not alone in how I feel and it is really time for us to be leaving. It won't be long.

We Survived Ramadan in Saudi

It is Monday morning, Oct. 23rd and it was announced in yesterday's Arab News that today will be the official end of Ramadan, the end of a month of daily fasting, and the beginning of Eid Al-Fitr, three days of celebration. This celebration is like three days of our Christmas day over and over again. There will be lots of fine eating, many sweets and nuts, and lots of gift giving and fireworks! At night, during this past month, veiled Saudi women would spread their load of fireworks on the ground to sell in front of malls and grocery stores in Al Khobar. The Saudis have been shopping for new clothes or having new outfits made for this Eid Al-Fitr three day celebrations. Workers are also given vacation time for these three days so apparently nothing will be open except maybe the restaurants and grocery stores. We have never stayed in Saudi during the Ramadan holidays, so not really sure what it will be like these next three days. But I don't see our lives changing much because we only go out shopping for food these days. Due to the month of fasting, going out to lunch or breakfast was not an option as there was no where open to eat until after the sun set. So, maybe now we can go out to breakfast or lunch!
We did go to Bahrain the other day for dinner and a movie. Remember, there are NO movie theatres here in Saudi Arabia ANYWHERE in the whole country. The movie theatres in Bahrain are very plush, but they do tend to cut and slash at some of the American films that come in. For example, we saw "Tallegany Nights", and there was a comic scene where the two male race drivers kiss. That was cut out. Something else was cut out as the movie jumped at another point to something else and it could have easily been that someone said the word "Pig" or made some reference to "Pork, or Bacon".
I saw a very unique sight when I went into the movie bathroom. These are very plush as well and always have a woman on duty cleaning up. There was a long row of about 8 sinks on a marble counter along one wall, and the tiny Indian cleaning lady was sitting on the counter, between two sinks, in the lotus position, her face about 1 inch from the mirror, tweezing her eyebrows. Her long handled mop was soaking in a sink full of soapy water and she didn't miss a tweeze during my visit. Not a sight one sees everyday. The bathroom was spotless.
We always go to the early movies, so we usually have private screenings of every movie we see in Bahrain. Pretty neat! During Ramadan, no one really goes out and about in the Middle East anywhere except after the last prayer of the day, when the fasting comes to a halt for the day. Then everywhere starts to fill up from about 8 PM with hordes of people until about 11 PM when roads and stores and sidewalks and malls are just a sea of people. A couple of times we did go food shopping at midnight and it was really very nice.

There is a Johnny Carinos in Bahrain and we went there for dinner. It totally filled up with Saudis and Filipinos and we were the only Americans there. One Saudi family sat at a table close to us and they were very typical. The woman was totally veiled, and there were two Filipino maids with them to care for their two very young daughters. Because Bahrain doesn't have 'family sections' like in Saudi or huge partitions that can be rolled around tables to seclude Saudi women from public view, this woman would be eating her meal by lifting her veil before each bite and shoving food up under it. These women are very expert at doing this, however, and it is so smooth and slight of hand that one hardly notices what is going on.
It is interesting because we go to Bahrain to see movies and eat out where we don't feel so pinched and stifled. The Bahrainis drive over to Saudi to shop because things are cheaper over here. To me, all the high fashion stores are amazing in both places and the high fashion styles are stunning and very expensive. Fashion is not a trivial matter for Saudi women and they take their clothes shopping very seriously.

Plugged again

GRRRR! The kitchen sink is plugged up again today. Called Maintenance and they said they would be over after "saleh". This is prayer time, but we had three more prayer times to go during the day and I didn't know after which one a plumber would appear. So, waited after one prayer and called: "Yes, coming after saleh". Ok, so waited after the next prayer and now it was 3:30 PM. Haven't moved from the house, haven't dirtied anything that might need washing in the kitchen, and still no plumber. So, called again and got the wonderful response of, "INSHA ALLAH". This can mean between now and when I die! Not only was the sink plugged but also the toilet. So, it isn't a fun day here today. These plugs need the snake. There will be big time work for the plumber when he does arrive. And, our weekend is here and then the Eid when everyone is celebrating, so at this point I am anticipating clogs for a week.
Good news is that our car is back from the shop, but we are holding back from going out anywhere just in case a plumber shows up. I am not sure at all what their work hours are during Ramadan. They could show up at 10 PM, but certainly not before noon on Friday if at all on Friday. Maybe they will come on Saturday. Oh it is such fun.
We missed out on the U.S. Prime Rib dinner last night. They had run out of the steaks ahead of time, so we were reduced to the Saudi meat. We got the filet mignon with beef bacon. Remember, no pork is Saudi. Saudi meat is just not that good at all, especially when your taste buds are sitting up for U.S.A. beef. It was a fun social evening anyway, and that made up for the missing prime ribs.

Saudi Maintenance (Oct. 18)

Drat! Our kitchen sink has plugged up again. For dinner I had made fish tacos with a mango salsa and this involved a lot of fine chopping. I always try very hard to make sure NOTHING solid goes down the drain. It doesn't take much to clog things up. The last time Maintenance came to unclog this drain, they broke a pipe and a 20 min. fix turned into three hours! There was also a nasty mess to clean up due to partial flooding of the kitchen. As you should be able to tell, we do not have a garbage disposal. This morning I put in another request for help from Maintenance and hopefully they will come out at some point today. We are entering into a weekend here (Thurs. and Fri.) plus next week is the Eid holiday after Ramadan and so there will be extra days off for everyone. Not fun to think of being stranded here at home with no car and a double kitchen sink totally clog for a week.
A week ago Maintenance came out to put a new exhaust fan in the bathroom and when they left it looked like someone had used a spray gun of some kind as there were very fine black particles all over the bathroom! Have no idea how that all came about, but it kept me busy for some time totally cleaning every inch of the room.
Actually, I do feel pretty blessed in that help to fix anything is just a phone call away and it is all for free.
------
10 AM
Maintenance man came. They always arrive with a plunger in hand and their tool kit. He removed his shoes and entered the house barefoot. Once in the kitchen he proceeded to roll up his pant legs to just below his knees. Plumbers are always prepared here before starting work. This fix went quickly as all was needed was some mighty plunger action and the sinks cleared up. I was then given a brief tutorial on how to use the strainer/plug :)
Tonight we are invited to Prime Rib night on an American Compound between Al Khobar and Dammam. We just hope we do not have any problems getting a taxi.

Getting out and about in Dhahran

Yesterday, as my very personal driver was driving me home from an afternoon of Bridge at a Western Compound, our conversation struck me as extremely normal for this area. "Look, they are building up the walls around this compound! Wow, they are really high. Gosh, their guard is behind an extremely protective bullet proof and bomb proof cage. I never really noticed that before. He doesn't have any contact with those who leave, does he? All he has to do is push the button that opens and closes that solid iron wall. You know, more and more of these Western Compounds are becoming more secure than the U.S Consulate! Man, wish we could get a picture of that mounted machine gun pointing right at us. However, I don't know if I really want these kinds of memories in pictures. Hurry up, lets just get back home. You know, I just have to pass through these secure points maybe once a week when I go to my Bridge group on this particular Western Compound. I really understand why some of the women who go out from our compound and teach in the Western school on this one get emotionally beaten down by these daily sights."

Today our car is in the shop getting some work done and we will be without it for several days. Of course, I wanted to rent a car so we could maybe go to Bahrain next week. My emotions bounce up to, "Gads, I wish we had our car so we could just maybe go for a ride or something!" These apartment walls can close in on me pretty fast sometimes. However, my man refuses to pay extra for a rental and it would be even more stressful to deal with the local police to get the special required permit on rental cars for going over to Bahrain. I suppose he has a point.
Looks like it will be Taxi time for a bit. I did take the Taxi early this morning to a ladies luncheon over at ARAMCO. To get in I needed the driver's work permit, and his taxi license along with my own copy of my passport and a copy of my husband's Igama. I dashed from the taxi into the check-in office where I needed to call the contact inside ARAMCO that was expecting me so the guard at the office could talk to her , get her 'badge number' and verify that I was a legitimate visitor. Fortunately there wasn't a long line of visitors so the process went very quickly. The Saudi guards at this point are pretty sour. When I got out at the building inside ARAMCO where the luncheon was, I left my name with the taxi driver and the same phone number to call so he could return and collect me in 3 1/2 hours. Taxi's are unmarked, and I was glad I remembered that his car had a bunch of red plastic grapes hanging form his rear view mirror! Taxi driver's are really excellent here and allow women to have a tad more freedom in their comings and goings. When I told him to pick me up at noon, I knew he would be right outside waiting for me along with all the other drivers.
The taxi driver I had today, however, was having a hard time stopping at the stop signs inside ARAMCO. He ran two of them before I decided I really needed to helped him out: "WHOA! That's a stop sign! OK, there you go! Thank you!" I can't help but feel pretty relieved when I do return home after any outing I go on by myself!

Adventures in Eating out in Saudi

We tried out the new, huge, Applebee's that recently opened up in Al Khobar. Arrived between the Maghreb prayer (5:11 PM) and well ahead of the Isha final prayer of the day (7:11 PM). So everything was open. Very important to catch this window of time between these two prayers if you want to eat out before 8 PM.
The main floor of this restaurant is the size of an ordinary Applebee's in the States, but that part is only for the men. Right inside the front door there is a staircase leading to the massive family section. This staircase rivals the one at Tara in Gone With The Wind. As we were led upstairs by one of the Filipino waiters, he boasted that this Applebee's is the largest one in the world of this chain. I had no reason to doubt him. As we continued to climb and wind our way up to the second level, we were asked where we were from, "England"? We always get big grins when we say the U.S. A.
After we were seated, the waiter pulled out a wad of Riyals (Saudi Currency) from his pocket and asked us if we had ANY foreign currency of ANY kind to exchange with him, maybe something from Canada or the U.S.A. Sorry, all we carry are the local Riyals ourselves. Again, this is not an unusual question to be asked these day. Why, I am not sure.
The Applebee's menu is pretty much the same as in the U.S.A., but because this is Ramadan time, we were served free apple or mango juice and plates of dates were placed on the table. This is the common gesture here at all the restaurants for the first meal, Al-Iftar, after fasting all day.
In general the steaks we ordered were ok, but too salty for my taste. So many restaurants like Applebee's get a bit season-salt-happy with their foods.
When it was time to leave, we were barred from exiting out the front door, and were escorted through the kitchen and out the back door. We left during the final prayer of the day where everything is closed up from about 7 PM until 7:45 PM and restaurants lock their front doors during this time and no one is allowed to enter or leave. But, slipping out the back door is OK for many places because then you are not visible to any lurking Matawas (Religious Police) who may cause big problems for businesses that do not adhere to the laws of closing and staying closed during prayer times. So, we were kindly dumped out onto the alleyway in the back. The area wasn't dirty or nasty in any way, but I always feel like I am in an old black and white movie during the prohibition era when we exit a restaurant this way.

Back in Saudi Arabia

Yup, I am back in Saudi Arabia and the jet lag after being out of country for four months is finally easing up a bit. No more middle of the day naps for five hours and no more popping awake at 3 AM after going to bed at midnight or 1 AM. Ah, it really is good to have my internal clock back on track once again.

Today, while we were checking out a new store, we got slapped down like real beginners in this country. We neglected to time our shopping as we should and ended up hurrying away from the grocery store empty handed. Here's what happened when we took an unplanned stop for some extra food shopping in the new Carrefour Hyper-Market in Al Khobar. We had loaded up a small basket with prime fruits, veggies, bread, and cheese and before we realized what was what, the entrance-exit gates started closing and we had to make a very quick getaway out of the store or we would have been shut inside the grocery store for god knows how long until they lifted the gates again. It could be anywhere from 15 to 45 min. and this was just a quick stop on the way home on a VERY, VERY hot day. You see, we had already been to another grocery store and had things in our car that would have been spoiled if we weren't able to get back to the car quickly. It is REALLY hot here right now...hot and humid, so food left in a sitting car can't be left long at all! We did run over to the one remaining checker who refused to help us and quickly locked up his machine, and with a really anxious look on his face, raced away. Oh boy, the powers that be have put the fear of Allah into these new foreign workers to get the heck GONE when prayer times hit! It was written all over his face! All the checkers had quickly left their stations by their cash registers and were heading...where? Who knows, but it was PRAYER TIME and they sure as heck better not be checking any last minute customers out, that was for sure. So, we very calmly just left our load of groceries on the check-out conveyor belt and rushed out the one half-lowered gate that was the only place to exit at this time and it was located at the very end of a huge wall of already lowered gates. Whew! We made it out and back to our car and headed home in record time.

Actually we were really not up-set at all. We are acclimated to this drop and run from stores around here. We should have never been caught like this. This was a very amateurish move on our part. After all, we have been here long enough to know better, so it really was our fault for not doing a better job of timing our visit to Carrefour Hyper-Market, which, by the way, is a massive store!

Amazing how one outing like this in this hot, humid climate can knock us off our feet for a whole day. Tomorrow we are going to go out on yet another adventure. We are going to check out the HUGE new Applebees that recently opened in Al Khobar down by the corniche. New restaurants are HUGE here because they have to accommodate the 'single' section for the men only and then the ''family' for the women and male relatives and children. Big sign on the new Applebees: WESTERN GRILL .