May 27-June 2, 2012

Reese had fun making a sail boat from scratch.  It really floats!

My friend, Laura, came over looking for her daughters one evening, so our girls decided to perform the dance they were working on.  Here they are performing for Laura and me.

Reese has created this cool hide-away in her closet where she can do her school work.

It's so comfy that one night she even fell asleep in there.

Jordan is teaching swim lessons here.

Afterwards, I got the taxi driver to stop at the strip mall on the way home because I had one last shirt to exchange; but when we got to the store, they were just closing for prayer... doh!  I always forget about prayer!  Jordan and I ran into the store, but they had already closed the cash register.  That makes three tries now that I've attempted to exchange this one shirt!  Every time I come, the store is closed for one reason or another.

Our next-door neighbors invited us out to dinner this weekend.  We drove to Applebee's, which is only the first exit off the freeway, near Jordan's school.  When we arrived at the restaurant, it was closed for prayer!  Well, the clothing store where I bought my shirt was right inside the strip mall, so Jordan and I ran in and waited for prayer to end, and finally exchanged my shirt--yay!  When prayer ended, they reopened the restaurant and we went in to find our neighbors waiting for us--they must have just gotten in before prayer started.

I can't ever seem to pronounce the wife's name, but the husband's name is Mustafa, and the two oldest boys are Mohammad and Mozim.  They also have an adorable little girl that is one year old and just walking, but she stayed home with the nanny.  They are from Sudan.  The wife wore her abaya and black head covering, but normally, I see her and her friends wear very bright, colorful, and flowered dresses/robes with matching head scarves (I always love to see how the Africans dress.)  Mustafa wore a white thobe to dinner and a white cap.

It was difficult communicating with them during dinner, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them better.  Now, when we see each other in our front yards, we feel a little closer.  Different nationalities and customs really do separate people and make it difficult for them to get close.  I unfortunately couldn't find my camera while we were at the restaurant, but I got a picture of their three boys afterwards.

I have inserted a picture of my next-door neighbor.

We had a little scare the next morning when we got a phone call that our neighbor, Grace, was in the hospital.  It turns out that her dad had a bike sitting upside down on a rack in the living room and she was not supposed to touch it; but curiosity must have gotten the better of her before her mother and sister awoke, because she decided to see how fast she could spin the wheels by turning the petals with her hand.  Somehow her hand got too close to the spinning wheel, and it sliced off her middle finger up to the fingernail!  Yikes!  Her dad had just come home, and found blood everywhere, and had to look for her finger and put it on ice to have it stitched back on!  Poor Grace... they say she didn't really even cry... she's tough!

We're praying that her finger will heal and grow back together!  Reese baked and decorated cookies to help Grace feel better.  When she first got home from the hospital, she went right out to the park to play.  Then, the next morning, Reese invited her sister and her to go to church with us in the morning, but I didn't expect Grace to feel well enough to join us after she had time to slow down and realize what had happened.  But at 8am, she showed up at our door all bright and bushy-tailed, dressed for church.  About half-way through church, however, she finally started to feel the pain, and Bruce had to drive her home to get some pain medication and rest!

Jordan is taking the SAT test today--we pray that she does her best!

The countdown is on... only 11 more day until we try to fly home!  The flights are filling up, so I'm not sure if we'll get out, but we're hoping to fly out on Jordan's last day of school, June 13.  (Actually, she's missing the last 8 days of finals, but we're not supposed to tell anyone that they approved it so she could attend the Air Force Academy's summer seminar!)

Brooke's Girl Scout troop is using their meeting at lunch to prepare for the Boy Scout's First Aid meet next weekend.

Their co-leader, Yoonhi, is pretending to have a broken leg to help them practice what they would do in this situation.

We invited sisters, Danielle and Claire, over for dinner since their parents were in Denmark for the week.  This is the family that kept Jordan while we went skiing in March.  After dinner, we enjoyed a game of Sequence.

We enjoyed meeting our friends and neighbors, the Wilkeys, at the Hobby Farm for dinner one evening, after Jordan taught swim lessons at the Al Rusaid pool, but I didn't get any pictures.

Brooke spent one of her weekend days at the first aid meet

Over the weekend, Jordan enjoyed having a slumber party at Angie's house, while Brooke went to a First Aid Meet where the Girl Scout troops competed with the Boy Scout troops to see who could respond to emergency situations first.  The Girl Scout troops won the meet!  We also went as a family to the company's summer regatta at Half Moon Bay.

I made the mistake of ordering some "sweet sand" for my grass the previous week, and it was delivered the day BEFORE we left Saudi.  The grass here thins out because of the salt water and the shade, so it's recommended to spread "sweet sand" over your yard periodically to help the grass grow (I think it might act somewhat like a fertilizer.)  I also made the mistake of telling the gardening dept. that I wanted to spread it myself, because I didn't want it everywhere--we had this one area where all the water collected from the sprinklers; so I got a giant pile of sand dumped in front of our house.  If I didn't spread it immediately, it would just get thrown away and I'd have to order it again when I got back.  Here I am trying to spread this sand.  The pile was a whole lot bigger than my little shovel!

The next day was Jordan's last day of school, and she took cookies that she had baked and gave them to her teachers.  Here are some pictures from her last day of 11th grade.

This is Jordan and Danielle riding the bus to school.

This is Jordan's group of friends at school.

This is Haley, Angie, and Kelcy.  Haley is going to boarding school in Switzerland next year.

This is Danielle, Jordan, Haley, and Adam (Haley and Adam are dating).

This is Fatima from Jordan's yearbook class and weight training class.

This is Natcha from Jordan's chemistry class.

This is Jordan's core group of friends.

Bruce picked Jordan up early from school today and then we had a taxi pick us and our luggage up at the house and take us over the causeway to the Bahrain airport.  Brooke has decided to stay a few extra days with Bruce, so it's just going to be Jordan, Reese, and me today.  We're flying to Dubai at 6pm and then I'm going to have to go outside of security and find the one Delta employee who can sell me employee tickets.  Then we'll fly to Zurich, and then to Atlanta.

Hopefully, we'll be seeing you soon.

- Pattie -

May 24, 2012 - Caves of Hofuf

Thursday, May 24
This year, Reese has been studying the eastern hemisphere, and as she moves to each section, she is to choose an adventure to help her study the area.  Currently, she is studying the Middle East.  It's really interesting to read the books with her.  Brooke and Jordan both read these books when they were in fifth grade, but they didn't have the same meaning to us since we had never seen these places or experienced their customs.  These books have all come to life for us!  For her adventure, she chose to visit the Caves of Hofuf.  Bruce rented an SUV and drove south for 2 hours until the GPS had no idea where we were.  Here are the pictures from our adventure.

We drove south along the blue line to Hofuf.  However, we spent the entire morning (9am-noon) trying to find the rental car office next to the Al Rashid Mall in Khobar and packing food & water for the trip.  Bruce filled three large bottles with water (just in case!)

At first we could feel a little wind and see the sand blowing across the highway.

But it got dustier and dustier and we drove along.

We couldn't see anything in the distance until it was upon us, so it was a long two-hour drive.

Jebels and buildings would just rise out of the dust and whiz by us before we knew what we were seeing.

When we started to get close, our GPS couldn't recognize where we were and we just continued driving in the direction we thought we should go.  We were off the highway and winding through small towns at 30 mph with constant speed bumps, construction, and pot holes.  Since we didn't leave until noon, it was getting late, and I was concerned that if we did find the caves, would we find our way home tonight?  If not, where would we sleep?

We saw some magnificent homes in some of these little towns... we had no idea where we were.  What caught our attention, were the ornate doors on the outside walls of each home.  One day, I'm going to take some pictures of doors and gates and post a blog on the many doors and gates in Saudi.

Saudi isn't unfamiliar with donuts and Kentucky Fried Chicken!

...or Pizza Hut.

This mother and daughter were taking the trash out.

As we drove, we began to see date palms rise out of the dusty horizon; they seemed to be everywhere.  Bruce explained to us that Hofuf was an oasis and is built on a date palm orchard.

Selling watermelon on the side of the road.

This is a mosque.

Finally!  We found some rocks and something that looked like a cave, but when we saw cars parked in them, we figured this wasn't it... so we kept driving.

...and we just kept driving until we miraculously found them!  It was very windy and hot, hot, hot!

We couldn't believe it as we neared the entrance to the caves--it felt like the air conditioning was on.

If you look closely in this crack, you can see a bird in there.  There were birds flying overhead, in and out of the many holes and cracks; calling to each other.

We climbed up high...

...and crawled down low.

There were two desert pups hiding in here, and someone had left the remains of their lunch at the opening of the cave for the pups.

Inside, we were met by some Arabs who insisted we share some coffee with them.  The guy sitting down has a shirt that says, "Save the drama for your llama."  Pretty funny... Arab humor?  I need to get one of those shirts for my girls!

The guard even shared some coffee with them.

They even insisted that we eat little chocolate cakes.  Sorry about the blurry pictures... it was pretty dark in here and I couldn't tell if my pictures were clear.

We thanked them for their hospitality and continued on.  In some places, it was pitch black until we shined our flashlights (or I snapped a picture.)

At one point, we realized we weren't alone, and found that an Arab boy was hanging around with us... probably curious.  He spoke a little English and helped us find our way around.  When we came to an intersection, we found his dad and brother smoking hookah.

I read that most hookah smoking countries serve Naklia shisha which is a combination of foreign tobaccos, honey molasses, and dried fruit.  The smoke is filtered through ice cold water to make the smoke cool and soothing.

You can vaguely see Reese at the top of these two big boulders.

My abaya was filthy!

RUN!... Indiana (Brooke) Jones!

Here we saw the two desert pups making their way up the rocks.

When the sky gets real dusty, this is what the sun looks like.

The girls left us and climbed higher and higher to take a picture of this egg.

When we got to the parking lot there were more tourists arriving.

...and adjusting head scarves.

We were parched and hot... but there was an ice cream truck just waiting for us!

By the way, if you're wondering what all the dots are on all of my photos, it's dust in the air.

We dug into those three large bottles of water that Bruce brought along, and headed back home, not sure if we'd be able to find it.  The GPS map completely gave out on us from here on out, so we used it just to find out what direction we were going and hoped we'd hit the main highway eventually.

We drove for an hour winding through little towns on roads with pot holes and multiple speed bumps.

When we sat here for a minute to get our bearings, I watched children come from this dirt road to the corner store to buy candy and treats.  Here are two girls leaving the store.

We saw more beautiful homes.

I love this guy's plaid thobe... maybe it's really his pajamas!

We finally made it home after dark.  We found the highway and after that, it was a straight shot home. We had a terrific day together.

Jordan was hoping to get together with her friends later tonight after they got back from the prom, but she's fighting a cold and isn't feeling very well.  I'm sure all the dust she breathed today didn't help!

- Pattie -