Home at last!

Before I left for the airport, the guy that cleaned my room stopped by to tell me goodbye and gave me 4 pens and some spray to put on my pillow to help me sleep.  He was so sweet.  Then it was off to the airport with all of the luggage for the 5 of us.  We barely had room for us.  The drive to the airport was crazy, it was midnight and the traffic was unbelievable.  Cars all over the place, what is normally about a 1/2 hour drive took us little over an hour.  Luckily we still had 2 hours to get checked in as things don't happen quickly here.  I was a little surprised at the security.  Men have to go through a scanner, but women had a separate line.  We had to go behind a curtain where there were 3 women and they wave a scanner down the front and back of your body, but not down your whole body.  You didn't have to take your shoes off  either.  Very interesting.  A couple of girls went to the bathroom and came right back out and said they would wait for the airplane.  I guess it was pretty bad!  I took their word for it! Was only able to doze on the plane ride from Jeddah to Paris, as there were several crying young children.  I was surprised there were that many children on board as the flight left at 3 am.  When you arrive at the Pairs airport, you have to go through security again before you go to your connecting flight and then once again before you board, you are questioned about your luggage.  The airport is full of high-end stores:  Gucci, Prada, ect.  I found a few souvenoirs from Paris, as I'm not sure I will ever get a chance to visit Paris.  Enjoyed a chocolate croissant, yummy!  For a moment I thought I might get to stay a little longer in Paris.  The plane was full and one of our group couldn't get a seat assignment.  I was willing to give up my seat if the airline was going to offer any kind of deal.  But no such luck!  I was at least able to take a couple of naps on this leg of the trip and watched a couple of movies.  We arrived at the Minneapolis airport at 1 pm (9 pm Saudi time).  We are talking one tired lady.
I was greeted at the airport by my husband and oldest son Jason.  Jason even welcomed me home with some beautiful flowers.  I am so lucky to have such a wonderful son.  We then went out to eat and my daughter and 3 granddaughters joined us.  It was so good to see them.  It was fun to share some stories of Saudi Arabia with them.  The girls asked to come over to the house afterwards so they could play with me.  How could I say no to that.  We had a wonderful afternoon painting, making bracelets, going for a bike ride and most of all just telling each other what had happened over the last 3 weeks.  When I asked the girls if I should go back to Saudi Arabia, Annalyse quickly told me no but then later when she asked if she could get another Barbie that was shown on the box of the one she got and I explained to her the only place I could get that was in Saudi she said maybe I could go back next year.
Well Annalyse, that may be a possibility.  If I am given a chance I may actually go back.  Who knows what the future will hold but in the meantime I am glad to be back on American soil!

Thank you to everyone who followed along on my blog.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of the stories of Saudi Arabia.  I know that it was good for me to journal about some of the adventures of the trip. 

 
A Saudi man with his 2 wives.

Some of my new friends in Saudi Arabia.

My last sunset over the Red Sea!  Seeing, swimming, and boating on the Red Sea was one of the best parts of the trip.

My view of Paris from the airport! Wish I could of seen more!

Last Day in Jeddah

Today was a day to say goodbye to all of our new friends that we have made these last few weeks.  Saying goodbye was said with very mixed feelings.  I am sad with not knowing if I will ever see these wonderful people again.  But it also has been a very long time to be away from home.  Even though I have had my room cleaned, my bed made every morning, my laundry has been done and I have had wonderful food these past 3 weeks and I didn't have to cook.  I have really missed everyone at home. 
It was been a wonderful  and sometimes exciting experience.  The people have been awesome to work with.  They have been very receptive to our suggestions, been willing to learn and change practices.  They have been very gracious to all of us.  I am not sure if someone came into my work and changed a lot of what we did, we would have been as gracious.  I have a feeling we would have been a little more resistant.  We have made a lot of changes and have done a lot of teaching in the last 3 weeks.  I just hope that we have made a positive difference in their practices and that they will be able to carry on the changes that we have made.  A lot will depend on if the Ministry can keep up with maintaining the supplies we have requested.
Our project manager met with the Assistant Minister of Health today.  He had some very positive things to say about our team, how hard we have worked and how much we have accomplished in such a short time.  He also said that Saudi Arabia will be signing another contract with us to continue the education of the Saudi hospitals.  So I might have another opportunity to come back next year.  Who knows what might happen in my future.
The staff at the hotel have also been very helpful.  From the guy that cleaned my room, to the staff in the restaurants, and the valets that have helped us with some of our excursions.  They have been very patient with us.  I also need to acknowledge our driver.  Jasim was always on time and was always very helpful in getting our bags in the van.  He was always very pleasant and went above and beyond, even taking us places after work.
I will always treasure these wonderful experiences and the wonderful people I have met. 
My next post will be when I am back in the United States.  I can't wait.

Ramadan

Ramadan is a Muslim tradition.  It occurs in the 9th month of the lunar year when the crescent moon is sighted.  Ramadan begins the next day and lasts for a full month.  So it varies from year to year.  This year it began on July 20th (my birthday-lucky me).
Ramadan is a time of showing devotion to god.  They are to devote their sould to god by praying and should visit the mosque as often as possible.  They are also suppose to read the entire Quran during this month.  It is also a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset.  The fasting includes:  food, water, smoking and sexual activity.  They meal at sunrise is called Suhoor and the meal at sunset is called Iftar.  During the time between sunset and sunrise they will go and visit family and friends.  At the end of the month they spend 3 days celebrating.
So what does this have to do with me since I am not Muslim and don't worship Allah:

• Fasting -  I was encouraged by one of the nurses to try it for one day.  I might have thought about it except for not being able to drink even water during the day.  You can eat breakfast but it has to be before 4 am and I am not a morning person and I don't think the hotel room service is available at that time either.  So I didn't choose to accept her challenge.
• We are not permitted to eat or drink in public.  We have had to order food to our hotel room.  I have missed not having breakfast with my teammates before leaving for work in the morning.  It was our time to plan our day.  During the day when we have been at work, we are not suppose to eat or drink in front of anyone.  What with teaching classes all day, that has been very hard not to have something to drink while I am lecturing.  We have a room we use to store our stuff and we have had to sneak away to drink our water.  We can't even drink in the car or let our water bottles be seen outside of our room.  We have also noticed that some of the nurses have a harder time concentrating during the day.  The nurses that were fasting during the on-line test they took for NRP took longer to complete the test and had a more difficult time completing the test.  None of the restaraunts in the hotel open until 7:20 in the evening.  Fasting during the day is why I almost got myself into trouble yesterday for eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  (See yesterday's post)  After our adventure yesterday I saw an article in the paper that said anyone not observing the fasting and is caught eating or drinking in public would be subject to sacking.  I am not sure what sacking means and I don't want to find out.  I do know that stoning occurs and they still have a chopping square here in Jeddah where the be-heading occurs.
• Activities - most everything occurs during sunset to sunrise.  This includes even activities at the hospital.  The first day we pulled into the hospital parking lot in the morning it was completely empty.  The only ones that seemed to arrive at a traditional time for work was the nurses.  The doctors didn't arrive until 10 am.  We were doing rounds with the doctors every morning at 8 am.  We had to switch those to 10.  We were suppose to start our classes at 8 am.  The doors to the auditorium were locked.  The gentleman responsible to opening up the room and getting everything set up no longer was coming in at 7:30, he would be there around 10.  We had to find someone else to open the room and we had to do our own set-up so we could start our classes on time.  Some of the workers have reduced working hours, they only work 5-6 hours instead of the traditional 8 hours.  That doesn't include the nurses by the way.  Plus because of the heat, they have banned working outside for a period of time during the day.  So you really have reduced time that anyone is working.
• I had hoped to do a little more sight-seeing these last few days of my time here.  I hadn't had a chance to go check out one of the private beaches on the Red Sea but the beaches are closed during the whole month of Ramadan.  I had also planned on going to the Jeddah Zoo, but it's hours of operation during this month are from 9:30 pm to 2 am, where normally they are open from 4 pm to 12 am.  The shopping malls are only open during the evening as well.  And they are open until early morning hours as well.  That would be all fine and good, but we have to up early in the morning to go to work.  And even on our days off, my teammates haven't been very excited about going out that late at night.  You should see the traffic at midnight.  It was worse than ever.
• On our days to work, it hasn't been bad.  As we work during the day, come back to the hotel to rest for an hour or so and then meet for supper.  But the week-end has been extremely long as I am not use to not doing something on my days off...........cleaning, laundry, shopping, or going somewhere.  I have managed to keep myself busy with reading and creating a scrapbook of pictures from Saudi Arabia or watching some movies on TV.

All I can say is that everything here in Saudi Arabia has been an adventure and that includes experiencing Ramadan.

Always an Adventure

2 days in a row now, I have wondered if I might end up getting arrested.  Me of all people, arrested. You might think, what in the world could I have possibly done to get myself in that kind of predicament.  Well, let me tell you of my further adventures in Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday after work, the 4 of us decide we want to go see camels.  We ask the hotel valets if they can arrange for us to go to a camel farm.  They find a driver for us and off we go.  Our driver is from Sudan and doesn't speak much English.  We drive about 30 minutes outside of Jeddah.  We are now more in the dessert part of Saudi Arabia.  We finally spot some camels, the taxi driver does a little off-roading and parks.  We all get out and start taking pictures.  There are no fences and we are not sure if the camels are just out here in the wild, kind of like moose in Alaska or bison in the Dakotas.  All of a sudden this man goes up to the driver and starts talking to him.  Pretty soon it becomes more like yelling (sometimes it is hard to tell if people are yelling that they are upset or not around here as it seems like their voices are always very loud).  But it becomes more clear that he is quite upset with us.  The only words we recognize is "the Americans".  It is probably a good thing that we didn't understand the rest.  The man then gets on his cell phone and is yelling into the phone.  I wasn't sure if he was calling the police or not.  By this time we are getting back into the car, but the driver continues to try and talk to him.  We are telling the driver to please get back into the car so we can leave.  He finally gets back in the car and we are on our way.  We ask if he is okay and he said the man wanted to box him.  Our driver was an older man while the man with the camels was quite a bit younger.  We also ask if he was calling the police and if we were all going to be okay.  He said, he thought he was calling the owners of the camels.  On a side note while he was arguing with the driver, other cars had stopped to look at the camels and 2 young children were kind of chasing one of the camels.  So it seemed like the reason he didn't want us there was because we were Americans.  I have to admit I was a little scared that day as we were out in the middle of nowhere.
The very next day the 3 women in our group decided to walk to a bakery/sweets store that our project manager had raved about.  We thought it would be nice to bring some chocolates home.  It is about a 1/2 mile walk.  The stores don't open until around 5pm because of Ramadan.  So we set off on our walk.  We get to the store and after finally figuring out what the prices are, we make our purchases.  Well right next to the store is a Baskins Robbins, so we decide we need to treat ourselves since we have walked the 1/2 mile in weather of 126 degree heat index with 76% humidity.  We go in and get our ice cream.  We are the only ones in the store.  We decide it is best to eat our ice cream in the store as it is air conditioned.  As we are sitting there a police car pulls up outside the store.  The policeman in the car uses his intercom and is talking into it obviously to us.  It is in Arabic so we understand nothing of what he says.  We all look at each other and realize that it is only 6 pm and the sun has not set yet.  During Ramadam, all Muslims fast from around 4 am until sunset which is about 7:20.  We were in violation of the fasting.  We hadn't even thought of it, especially since BR was open and secondly because the clerk had served us.  We throw our mostly uneaten ice cream into the trash and wait.  The policeman continues to sit outside the store and glare at us.  We didn't make eye contact and we continued to wait until he left.  Then we walked back to the hotel looking over our shoulders to see if the policeman was waiting for us around the corner.  We safely made it back to the hotel.  This time I wasn't frightened because I knew God would protect us and I actually felt very calm during the whole situation.  On the way back to the hotel we were laughing and wondering who would have bailed us out of jail.  I recollected a time when one of my sons went to Mexico his senior year in high school for spring break.  I was concerned about it because he was going with all of his buddies.  I had told him he had better be on his best behavior because if he got into trouble I wouldn't be able to bail him out.  I wondered if he would now be willing to bail his mother out of jail in a foreign country.
I think it is time to come home.

Traditions

Some of the traditions here in Saudi Arabia have been very strange to me.  I am a very independent woman and the fact that women here aren't allowed to drive, and that there are only certain entrances for women or that women aren't allowed in certain places and that men can have more than one wife has been an eye opener and that is only a few of the things that I have seen.  I am not so sure I would want to drive here, it is pretty crazy, there don't seem to be any traffic laws.  As far as the hotel health club that is only available for men only, it would have been nice to go sit in the hot tub or swim.  Most of the places we have gone haven't had separate entrances for the women and children but I have seen signs outside of restaraunts that specify that.  Last night we were invited to one of the largest seafood restaraunts in Jeddah.  The CEO of the hospital that we are helping at was there along with several heads of the hospital departments and a couple of Abbott reps (all men).  We had been told by the project manager that we were all invited.  But after getting there I don't think that was the case, I think it was only meant for Doctor Bruce to attend.  When we first got there we were seated at a table and then had to move to a larger table to accommodate additional men that arrived after us. It was also noticed that there were some words exchanged at the entrance of the restaraunt by who appeared to be the manager.  As well as some looks that were exchanged.  Given the fact that none of us speak Arabic we were in the dark.  Despite all of this the men were very polite to the women in our group even though one of them was quite chauvanistic.  I am sure the only reason the women were allowed to stay on that side of the restaraunt was because the CEO talked to the manager.  The atmosphere of the restaraunt was quite amazing and the food was excellent.
It has been very interesting to see men with up to 4 women with him.  At first I didn't think anything of it until someone informed me that all 4 women were his wifes.  So then I started paying more attention.  The women all seem to get along and sometimes I have seen the man walking in the lead with the women following him.  Also, for some of the families, they believe in arranged marriages.  Often the man is a friend of the family.  Many of the young women don't date, they are just told that they will marry a certain man.  The young women don't go out unless accompanied by a man.  A couple of the nurses have told us that they go to work and go home and that is all that they do.  I am sure part of that is given the fact that they are unable to drive and are dependent upon having a man accompany them.  But then other young women have told us that they will be able to pick out their own husband and many men only have one wife.
There are 6 calls to prayer daily.  With the first one around 4 am and the last around 9 pm.  These are announced via speakers located around the city.  There is music and what I think is praying.  One of these speakers is right outside our hotel, so occasionally I am woken up by the one in the morning.  These call to prayers last about 1/2 hour.  At that time everything is shut down.  If you happen to be in a store at the time of prayer, the clerks leave their registers to go and pray, so you can't check out until they return.  If you arrive during the time of prayer, you aren't allowed to go in.  We have learned to try and time our comings and goings with the prayer times.  The prayer times are posted in the paper daily as they change slightly every day.  When I have heard the music, I have used it to  remind me to pray to my God.
When we go out as women we are required to wear an abaya, which is a long black coat that covers you from the neck to the feet.  We as Americans have not been required to wear the head coverings but the women from here are.  The head coverings vary from just the hair being covered to some have their faces covered so that only their eyes show and others wear a thin veil that covers their entire face.  I have also seen others that wear black gloves, so that nothing but their eyes have been exposed.  I have tried to figure out why the differences but the only thing that I have heard is that it is dependent upon the husband.  We have been allowed to wear our scrubs without the abayas to and from the hospital.  We also have to wear the abayas when we walk out of our hotel room even if it is to go downstairs to eat or go to the room of one of our teammates.
I will do another post soon regarding Ramandan soon.
This has been a culture that I have been unfamiliar with and it has been interesting to learn a little bit about this country and it's culture and traditions.  I am thankful that I have had this experience but I am also very thankful that I am an American and a Christian and have many freedoms as a woman.

A Most Amazing Day

This is the villa we visited

Yesterday was probably one of my most amazing days here so far. We left work a little early and drove about 40 minutes out of the city to one of the neonatologist's villa. On our drive there, we finally saw some camels.  Unfortunately I had put my camera in the back of the SUV and couldn't reach it.  I wish we could have stopped to see them.  The villa is their week-end home along the Red Sea. The houses in the area were absolutely gorgeous. Our host's home was a 3 story house with a small swimming pool meant for swimming laps in the front. The back of the house looked out on the Red Sea. What a fantastic view. Their were many jet skis and speed boats flying past. We had 3 young men on jet skis showing off for us Americans. Of course the first thing after we got there they had food for us. There was so much food, chicken fettuccine alfredo (it was amazing, most of the time fettuccine alfredo is so rich but this was very light and very delicious), 2 different kinds of rice, salad, chicken and some other things that I didn't even try because it was too much. After we ate, we changed so we could go swimming. The typical suit for a Saudi female covers them up completely. No danger of sunburning for them. Because we were at a private home, we were able to wear our swimming suits. The water was so warm, it was just like bath water. And because of the salt content, it took no effort at all to float in the water. You had to wear shoes if you went in the water because the bottom of the sea is covered with rocks. It was heavenly. Also a little dangerous with all of the boats and jet skis causing quite the waves. I had to swim quickly back to the shallow area to avoid getting hit. I guess driving on the sea is just as dangerous as driving on the road. It was also a little difficult to get back onto the shore with the rocks being covered with moss, that made them a little slippery.  I was a little surprise by the shore line being littered with water bottles, pop cans and etc.  After swimming we sat underneath a little cabana and enjoyed the view. Their was just enough of a breeze from the sea that it was quite pleasant sitting outside. I also noticed that there weren't any bugs to swat away and definitely no mosquitos. We then had hot mint green tea and soft drinks. The project manager had brought a cake, it was an early birthday surprise for me (my birthday isn't until Friday). They all sang Happy Birthday to me first in English and then in Arabic. The cake was chocolate, my favorite.

The night wasn't over though, our host arranged for us to have a ride on a speed boat. It was so much fun. We went very fast and were bumping along the sea. I am surprised any of my pictures turned out, what with the bouncing. I had only a couple that are tilted slightly. Via boat we got a better view of some of the villas. From my understanding most of the villas are week-end homes. All I can say is wow! We were also treated to an awesome sunset on the Red Sea. Words cannot describe the absolutely stunning view. I couldn't get enough of watching the sun set. And I was very fortunate to get a lot of pictures but the pictures just don't do it justice. I could have stayed there all evening just enjoying being outside and looking at the sky and the sea.
Our host and her family were so gracious. It was fun talking to her daughters and nieces. One of her daughters is a doctor and one daughter and niece are in medical school. We were also entertained with her son who is 6. He was somewhat fascinated by the American women.
We brought some cake back to the hotel for Derebi, who is our respiratory therapist with us. Because we would be swimming, he couldn't come along since he is a male. We felt badly about that but he has access to the hotel gym and pool and as women we don't.
I will talk about some of the Saudi Arabia traditions in a later post.

This is the typical swimming suit for a Saudia Arabia woman

My early Birthday Cake!!

Along the shore

Sunset over the Red Sea.  Awesome!

Driving Experiences

In Saudi Arabia, women don't drive.  That is probably a good thing.  We have a driver Jasim that picks us up at the hotel and takes us to the hospital everyday and then brings us back to the hotel at the end of the day.  He has also taken us around as we have needed in the evening on on the week-end.  He is a man of few words, but is on time and very patient with us.  But being a passenger in the van has been quiet the experience. Everytime I get in the van I feel like my life is at risk.  The interesting thing here in Saudi is that there are few traffic lights and only a few drivers use their turn signals.  The horn is something that is used a lot though, it alerts the slow driver in front of you that they need to speed up or move over, that you are going to turn in front of another car, that the cars at the intersection need to stop because you were at the intersection first, or that you are going to pass on a very narrow street.  We have had cars coming up along both sides of us, passing on the shoulder and driving very fast.  We have also played chicken on a very narrow street that is only big enough for one car.  There have been many times I just have to close my eyes and pray that we aren't in an accident.  Only by the grace of God do I think that we haven't been hit.  There are turn abouts but for the most part the streets don't seem to make much sense, you have to go out of your way to drive up the road in order to turn around.  Surprisingly I have seen very few cars with dents.
If you need to park along the street, you will just fit your car in where ever you can, even on the sidewalk.  The types of cars range from new Humvees, Bentlys, Toyotas to city buses and older cars that look like they are from the 60s but they are still running.  Today we saw a new car that still had the plastic on the headlights, dash board and seats with the original stickers on the tires. But the car was so covered in dust you could barely tell that the car was white. Men ride bikes along the streets with their buckets and rags and wash cars. 
There aren't any crosswalks, so people are walking across the street where ever they can, so you end up darting between cars and praying that they will stop for you.

The hotel is having a drawing and they are giving away a Bently.  You get to enter the drawing by eating in the ballroom at the hotel.  I am feeling lucky but wonder how I would get it home.

This is the car we saw at the Souk.  It was brand new but was so dirty you could hardly see the color.  Plus since they hadn't taken the plastic off, it had melted on the car.

One of the many older vehicles I have seen.

The city bus.

This is the car that I am hoping to win!