We are in Riyadh settling in to Compound life and Saudi sun. They really take good care of us here and we have no complaints thus far. The housing is quite large and we didn’t even get the size they wanted us to have. They may be moving us when a three-bedroom villa comes open. As it is, they created a bedroom for Hannah with a single bed in the maid’s quarters. It is a small space, but she doesn’t mind since it does have an attached bathroom. Nathan’s and the master bedroom are quite large and each have attached full baths. Add on a large dining room, kitchen, and living room and you have a wonderful place to live. It is all furnished nicely and we have a recreation center and small shops and library here on the compound. The security is so tight to get on, there is no way we will feel unsafe.
The heat is intense, but there isn’t a whole lot of reason to be out in it for extended periods of time unless you are swimming, which Nathan does daily! The school is about 10-15 minutes away by car and totally hidden. There are no signs of advertisements when you enter the long drive/security checkpoints to enter it. There is no way someone would just happen to wander onto the campus. The archetecture is plain, but the staff seems to be extremely friendly and welcoming. So far, compared to TCIS, the pace has been fairly slow. Our shipment from Korea should arrive this week along with the old staff. Classes begin August 25. I know I am not ready at present. My summer has been spent moving into our wonderful home in Roanoke, VA, and trying to wrap my emotions around sending my oldest off to college. With that all done, I should now be planning lessons, but here I sit writing to old friends.
We keep comparing things here to Korea, which is funny since we rarely compare them to America. That’s what seven years in a culture will do to you! Nathan asked around until he found a Korean restaurant here in Riyadh that has a buffet on Wednesday evenings. Most Saudis shop late at night with stores and restaurants staying open until 1 or 2 a.m. (probably to avoid the daytime heat). Your day is dictated by the Muslim call to prayer five times a day. We have to carry cards with us to know when prayer is each day so we can plan eating and shopping. Some shops kick you out at prayer time and others simply lock you in and dim the lights. This is great if you time your arrival at said store when prayer time begins and get all your shopping done and be ready to check out at the end of prayer time. That’s what we did in IKEA last night, and I found it disillusioning to see Muslim families continuing to shop during prayer time. It seems Saudi Arabia believes more in the letter of the law than the spirit of it. I was told not to think too harshly about that because devout Muslims would probably go home and say extra prayers to make up for what they missed while shopping.
This also seems to apply to women as well. The Koran has been interpreted to say that women should be covered at all times, which is taken literally. When we travel outside the school or housing compound, Jennie and Hannah must wear their abayas (black graduation-type robes) and be prepared to cover their heads if the mutawa (religious police) tell them to. Beyond the occasional “Woman, cover!” they tend to leave western women alone, but a Saudi woman who defies the traditions will easily be arrested or punished in some way. We went shopping all over town and never encountered any mutawas yesterday though. We did see an awful lot of ex-pats out shopping too, but then we were out during the day and not after sundown. We ate at a food court in a mall. We had the typical mall choices of food, but the seating was for men only with a walled-off section for families to eat together. When you order, you must go in the men’s or the women’s line. If the restaurant (like Sbarro’s) does not have seperate lines, you must allow women to go ahead of you to order. In the family section, some Muslim women removed their veils to eat, but most do not. It is strange to see a woman digging under her veil with a Big Mac and withdrawing it with a bite taken out.
Driving is nightmare and I have not had to venture forth yet as my international license is not yet valid. The main cause of accidents and injury seems to be speed. People change lanes and pour on the speed at scary intensity. We drove by an accident last night where a car had attempted a turn at high speed and flipped his car. The people with us said it looked like the person involved must be close to death because of the massive crowd of Muslim men around the scene. It is believed that if you whisper your name in the ears of a dying man and it is the last thing he hears, he will remember to mention you when he meets Allah. I cannot imagine how this would make the dying man feel!
Language does not seem to be as much of a barrier as it was in Korea. Most places have workers who speak Arabic and English and all signs seem to be in both languages as well. Some places, like Chili’s, McDonald’s, or Swenson’s need no translation. We haven’t yet ventured into the high-end malls in the middle of Riyadh or the bargain souks on the outskirts, but we did visit a bakery here in Riyadh that has been in business since the 1800’s and had some of the finest baklava I have ever tasted. There is so much here to explore, not to mention the surrounding desert for some dune riding. Somehow the lack of cinemas does not seem to bother us that much when there is so much available. Besides, Bahrain is a 3-4 hour trip away and we will have to travel out of Saudi sometime in the next three months to keep our visas active, so we will stock up on movie viewing when we go there.
Our weekends are Thursday and Friday, although there is talk of changing that to Friday/Saturday to better accommodate dealing with international businesses. We woke Friday, had a leisurely breakfast, and gathered around the computer to sing some praise songs, read a devotional, and then listen to the sermon from CIC (Christian International Church in Daejeon, Korea) this past Sunday. It wasn’t the same as home, but it wasn’t bad either. I am hoping that can become a draw to our villa here for other Christians on the compound, we could call it CIC-Riyadh.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the TCIS community and we would love to hear how the year is going. Eventually we will be wired into SKYPE and be able to talk to people through that. We can call out, but at $1 a minute, we probably will stick to emails. We do not yet have a phone number and have to go through an operator to make calls out. We can be found on SKYPE at bryjenmun. Nathan and Hannah have their own accounts as well. As of 4 p.m. on Friday, Skype has been down, so we are unable to log in until they fix the problem.
