Leaving

Well, it seems kind of strange to be saying good bye to Saudi after all these years, but there it is.  I shipped all of the pets back home earlier this week and all of our earthly possession went the week before  so our house is sort of like living in a Motel 6, devoid of personality and it actually echoes.

First of all, I am really happy to be going home, because simply put, there's no place like home. (Thanks Dorothy, it has sort of felt like Oz.) I miss my family and I want to get back to some semblance of normalcy.  And I want to preface this that until I actually started to really think about going home, none of this stuff ever really bothered me at all. You know, like being able to buy bacon that comes from an actual pig, instead of a cow or a turkey.  Like having a glass of wine whose vintage is by year, not by week and well aged in plastic. I want to be able to have a Mellow Mushroom pizza and listen to Grateful Dead tracks in the restaurant while I'm waiting.  I want to be able to get dressed without having to go through a checklist of what I should or shouldn't wear.  If I want to go shopping I want to be able to get in my own car and drive myself to a store that will actually have something I might want to buy.  I want to be able to go to the grocery store and know that if I want Special K it will be there.  I want to be able to use a phone book and find places by the address instead of  "Go to the fist (not a typo meant to say fist) round about and at the next intersection turn left.  Look for a McDonald's on the left.  You've gone too far so take the next U-turn and come back up the street.  It's on the right  near the fish store  but not the first one, the second one."  Seriously those were the directions to the frame shop from our house.  I want to be able to actually try on clothes BEFORE I buy them.  One of the tricks I learned was to ask if they had a broom closet and then lock myself in so I could try things on.  I want to be able to go to the gym and work out with my husband instead of in a separate facility.  This is what I mean by a return to normal.

What about what I'll miss?  The lifestyle for sure.  No way will I have a housekeeper and lawn care back home.  I'll miss getting my nails done every week and having a 2 hour massage every week because it only costs 30 USD.  In some ways, I'll miss having a driver instead of dealing with traffic myself.  I'll miss having the Red Sea a block away.  I'll miss being able to dive whenever I want to.   I'll miss being able to walk into a drug store and get whatever I want right over the counter.  I'll miss being able to buy a complete meal( salad, entree, dessert, drink, etc) for 3.50 US.  I will dearly miss some of the people I met here and may never cross paths with again. 

There is a book in the making...

NECC and thoughts about Ed Tech

I couldn't attend the conference as we are just too busy to go, but I did attend vicariously and one of the keynotes(especially in conjunction with what I am currently doing) simply struck a chord. Listen to the following (start on about minute 50 as the opening stuff is just opening stuff and not the heart of the video). The questions basically is" Are bricks and mortar schools dead?"

I have to go with blended myself and that has been my thinking for a number of years. My concern is that too many folks don't see the benefit of the online and social networking world at all and we still have too many schools which are trying to keep these things out of school by policy without looking at the larger context. So check out this next video, which tells one teacher's story of "getting it."

Egypt

We went to Sharm El Sheik for the weekend and had a brief respite from here. The weather, if possible, was even hotter than here without the benefit of a constant breeze. Water temperature was about 30 C and the air 41 C. There isn't a beach as we know it, basically a very coral, rocky bottom with knee deep water for 70 feet or so and then very deep and fast drop off. The current is very strong so swimming is not recommended. The picture is really from where you sit and the beach is that far away even though it is considered beach front.

Naama Bay is commercial, it has a Hard Rock Cafe, need I say more? We stayed about 5 kilometers away in a quieter and more remote location that we thoroughly enjoyed, my spa bill alone is enough to indicate how much. Actually, the exchange rate with the Egyptian pound is favorable. Just to give you an idea, 5 massages (no, I didn't have all of them, David scored three of them for himself), a pedicure, manicure and facial came to about $400 US, not too bad by US standards. The rooms only cost $100 or so dollars a night for a suite with a full kitchen, dining room and 2 balconies so it's a cheap enough getaway.

As you can see by David's picture, he starts to look more native as time passes. No one believed that he wasn't Egyptian. They would rattle on in Arabic not realizing we were catching about every fifth word.

Date palms are everywhere but except for the interior of the hotel compound, it is truly a desolate landscape. The view of the mountains is fairly typical of the way it looks.
OK, just had to have this picture- horn is the second language in the middle east- this just cracked me up as it was a "no horns" sign in the commercial district. Blessed silence.

Work environment

I am at the office at the campus right now and someone just brought me my afternoon snack, an apple and a banana. It's very nice and you would be amazed at how used to this kind of treatment you get. In all fairness, I will have to go out on site and have a meeting in 105 degree heat in an unfinished building, translate that as no air conditioning, so there is the occasional downside.

I go out on site in jeans and a long sleeved shirt and workboots and for the most part, I don't get any strange looks anymore. I gave up the abeyah as just beiing plain deangerous on a construction site. Pretty much it's me and 40000 guys. Occasionally (and it is extrememly rare) I will see another woman but I think there are only a handful and most of them are secretaries so they aren't even on site. It was a little wierd at first but now I hardly notice it and neither do the crews and that's a good thing. Women here just don't do manual labor jobs like you'll see back in the states. There are simply no women doing that type of work. I think it's good for them to see a woman doing something they don't expect.

The site is amazingly busy. The standards here are quite a bit different. AN OSHA inspector would have a field day. I just can't look anymore when I see someone in a ditch with a pair of flip flops on and no safety glasses doing welding. The workers live on site and almost 100% of them are contract workers from outside of the country. Language barriers get interesting when you are trying to get something technical across but I've gotten really good at drawing things. I know enough Arabic to be dangerous but since most of these guys are not from Saudi, even that doesn't do me any good.

My buildings are just packed with people at this point and you are constantly stepping over and around someone or something. I am totally amzaed at the progress being made. We only received news of the building change 3 weeks ago and they are pouring it on to get the job done. Very impressive indeed.

The buildings in some cases are almost works of art. The Grand Mosque is simply breathhtaking. The campus buildings have wide thoroughfares underneath the buildings with fountains that connect them all. The detail work that goes into marble floors is painstaking. Some of the specialty buildings such as the nanolabs are unreal. The clean rooms have floors that are so seamless they are scary. I cannot even begin to figure out how they did it even though I watched them lay the floors and saw what they did; it just blows your mind when it is done and it is so perfect. I am highly impressed by Saudi Ojer as a construction company.

Banking

I could write a book on the banking system. Many banks are affiliated with a country, like Saudi Hollandi, SABB (Saudi British Bank) and some are just local. ATMs are absolutely everywhere and there are no foreign ATM fees. You can pretty much do anything you want at any ATM, no fees.

Your ATM card can be used in many places as a charge card. It is NOT a Visa or MC, just an ATM card and they don't have your name on them. If you input the wrong pin number, the card is immediately confiscated so it's actually a little safer than back home as you MUST use the pin, no choice. And as an added bonus it's a 6 digit pin. They of course also issue Visa or MC as part of your account. Credit limits are very high, I could buy a car with my MC. I kept thinking I had misread it, but nope, it really was that much.

There are no checking accounts here as we know them. No one uses checks for anything, even businesses. Absolutely everything is done by wire transfer. When I have to pay bills at work to vendors, it's all wire transfers. It's actually kind of nice as everything is instant and exact. You do have savings accounts and interest tends to be quite a bit higher than in the states. As part of your benefits, the company matches what you put into savings up to a certain percentage, so that's a nice little bonus.

You have a banker who knows you personnally. There is no opening an account unless you can prove you have a job and sponsor. The banker actually comes to your office and the paperwork is done while at work. If you have an issue, you deal with one person and he resolves your issue. I was in another country and had a problem and he handled it immediately. Amazing service.

If you ever have to physically go to the bank, there's a men's branch and a lady's branch. I know, even the banks are segregated, kind of weird. I almost always go to the men's branch as that is where my banker is and you do draw some stares when you step through the lobby. When you enter the bank, you stop at a computer kiosk and you request either teller service or office service. You are then issued a number and then you sit and relax until your number appears. No lines, kind of nice, although it does sort of remind you of a bakery at times.

I do all banking online including all my wire transfers and I like it. When people collect their first check they usually don't have all the paperwork needed to open an account so cashing a check is a trip for them. I normally take their check, deposit it in my account, make the wire transer(s) they need and then withdraw the remaining cash for them. Convoluted but the only way to do it.

This is most definitely a cash society but oddly enough, no one ever has change. It is not uncommon to go into a store, pay cash, and then the clerk opens up his wallet and makes change. Even more bizarre is when they tell you to wait a minute and they go to another store and the clerk from that store makes the change. You never get exact change back from anything. They just round it off to the nearest SRA. So if it's 46.30 item (no tax, another bonus) and you give them a 100 note, you'll get 54 back. I guess no one feels compelled to balance the drawer at the end of the day. Also, nothing is a fixed price except the grocery store. You can argue price anywhere. I've gotten really good at it.

Medical Things

It has occurred to me that I have not spoken about some of the really mundane aspects of life over here, so today I'll concentrate on one of those. First of all, one of the things you have to realize is there are 2 types of insurance. In one, you pay a flat fee of 17 SRA (about $5.00 US)no matter what and that's all you ever pay. That is for the "local" insurance which is not good outside of Saudi. If you choose International Insurance, it's good anywhere in the world, however it is all on the reimbursement plan, pay up front and then get it back. I imagine the horror going through your minds right now but in cases of catastrophic events, you don't have to pay up front, we're only talking routine kinds of visits here.

Let me start with an example. A few months back, I aggravated my knee by too much treadmill use. It was constantly hot to the touch and slightly swollen and it hurt so I decided to go get it looked at. Now here is the chain of events. I went to an orthopedist who had me do X-rays and an MRI. He also did bloodwork. After he got the reports back he prescribed PT (I'll get into that a little later). Now my first question to you would be just how much did all this cost? If you think in US terms you are already into 4 figures and going up, correct? Not so here. Medical care is reliable and inexpensive. My total charge for all of the above inlcuding all the PT and all of the diagnostic work was less than $500.00 US. That's not my share, that is truly the total cost. As you know, you would spent over $1000 just for the MRI back in the US, never mind everything else. All of the doctors I've come in contact with are western educated, see you on time and the medical records system is much more efficient. No carrying X-rays around, everything is digital and available on demand.

Prescription drugs as we know them do not exist. You can walk into any drug store and get anything you want short of narcotics by simply asking. To get a course of antibiotics you just ask and it costs about $5.00, again, that is the total cost, not a co-pay. All of the meds available at home are not available here and in contrast they have things here they we have never seen back there. The exact same med that I take here costs one-third of what it used to cost me in the states. You really start to wonder. Again, there is no insurance involved in this, things simply cost less, a lot less.

The doctors I have seen have been uniformly wonderful. You are seen at your appointment time, by the actual doctor, not a PA or nurse. They know their stuff. They answer all your questions and encourage you to ask questions. They talk to their patients and develop realtionships with them. Another sidebar, when you go to a doctor you only pay for the intial visit, all follow up visits are free. Most doctors charge about $50.00 US for a visit on an average.

As far as the hospitals, gorgeous. Beautiful buildings, there's even a doorman at the entrance, kind of like a hotel, to let you out of your car. Seriously, he wears the hat and coat just like at the Ritz. The rooms themselves are quite lovely. They are all private rooms, they have attached sitting rooms and full baths. If it's meal time, they feed all of your guests as well as you. Except for the hospital bed and medical equipment, the rest of it has more of a hotel feel to it. We know folks who've had heart procedures done, infectious diseases, you name it, and the care has been uniformly excellent all the way around.

The nursing staff tends to be Filipino almost exclusively. Doctors come from all over the place. Reception staff tends to be Saudi. I have no idea why it's that way, it just is. They work much longer hours. Doctors have appointments at almost any time of the day. If you can come at 9 PM, you have an appointment at 9PM. Every doctor sees patients at night as well as days. There are no "visiting hours." You can come any time you want and stay for as long as you want. The typical thing to bring when visiting is food becuase even in a hospital bed, the lcoals want to be able to offer their guests snacks. There are refrigerators in the rooms and tea and coffee service as well as juice, milk and water, are always available in the room.

Anyway, thought you would like that quick snapshot. I'd love to take pictures, but it's frowned upon to take pictures of public buildings.

Pets

As you know, we brought both of the cats and one of the dogs with us here. Mac was too old to make the trip and Boxers are on the forbidden list, so we just have the Spaniel with us. Dogs are rare here and most locals are scared to death of them. Oliver is a huge hit with all of the kids in the compound, for many of them it's the first time they have ever seen a dog up close. The cats have staked out their territory and wander freely throughout the compound. There are tons of feral cats here and they are simply everywhere, but no longer anywhere near this house. Our cats have let all of the local cats know, this is out of bounds.

Oliver has to be walked as there is no yard here and the cats have decided that joining us for every walk is a good thing. It's like having a little parade behind you wherever you go. Alex walks with you but Winnie tends to be the rear scout, she stays behind about 30 feet and then catches up from out of nowhere. David said it started after I left for the states. Apparently the paranoia of the animals was such that they must have decided we are no longer allowed out on our own; as long as we stay in sight, we can't disappear on them. They were very happy to have me home again, I feel as if I have furry appendages wherever I go.

Pet stores here do not have all of the things we are used to, especially for dogs. I bought rawhide bones and new collars back in the states because they are nigh onto impossible to find here; there are no dog toys at all. The price of dog food is outrageously expensive. I don't remember exactly how much it was for the 40 pounds of dog food but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $60; good thing Oliver is a light eater. Cat food is the same brand selection as we have in the states but when you open the can, all resemblance stops. There are actual fish pieces (like the heads) in the can...ick!

Finding vet care is another challenge. Oliver needed to be groomed and they wanted to anesthetize him. I wouldn't let them. Somehow I think it ought to be a prerequisite that if you groom dogs for a living, perhaps you shouldn't be scared to death of them. Just a thought. Our vet is Dutch and she's pretty good.

Fish and aquariums are very popular. People here use unconditioned tap water with their fish. I meant to buy a water testing kit and water conditioner when I was home. I went to the pet store and it was closed and I never got back there again. Darn. Oh well, there's always the holidays.