March 2008

I am way behind on my goal to publish something every month…and since I am leaving my computer for the summer to visit family in the States, I decided I should summarize our last few months. They were quite busy.

Janadiryah

In the month of March, we had some fun. I was very busy helping organize the International Festival with the PTSA, so I didn’t do much outside of school. One thing I did do, however, was make it to Janadiryah…the Saudi national festival. Families cannot attend this festival together, so there are women’s days and men’s days. Jacob was not able to come with us because he is in the “man” category now that he’s almost as tall as Jim. However, Emma, Naomi and Joseph came along with me, my friend, Angela, her two girls and her maid, Fiodi, who spoke Arabic (very useful!)

As we came into the festival, the muttawa were right there at the entrance, making sure that everyone was covered (remember, this was women’s day – but we still had to cover…) Emma had forgotten her scarf, so we all decided to purchase (get this) COWBOY HATS that everyone was selling/buying in the parking lot. It was kind of funny, because you would have these women who were totally covered…face, hair, everything, and then they have a cowboy hat on their heads. I wish I could have taken pictures. We got by the muttawa (barely – they said Emma’s hair wasn’t covered well enough but I just pretended I didn’t hear them) and into the fair grounds. Once we got past the front gates, the atmosphere was very different. There were vendors sitting on the ground, lining the main thoroughfare selling all sorts of things…dresses for little girls, drums (of course Joseph got one of those), little finger cymbals, stuffed animals, fake jewelry…just anything you could think of. (Side note: it was the first time that I ever saw a woman breastfeeding her baby in public here…of course her face and hair were covered and she was wearing her abaya – her breast was the only thing showing! I have to say that I was happy to see that babies are well fed in Saudi Arabia.) As we passed further into the festival, it seemed that the women became a little more relaxed. Face veils were taken off sometimes, and some rebellious young women even took off the veils covering their hair and opened up their abayas so their clothing was showing. We were surprised, because as soon as we got out of reach of the muttawa, women would stop us and tell us “Welcome to Saudi Arabia.” Some didn’t speak English very well, but everyone was extremely friendly toward us – even though we were unveiled, blonde Westerners.

We watched a camel grinding sesame seeds into sesame oil, and a basket weaver, too. A lot of the women/girls had circlets of flowers in their hair, so we bought the little girls some of those. We came to a tower, and inside the tower were women and girls who were without their abayas in traditional dress. The little girls were colorfully dressed, and sang us a sweet little “welcome” song in Arabic. We asked to take their picture, but were told that we could not. The funny thing was that after we were told we could not take pictures of the girls in traditional dress, the same women asked to take pictures of Angela’s daughter. Angela’s youngest daughter (who is so cute and very blonde) was very sought after for pictures…we had women lining up to take her picture everywhere we went! Poor little girl, we had to protect her from all the hands that tried to pinch her cheeks and get her attention…she was like a celebrity! After the tower, we let the little ones play a little and took some pictures with them.

The tastiest thing we did was go into the tent where they showed how to make some traditional sweets. They would make a little round pita type bread and then cover it in sugar and cinnamon and bake it in this tiny little oven, over hot coals. They were quite yummy! We also went inside the marketplace where they sold honey, traditional clothing, baskets, sweets, coffee and tea, and tobacco (some of it was herbal tobacco for the houka pipes or the “hubbly bubbly.”) Have I ever mentioned that Arabs don’t believe in getting in lines? Everyone just pushes to get where they want to go…this applies to traffic, and marketplaces…we were lucky to get out of there with all the children.

Anyhow, Janadiryah was a really fun afternoon (although it was hot – next year I’ll remember to go in the morning!)

International Festival

Our next activity for March was the International Festival – a very large festival at the children's school where over 40 countries create a country exhibit. This year, yours truly volunteered (never again, by the way) to oversee the exhibit for the U.S. in addition to doing the publicity for the event as the Publicity Chair of the PTSA’s Executive Council. Somehow, even though I said I would not do the International Festival, I ended up being on the Festival committee anyways. (I need to improve my “NO” skills.) We couldn’t’ have done the booth without my good friends, Stephanie and Lolly. (Stephanie has taken on the title of “Joanne’s common sense” because without her, I say “yes” too easily.) We did this last year with only two week’s notice and it was hard work but we were told that no one had ever gone to this much effort for America’s booth before and they really appreciated it, so this year we felt kind of obligated. Booz Allen Hamilton sponsored us again (thank goodness!) and we were able to do some fun things. Our theme was “Road Trip Across America” and we purchased these huge pictures of some things you might see if you took a road trip across America…NY Times Square, Mount Rushmore, and Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood that everyone could take their picture in front of. Our kids then made the flags of all 50 states, and we had some posters of sights from all parts of the country. The US Embassy also helped us by providing pins to give out as well as pamphlets from the national park service. One young Saudi couple who were engaged talked about going to Zion’s national park on their honeymoon, they loved the pictures so much. It was fun, but busy and we have all decided we are going to pass this opportunity to someone else next year. :)

February 2008 Highlights

As you may notice from the picture above, Valentines Day is not practiced in Saudi Arabia.


So this Valentines Day, we took a trip with some friends to Bahrain. Joseph and Naomi stayed home with some friends while we took the older two and some other friends with us. (Let me take a moment to say that traveling without the younger two was like heaven - it was peaceful!) We had so much fun while there...the kids did some team building activities together in the morning, we made 580 school kits for children in Iraq by 1:30 pm, and then we went bowling and ice skating for a few hours later that afternoon.

The highlight of my day, however, was the youth dance that evening. I knew the words to almost all of the music! It was all 80's music....I guess that's the last time they made good, clean dance music! ;) My friend, Joy (who I went to high school with in the States) and I were having a lot of fun - we danced to this stuff 20 years ago together!

Although Jacob, Jim and I were having a great time, it took two hours to get Emma onto the dance floor. Finally, a sweet guy named Max was able to get her to slow dance with him after encouraging her for only a few minutes. I think he made her feel comfortable, because after those dances she would dance the faster songs with her friends and I think she realized that it was fun to make a fool of yourself out on the dance floor. (Perhaps she had seen Jim and I dancing earlier and was secretly embarrassed to think she might look like us...) Jacob was even chosen to compete in the dance competition (with his kung fu arms - ask him to do that move for you when you see him this summer!) He was on the dance floor the entire three hours...I even got a slow dance with him. I had such a great time, and I can't remember the last time I danced like that (I think it might have been the first time I danced while pregnant!)

The time in Bahrain was just really wonderful, and we enjoyed the testimonies that were shared on Friday at the end of the trip. The 11 hours it took in travel time in three days was worth all the good, clean fun we had while we were there. We can't wait for next year!

Our Adventures in Jeddah

We decided to take scuba diving lessons this month with our friend, and relative, Marc. He and his wife Betty are moving to Shanghai in October so we took lessons from him before he left. We heard that the diving in the Red Sea is some of the best in the world, so we decided to try it.

After many hours in the pool at Marc and Betty's, four tests and a final, we were ready for a trip to Jeddah to certify as Open Water divers. We started our weekend on Wednesday by driving from Riyadh to Jeddah...Only 8 hours and really a beautiful drive across the desert. We were able to use the bathrooms at the local mosques when we stopped, which was quite interesting at times. Jeddah was really different from Riyadh...More relaxed in some ways and VERY humid! Our hotel was quite nice, and we took the bus from the hotel to the beach each day.

Betty was nice enough to watch the two youngest while we were diving and they really had a great time snorkeling in the lagoon. The water was the most beautiful color of blue-turquoise and the beach was really very nice with a grill and covered areas.

Our first dive was an easy one, and we were all pretty pleased...I even got some pictures on my disposable water camera. The problem came when I tried to get out. Everyone else was up the stairs, but I kept slipping and falling on the coral and ended up being pushed away by the waves. The coral and rock can be quite slippery and if you don't get out at a certain place, it isn't very fun. By the end of the day, both Emma and I had been washed away while getting our fins off and we both bear our own battle wounds on our legs. Our underwater camera ended up floating away and we were unable to recover it. We braved going in again, though, and got three dives in the first day. We took Friday off to visit with friends.

Friday we visited some wonderful friends in Jeddah and had a great time. Then we went to a great Lebanese restaurant. On our way to the restaurant, we were amazed by a few men walking their fancy camels just on the side of the road. I got some pictures out the car window. After dinner, Marc showed us around a little bit and we ended up at a little plaza near the sea. We got out and found the camels we had seen a few hours earlier. Our youngest didn't want anything to do with the camels, so he rode the little pony, but the kids got a great camel ride around the plaza. It was so fun! By the time we got back to our starting place, all the local vendors had gathered around to try to sell us what they had...And they don't give up very easily. The guy giving the pony rides wouldn't let our son off the pony until he had gone around the plaza three times...Jim finally had to just pull him off. The guy of course wanted the 3 times the fare we had talked about earlier (I can't help but feel for these guys...Half of them are supporting a family in another country and we are so incredibly rich comparatively.) We really had a great time, and it was fun to see Jeddah all lit up for Ramadan.

We did our last certification dive on Saturday morning and it was great. We went down to 18 metres that dive. After we were fully certified, we took a short break, changed tanks, and went down for a pleasure dive...That was fun. It's not so fun taking your mask off at 12 metres or showing you know how to remove cramps underwater or do an emergency controlled ascent from 6 metres, but it IS fun when you actually get to look at the fish and enjoy the reef wall. We saw little clown fish and got to play with them a little bit. We brought a banana down and fed some of the trigger fish, and we looked all over for the lion fish (Betty and Naomi found a baby in the lagoon while we were gone.) We really had a good time. By the end of the second dive, though, we were exhausted! We packed up and headed back to the hotel and back home.

Our drive to Jeddah was only 8 hours, but unfortunately, our drive back was 15 hours! We had just planned on 8, so we are exhausted! The signs from Jeddah directed us to another road than the one we came from and our map said it went generally the same way, so we decided to take it. To get to Jeddah from Riyadh, a Muslim can go straight through Makkah (Mecca), BUT if you are non-muslim, you need to go around because only muslims are allowed into the city. On the way, we had gone around the north of the city. On the way back, the signs directed us to the south of the city. After about 3 1/2 hours of driving, we were about 70km past Makkah when the road just stopped. Apparently, there was some construction and the road is not open. We had to drive back almost to where we had started from and go around Makkah the other way! It was already dark by then and we were not excited about the prospect! Long story short, we ended up getting back to Riyadh about 6:30 am. Jim stopped a few times at some gas stations to sleep when he was tired, so he was safe, but that drive went on FOREVER! Let's just say that I am really happy to be home. The kids lucked out and got another day off of school, too.

We are really pretty comfortable here. We enjoy that the Saudis are so family oriented. The abaya can be hot, but it is a great equalizer... And it is really pretty convenient. I wear a lot of long skirts and tshirts underneath. I don't have to worry much about my outfits when I go out...I can just be comfortable. The veil can be challenging...I have a hard time keeping it on my hair, but it can hide some bad hair days pretty well. People have really been kind to us here. We attract a little attention when we go out, but not too much. We are careful when we go out and respectful of the Saudi culture and we find that people are very nice to us. We are learning a few phrases in Arabic that help, too. Most of the people here seem to like Americans, even if they disagree with our foreign policy, and the foreigners I know from the compound let me know what is appropriate and what is not. For example, we cannot take pictures of mosques, although there are some very beautiful ones here. I wish I could record the call to prayer for you all (but realize that some do it a little better than others). Prayer time can be an inconvenience (like when we had to wait 30 minutes for gas yesterday), but I enjoy that these people are so devout that they would pray to God 5 times a day. The people here take their religion seriously and I really appreciate that about them.

So, we are enjoying our time here with little bouts of homesickness here and there. The school is excellent and our compound is very comfortable. Next month, we are learning to golf :) Take care and thank you for your emails and contact with us! I'll try to update our Saudi Sandlot when we have some more good pictures to add! Our computer hard drive crashed this month and although I have limited use right now, I am unable to post our pictures at this time. I'll ty to get them up as soon as possible, because there are some great pictures from our trip!
Love, J&J family

We Are Here!!

Well, we are finally here after months of preparation. We arrived a week ago and have been very pleased with our accomodations. I will send emails to you all, but thought I would post pictures for everyone to see on this site.






We stopped in Paris en route and had a wonderful day at the Eiffel tower. We ate wonderful chocolate topped waffles and crepes, and went to the very top of the Eiffel tower. We ate dinner at a sidewalk cafe and really enjoyed the cool weather. Everyone was very tired by the time we took a taxi to the airport, but it was worth it!













When we arrived(it's already been a week!), we were met by friendly work associates who had a dinner party waiting for us at home. We got to meet associates and their families. The kids got to explore, and it was very nice. The second day, we went out a bit to explore and go to the grocery store. It was quite different than what we are used to, but I found another store today that is much better. I registered the kids for school and they will start soon. I have already taken one child to the hospital for an ear infection, and let me tell you...the wait is very short. I was there and back within an hour. What a shock! I felt very comfortable with the medical care we received...similar to home. I have also been to dinner with friends, to IKEA, and a few malls. There are a lot of malls here, with new malls under construction. The shopping is quite nice. I bought my first abaya, too. I like the clothing styles here...very loose and comfortable. I think once the kids start school I will have to do more shopping ;) .

Thanks to everyone who helped us get here, either with babysitting, travel, or packing...we couldn't have done this without your help. I am very grateful for the amazing family and friends that we have been blessed with and plan to keep you all informed of our upcoming adventures. Things are definately different here (like finding spices I recognize in the grocery), but we look forward to getting the most out of our experience. We are learning to like dates (especially the chocolate covered ones), and we will also learn to golf and speak some Arabic. Until later, J&JM