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......