Merry Christmas from us!  Sending you joy, love & peace!

Day 125 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, December 16th, 2016

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! Today marks the first day of our 3 week Winter Break Vacation! Jake and I are spending the day packing and preparing for our upcoming adventure. Our driver picks us up at 12:30 AM and we're headed to the airport for our 4:15 AM Omar Air flight to Bangkok via Muscat. We'll be exploring Thailand from December 17th to January 2nd, 2017!

First news item: Basketball. I resigned as head coach of the basketball team on November 27th. This is the letter I wrote to the girls. "Dear BB Team:  Earlier this evening I had a face-to-face conversation with Mr. DuToit and feel grateful for his friendship, understanding and support as I have been agonizing over making a decision for the past 2 weeks. I was very nervous to have this conversation with him, but I have always felt that being upfront, open and honest is the best way to handle difficult conversations.  I have been reflecting on my life priorities because lately I have felt stress and pressure, and I do not enjoy feeling this way.  This message is to explain to you my decision and hopefully share with you some wisdom from my life.  When I was younger, I was a workaholic, sometimes pushing myself to exhaustion and afraid to let other people down.  Through the years, I have developed an appreciation for life balance and have committed to and been working on living an authentic, healthy and more simple life.  What this means to me is a life where I feel calm and rested most of the time.  A life where I work very hard at my professional job and equally as hard having fun and relaxing, accepting that it just fine for me to do nothing for an hour, if that’s what I want or even more importantly, what I need at the time.  A life where I strive to take care of my physical body, [which gets more challenging as I age], emotional wellbeing and spiritual health.  For years, Mr. Jacob and I have prioritized our lives around raising our four beautiful children.  Those were great years and now that we are in a new “chapter” of our life, where it’s just the two of us, we can live more adventures and explore life in new and amazing ways.  As I write this, I truly hope that each of you find the love of your life, like I have.  Our decision to teach at Dammam was the first step in starting this new “chapter” of our lives.  I was hired to teach Language Arts and was quite uncertain as to how my teaching responsibilities were going to unfold.  Now that I have been in this country for exactly 106 days, I have complete clarity as to how my life needs to be in regards to my dedicated work time [while at school and many evenings at home], play time, exercise time, wife time, friend time, far-away family time, vacation time, hobby time and “just me” time.  There are only so many hours in each day, and only one life to live.  So, for these reasons, I have informed Mr. Du Toit of my resignation from coaching effective today, which I need to free up time needed for my other life priorities.   In the short time that I have spent with you, I have truly enjoyed being with and coaching you.  I hope you have learned something new and also felt happy to be together.   Mr. Du Toit will assume the new direction for the team.  In closing, I am sending you a big hug through this message.  I wish you the best with your season, school year and life.  Remember, it’s extremely important to listen to your inner voice and honor what you need to live the life you were meant to live. As much I feel that I am disappointing many of you, I must be true to myself and my life first. Love, Coach Wyant"

Once I made the decision, the weight was instantly lifted. Then, I truly knew, it was the right decision.

Second news items: Friends. We're making great friends here in the Kingdom. We hosted our Patio Warming Party on November 28th and guess what? The FIRST rain storm, the very first drop of rain since arriving in this desert, decided to downpour on the afternoon and evening of our party. Seriously, this was unbelievable. So, we moved the party inside our villa, live music and all! The highlight of our party was when our friend, Chris Kurtz, 3rd grade teacher from Oregon, started playing his guitar and everyone BELTED OUT, "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains........" What makes this hiliarious is that EVERYONE was singing......and the people in this photo are also from: Canada, England, Ireland and South Africa!

Our Friend, Chris, the musician and writer.

This is a photo of the people we spend 1 hour every day with riding to and from school. I have several pages of notes for a book containing our stories of this most unqiue and bizzard shared life experience, which I shall call, "Lost In Transporation." Book title credited to Gary.

Lorna-Literacy coach for elementary and middle school, Kim-8th grade Language Arts teacher, Gary-high school social studies, Ann-high school psychology and counselor

Clay-high school social studies teacher and Jake!

We attended our first fondue party at Kat's villa with our friends Chris & Carolyn and Scott Miller [from Wisconsin]. It was a beautiful Saudi evening as we sat underneath the starry sky and visited about our travels and international teaching.

Caryoln & Chris

Kat!  She is the director of the Learning Resource Center on the Dhahran campus
and also lives on our compound.

Third news item: Christmas Kick-off on the compound. Wow, these Brits really know how to kick off the holiday season! Our pool-side restaurant, Bo-Diddly's, hosted the Dhahran Big Band for the lighting of the compound Christmas trees followed up with a rock-n-roll band playing later at Harley's, which is another hang-out here. We had a blast dining on steak, listening to great music and dancing until midnight.

Main road on our compound!

This is our super cheesy dumb photo in front of the electronic Christmas tree!

Fourth news item: Students. This teaching experience is amazing. I am learning so much about writing and enjoying being with my 6th graders. We just finished a big unit which pushed the students into research centered around activism in the following 5 areas: bullying, child labor, girls education around the globe, pet abandonment and the environment. We celebrated their work at the Youth Summit 2016 which showcased their published books, a powerpoint featuring each student holding up a sign stating what they cared about and how they want to change the world. It was powerful. Our theme song "Change The World" was written and performed by Colby and Awu. Colby ACTUALLY sent me a message on Facebook because he was inspired that we were using his music! Then, we made a video for him! The music comes out of South Africa. Watch the video here: Youth Summit 2016 Theme Song.

Working in the library on research!

Another work day with my girls!

Fifth news item: Special Saudi Stuff.

Palm tree?  NOPE, a secret antennae

Typical decorations at the entry of a school?  Um, yup.  

Sixth news item: The Abaya Photo.

My friend, Alanna, took this photo of me last week.  Anytime I am off the
compound or off the school property, I have to wear the abaya.

Seventh news item: The 50th Birthday.

The 50th Birthday Party with my 6A Class!  

With Jake on my 50th!  I am wearing the earrings from him!

Well, I was feeling a bit weird about turning 50, but now that I look back on the day, my God, it was amazing. One of THE BEST birth-days ever. It started off with Jake's letter, a copy of our wedding vows and a beautiful silver jewelry set with the Arabic words designed into the pieces: love, life, happiness, fulfillment and affection. The "Lost In Transportation" van pulled up and they sang "Happy Birthday" and then the all day celebration at school began that both of my classes had been planning for weeks. I knew nothing. They truly surprised me, complete with a personalized cake and unique cupcakes, a school day filled with hugs, homemade cards, letters, gifts and playing outside with my 6th graders. The day was wrapped up with a compound celebration with our new friends.

Compound Birthday Party with Konstant [from South Africa] and Alanna [from Canada]
I'm going to be their wedding planner for the event in Calgary!

 

On the morning that I woke up, I listened to the Sturgill Simpson song "Just Let Go."  The first two lines played over and over and over in mind:  "Woke up today and decided to kill my ego.  It ain't ever done me no good no how......."  Listen to the song here:  My 50th Birthday Anthem.  
The day before, in class 6D, the students started their free writing dedicated time.  During this 30 minutes, students can choose from many writing prompts and then they write.  I was going to work on grading with my laptop and this very strong feeling overcame me to STOP and also write.........so I did. Here's an excerpt from my journal entry.

"December 12, 2016.....When I'm old......Well, I'm almost officially old, almost half a century old. Old enough to have grown children.  Old enough to realize that I'm just beginning to understand so many things about life, about people, about myself.  What do I really know?  Is that even an important question to ask?  I think I know how to be a good Mom.  Of all the things that I am-that is my best performance thus far in this soon to be golden life of mine.  I hope that all I am so far and who I am becoming will be a person my children are proud of........I find myself in this strange place, in the opposite side of a situation, observing from the sidelines and truly realizing the errors of my younger, more arrogant self-of my larger ego that sabotaged my career and some relationships-the problems I created for myself because I didn't find a better, more mature way.  I now know that I will not engage in combat and pass it off as "authenticity."  That's weak.  I am no longer so one-dimensional.  I can feel the shift.  I can feel the expansion into a better version of myself.  I see who I was was.  The reflection bothers me.  How do I go on with this new knowledge and forgive myself for how I used to be-----I think about those I have left in my wake and feel remorse.  I see the lesson.  I feel the education.   I feel the growth and the softening.  Guess I'm a slow learner or maybe I've needed all these lessons to finally learn mine.  So there it is, the cold hard truth is staring right back at me and I see it.  I feel good.  I feel calm.  I feel present.  I feel that the best 50 are right in front of me now I am better than ever, stronger, wiser, ready and most importantly, softer.........."

Over and out 2016.

Day 102 in the Kingdom, Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016

Today, I stayed "home" for my mental well-being.  As the Matchbox 20 song  “Unwell” states: “But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know right now you can't tell. But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see. A different side of me. I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired.“  

Hello tomorrow, I am assisting Ms. Neena, our school counselor, with the Human Sexuality Girls’ talk for the 6th grade girls.  So, as we were talking about the content of the presentation, I asked about where the pads and tampons are located in the school for girls to access if needed.  Well, guess what? We don’t talk about tampons.  We don’t bring that up because of the Muslim religion.  Now, I had heard about this before, but wasn’t actually convinced that this was the mindset, the practice, the belief.  Well, there you go.  It is.  So I have been instructed to only talk about pads and if a girl asks me about tampons, I should not tell them anything in front of the group and they should make an appointment with me privately in my classroom.  Yup, you can’t make this shit up. [Imagine my WTF look on my face.]  Want to know more, Google it. [Still shaking my head....]

India is coming up for us February 17th-20th.  Jake and I are leading a trip with one of my middle-school colleagues, Nesireen, who is from India.  We are taking 12 students to the two day International Schools Writers Conference.  We’ll be spending a free day in Pondicherry.  The school is paying our airfares, hotel, ground transportation and meals.  Pretty. Sweet. Deal.  I am looking forward to this and I am learning a lot about the visa process for the different passports as we’re working with the Embassy of India based in Riyadh.

So, when it’s 60 degrees, I’m freezing.  My body has adjusted to this new climate.  Our bodies are amazing.

___

Intelligent conversation:  I attended a workshop and these are my notes:  conversational competence might be the single most overlooked skill we fail to teach our children and ourselves.  There’s no reason to learn how to show you’re paying attention if you are in fact paying attention.  I value conversations where you walk away feeling engaged and inspired and feel like you’ve made a real connection or been perfectly understood.  [when I wrote this, I thought of my best friend, Lily.]  I need to pay attention, be present, be in the moment.  If I don’t want to be in a conversation, then I need to get out of it and not be half in and half out of it.  I must enter every conversation assuming that I have something to learn.  Everyone I meet knows something that I don’t.  If I don’t know something, I will say that I don’t.  Talk should not be cheap.  I should not equate my experiences with yours if you are telling me something personal.  Your experience is the not the same as mine.  Your experience is individual to you.  I will listen.  Why can’t people remember that real conversations are not promotional opportunities?  It takes effort and energy to actually pay attention to someone, but if you can’t do that, you’re not in a conversation, you’re just two people shouting out barely related sentences in the same place.  I strive to keep my mouth shut as often as I possibly can.  I keep my mind open and I’m always prepared to be amazed and rarely disappointed.  

Shawarma:  we’re eating this quite a bit.  The school ordered this in for staff during our Parent-Teacher Conferences. Delicious.

___

Fun fact: we’ve become “Dumpster Divers!”  We have treasures that we've picked up over the past few weeks that others have set out for rubbish collection.  Our collection includes: 2 cloth folding patio chairs, a small wooden table, a glass table, a pot with reeds for the patio, 4 sharp knives, a cheese grater, envelopes and labels.

Unbelievable!  That is the word to describe our patio garden transformation!  We’re hosting a Patio Warming Party this Friday and have invited our compound friends who are from Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland and South Africa. We’re serving Thai appetizers and I hired Kyle, who is a singer/guitarist, to play a 45 minute concert!  

New Patio Furniture from Sultan Gardens

Bahrain:  We visited this country again and stayed in the Al Juffair area which proved to be a better second impression!  We drank real beer, ate pork quesadillas [which was a dream] at the Texas Road House and I experienced a 90 minute Thai massage at  Ann's Spa.  The massage combined the benefits of Thai massage with the healing powers of heat provided by a Thai herbal ball.  Thermotherapy and compression were fused to alleviate muscle soreness in sensitive areas.  The Thai herbal ball was rolled across trigger points and isolated muscle groups of the body while steam promoted muscle relaxation and increased body energy.  The small yet powerful Thai woman climbed on the massage table several times and my body has never been twisted or stretched in those ways!  One very cool landmark with wind turbines is the Bahrain World Trade Center!  Learn about it here.

3 wind turbines between the buildings!

Street sign in Bahrain

And now we have President Elect Trump…….  On election night, which was morning here, I had the electoral college vote map on the big screen and the election was the talk of the school.  The students and staff were all following the results.  No one could even teach because of the chaos.  I actually could NOT believe the intense interest, but it all makes sense because 90% of our students are expats, like us, who are from other countries which are deeply connected and interdependent on the USA, meaning whichever direction and policies the United States moves, this directly affects their lives and families both here in the Kingdom and their respective home countries.  I was personally depressed regarding the final outcome, but as my Trump supporting friends here reminded me, they felt the exact same way when Obama was elected.  We had a good laugh over that.  

Normal scenery by our school.

Saudi Woman at International Day at the Dhahran Campus 

Recently, I have been starting countdowns to upcoming events such as 24 days until Thailand, 85 until India, 123 until England, 129 until Spring Break-destination TBD, 207 until Slovenia & Austria, 224 until MSP, MINNESOTA for the summer and 589 until we move back to Waukenabo.  Living here is psychologically and emotionally challenging, pushing one to depths of creativity and resiliency never experienced before…….

Normal scenery on the way to work

Please send some love to my daughter, Megan Mary.  Every time we have a face chat, we start crying. Here's her email:  mrubbelke@isd166.org. Thank you friends.

In trying to conclude this post on a positive note, here are the happy things about living here: quality time with Jake, making new friends, beautiful sunsets, teaching again [most days], saving money and the ability to travel outside of this country. That is it for today, I truly can not think of another positive at the moment.......

Day 72 in the Kingdom:  Monday, October 24th, 2016

It's just your average day, on the way to work, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to pass by a desert camel strolling along the side of the road, taking its sweet ol' time! 
The camel grins as we pass by and in his deep voice speaks ever so slowly, "Ohhhh, helloooo thereeee youuu people.  Have a lovelyyyy dayy todayyyyyy."  Photograph:  "Mr. Jacob" taken from our van window.

In other Saudi News, our villa patio is coming along nicely!  First, I met with the Alex Escobar, Estate Supervisor, to inquire about cleaning up the overgrown, unloved patio.  She is from Columbia and has dual citizenship with Australia. By having a passport from Australia, she and her husband can travel more freely around the world without the hassles of visas.  She’s a super cool woman and we’re fast becoming friends. In her free time, she raises money for a children’s charity .  Because we are new to the compound, we were granted a one-time free patio cleaning service, so I scheduled that bad boy right away! Then with my camera in hand, I conducted a one hour reconnaissance mission gathering ideas from other people’s patios around the compound. I felt so stealth as I snuck around taking photos of trees, plants, flowers and grass arrangements!  It was clear to me that I had been suffering from grass withdrawal and needed green grass to walk in, look at, smell and enjoy. After the patio was cleared, I hired our gardener, Ranzit Kumar Biswas from India!  He doesn’t speak any English and I can’t speak his language which makes for very interesting "conversations" and business transactions.  I drew up a patio design, showed him pictures from my recon and literally used my hands, body and facial expressions to communicate with him the patio plan!  Somehow, we managed to figure out the pricing, shook hands and the rest is history!  

Figuring out our communication!

Our gardener, Ranzit!

Tomorrow, Jake and I hired our private driver to take us to Sultan Gardens and purchase patio furniture for our outdoor paradise. I have to make sure the that delivery drivers are NOT from Yemen or Syria because drivers from those countries are not allowed on the compound.  

Proud Americans!

On Thursday evening, October 13th, Jake and I attended the Town Hall meeting for American citizens working and residing in the Kingdom which was hosted by the US Consulate General Dhahran.  The security was very high and we saw soldiers fully armed and trucks and jeeps with mounted weaponry as we passed through several checkpoints.  It was fascinating.  As we entered the auditorium, we spotted the voting area and proudly cast our ballots for the upcoming election!  There were over 200 Americans at the event and we met several interesting people who have became friends.  Ian works for the Saudi Navy as a language trainer and lived in Thailand for 8 years. We are going to meet up so he can share several local tips for our upcoming Christmas vacation!  The town hall consisted of four speakers from the State and Treasury Departments.  We learned about the services the consulate and embassy offers Americans, current security issues and threats, upcoming changes in the visa process, tax issues between the Saudi and US governments and the role of US companies and the US government in the Kingdom’s major initiative, Saudi Vision 2030.  This was really fascinating to hear and begin to learn about because Saudi is changing and growing at an incredible pace. There are already companies, like General Electric, ahead of the growth curve and generating incredible business and profits.  There will continue to be many opportunities in the Kingdom for people and companies with vision to jump aboard this wave.   Check this out.  We also learned about the Consulate’s Warden Program and Jake and I are considering joining it as they are now seeking citizens for the Eastern Province.  Stay tuned for more details on this.

Here are some fun facts: New Saudi Traffic Fines effective October 2nd:  crossing red a traffic light 3000-6000 SAR [$800-$1,600] with possibility of retaining the vehicle; not reporting an accident or not stopping to help 10,000 SAR [$2,666] with 3 months sentence; usage of illegal license plates 3000-6000 SAR; putting socially offending stickers on the vehicle 3000-6000 SAR; taking over school buses while stopping for loading-reloading 3000-6000 SAR; decoding/painting/covering of the license plate numbers 5000-10000 SAR  [$1,333-$2,666] with possibility of retaining the vehicle; driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs 5000-10000 SAR with possibility of retaining the vehicle.

Jake is one of the advisors for the ISG Dammam Model United Nations Team and we will be traveling with our team in March for 6 days to the United Kingdom for the Model United Nations Conference in Haileybury!

The first scrimmage between the high school girls basketball team and the staff team was a blast!  The gym was packed for the first ever of its kind event at ISG Dammam! The women staff had the best time, were very competitive and can not wait until the next scrimmage coming up in November!

Our first Team Building Event!

This past Saturday, Jake and I hosted the first ISG BB Team Event at our compound, Sara Village. 14 girls attended and we spent from 10 AM-3PM playing games & icebreakers, enjoying pizza, taking photos and watching the movie “The Princess Diaries.”  Our event set off the fire alarm in the main building because of the popcorn machine smoke! The fire truck showed up which provided much excitement! The compound staff was great to work with and prior to the event I had to submit paperwork to security naming the nationalities of the students.  We hosted girls from the following countries:  Canada, Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Philippines and Syria.

We awoke at 4 AM our time to watch the third and final [Thank Goodness!] Presidential Debate.  My 6th grade students love to hear about the election and it’s very evident that the American election is a topic in their respective homes.

This Wednesday is the 6th grade Writing Festival 2016 where my students’ Personal Narrative Stories will be shared in at a formal event.  The students have been working very hard to improve their writing skills and some of the stories bring me to tears.  This job is really pushing me to learn and grow at rapid pace and gain knowledge in the Language Arts Common Core Standards and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Curriculum focusing on units of study in Argument, Information and Narrative Writing.  [HILL CITY, looking for a teacher for the 2018-2019 school year?]

Finally, today was United Nations Day and on the Middle School wall, this question was posted: "What do you see when you imagine a peaceful world?" By the end of the day, the wall was completely plastered with post-it notes and words of wisdom from some of the future leaders of our world. This kids continue to amaze me and I learn from them every day.

With my 6th grade boys-Sari, Saad, Hassan, Mueez, Adam and Mujeeb

With my Egyptian girls, Malak & Nancy

The time is really flying by as we are looking at November already next week!  Before you know it, we'll be home for a month!  This past Friday, Jake and I were having lunch at Sara's Diner on the compound, which is a 50's style restaurant and the wall is decorated with license plates from all the states.  I looked at the Minnesota license plate and started crying, right there, in the middle of restaurant.  Stay tuned......

Post #3 from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Day 43 in the Kingdom:  September 25, 2016

It's taken 42 days to get my cell phone working here. Yesterday, I had to go to the "Ladies Only" section of the Rashid Mall and into the "Ladies Only" STC store for my SIM card.  [This country.....ugh.]

It's taking more than 43 days for us to be able to wire money back to the USA.  [Again, this country.....ugh.]

We have not seen one drop of rain in 43 days.

Since my last post 14 days ago, the weather for each day has been:  103, 104, 104, 104, 102, 104, 104, 111, 102, 111, 102, 102, 105, 108 & a balmy 105. [And again, this country.....ugh.]

In the last 43 days, we've either been driven by a private driver or taken a compound bus wherever we need to go. This is a new lifestyle.

I met Xiu Mei Pan from China who works at "The Spa at Sara Village."  She is an amazing practitioner and I have already enjoyed two therapy sessions, a one hour massage and a one hour reflexology treatment. It was my first time experiencing reflexology and it was very interesting.  She definitely hit specific pressure points on my feet which corresponded to other areas of the body or systems.  When she whispered that the one hour session was over, I couldn't believe it.  It felt like only 10 minutes had passed.  I may have to try that one again, although the three outer toes held a lot of pain and I'm not sure I want to feel that again anytime soon, although that is exactly what I probably need.  Each one hour session cost $31.99. [This country......yes!]

On September 14th and 15th, we took a very short trip to the country of Bahrain.  Our hired driver, Bhilal, is from India where his wife and 6 year old son live.  He travels home for one month a year to see them, otherwise he owns his own driving company and makes a very good living in Saudi, which is what he must do since he can not make a decent living in India.  While here, he rents an apartment with three other men that shares a common living area for 1000 Saudi Riyals a month. [$266 divided by the 3 men.]  

To get to Bahrain, we traveled 25 kilometers [15 miles] on the King Fahd Causeway which included five security controls and six gates.  It only took us 2 solid hours to travel through security as often times the back-up can take 4 to 5 hours.  At the controls, they asked to see our passports, Iquama and entry/exit visas.  They checked underneath the vehicle, collected money and checked Bhilal's insurance. There was also a driving lane "For Ladies Only."  We saw many fancy, clean cars and loaded SUVs with license plates from Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait and Qater.

The Baharinin currency is the Dinar which is basically 10 Saudi Riyals.  One Riyal is $3.75, so we were doing some crazy calculations between the three currencies in our heads every time we made a purchase!  Let's just say that math is not our strong suit [I can hear Megan laughing now] so eventually we just estimated the conversion, said f** it let's buy it and be done. 

While there, we went to the movie "Sully" which was a REAL TREAT to be in a movie theater!  [There are NO movie theaters in the Kingdom, this country.....ugh.]  We ordered the combo and the popcorn was a mixture of regular and caramel!  Wow, that was snazzy!  I really liked the movie.

In the evening, we sat in the hotel courtyard surrounded by the aroma of tobacco and observed couples, men only and women only smoking from hookahs. It was an option to order a hookah. Instead, we ordered two tall Heinekens, admired the full moon and watched a giant music video screen only to realize that the music we heard did not match the video we were watching in the slightest.  I thought, "My God, doesn't anything make sense over here?"  Geeesh, bring another Heineken.......Ahhhhh, as I sipped my tall cold glass of beautiful beer, I sensed someone standing next to me, looked over and there stood one of my 6th grade students.  "Hello Mrs. Wyant."  OMG.  Seriously?  He pointed out his family sitting behind us. "Mr. Jacob" and I turned around and the family of 6 all waved at us.  Later, we made our way over for the "meet and greet" and as we approached, they all stood and remained standing the entire conversation.  The Muslim mom was completely covered and as I stood there sweating from the night humidity, I thought that the customs of this culture and Muslim religion really make the women endure more than they should in this climate!   As the family left, the waiter informed us that they paid for our pizza and beers!  Wow.

We made our way back to our super huge luxurious room  [http://www.elitegrouphotels.com/elite-seef-residence/elite-seef-residences.php ]  and proceeded to scan the TV channels, all 2000 of them.  One was "Iran Fun."  That channel didn't come in. 

Jake's healthy outlet.

The next day, we took a taxi to the "The Skate Shack" where we purchased a TREK mountain box for "Mr. Jacob."  At this point in our Kingdom adventure, this purchase was a necessity for my husband's mental well-being.  He enjoys his "Tour de Compound", along with other riders who exercise in 3 mile circles around Sara Village.  Some purchases within a marriage don't seem logical, given this environment or lack of it and sometimes wives don't question, we just support.  LOL.  [This country.....ugh.]

While we can say that we've visited a new country, this constitutionally monarch ruled country with its archipelago of 33 islands in the Arabian Peninsula specializing in oil, fishing and pearls was nothing special. Once was enough for me, although if we want to go to a movie theater, we'll have to endure the five checkpoints and six gates to get there.

One of my favorite lines from the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" sums up how I feel SOME of the time:  "This is a new and different world.  The challenge is to cope with it.  Not just cope but thrive.”

The ISG Dammam Varsity Girls Basketball Season officially started last week with our first practice!  I walked into the gym where 18 girls in 10th-11th and 12th grades were waiting.  I said, "You here to play basketball?"  "Yeah. Yes. Yes Miss.  Yes Mam"  "Good, I'm Coach Wyant, line up on the baseline tallest to shortest, let's go." And so it began......  

One girl wore her hijab during the entire practice. I said if we don't make 50% of our lay-ups this first practice, we're running. Didn't make 50%.  I took off my whistle, said "Line up behind me, single file, we're playing follow the leader."  After lap #3, the girl behind me panted "Coach, how many laps are we doing?"  I said, "10."  I could hear the number 10 being passed back through the line and we continued running......in silence...... until the 9th lap when they were happy to be almost done!  [Let's just say that the next 3 days, I was VERY sore!] After 1 hour 30 minutes, we had our first team meeting. It was a great first practice.  Stay tuned for more news on the Leopards because I've recruited fellow colleagues and formed a staff BB team to scrimmage against my team and I'm organizing a team bonding event on the compound.

My Ukrainian Russian friend, Olga.

OLGA is doing well.  She has the middle school science lab completely organized and is working on her English skills.  She asked me what the word "defect" means.  You can imagine how my wheels were spinning after she left my classroom.  The next day, she asked me to read an email she wrote to see if it sounded proper.  The email was about one new microscope that was shipped to the school and not working and how it has a defect.  Dang, that shot my spy theory to pieces, for now.......

The overgrown, unloved patio.  

We're hiring a gardner from the compound staff to clean up and help rebuild our patio and landscaping.  Stay tuned for the updates in the coming months.










We've also booked our flights for Christmas vacation, departing December 17th from Dammam to Bangkok, Thailand.  Jake and I will explore the sights, including the River Kwai before we board the train on December 23rd to Suratthani and pick up our SUV and drive to the Poseidon Bungalows

Where we will be Dec. 23rd-Dec. 31st.

[ http://www.similantours.com/ ]  We'll settle in and wait until early Christmas morning, drive to the Phuket airport and pick up Megan and Jonah! We're looking forward to a day of snorkeling in the Similan Islands, trekking through the Khao Lak National Park on an elephant and hanging out at our beach bungalows! The kids will fly back to the states on New Year's Eve and Jake & I will be back in Bangkok ringing in 2017!

Here's the new addition to our villa, a clock with Arabic numbers!  Bought it at the second hand store on the compound for 20 Riyal!  

The sideways villa clock with Arabic numbers.

                               

Finally, I must end with the positives about our adventure life here in the sand box..... We are having a blast together.  We go out to eat to eat on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  On Wednesdays, we have authentic, homemade Chinese dinner at the Oasis restaurant.  On Thursdays, we are at Bo Diddly's Poolside Restaurant for fish & chips or grilled ribeye and on Saturdays, Senjay, the chef from India, grills us salmon or lamb chops at Harley's restaurant.  On these three days, we eat with our friends, Ann & Clay from Florida and Carolyn & Chris from Oregon.  

I continue to follow home by reading Google News every morning, the Aitkin Age, scanning Facebook and sending/receiving emails from friends and family.  Again, if you have a moment, please check in with my mom by sending her a quick email:  wyants@frontiernet.net.  

Until next time, my friends.