The Real People of Saudi Arabia

I can hardly believe it-we have been living in Saudi Arabia now for 4 straight months! The Expat culture has embraced our family. Expats are basically people living here that are not Saudi nationals. In fact, Jeddah has more non-nationals living here, coming from various nearby countries. 

For example, my driver is from Palestine. My dentist is from the Philippines. Our children have teachers from: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the United Kingdom and Kenya. My co-workers are Pakistani, Syrian and American. Our neighbors are from Jordan and Egypt. The barista’s at Starbuck’s are from Egypt, Africa and Asia. Employees at my favorite Chinese and Italian restaurant are from the Philippines. Near my work, the food service place workers are from Bangladesh, India and Morocco. I must say, these are the nicest people that I have met here!

On the other hand, those who I have had rude encounters with were locals. We have had some odd experiences here in Saudi Arabia. For example, I and my children have been pushed by a few women and their shopping carts, physically shoved out of the way in the line at cash registers and yelled at by a Saudi lady because she felt that she had a right to be served at Starbucks before me. I don’t know why these women reacted to us the way that they did. But it is what it is. I have met nice locals, too. I have had a few Saudi women approach me and ask me where I am from. One lady at the hospital even asked for my phone number, called me, and invited me to her home for a gift.

These experiences do make me a little homesick, from time to time because these types of things never happened to me in other countries that I visited, like Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Spain and Taiwan.  Saudi Arabia truly is a country like no other, as I’ve been told, and now agree.

What I miss from my own US culture are the rules of ethics that are just understood. I miss people in stores saying “excuse me” or “sorry.” Life here can be hard for a westerner like me. I won’t deny it. However, when my family goes out to eat, we are happy to encounter such nice “expats” as they are the ones that make this country special and bearable. Saudi Arabia would truly not be what it is, if not for the hard work and friendliness of people from around the world.  

School Registration Insanity Continues!

Life here is going ok. The kids are happy, but I am going a little crazy for the moment! To be quite honest, I feel like I am on another planet that is far far away! "The glam of Saudi Arabia is gone and reality is kicking in," as my husband says. In spite of all the backwards things I see here, I am determined to be a super-hero, with God as my strength! 

Part 1 Summary -- In my last post, I wrote about how difficult it was to find a school and then register my children here in Saudi Arabia. You may have even felt a little sorry for me when I wrote about the process of having my children tested to be admitted to a school and then having to wait until the next day to see if they “passed”. Well, the story doesn’t end there.

Part 2

I went back to the school to pay the rest of the registration fees. I was given a number on a sticky note and was directed to go pick out the kids uniform sizes. They tried them on and we picked out their sizes-but since I was waiting to pay, they couldn’t give them to me yet. So, they stacked them to the side and told me to come back with my receipt. So, preceded with patiently waiting for the accountant to accept my money. My number was 39 and they were on number 21…..at 9:30am! By 11:30 my number was called and I made a fool of myself by whooping and hollering because I was so excited that it was finally my turn. (All this time, Sohail is waiting outside in the car for me because men are not allowed on the women’s side of the school and vice versa.) I was surprised to see that everything was calculated by hand and a calculator-with no computer entry. However, at 12 noon, I was finished paying and went on my way to pick up the uniforms.

Guess what? They gave my stack of uniforms to someone else! So, now I had to guess the sizes of the kids-because I was just so frustrated and didn’t want to have them try on clothing again. And-they were out of the sizes the kids needed. Oh well-what could I do, right? They told me that I could exchange the sizes out next week.

Then, I was told to go pick up the kids textbooks and workbooks. What a sight it must have been to see me walking out the building with over 20 books + the uniforms. Seriously-I could see heads turning and eyes glaring at me-this white girl in a black abaya! Now that I was finished it was 2:00pm and I was exhausted-but I did it-and I didn’t cry or yell at anyone!

Before I left, I was told that school had been postponed…until September 16^th. Oh my-what next?

Well, when I got back to work-the lights were out in my office. Then, I opened the door and the door handle fell off from both sides! What a day! What a day!

Our flight to Jeddah!

Here is the step-by-step details of our 24 hour flight with layover's to Jeddah. Oops! I thought I had published this already!

June 3-10am...We arrived at the Houston airport. Our 7 suitcases were weighed and we readjusted stuff inside  to try to get every bag at 50 pounds. We were kind of successful and paid only $250 in excess weight/baggage fees.

Noon-Mom and dad dropped us off at customs and we sailed through-only having to take out 3 laptops, 3 ipods and a kindle. None of my bath products were confiscated-yeah!

1pm-our flight to Atlanta. The kids played with the air-conditioners, lights and chair backs. They drank their free soda and ate mini-pretzels. They did not sleep-of course.

6pm-We arrived to Atlanta and had 30 minutes to get from terminal F to A, on the underground train. We were last in line and the people at the counter told us we were late. I was hoping for a "Congratulations-you did it!" But oh well, I told that to myself. We walked 52 rows back to our seats (that was exhausting with a wheely carry-on and the kids backpacks!). This AirFrance flight had tv's and video games for the kids. They played and watched the entire flight (14 hours!) No sleeping happened on this flight either-of course. WE had dinner and breakfast. The kids loved it! Except for 10 minutes before landing, all 3 kids feel asleep-of course. Everyone was off the plane and I had to slap them and scream at them to wake up. Finally, the flight attendants, stopped their cleaning and came and got one of the bags for me, as I yanked up the kids. So, we got off the flight and are standing in the Paris airport. We sat for about 20 minutes, because just getting off the plane was truly exhausting! Then, I looked at the flight screen and could not see Jeddah anywhere. Luckily, I found someone at the airport to tell me which terminal to go to. We were at B and had to get to F, but how? By bus ride of course! We rode on a bus that stopped at C, D, E then  F and then we walked to our gate. After 15 minutes it was time to board the plane from Paris to Jeddah.

Time-I have no idea! June 4th Luckily, I was smart enough to figure out the the word: embarqument meant that we needed to get on the plane for Jeddah. So, we got on board and walked back to our seats-the 32nd row. That was tiring-but mommy did it! The older kids got a window seats. This flight had tv's too! All the kids fell asleep-finally! They slept the entire flight, even when food was served. Before landing, the flight attendants took the food away and the kids did not get to eat. Oh well. I slept also and everything else is a blur. I woke up to my youngest one crying. I still don't know why he was crying. He stopped crying after 30 minutes of sitting on my lap. I changed into my long skirt and then the flight started landing procedures. Someone showed me a little white paper to fill out, but I said "no thanks." Hmmm, I wonder what that was for?

We landed at 6:18 and of course, the youngest is asleep again. Everyone has gotten off the plane except for the people heading to the next stop (Djibouti) and me and the kids. The flight attendant was so nice and picked up my little guy and my rolling carry-on. We followed her to the door and she gave him back and my bags. We got off the plane on stairs and my daughter said "it's like we are famous!" (whew the humidity!). Now, we get on a bus that takes us to the airport-so I put my black and white polka-dotted head scarf on, for kicks. I didn't want to look out of place. But I saw to other foreigners without head scarves on. Now, I see about 10 lines that say "Passport Control" and then some say other things that I don't remember. I just chose a line only for my little one to start having a crying fit while laying on the floor. He wouldn't stop crying. I get up to the counter and the guy asks me the little white papers. Ooops-that's what they were for. Umrah, I think is what they said. So, I ask him where to get and he points to...way over there......oh no....but guess who is laying spread eagle on the floor now and begging me to hold him. The guy goes and gets 4 white papers for me and I start filling it out: passport number, flight origin, visa number, entry number. So, I go to ask the guy where to find those numbers at, since my Visa is in Arabic. He acts like he doesn't know what I am saying, so I say: "My sponsor is waiting on me, can I just go?" The best words I heard all day: "YES!!!!!!" He let us go through, without completing the white papers. We did not get fingerprinted or iris-scanned, as we were told to expect. We didn't even get our picture taken. I walked past and left my bag. I told them they could have it, but they just laughed and brought it to me. Then, the guy made fun of "guess who" (still crying) and I told him that he can babysit him now. He finally stopped crying after I told him that I was leaving him there. Now, the trolley guys came and picked up our 7 suitcases. They rolled them to security and threw them through the security machine. Then, they pushed it out and we saw the long line of people. We saw my husband "We are here-finally" I said. We all hugged and lived happily ever after. The end. No, just kidding-this is just the beginning!


Ready to Board our flight in Houston!

We have to get a picture of the window and clouds!

Whew! We got through security! That was stressful!

Waiting for our flight at the airport cafe

There is our airplane!

A snapshot of the sunset (or was it the sunrise?) from our plane window

I should have posted this at the top of this post, but oh well....here we are saying by to my parents and our Houston home! Their truck is packed down! Our good friend Bethany was so nice to drive me and the kids to the airport in Houston, while my parents drove the luggage!

This video player with video games and movies-literally-saved our life as we had endless hours of entertainment!

The subway at our connection flight in Paris, France! The kids had a blast!

On the airplane!

Waiting at the Paris airport for our flight to Jeddah

Still playing games-even though its bedtime!