Las Dunas

We have pretty much settled into our temporary compound.  It is in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia which is about an hour an a half away from where our permanent housing is.  This compound is temporary for a lot of the people here.  Most of us will move to the Al Jude II compound in Jubail whenever construction is finished there.  Harry works in Jubail so a big Mercedes charter bus brings him and the other guys back and forth to work every day.  They spend 3 hours on the road so we are all very anxious to move!  Several families moved in there over the last few weeks, but major electrical issues were found so they all had to move out.  We were told it could be months before they let anyone back in....so who knows how long we'll be at Las Dunas!  We know that we will be here at least until Jameson is born anyway.  The hospital where I will deliver is just about 10 minutes away from the compound.  We were hoping to move pretty soon after he is born, but it may be longer.  Oh well.  That's pretty much how things go here in Saudi - you hurry up and wait for everything! 

Welcome to Las Dunas Garden Village!

Here are the two gates that we go through to get in and out.  Obviously the one on the left is closed and the one on the right is open.  Someone had just driven through before I took the picture.  The little pinkish looking building in the middle is where the guards are. 

   
Speed limit sign on the compound.

This is the clubhouse.  It's where all the amenities are.  Connor loves to go here to race us up the wheelchair ramp.  He says I'll meet y'all at the top and then runs up the ramp while we walk up the stairs!  It takes us literally about a minute to walk here from our villa so that is really nice!

This is our little grocery store.  It's not much, but they stock a lot of necessities.  It's nice to have when we need something last minute! 

Here is the restaurant.  The food is decent so we usually eat here when we don't feel like cooking.  A guy named Sonny works here every day!  He sees us often enough to know that Connor wants a spoon if he orders lasagna lol.  They will also deliver to your villa if you call the order in so that's really convenient.  We've done that once or twice.   

Next up is the pool area. This is the kiddie pool.  Connor is tall enough to reach the bottom so he loves it! 

Back inside the clubhouse...upstairs, first we have a hair salon.  Mr. Leto is the resident hair stylist.  He has cut Harry's hair a few times and Connor recently got his hair cut too.  He is from the Philippines and has been living and working here for over 20 years!

Conference Room/Library

Next is the gym which houses a few other amenities as well.  I spend a lot of time in here....yeah right!  Today was the first time I've stepped foot in the place and it was only to take these pics!  I WILL be in here after I evict this baby though!

Here is the squash court.  When it is too hot to play outside, Harry takes Connor in here to play soccer. 

Sauna

Steam Room

Hot Tub

Back outside is the tennis court.

This building is the Eastern Cement Company.  It's the landmark that we use when we are out of the compound to let us know we are almost home!

These are some of the cars that bring us wherever we need to go.  They are all Ford Expeditions, just different colors.

And finally, home sweet home!  Villa F7!

Beautiful curtains, right!  Hehe :)

I lasted a whole two days before I broke down and bought a new sofa and recliner.  I can't even describe how uncomfortable the ones that were in here are!  Everything else came furnished with the villa. 

Our shipment came in yesterday so Connor was excited to have all his toys from home.  We set up a play area under the stairs.  He calls it his and Jameson's clubhouse!

Downstairs half bath.  Notice the sprayer.  You will see them (instead of toilet paper) in every bathroom in Saudi.  We actually have a bidet in the two bathrooms upstairs.  Out of curiosity one day we asked Connor what happens when he goes #2 at school.  He told us that his teacher sprays his butt!  So he knows how to use it, but as for me and my house...we will use toilet paper haha!

Here are my abayas that I keep hanging by the door.  Of course one is purple and gold and the other is black and gold!

This is a little sitting room upstairs that we never use.  To the right is the master bedroom and bathroom and to the left is two other bedrooms and another bathroom.  Not really anything special to see.

Upstairs balcony.

This is our backyard.  The walking track, playground, and basketball goals are right back here.  It's nice to be able to let Connor run out the back door without any worries.

Our back patio.

Well that's the end of the tour.  Overall we are really comfortable here.  The décor is most definitely not my taste, but we have made it our home...for now!

Connor's First Day of Preschool 3

So we really didn't have intentions on putting Connor in preschool right now, especially since we are only going to be in Khobar for the next couple of months.  However, after being here only a week it became increasingly clear that he was missing being with other kids.  Even though I wanted to have him all to myself before Jameson joins our family, I knew that letting him go somewhere for a few hours a day was what was best for him.  It turned out to be a lot harder to find somewhere for him to go than I thought it would be.  For starters, by the time we got here school had already started so just about everywhere I called was full.  The first place we looked at was recommended by one of Harry's coworkers.  When we told Connor that the class was full and they couldn't take anymore students he said, "Well I can just stand up in the back of the room!"  If that's not a kid desperate to go to school I don't know what is!  After many phone calls, I finally found a preschool that is only in its second year of operation.  Since it's new it's not well known and they had a few spots still available.  Connor and I went there for a visit and we decided to sign him up.  It was on a Thursday afternoon (Saudi Friday) so he would be able to start fresh Sunday morning (Saudi Monday).

The next day we found a lunch bag for him.  He wore it all around the store and pretty much all around the house for the entire weekend.  It has the cartoon character Ben 10 on it and he is so proud to wear it!

Saturday night he helped make his lunch!

  
Finally the big day had arrived and we didn't have any trouble getting him up.

The muscle check was his pose of choice for most of the morning.  We didn't tell him to do this...he just did it!

He's getting a little annoyed with all the pictures!

Muscle checks all morning!

Really annoyed with us taking a picture of everything he did ;)

It's finally time to go!

We are on our way!  We have the same driver, Prajeesh, everyday.  He goes Sunday - Thursday from 8:00 - 12:00 so I spend most of the morning bringing him back and forth.  The school is not far from our compound, but by the time I get back home I only have a few hours to kill before Prajeesh is back and we are on our way to pick him up.  It's a little hectic, but he loves going so it's okay.  The best thing about this school is that they have a daycare option after 12:00 so he can stay later if I need him to. 

He had a great first week!  They learned about the color red, circles, and how to draw straight lines.  Of course, he used a green color to draw all of his lines!  The kids are split up into two groups according to their age and each group has a teacher and an assistant.  There are only seven other kids in his group so they each get lots of one on one time with the teacher.  Several different nationalities make up the class so it's a little difficult for him to remember the names of the kids that he made friends with.  The only one he really talks about is Abooshi (not exactly sure if that's the correct spelling).  The first day he talked about him, Connor said he spoke Spanish, but since then he has told us that Abooshi speaks Japanese.  Who knows where Abooshi is from!

 

I never thought my coconut would be starting school in Saudi Arabia, but here we are!  Fingers crossed that we can find a place he likes just as much once we move to Jubail!

Humbled

We decided to move to Saudi Arabia for many reasons, obviously the main reason being financial.  Sure it is somewhat of a sacrifice because we are so far away from our family and friends.  Living in this country in it of itself comes with its own set of sacrifices.  But when it is said and done our payoff will be huge.  We are and will continue to be blessed with opportunities and life experiences that not even money can buy.  But lets face it, we had a great life before this came along. 

I knew that when I left this place I would be a completely different person compared to when I arrived.  Today reminded me of this.  I have had some of the worst days of my life over the last month and a half.  Despite this, I have tried to remember what a wonderful life I have.  I'm pretty sure that most people I know recognize that they have it pretty good, even in the hardest of times.  But then you have those opportunities when you gain a whole new perspective on just how good your life really is.  Let me tell you about the man that cleans our house.  For privacy reasons I don't want to use his real name so I'll call him Khalid for the purpose of this blog.

I heard about how cheap it is to have someone clean your house here, but even so I wasn't sure that it was something we would do.  I mean, I stay home all day...surely I can clean my own house.  Harry got Khalid to come clean a few days before he left to meet us in Dubai.  He told me about how good of a job he did for only 100 SAR (roughly $27.00).  Keep in mind that this is his rate, not a price that we came up with.  I thought okay, I'm 7 months pregnant and for 27 bucks it's worth it to not to have to clean.  So when we got to Saudi and got settled in, Harry had Khalid come over so I could meet him.  We agreed that we would pay him 100 SAR a week and he would come every Friday at 2:00.  Now Khalid works here on our compound and cleans houses on the side for extra money.  Friday is his only day off.  I didn't like the idea that he would have to spend his only day off, which also happens to be the Muslim holy day, working at our house but he insisted.  He said he would rather do it on his day off so that he wouldn't have to worry about his boss calling him out to do something.  He moved to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan about 10 years ago, right around the time his son was born.  Of course his family is still in Pakistan and he is here working to send money back to them.  According to his contract, every two years he is allowed to go home for three months.  He is going to do this until his son graduates from school.  His son is nine years old.  So my first impression of Khalid was that he is a very nice man who is making a huge sacrifice to try to give his family a better life.

Today we spent all morning grocery shopping so after we got home and had lunch I decided to take a nap.  Connor and I went upstairs to lay down around the same time Khalid was coming so I told Harry to have him start downstairs and then wake me up when he was ready to come upstairs.  This was at 2:00.  I woke up at 3:30 and Harry still hadn't come to get me up.  I couldn't believe that Khalid was still cleaning downstairs.  It wasn't even that dirty!  After he finished he made his way upstairs.  Connor and I made some fresh squeezed lemonade and started making supper together while Harry went play squash with some guys he works with.  I didn't hear a peep out of Khalid as he cleaned.  Harry got home around the same time I was finishing up with supper.  Khalid was still cleaning.  He even went outside and mopped the back patio!  I was starting to feel bad because he was working so hard for very little.  I thought asking him to stay for supper might be inappropriate so I fixed him a bag of snacks (water, oranges, a couple of muffins, chocolate, and some fresh hazelnut bread we bought this morning).  This man cleaned for 4 and 1/2 hours for $27!!  And when I say cleaned, he was literally dripping with sweat when he left.  He didn't even want to take his pay today.  He said we could pay him at the end of the month.  No way were we going to let this man work that hard every week and have to wait until the end of the month to get paid.  We told him we would pay him every week and then had to assure him that it was no problem.  He thanked me for the food and left.

I could not stop thinking about him after he left.  I began to feel more and more guilty as I thought about how hard he is working and the sacrifices he is making for the sole purpose to provide for his family.  I'm thinking, here I sit with my family in this nice house with my nice things wondering what grand vacation we will take next while this man just busted his butt to be able to send $27 back to Pakistan.  All to make a better life for his son that he has spent a total no more than 15 months with in the last 10 years.  I couldn't take it anymore.  I told Harry that we had to pay him more.  100 SAR was not enough for what he did.  He deserved more.  I figured an extra 25 SAR (not even $7) would be a good amount.  It would let him know that we appreciated the job he did without making him feel like a charity case.  He said okay we'll give him 50 extra SAR next week, 25 for this week and 25 for next.  I said no way, we had to give it to him tonight.  So Harry called the clubhouse and told them that when they saw Khalid to let him know we wanted to talk to him, but that he could just stop by tomorrow if he wanted to (it is his day off, remember).  An hour or so later he rang our doorbell - ready to clean.  He thought we wanted him to come back because he hadn't done a good enough job.  Harry explained to him that we thought he deserved more.  He refused to take the money.  He said he was happy with the food we gave him and would sleep good knowing we were satisfied with the job he did.  Huh!  Who does that??  The only thing I can figure is that he didn't feel right taking more than we agreed on, even though we thought he deserved it.  You definitely don't meet someone like that every day. 

I will still enjoy all the things I did before...time with family, material possessions, traveling to different countries, etc.  But I have gained an even deeper appreciation for all of my blessings, all thanks to Khalid, our housekeeper from Pakistan.       

Life in Saudi - Take 1

We officially moved to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Monday, September 2, 2013!  Dubai was a short 1 hour flight so we were in KSA in no time.  DOW paid for us to use the al fifa service when we arrived which made things much easier.  This is basically a VIP meet and greet service that allows you to bypass all the airport madness.  When we stepped off the airplane we didn't even go through the corridor.  We were met by someone who took us out of a side door and drove us to the al fifa office.  Once there we went through security and then into a very nice waiting area.  We were literally the only people there besides the security guards and airport personnel.  They took our passports and started the intake process.  Some guy brought us bottled water and hot tea in fancy tea cups on a gold platter.  Ummm okay.  Soon after we were ushered into a little office with some guard-looking man who took my fingerprints.  This is when I got my first taste of life as a woman in KSA (Disclaimer:  I've since come to realize that not all Saudi men treat women this way.)  The man behind the desk didn't look at or speak to me.  He talked to me through Harry.  This made my already anxious husband even more stressed.  At first he didn't know if the man was telling him to do something or getting him to tell me what to do.  I was just confused all around because I couldn't understand what he was saying.  I couldn't get the fingerprints done and get out of that office fast enough.  When we finished I told Harry that he really needed to calm down because him being so flustered was stressing me out just as much as trying to figure out what was going on was.  I don't even want to think about what it would have been like if we would have had to go through the airport with the lines and crowds!  Prayer time started right around the same time we went back to the waiting area which made me even more uncomfortable.  The men were praying right next to where we were sitting and I didn't know if it was appropriate for us to stay there or if we needed to move.  It didn't take long before Monther, the really nice al fifa contact guy, came to get us and bring us to another waiting area upstairs...whew!  The waiting area upstairs was just as nice as the one downstairs and we were still the only people there.  We were there for a total of about an hour and then Monther came to tell us that everything was done and we could go.  He took us out to a car that already had all our luggage loaded, gave me a tin of chocolates to welcome me to Saudi Arabia, and we took off to our new, albeit temporary, house!  (We are staying at the Las Dunas compound in Khobar for now.  After Jameson is born we will move to our actual house at the Al Jude II compound in Jubail.)  Needless to say, it was a much different experience compared to all the "fun" I had at the Dubai airport...even with the rude and uncomfortable fingerprint guy!

This is us in the waiting area in the al fifa building.

On the way to our new house!

Definitely not in Louisiana anymore!

Going through security to get into the compound for the first time was a little unnerving.  The guard looks underneath the car with a mirror and then looks under the hood.  After he's cleared the car, he moves the spikes that would have otherwise busted the tires.  Then we get to another checkpoint where the guard records the license plate number and checks credentials before opening the gate. 

Connor was so excited when we got home.  As soon as we walked through the door he said, "Our new house is perfect!"  Harry set up Connor's room before he left for Dubai as a surprise for him to find when we got there.  He loved it!

I've been here for five days now and life here is MUCH different than back home in the states.  Some things are good, some bad, some just simply different - you can decide which one is which.  So here you go...my initial thoughts/impressions about living in Saudi Arabia.

• I've only seen two refrigerators, but neither had an ice maker.  The one at Al Jude II actually has two ice trays connected to some handle that you use to turn the trays over so the ice will dump into the ice bucket.  I'm not exactly sure how it works, but it's...well...different.
• The light switches at the hotel in Dubai and here at Las Dunas are backwards from what we have in the states.  You push the switch down to turn the light on and push it up to turn it off.  The switches at Al Jude aren't like this though.
• You always have to pay attention to the voltage and watts on the plugs.  I can't even keep track of what I can use where and if I need an adapter or not.  A lot of the outlets have a switch on them so you have to turn the outlet on in order to use whatever you plugged in (and yes, you have to push the switch down to turn it on).
• The driving.  OMG, the driving.  I'm not even sure you can call it driving.  They basically do whatever they want and they honk the horn constantly!  I think the only traffic law I've seen them obey is to stop at a red light.  They literally drive in the middle of the road, pass people up on the shoulder, turn two lane roads into four lanes, jump curbs, drive as fast as they want, turn in a non-turning lane across traffic going straight, cross four lanes of traffic to exit, and turn an exit ramp into a three lane highway!  It's not so bad in actual parking lots, but along the street they will park any kind of way they feel like it.  I laughed out loud when I saw at least 10 cars parked in all different directions and at all different angles crowded around a sign that said "No Parking or Waiting".  I'm actually glad that I'm not allowed to drive here!
• Speaking of no driving...we are driven everywhere.  We call or email someone to let them know when and where we need to go and someone comes to our door and picks us up.  I was really nervous about this, mainly because I get car sick so easily.  Thankfully we've had very good drivers and it hasn't been an issue.  They definitely don't drive like the crazy people on the road!  It's basically a chauffer service.  The guy drops us off at the door and when we are finished and ready to leave we call him and he meets us at the door to pick us up.  If we shopped and have bags, he helps load them up and unload them when we get back home.  I've talked to a few ladies who have had unpleasant experiences for one reason or another, but I don't have any complaints yet.  Of course Harry is still on vacation so he's been with me for every trip which makes a difference.  Things tend to not go as smoothly when you don't have your husband with you (or so I've been told).  I'm nervous to find out what will happen when I need something right away and have to call for a driver when I would have otherwise jumped in the car and taken off!
• Some traffic lights have timers on them.  So you sit at the red light and watch it countdown to green.  And as soon as it turns green they're honking lol!  There are also timers for the green lights so you know how much longer it will stay green. 
• The wheels on the store buggies are casters.  It drives me insane.  They are soooo hard to turn!
• Trying to shop is extremely frustrating!  In most of the stores, there is no rhyme or reason for the way things are organized.  A lot of the merchandise at the first store I went into didn't have prices labeled.  The grocery stores are a little more organized, but things are definitely foreign to me right now.  It's hard to figure out what things are because the packaging is different and sometimes you have to search for the English writing amongst all the Arabic characters. 
• Muslims pray 5 times a day, starting around 4 am.  If you are out and about you will hear the call to prayer.  If you are in a store you can continue to shop, but you can't check out until prayer is finished.  Because they pray throughout the day most stores have prayer rooms (one for men and one for women, of course).
• A lot of the bigger chain stores have some type of restaurant or café in them.  The grocery store I went to yesterday actually had a small strip mall inside of it.
• No ceiling fans.  At least I haven't seen any anywhere.
• The escalators inside the stores are more like moving ramps because they don't turn into steps.  I found this extremely comical when I saw them...given the close call we had going down the escalator at the airport in Dubai!
• I haven't seen gas prices and since we don't drive there isn't a need to even go to a gas station, but Harry said it is extremely cheap...like 60 cents a gallon cheap.
• Most restaurants have separate dining areas.  Some of them go so far as to have separate entrances to the building.  One for families and one for single men.  I actually saw a men's line and women's line at the pharmacy in a hospital, as well as separate waiting areas.
• Trying to do conversions has been extremely difficult, even for this former math teacher.  Turning SAR into USD, kilograms to pounds, centimeters to inches, and Celsius to Fahrenheit in your head gets confusing.
• The language barrier is probably the most frustrating thing, for me and the person I'm trying to communicate with. 
• Keeping track of what day and time it is here compared to back home gets confusing. 
• The sun starts to come up around 4:30 am and it goes down around 5:00 pm.  No daylight savings time here.
• Compound life has been really fun so far.  Once you go through the gate at the entrance it doesn't even feel like you're in Saudi Arabia, well except for the desert-like heat...that's a quick reminder!  Life inside these walls has somewhat of a family feel to it.  You are in walking distance to everyone here and to the clubhouse where all the amenities are.  Here at Las Dunas the clubhouse has a restaurant, convenient store, aerobic room, nursery, library, salon, gym, tennis court, squash court, and swimming pool.  We don't have to worry about much here.  There are people who work here that take care of most everything.  We don't even take the garbage away.  We have a garbage can outside the back door and someone comes around everyday to empty it.  If we need something done inside the house we call maintenance and they come take care of it.  We all got together last night for a pool party so I got to meet most of the people here which was really fun.  The ladies get together to do things often.  They went to lunch yesterday, but I couldn't go because I had an appointment to visit one of the hospitals.  I am going shopping with a few of them tomorrow though.  Many of the wives are starting to put different clubs and activities together to help occupy our time.
• I had two hospitals to choose from in terms of where I wanted to deliver Jameson.  SAAD is here in Khobar and Royal Commission is in Jubail (where are permanent house is).  I visited SAAD first and was pleased with the experience.  The doctor that I met with was very nice and she was extremely thorough.  I was really hoping that I would feel just as comfortable at Royal Commission so that we could move as soon as the house is ready.  That way we could actually get settled before Jameson arrives and not have to worry about moving with a newborn.  Unfortunately it didn't take long before I realized that I would probably go back to the USA before I would have a baby there.  I felt pretty uncomfortable from the beginning because I didn't see any other non-Muslim women there which meant I was the only woman without her hair covered.  I get funny looks and stared at most places, but I felt it more so here.  Especially when I walked up to the counter and all the women in front of me in line turned around and stared at me like I was an alien....strike 1.  The intake nurse was very rude.  I was having a really hard time understanding her and she said, "Well I'm not speaking Arabic, I'm speaking English"...strike 2.  I met with the chief OB doctor there and I was satisfied with his bedside manner and explanation during the ultrasound...maybe they can turn this around after all?  Then I asked him what differences I can expect in comparison to delivering in the USA.  He said really the only difference is that they don't have epidurals available in the facility...say what?!?  Strike 3...time to go!  He said they use injections and gas as pain relievers during delivery.  I have nothing against people who choose to deliver without an epidural, but I am not one of those people.  Even so...if you don't even have the option available to use, you are not modern enough for me!
• Last but certainly not least are the bathrooms (or toilets as they call them).  I carry around toilet paper and baby wipes because you'd be hard pressed to find it in public restrooms.  However, I've never actually used my supplies because I have always just turned right back around and decided to wait until I got home.  This coming from a 7 month pregnant women should tell you something about the condition.  They use sprayers to clean themselves, which also means that the floors are usually wet.  I have yet to figure out how/where I am going to change diapers when we go out!

Well I hope this has satisfied some of your curiosity about what it's like to live here.  There are many, many challenges and I get frustrated a lot when we are out, but then we get back home and I am in my happy place again.  I keep reminding myself that I will learn, adjust, and adapt to day to day life.  The most important thing I've learned is to always keep an open mind and think about the big picture and all the reasons why we came here in the first place.  Even during the most frustrating moments I'm trying to embrace what's different and grow as a person from it.