Ramadan Kareem

Ramadan 2014 has officially begun!  Although I was somewhat aware of Ramadan before I moved to Jubail, I definitely don't know much about it so I've been reading up a bit.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.  Muslims use the Islamic or Hijri calendar (a lunar one) to determine the proper days to observe the fast.  The calendar is shorter than the Gregorian calendar, so each year Ramadan moves earlier about 10 or 11 days.

Interestingly, according to traditional practice the Islamic lunar months still begin and end based on being able to see the new moon with the human eye.  So technically the new moon (and the beginning of Ramadan) was on Friday evening the 27th, with the first day of fasting on Saturday the 28th.  But since according to this website there were no confirmed sightings of the new moon until the evening of the 28th, Ramadan didn't officially start until then, with today being the first day of fasting.  (Although I've read a couple places that sometimes the starting date will vary from country to country.)

On Friday evening we happened to be having dinner on the beach with some friends and although we also didn't see the new moon, (it was just to the left of the setting sun making it difficult to see) we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

We went out again tonight and we were able to see the new moon (top picture and below) as well as Jupiter (the 'star' to the right of the moon in the picture below).

Over here people are mostly saying Ramadan Kareem, but apparently Ramadan Mubarak is also an expression used during Ramadan.  I've also noticed these phrases on signs in stores, on shopping bags, and even on our milk containers.  Loosely translated Ramadan Mubarak can mean 'Blessed Ramadan', and Ramadan Kareem can mean 'Generous Ramadan'.  From what I understand, both are basically just ways of saying (roughly) 'Happy Ramadan' and are a greeting used during this time of year.  Kind of like we would say 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Holidays' to each other during December back in the States.

We won't be in the country for the whole month of Ramadan, but I do look forward to experiencing a little bit of this celebration here in Saudi.

Summertime





I think it is safe to say that summertime has arrived here in Saudi!  The last few weeks have been hotter, and the breeze/wind has changed from a cool one to a warm one.  And sadly it's only going to get hotter as summer continues.  (To help my American family and friends 'translate' the forecast for this week, our highs will be ranging from 43 C = 109 F to 48 C = 118 F.)   

We have been enjoying nice weather for several months now (the picture below of Emily was taken at the beginning of March. . . ) while many of our family and friends back home were shoveling snow and scraping ice, so I guess it's our turn for some nasty weather. 

We are very lucky to have not only pools (that are cooled!) in our compound, but also a beach.  Since I don't need to wear my black abaya inside the compound, that means I can actually enjoy going to the beach. 

When driving past the beaches where the locals hangout, it is not uncommon to see women in their abayas (faces and hair still covered too) wading out into the water.  Although, there is a swimsuit option for those who prefer not to wear their abaya to the beach--the burqini: 

I had never heard of a burqini before moving here, but apparently they have been the source of some controversy in the past.  For example, in 2009 a mayor in northern Italy banned the burqini from pools and beaches saying that "the sight of a 'masked woman' could disturb small children, not to mention problems of hygiene."  During the same week in 2009, a Paris pool denied entrance to a woman because they had a "no swimming while clothed" rule. 

Another random note. . . we have found it difficult to find sunblock over here.  It's gotten a little easier recently, but when I was looking for some back in February and March, I searched and searched, only to find some at one store that cost about 20 USD per bottle!  I suppose that there isn't much demand here for sunblock.  If you go to the beach like this: 

who needs sunblock?  (Btw, I didn't take the above picture, but yes, local women really do go to the beaches dressed like this.) 

Along these same lines, it is interesting to see how the stores deal with pictures of women who are not covered with either an abaya or a burqini.  Most of the swimming related things (pools, pool toys, floatation toys, etc) come from outside the country, so it is entirely possible that they will include a picture of a woman in a swimsuit.  To solve this problem, someone actually takes a black marker and colors over the women on each and every box. 

Note that it is only the women, not the men or children.  Or sometimes they just use these stickers to cover the 'inappropriate' images. 

With the temperatures rising, we are looking forward to spending most of the summer with our family in cooler climates back in the States!   

Doctor Time

I figured sooner or later we would have to make a trip to a doctor. . . and I suppose that being in Saudi for 6 months without needing a doctor isn't too bad.  I dread going to the doctor (for myself or the kids) anytime, but the thought of going in a foreign country was even more daunting. 

Last week Elizabeth got sick.  After a quick look on the internet, I was pretty sure she had strep throat/tonsillitis.  Her symptoms lined up exactly, and her throat looked exactly like the pictures online.  So now the question. . . go to the pharmacy and pick up a z-pak (yes you can do that here!) or take her to the doctor.  I'm not a huge fan of the idea of self-diagnosing and medicating, and I figured maybe it was time anyway to go and meet a local pediatrician.  So off we went to the hospital. . .

Over here pretty much anything medical is found at the hospital.  You can find anything from pediatricians to psychiatrists to dentists to ophthalmologists at the hospital.  The idea of independent offices for a particular type of doctor doesn't really seem to be common practice here.  Another major difference is that you don't make appointments (at least at the hospital we went to).  You just show up and it's first come, first served. 

Now of course Ben was out of town on business, so I was going alone, as a female.  Which doesn't seem like a big deal. . . unless you've happened to read THIS recent article which explains that there is now an edict in Saudi which doesn't allow women to visit medical clinics without a male guardian (husband, son, brother, father, uncle, grandson, etc).   

I had this in the back of my mind, but decided to go to the doctor anyway and was pretty sure we wouldn't have any problems.  (Fortunately we didn't.)  If anyone did give us trouble, the plan was to just re-route to the pharmacy, pick up the medicine and go home.  There are few reasons I'm not surprised that no one said anything.  First, I wasn't going for treatment for myself--I was going for a child.  Over here children (even female ones) seem to get more leeway.  Also, being an expat seems to give you a little more leeway, well sometimes.   

We arrived at the hospital and found the non-emergency entrance.  After going inside I stopped to ask where I could find the pediatrician.  The lady (it's always nice to see women working in Saudi!) answered me, but I didn't understand much of it.  Although I thought I heard 'level 5'.  So I repeated back 'level 5' and she said 'yes'.  (Side note:  it is hard to understand women when their faces are covered with a niqab.  Before moving here, I never realized how much I relied on watching people's faces to help with understanding.) 

So we walked down the hallway in the direction she pointed and got in the elevator only to find that there is only G, 1, and 2.  No level 5.  Out of the elevator to ask the next person I find behind a desk.  We repeat the process of asking and getting lost several times until we were pointed to a waiting room. 

I go to the desk in the waiting room and patiently wait and wait.  There are two people there working but neither even look my direction.  However, other people are coming up to the desk and the ladies are helping them.  Finally I notice that someone is holding a ticket with a number on it.  Aha!  I look around the room and find something that looks like it could give me a ticket.  I walk over and find that it has about 6 buttons and no English.  I randomly choose a button, get a number, and sit down. 

After awhile I notice that not only are there no other children, we are the only females.  I look around and notice that there is a female waiting room.  Of course--we are in Saudi after all.  Our turn comes up and we successfully navigate the check-in process and then sit down again and wait to see the doctor. 

After about half and hour they call Elizabeth's name and we go into the doctor--an ENT specialist, not a pediatrician.  At this point, oh well.  :-)  Fortunately he speaks English well enough that everything goes smoothly.  He confirms my suspicions, writes us a prescription, gives us a school excuse note and we are off.  Although oddly we had to go downstairs to get the school note 'officially stamped' by a different person? 

At the end of the appointment I did explain to the doctor that I was trying to find a pediatrician and ended up here. . . he got a good laugh.  He was probably wondering if all Americans want their children to see a specialist for such a simple diagnosis.  :-) 

An interesting difference though--the exam room was also his personal office (or appeared to be).  The nurse was in the room the entire time and she sat at what looked like her personal desk doing paper work.  This also meant that as soon as we were taken back, we didn't wait for the doctor to come, he was in the room waiting for us.  Now that is a difference I could get used to! 

The way our insurance works, we just pay cash when we go to the doctor.  So as far as the hospital is concerned we aren't using any insurance.  What does it cost to see a specialist over here?  Seventy SAR, or less than $19.  The antibiotics cost about $10.  So for approximately the cost of a co-pay in the US, we paid cash for the doctor AND the medicine.  This is another difference I could get used to!  I also liked that the pharmacy where we picked up the medicine was in the hospital (right next to where we had to get the school note stamped).  It got me to thinking, why is it not common in the States to have a pharmacy in the same building as a pediatrician/doctor's office?  It seems so obviously convenient! 

While we were at the hospital I was a little frazzled by the whole thing. (I didn't even take any pictures!  The picture in this post is from the hospital's website.) I think mostly just because I didn't know what to expect, but looking back it wasn't so bad.  There are some benefits to being able to just walk in at your convenience and having a one-stop medical experience.  How convenient to go from your primary care doctor right to the specialist in the same day if you need to? 

On the way out of the hospital, we ran into a friend who was kind enough to show us where the offices for the pediatricians are.  So even though this time we saw an ENT to diagnose tonsillitis, next time we will know where to go.  :-) 

We've moved. . . again

Yep, we've moved.  Although we are still in Jubail and the kids still go to the same school, so it wasn't a big move in that regard.  We are just living in a different compound now.  The compound itself is much nicer (it is actually resort-like with the beach property, pools, palm trees, nicely manicured grounds) and has more amenities (mini-grocery store, restaurant, bowling, hair salon, several playgrounds, etc.)  The only downside of the move was that we are in an apartment now that is about half the size of our previous place--but considering our last place was over 4000 square feet I think we'll survive.  :-)  There are a lot more families and kids here, so that's fun too.

But I do have to say I am really tired of moving!  We have been moving or getting ready to move for about 9 months now, so I am ready to be settled somewhere.  We were almost settled at our last place (I was down to 2 boxes left to unpack) when Ben called and said that we had the option of moving.  We took a few days to decide if we were going or not, and then scheduled our move date for the following week--only to have the movers show up a day early since they were running ahead of schedule!  If nothing else this country is going to teach me (I like to plan and schedule) that sometimes you just have to go with the flow.  :-)

I did think it was funny that the same group of movers who had literally just been to our house to bring our sea shipment to us were the same ones who came and boxed everything back up, took it to our new place and then un-boxed it again in our new place.  Deja-vu anyone?

One of the last nights we were at our old place there was a beautiful sunset.  I ran inside to grab my camera, but the sun had already dipped below the horizon.

Elizabeth and Erik walking to the bus stop--Goodbye Chevron compound!

Grocery Shopping--Produce

Note:  If you missed Part 1 of the grocery shopping post, you can see it HERE.

The layout of the grocery store here is similar to what you often see in the States, so you naturally go through the produce section first.  The first time I went to the grocery store over here I started looking at the fruit and veggies and seeing prices like 6.95, 12.95, 17.95 and even more.  Yikes!  Although 1 USD converts to roughly 4 SAR, so you can divide the prices by 4.  But even then the produce seemed expensive.  That is until I remembered that they use kilos, not pounds.  :-)  In general, the produce over here is good quality and cheap--especially considering we are in the middle of winter right now.  I am excited to see what summer will bring.

Apples, bananas, cucumbers, garlic, and fresh herbs are some of the items that are particularly cheap.  'Practically free' as Ben puts it.  Last time I went to the store a large bundle of fresh herbs was about 6 cents, bananas were 30 cents per pound, and apples were 75 cents per pound.  Oranges and cucumbers were about 50 cents per pound.  Some of the more expensive items are celery (about $4 per bunch of celery), onions, avocados (about $ 2.50 each), strawberries, grapes, and blueberries.  

One thing I find interesting is that the price signs for the produce generally include which country it comes from (usually places around the Middle East or Africa, although I've seen a few things from Mexico).  And sometimes there will be the same food available from multiple countries--for example there always seems to be several types of mango available, each from a different country.

The most unusual thing about the grocery store here is that you need to get your produce weighed and stickered at the weigh station.  You bag your own produce, take it to the station, and place it on the counter where someone will weigh it and put the appropriate sticker on the bag.  And these guys are amazingly fast at punching in the different codes!  And remember those mangos from different countries?  No problem for these guys.  I've checked up on them multiple times. . . not out of a sense of trying to catch them in a mistake, but rather out of fascination for how accurate they are. . . . and I have never seen them make a mistake and put the wrong kind of label on.

Oh, and if you forget to label your food--or didn't know to do it--the guys at the register are really nice about it and the bagger will run your produce over to the weigh station for you and then bring it back labeled.  Ask me how I know. . . . :-)

Over here they don't have a lot of sales; each week there may be just a handful of items on sale.  One week there was a sale on garlic (I don't remember the price) but I do remember that there was a sign saying that there was a 2 kilo limit (or about 4 1/2 lbs).  That's a lot of garlic!  Interestingly, that is the only time I have ever seen a sign limiting how much product you can purchase.

Grocery Shopping--Overview

Apparently I have quite a bit to say about grocery shopping, so I'm going to break it up into a few different blog posts.  There are 2 main grocery stores in our city where the expats shop--Tamimi and Panda.  Tamimi is actually a Safeway store (the same company as Vons, Randall's and others) so there are many brands and products that we recognize.  They even have some Kirkland Signature (Costco) brand items!  The HyperPanda does have a few things in addition to food, kind of like a Super-Walmart, although the section of  non-grocery items is much smaller.

Other than anything that contains alcohol (such as extracts and vanilla) or pork products of any kind I have been able to find almost anything that we've wanted.  If you buy local brands, the groceries are cheaper than what they would be in the States, but even buying imported/American brands generally isn't much more expensive (surprisingly) than it would be in the States.  One exception to that is anything that is cold/frozen and imported--then it is VERY expensive.  We actually saw Bluebell brand ice cream (a Texas brand) at the store once, but it was almost $15!  (We didn't buy it.)

The grocery stores are open 24/7, other than during prayer time.  While most stores close and require everyone to leave during prayer, the larger grocery stores generally let you continue shopping if you are already in the doors before they close them for prayer.  Although during prayers there aren't any workers, meaning the registers are closed, and no one is at the produce weigh station, meat or cheese counters, etc.

One thing we've noticed is that quality control on the local brands doesn't seem to be as tight here as we would expect to see in the states.  A couple examples. . . they have a mango juice with pulp that we love.  The 'pulp' is actually small cubes of mango, and sometimes you have mango cubes with a little juice and other times you get mango juice with a few cubes.  It's always the same packaging, so it just appears to be random, but either way it is delicious!

Another example is the Arabic bread (like pita bread only a little thinner and softer).  It  comes in bags like tortillas would, and a bag is only 1 SAR, or about 25 cents.  The bags aren't labeled with how many are inside, and sometimes it will be 7, and the next time it will be 11.  So you aren't ever quite sure how many you get until you open the bag, but it's so cheap that it's hard to complain.  :-)

The stores are also a little unpredictable.  You can't always count on a particular item being stocked.  This definitely applies to the imported goods, but includes the local products as well.  For example, they haven't had sour cream (local brand) the last 2 times I've been to the store.  Cereal availability is particularly random--I learned quickly that if I see a cereal that our family likes I always grab at least one box.

A couple notes about checking out--The baggers here are excellent!  I know it may seem like a weird thing to notice, but I always hate to come home and find, for example, that my raw meats or eggs are in the same bag as my produce.  (Yes, I'm a little OCD at times.)  Here they are meticulous about only putting like-type items in the same bag.  Yay!  If you happen to come to a checkout station with no one in line ahead of you, the bagger will come and unload your cart for you onto the belt for the checker.

Also, it is standard for the bagger to walk you out to your car and load the groceries into the car for you--especially when I am by myself.  If Ben is with me, they will usually ask if we would like help.  It is customary to tip the bagger--anywhere from 3-10 SAR (about $0.80 to almost $3) depending on how many groceries you have.

Lost in Translation

When more than one language or culture is involved, there is always room for confusion. . . 

5.  Does anyone know what 'browsing chairs' are?

4.  I don't know about you, but when I shop I want discounts, not legal responsibilities.

3.  Note to self:  When reading the directions on food packaging, the baking temperatures are given in Celsius, not Fahrenheit.  

2.  One day at work lunch Ben was served "chicken with herpes".  I hope they meant "chicken with herbs"?!

1.  And for the top translation chuckle, check out this sign from a little juice shop in the mall.  (You can click on the picture to see it enlarged.)

Which juice drink would you order?

Burger King Dinner

In Saudi eating at a restaurant has a few peculiarities.  The first thing to be aware of is which door you enter through.  There are separate entrances for 'singles' (meaning men) and 'families' (meaning women, children, and men who are with their family).  Most restaurants serve both singles and families, although you will occasionally run into one that serves only singles or only families.

Ben covertly snapped this picture outside of Burger King while we were waiting for prayer to end and the restaurant to open.  I am wearing my abaya (black dress) that I am required to wear whenever I leave the compound.

Once you enter the restaurant you order at a counter just like you would at any fast food restaurant in the States.  The only difference is that the counter has a wall down the middle, so that the singles are ordering on one side, and the families are ordering on the other side.

The eating areas are definitely completely separated--at Burger King the singles eat downstairs and the families eat upstairs.  We happened to be the first ones upstairs so I took the opportunity to snap a couple pictures.

You can see that in the family section there are separate booths that each have their own curtain.  The kids think the curtains are tons of fun.  :-)  In the singles section the tables are just open seating--no booths or curtains.

The booths with the curtains (and the covered windows) allow more privacy--especially for the Saudi women.  They then have the option of taking off their face covering (niqab) to make eating easier while still remaining 'modest'.

The food is basically the same as we would expect.  Although surprisingly the hamburgers are bigger (especially at McDonald's) and often have a type of white Saudi cheese instead of American cheese.  (Not a bad thing, although the cheese has a richer taste so between that and the larger size I have a hard time eating a whole hamburger.)

One interesting thing we've noticed is that the kids meal toys often seem to be old toys--ie having to do with movies that came out quite a while ago.  Although since they don't have movie theaters in Saudi, none of the locals would know the difference.  :-)

Shawarmas

What the hamburger is to the American, the shawarma is to the Saudi.  (Note: this is not official information, but just based on my observations.)

Hamburger--the first thing that come to mind in fast food, but it is more than that.  We sometimes make our own at home (think summer grilling) and it has many variations that generally includes adding different toppings (avocado, blue cheese, onion rings, bacon, etc) or sometimes adding ingredients to the meat.  Even 'fancy' restaurants will sometimes serve a variation of a hamburger.  And last but not least, we generally think of a eating fries with our hamburger.

The shawarma is pretty much the same--you can get them at busy fast food joints (prepared while you wait), but Saudis (and other countries) will also make their own versions at home and there are many variations.  There are 'fancy' shawarma restaurants, and, last but not least, you can order a side of fries with your shawarma.  The fries come with both ketchup and garlic mayonnaise for dipping.  Yum!

So what exactly is a shawarma?  Sometimes shawarma refers just to the meat that is cooked on a spit, rotisserie style (see below) and then carved off--although generally it refers to the whole wrap.  In Saudi the default meat is chicken, although other meats are available on occasion.  The bread is similar to a pita bread, although a little thinner and softer.  Inside the shawarma, depending on where you are eating, different things will accompany the meat--french fries, lettuce, cucumbers, or onions for example.

The shawarma shown above is from a place close to our house--it has chicken, onions, garlic mayonnaise sauce, and french fries (top right of shawarma).  I read somewhere that the fries are used inside the shawarma because they soak up the meat and vegetable juices and sauces--keeping them inside the wrap, instead of dripping out.

Note:  Even Erik liked these enough to eat them 'as is.'  In other words, he didn't have to pull them apart and separate the different ingredients into piles before eating them.  I consider that a win!

The drink you see in the picture is a mint lemonade--lemon juice with finely chopped fresh mint mixed in.  It seems to be a popular--or at least widely available--drink here.  I love both lemon and mint, so this is a treat for me!  I've tried this drink a couple places and some of them are pretty tart--I'm not sure that they added any sugar to the lemon juice!

So there you have it, the 'Saudi hamburger'.

Stormy Weather

The kids were excited to finally start school this week.  They had already waited for two weeks. . . First we waited for an appointment for their assessments (to make sure they speak English and to verify the grade they should be in) and then we waited for the results of their assessments and a couple days for the teachers to get ready for them.  They were all set to start, but the weather changed our plans!

It started with a dust storm:

This picture was taken during the middle of the afternoon--when the sky 'should' be blue.  I took this picture from our front doorway, and even there I could feel the sand/dust swirling around.  I wasn't brave enough to take myself and my camera into the street to see what it looked like there.  :-)

After the dust storm started calming down, the rain clouds moved in.  It rained off and on for 3 days.  If this same storm had happened in Houston, we wouldn't have thought anything about it.  But, here in Saudi things aren't built to be able to handle so much rain in such a short amount of time.  This is a look down our street after the first day of rain--a little bit of flooding in the street, but not too bad.

This is a view of the side of our house--with our one drain.  Not only is our roof flat, but it also has approximately 4 foot walls around the perimeter.  Which is nice if you want to go up on the roof, but in the case of rain it makes our roof a swimming pool just waiting to be filled up.  Our drain has been working over time these past few days trying to keep water off the roof.  Fortunately, it has done a good job and we haven't had any flooding/leaking problems.

But others have not been so lucky.  The worst flooding happened in Riyadh:

Here in Jubail things weren't quite a bad.  At Ben's work, someone came in several times each day to squeegee the water off of his office floor, but work continued as usual.  The rec center in our compound experienced a little damage from the roof leaking, and the kids' school had some flood damage.  We haven't heard how extensive the damage is there, only that they do hope to be open again for school on Sunday (after a week of the school being closed).  The nice thing is that over here they are set up to do "Virtual School".  So even though school was cancelled, the kids still have assignments and are in email contact with their teachers.

Hopefully Erik and Elizabeth will finally get to go to school next week!