Quick update

OK, so I can't get the camera to download the pictures tonight, but I just want everyone to know that:

1) I gave Clyde a 15-minute facelift with a $2 can of spray paint and he looks much better!  Pics to come soon.  Very happy about this.  Makes me feel a little less....conspicuous.  You'll see. 

2) Baby update coming soon!  I tried to scan the two latest ultrasounds, with no luck, but I'm going to make it work soon.  The most recent one you can kind of see her face, a little, maybe.  It's not a great ultrasound, but, as the doctor suggested, "if you use your imagination, you can see it."  Only 5 weeks to go!  And just in time, the commissary got in a small shipment of Dreft.  Yeah!  So I paid up for it (aggh!  $60 for three *small* bottles!) but at least now I can do all of the baby laundry before she arrives. 

Also, in other big news, Mike got fed up with the Company (I'm not supposed to say the name of the company) telling us that our shipment was still sitting in port in Savannah, so he emailed the shipping company himself.  They got right back to us with a ton of details!  Our shipment is on a ship named (something I can't remember because it's not English), and it just finished rounding the straight of Hormuz.  Yes - it's practically here!  It will arrive in port here TOMORROW, leap day!  HOORAY!!  He called Housing, and turns out that the current time for customs is 10 days to two weeks.  And I've been told that if he goes to the Housing office and says "My wife is having a baby any day now and we need our stuff" then it can get here in as little as five days to a week.  So we've gone from thinking it is still in the US and we won't get it until June, to wow, we may have our stuff next week!  HOORAY HOORAY!  Lots of pictures to come if we get our stuff!  I bet that is one busy day - looking forward to absorbing all our belongings back into our house.  My washer and dryer!  Our rugs!  The couches!  The TV!  The piano!  All my kitchen gear!  All the kids' outdoor toys!  And indoor toys!  The books!  Our own bed!  Yes!  Will keep you posted as soon as we know anything. 

PS - Thanks all for enduring my censorship rant in the last post!  Sorry to be such a downer - I guess I just got caught off guard.  Never imagined that living here would be so much like living in a cage.  I'll get used to it soon! 

Censored

Unfortunately, I have removed the second part of the abaya post.  Mike felt that it was too negative toward Arabic culture, and apparently "THEY" are watching.  

They read all our emails and monitor all our internet traffic.  They know and take note when we accidentally go to a blocked website, like Netflix.  They monitor our facebook posts and have keep tabs on what I post on the blog.  They have tapped our phone lines and listen to all  phone conversations.  If they don't like what we do or what they hear, Mike can lose his job.  

This is a real blow.  So much for honestly telling it like it is.  From now on, I suppose I will join the ranks of the various state-run media outlets, and report about how living in Saudia Arabia is perfect and wonderful, with sunshine and fairies and happy leprechauns dancing on rainbows. 

So it's a joy to get the privilege to wear my abaya, and the road to Khobar from camp is the most beautiful road I've ever seen.  Everyone here loves the government and appreciates the fact that they are so loving toward and protective of their women.  

I suppose nobody back home wants to hear all the negative stuff anyway.  But if you want the real story, I'll be happy to tell you in person when we're back in the land where we gratefully acknowledge that people gave up their lives for certain unalienable rights, like free speech. 

Bored at Home

This is what we do when we're at home.  We've really played out all the toys we brought, and we are hungry for entertainment.  Can't wait for the shipment to arrive!

The first video is at our neighborhood playground.  It's a good representation of how I spend my days.  Lawrence loves to haul his borrowed push-car up to the top of the slide and slide it down.  This is quite the feat for a one-year-old.  Everett slides all kinds of things down.  This is VERY amusing if you're three.  

The second video is in our living room.  Hugs for my sweet boys!

 

The (Accursed) Abaya

Big news!  I finally bought my own abaya.  Not that the delay was for the lack of trying.  I had been borrowing one, and every time we went into Khobar I would look for my own, so that I could return the borrowed one.  Well, we looked and looked, and we found lots of really expensive ones - like $400 or $500  - which was no good, since I want the cheapest thing I can get away with.  I don't really care what it looks like, as long as I'm not paying through the nose for it.  The other day, we finally went to a store that started with a Z (I have no idea how to pronounce or even spell it) and they had abayas for sale pretty cheap.  The one I got was only 95 riyals, which is about $25.  In fact, it was the cheapest one in the store.  It has some purple embroidery and fake bling on the sleeves, and the sleeves are so wide and open it's like something from an early-medieval princess dress (but this thing makes me feel very different than a princess!), but I don't really care.  It's huge - a big black bag that I can go out in.  I think it fits me pretty well now, but when Baby Girl is born, I may have to move the snaps to make it tighter around.  Here are the pictures:

E on camp.  Normal clothes!  YAY!  (BTW, I got this odd haircut right before we left where one side is longer than the other.  It looked great for the first month, but now it's just weird and I think it looks terrible!  I tried to cut the long side shorter tonight...more pics of that to come.)  (Also, remember I am 8 months pregnant in this picture!  Baby update and side pictures also to come.)

E off camp.  This is what I look like to go to the grocery store.  Well, I do put shoes on, too.

In case we run into a matawa (religious policeman) (yes, they have an entirely different police force that goes around enforcing the religious rules!), I carry this head scarf with me.  It was knitted by a dear friend's grandmother for me.  It's very beautiful!  I am really glad to have it. 

This is what all the other women in the grocery store look like.  (How do they see???) ("Sorry, honey, I accidentally got canned tomatoes instead of black beans, BECAUSE I COULDN'T SEE!") (Also, I've thought of this:  if you are a toddler and you get separated from your mom in the mall, GOOD LUCK finding her again!!  All the women look exactly the same!  What a horrifying experience that must be.  And if you are old enough to talk to a security guard:  "My mom is the one in all black."  Not helpful.)

Food for Thought

One of the fun and interesting things I have noticed since we've arrived is all the foreign lands from which our food is delivered.  Some of the produce they do grow here, but a lot of it is imported as well.  Some are both - for example, you can get US apples or local apples, but the local apples are really small.  Same for imported limes, lemons, and strawberries.  (Mike isn't crazy about us buying local produce anyway, because if they are watering it with the raw water that they use around camp to irrigate, it has too much radioactivity in it.  This isn't all that bad in small doses, but over time it might be bioaccumulating in the soil, so he has asked for a Geiger counter for his birthday so we can test the produce.  Nerd gifts.)

When we are at home, I'm used to citrus from Florida, peaches from South Carolina, blackberries from Mexico, cantaloupe from California, etc., etc.    In the winter, a lot of our produce comes from South America.  Meat, bread, and most everything else comes from somewhere in the States. 

Here, it is a crazy - but logical - range of countries.  Our apples come from the States.  Lemons come from Turkey.  Avocados come from Kenya.  Baby spinach comes from Italy.  Pear juice comes from South Africa.  Beef comes from Brazil.  (Although I am still not sure why Brazilian beef is so much cheaper than US beef.  Seems like an equally long trip!)  Dairy and poultry are local.  And dry goods come from all over.  One of the things I have noticed is that very little comes from east of us.  Almost all the food comes from west of us.  Why?  Does China have nothing to offer, food-wise?  India?  Australia?  Hmmm, things to ponder.  But it's still amazing to think of the well-traveled food we eat. 

Avocado from Dhahran commissary.  It says "Avocado - Kenya"  It cost 3.41 riyals, which is about 85 cents.  They wrap all the produce in saran wrap after they weigh it.  These people are saran-wrap-happy.  They put saran wrap on EVERYTHING. 

PS.  New mattress and box springs arrived today...still doing laundry, but hopefully this problem is fixed!  The guys who switched out our mattresses were NOT wearing deodorant.  I had to open all the windows after they left to make it breathable again.  So I had to laugh at myself - honestly, we are living in a third-world country!  What was I expecting, the Ritz?

PPS. Funny quotes overheard at our house yesterday:

"You know it's been a long day of potty training when you go to the bathroom and accidentally put the potty seat on for yourself."

"I have a Raffi song stuck in my head.  And here we are in a country that doesn't allow hand guns."

Note to self: no worries - it's all part of Our Arabian Adventure

Last night was one of those times when I have to swallow hard and tell myself that, no, not everything is going to be funny or happy or the way I want.  This is an ADVENTURE.  Do I think Aladdin thought it was great when he got thrown over the cliff into the ocean, or when Jafar sent him to the ends of the earth?  No.  Same thing here.  Some things just stink. 

So we've been here for six weeks now, and just about the whole time, Mike and I have been noticing that we get these itchy red bites.  I kept looking at the dog for fleas, but none were to be found.  Mike's mom warned us that we needed to keep the pets on anti-flea meds because they'll get fleas in a second here in the sandy desert.  So that's what we've been doing, but we still have these funky flea-like bites on us.  They are really itchy, but it's only one or two at a time.  Then we'll get some new ones.  I had chalked it up to biting flies or no-see-ums, since we keep the sliding glass door open a lot, and we do get a lot of flies in the house.  Then the other day, I noticed this teeny weeny spider-looking thing on the bed, so I figured that we were getting spider bites.  Mike did have two in a row that really looked like spider bites.  (Those of you who are familiar with my aversion to spiders will be happy to know that this one was so small that it didn't bother me too much.  It was the size of a couple of grains of salt.)  Then last night, I had a brainstorm.  It hit me all at once, and it was almost immediately confirmed.  That spider I saw the other day wasn't a spider at all...it was a BED BUG.  Oh my God, we've got BED BUGS!!  We've had bed bugs for SIX WEEKS!!  At 10:00 at night we stripped down the bed and looked at our standard Aramco-issue double bed mattress and box-spring.  UGH!!!  HUGE yucky bedbugs!  There were not very many, but they were bigger - the size of a fly or so - and when they squished them, yup, they were filled with blood.  OUR blood.  YUCK!!!  There are not enough exclamation points to adequately express my disgust!

Of course, we discovered this at 10:00 at night, which meant 2 things:  1) we were going to be up really late doing laundry, and 2) there was not much to be done about it until the morning, which means we have to sleep on the bed-bug-bed again!  Agh!  So we did the laundry and got online to see if there are any home remedies.  One of the things we found is that you can point a hairdryer into your mattress for several hours to make it so hot that the bedbugs die.  So that's what we did.  We ran the hairdryer into the mattress for about 2.5 hours, which made the mattress really hot and the room really hot too.  It made me feel a little better.  But we still had to sleep on the bed bugs, so last night was a really long night.  I kept waking up thinking there were creepy-crawlies on me. 

This morning, I called first thing to report it and get a new mattress delivered.  Want to guess what the lady said in her nearly unintelligible broken English? 
me:  "I need to get a replacement mattress and box springs for our house because the one you gave us has bed bugs."
her:  "hmmm.  We can bring you one tomorrow at 1:00."

WHAT??  "Hmmm"????  Where is the shock and revulsion, the apologetic tone?  Is this a common complaint?  Do all of the mattresses have bed bugs?  I'm sure they don't isolate the mattresses from one another in the warehouse...will we just be swapping one mattress with bed bugs for another one with bed bugs?  And TOMORROW??  NO!  TODAY!!  That demand didn't fly, so yes, we will be sleeping on the bed-bug-bed again tonight.  It's so much grosser now that I know about the problem. 

So today I am spending winning two-year-old testing battles with Lawrence (I am on the 54th time of getting up and emotionlessly putting him back in his bed for nap.  Yes, I counted.  It's not quite a minute per trip, so it's been almost an hour of him getting up and getting put right back in.  It has taken a long time to write this.) and doing ALL the laundry in the WHOLE house.  I'm not sure how smart this is, because Aramco might just be bringing more bed bugs into my house tomorrow, but it makes me feel better. 

I have tried really hard not to vent in this blog.  There are lots of crummy things that have happened to us so far, but I've tried to see the funny parts and chalk it up at Our Arabian Adventure.  This is actually pretty par-for-the-course, but for some reason it really gets under my skin.  Pun intended.  Arabs don't have the best personal hygiene anyway...what was I expecting?  Ah well, I guess part of the adventure is that we'll have stories to tell.  Let this be one of them. 

If Saudi Women Could Drive...

Speaking of driving... (no need to understand the words.  Just keep watching.)

Welcome, Clyde!

It’s official!  We have a car!  It's a Hyundai Santa Fe.  We named it Clyde in honor of Ahab the Arab’s camel, and we have GOT to do something about the black hub caps.  

The license plate is in English with Arabic numerals and in Arabic with Urdu numerals.

All the paperwork got worked out on time, and we got it yesterday.  Hooray!  Everything here is done in cash, so we had to go get the actual money and give it to the owner.  I'm sure it was the most cash I've ever held in my hand! 

Counting the money for the car.

 
Mike went out today and got all the Aramco stickers on it, so that we can now drive it off the compound, too.  So we are free!  Honey, we need laundry detergent – OK, let’s jump in the car and go get some!  Of course, I cannot drive off camp, so I still need my devoted chauffeur to take me everywhere, but at least we can go when we want where we want. 

So this little number will be our camp car, and Mike will take it to work.  Next on the agenda is to get a huge tank of a car for off camp and for me to drive regularly.  Something along the lines of a Suburban/Expedition/Tahoe, etc.  would be nice.  But the pressure is off, because at least now we have our own wheels.  Welcome to the family, Clyde!  You don’t know your cousins, The Matrix and Big Red (also known as The Pilot) at home in the States, but you are joining a very exclusive class of vehicles.  Prepare yourself to be well-used.  You’ll probably have goldfish crumbs ground into your floor mats and sticky popsicle sticks forgotten in between the seats before you know it. 

It feels good to drive!  Go Lawrence, go!

Being in the car when Mommy is outside taking pictures is REALLY FUNNY!

First Sunburn of the Season

This weekend was very slow because the car we have been borrowing broke down.  So we were really, truly stranded!  I'm really not sure how new people who come without knowing anyone make it here in their first weeks.  Even getting food is a major challenge without the car.  So we were stuck at the house and limited to places we could walk.  

One of the nice things about being here is that there are tons of playgrounds.  And they are usually pretty good!  Good equipment (I've only seen one that I thought was in poor repair), and they all have sand around them, rather than the typical Charlotte wood chips.  We have a great playground about 5 houses down from us, and so since we were stuck anyway, after lunch on Friday (which is like Sunday), we took the kids there to get some exercise.  

At the end of our driveway, walking to the playground.  Nice choice of socks, son.

Our little park:  Salamiyah Road Playground

Everett loves to take things up to the top of the slide - like his umbrella and his shoes - and slide them down.

It was about 80 and sunny, a BEAUTIFUL day, with a light breeze and nice blue skies.  (The nice blue skies part is good, because half the time here the skies are yellow with dust.)  We stayed at the park for THREE HOURS before we had to drag the kids away for naps.  I am still amazed by that - it's very common for us to stay hours and hours at the playgrounds here.  It's because of the sand!  They get tired of the playground equipment, so they play in the sand, and when they get tired of that they go back to the playground equipment.  We also bring their scooters, so they can scoot around on the sidewalk.  We put sunscreen on the kids, but not on us, and guess what!  Mike and I both got red - our first sunburns of the season!  On February 10th!  Although most of the locals here say enjoy it now before it becomes unbearable in the summer, I am looking forward to it.  I am so cold-blooded (Mike calls me a lizard and says I need to sun on a rock to get warm) I say bring it on!  I challenge Arabia to be too hot for me!  (Well, as long as the baby is already born.  Not sure I really want 125 degrees and pregnant.)  

Lawrence brought his car this time.

It was so sunny, we all needed a (toddler) hat!

Our Routine

One of the greatest things about being here is that Mike's work hours are so fabulous.  We are now starting to get into something of a routine, and here's how our work days (Saturday through Wednesday) typically go:

5:47 am - Lawrence wakes up.  Everett and Lawrence are sharing a room, so Mike or I go in there to tell him it's too early and go back to bed. 

6:13 am - Lawrence is really ready to get up, saying "Mommy, I hungry!!"  Mike takes him downstairs and gives him some cereal.  I lie in bed, in denial that my child is awake. 

6:33 am - Everett wakes up.  I get up and go crawl in bed with him. 

6:37 am - I realize that there is no way we are going to have Mike to work by 7:00, so I reluctantly get up and take Everett downstairs.  Mike comes up to shower and get ready.  

6:59 am - I have the boys (still in PJs) strapped in the car, ready to go.  Mike comes out and we jump in and go.  

7:06 am - We drop Mike off at work.  If traffic is very bad (3 car backup at the stoplight), we might not arrive until 7:08 am.  

The boys and I go home and eat breakfast.   We get Everett ready for preschool, and drop him off at 8:15 am.  Lawrence and I go home and nap until 11:00 am, when we have to pick Everett up.  

11:05 am - Leave Everett's preschool and drive aimlessly around camp for 20 minutes (no point to take the kids out of their seats for five minutes, only to have to put them right back in!).  Go to Mike's office parking lot and wait for him to come out.  

11:30-12:30 pm - We pick Mike up and bring him home for lunch.  Lunch all together.  Mike takes the car back to work.  Boys and I go to the park and play for a couple of hours, and then Everett is down for nap at 2:30, and Lawrence by 3:00.  

4:00 pm - Mike is home from work.  When boys wake up, we go to the park or the commissary.  

5:30 ish - Dinner, then playtime, bath and bed by 8:00.  

We love having Mike home so much, and we love that he does not have to drive for 50 minutes or more to get to work!!  We are getting very spoiled.  There are lots of downsides to living here, but this part can't be beat. 

Updates on Everything Important

It's been a while since I posted anything new, and I think some updates are in order! 

The Graycie Update:  Graycie is healing well.  The vet took some xrays the day after we found her, and he said that her pelvis is NOT, in fact, in two pieces; instead, she is just severely bruised and road-rashed.  She has no broken bones at all!  He still thinks she was hit by a car, but in my humble, non-professional opinion, I think if she had been hit by a car, she would have been more squished and crushed.  Mike's childhood dog, Cuddles, got hit by a car and it not only broke her bones, but shattered them.  I think she got hit by a golf cart, motorcycle, or moped.  Or maybe even a bike.  Which may mean that someone was aiming for her.  (After all, how do you get accidentally hit by a golf cart or a bike?  It's like the steamroller from Austin Powers.  Noooooooooo!)

In any case, I have been faithfully administering oral antibiotics, pain killers, anti-inflammatories, and antibacterial cream.  I finally gave her a bath last night - she came home so dirty, but her wounds were so open I didn't want to soak them in water at the time.  Today, she is much cleaner and fluffier!  She does not move around much - just stays in her cat bed nearly 24 hours - but she is getting stronger every day.  No news on the tail.  It still doesn't work at all and appears to have no feeling.  Come on, tail!  Come back!  We're supposed to wait two weeks before we decide it's permanently paralyzed. 

The Car Update:  We're committed to a car, but we don't have it yet.  Here's the (long) story:  we have been looking for a car, but have had very little luck for a long time.  People that sell used cars on camp price them WAY too high, and we have been advised not to buy a used car from a Saudi because they do not take care of their cars (200,000 km odometer with never an oil change!)  So it's either wait for an ex-pat to sell their car here on camp or just go buy a new one.  We did find one very promising one (a Tahoe, I think? I can't remember) being sold by an ex-pat in Ras Tanura, but it got sold out from under us.  Mike found a Chevy Cavalier in ok condition from a Chinese guy; it was cheap and would be fine for a "camp car" (means we only drive it on camp and don't take it off the compound).  It didn't have too many kilometers, but it had paint issues, the windows don't roll back up easily, the power locks don't work, no key clicker, etc, etc.  We were considering that when we contacted a Sri Lankan on camp who does car repairs and finds cars for people.  He found us a Hyundai Santa Fe in much better condition, and we agreed to buy that one as our camp car.  We are trying to get the details worked out now, but we have to hurry.  If the paperwork etc does not go through by Saturday, we lose the car.  It's really hard to get anything done expediently around here, so although we are trying hard to make it happen, this might slip through our fingers, too.  

Incidentally, this car is...well, there's no other way of saying it....butt-ugly.  It's reddish-brown with black hub caps.  It is certainly the only one of its kind on camp, and we will be recognized wherever we go!  But since Mike is only going to use it to get back and forth to work (6 minute commute, door to door), we figure it doesn't matter.  If we get to buy the car, I will post a picture.  It's a Saudi-mobile, and I think I might suggest we name it Clyde after Ahab the Arab's camel.  

The Shipment Update:  Our shipment is still sitting in the Port of Savannah, as far as we know.  It doesn't look like it's left on the boat yet.  No other news there.  Still waiting. 

The Boys Update:  The boys are doing well.  Everett seems to be making some friends at preschool - at least, he comes home and can tell us some more names of his classmates.  He also sings songs he learned at preschool, and he's been learning about making patterns.  Everett now consistently dresses himself and buckles his own seat belt in the car every time - and pretty quickly, too!  Moreover, we discovered the other day that he is beginning to read. (!!)  He can read three and four letter words, and he likes to read things and then announce them to us ("Mommy, that word is cat!", or "The peanut butter says Jif!")  We are so proud!  Only 3 1/2!  Soon he'll be writing a dissertation on something very profound, I'm sure.  

Lawrence is also doing well, although we are struggling with his nap schedule.  Two naps are too many and one is not enough!  He is a big boy now, physically - he is thick and heavy, weighing almost as much as Everett, and he is one tough kid in terms of bumps and bruises.  He makes sure he can do everything Ebett (or sometimes Weh-wett) does.  He also has been pulling the throw-myself-down-face-first-and-cry-on-the-floor-when-I-don't-get-my-way stunt a lot.  It's very funny!  I do feel sorry for him when he does it in the sand playgound, though.  It never fails to surprise him that he comes up with a mouthful of sand. 

The Baby Update:  Baby looks good at last check.  She is estimated to weigh roughly four pounds and we are still on track for an April 8 due date.  She moves around a lot and her head is down.  Eight weeks to go.  Getting closer.  

Can't think of any more news from these parts...all else is about the same.  More news as it develops. 

Reunited, and It Feels So Good!

HOORAY! Graycie is home!! We got a phone call this morning that went something like this:

(Arabic accent ) "Hello, yes, your cat, it is in my garage.  It went in my house. I am on Dahna.  You come get it now, yes?"

I come get her now, YES!!  I jumped into the car, and went to the house where she was.  Apparently, the man had opened his garage door to go somewhere, and Graycie had been sitting outside.  She slinked into the garage and into the house, and was hiding under a coffee table.  

When I tried to pull her out, it was really obvious that she was hurt.  Her back leg was bloody, crusted over, and hairless.  Her tail was the same way.  She was limp in my arms.  I scooped her up and drove with her on my lap back to the house.  We called the Kennel Club (vet here) and got the on-call vet, so I took her right in.  He was very sympathetic and helpful, and he said that he has been hit by a car on her back legs and tail.  It looks like her tail is paraylized, and her back legs are not working properly, possibly because her pelvis has separated into two pieces.  He gave her antibiotics and pain killers, and we are keeping her at home until tomorrow morning, when she can go in and have an x-ray at the Kennel Club.   He didn't seem to think that it would be a big deal to get her fixed if it was the pelvis problem.  I also got ointment for her leg and tail wounds.  

When we got her home, she drank water and ate some food.  She has lost 2 pounds, but otherwise is doing well.  She walked right into the living room and settled down into her favorite place to hide - the boys' tunnel and tent.  She is in there now resting.  I would take a picture for you to see, but it is kind of gory to look at her leg - I will spare everyone the gruesome scene.  

I am elated that she is home!  Welcome home, sweet kitty!  You were gone five days and got run over by a car, but you will be ok in the end.  You are now down to six lives.  (Lost the first life when she fell off of my 2nd story balcony 11 years ago, completely unharmed.  Lost second life when she was attacked by an owl in our backyard in Charlotte.  This counts as losing the third life!)  (I would like it if you kept the rest of your six lives from now on.)

Now life can go on!  Our whole existence was put on hold while every spare moment was spent out looking for the cat.  Hooray, back to normal!  Hooray, kitty cat is home!  Welcome home Graycie!  You are never allowed out of my sight again!  We love you too much for that!