Hello World,
Brittney here. If you have been following our journey to the desert from the beginning (nearly one year), you have heard me talk about the good | bad | and ugly (literally) about living here.
At first, everything is just EXCITING. NEW. ADVENTUROUS. Nothing not to like. Then one settles in and starts to see things differently, perhaps more realistically. It is at that point where people's experiences vary widely. For me,
I slowly hit rock bottom.
I missed greenery, I felt restricted to planning my day around prayer times, I was tired of the 70 minute drive to the doctors/shopping, I missed having social groups outside of colleagues. Eventually, I hated being here, I hated the things I saw, I hated the people, I hate the practices, and I absolutely hated the hypocrisy.
 |
This was actually my 'look happy' face.
(you should see my 'miserable' face) |
The winter-to-spring season was the worst for me. In fact, during our flight back to Saudi from our spring break trip to Bangkok/Bali I was so stressed I became physically ill. By the time we landed and got into our taxi home-I was in tears. I counted down the days until summer and repeatedly told Phillip 'One 2-year contract, that is all I can do-get me the hell out of here'.
By the time school ended, I was out of that deep dark place. I was enlightened by an article about the various Stages of Culture Shock...I could identify exactly when I was in each stage, and was happy to be out of that dark one.
Do I love it here now-no, not love. But I am loving the overall experience. Living here has afforded us to do many things (for ourselves and for other people). I am realistic that I may be in the 'honeymoon' phase again-excited about a new year. And everyone always told us 'Year two is so much better/easier'... so far that has been true. I am also optimistic that I will not find myself in that dark place again. Will I feel uncomfortable, frustrated, homesick-absolutely. Having reflected on this, I realized that the winter-to-spring season has typically been a 'darker' time for me. Perhaps I am one of those SAD people (Season Affected Disorder).
So, I wanted to share some small things that have brought me happiness in the desert.
1) The color of squash.
This is the squash that changed my life.
You would have thought I saw something frightening when I sliced this bad boy open. I literally gasped. I said 'Oh Wow! Look at this, Phillip. What a color!' I took it around the kitchen to pick up different lighting. It made my day to see something so naturally vibrant. I think about this squash often: how I almost tossed it because the outside looked moldy, how I thought I found the geode of squash, how I totally felt my energy shift when I first laid eyes on that COLOR! I was equally sad and thrilled to eat it. When you are surrounded by dirt, dust, and pollution...a squash can really 'brighten' your day.
2) Going to the nut store.
These are some of the amazing nuts we get at Al Rifai. This blend on the right is fantastic: almonds, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin seed, goji berry, gold and red raisins, cranberry...and I like to add some cinnamon and chocolate chips.
We discovered this great nut store all around Saudi. Its called Al Rifai and their locations are typically quite nice. Very clean and pristine. They sell nuts, dried fruits, and specialty treats like international chocolates, cookies, and nougats. Every time WE go (they apparently do not do this when Phillip goes solo) they give you a treat. They insist that you take it. There are piles and mounds of all kinds of treats-from hard fruit candies to delicate marzipan and every kind of nougat you can imaging. Next time I will try and stand near the marzipan and see if the guy will toss me one! I literally feel like a little kid every time I go there. Perhaps it's like an Arabic Willy Wonka factory-magical. I look forward to going here each week.
3) Fresh cut pineapples.
Some of our most recent pineapple purchase.
The last time we went to Panda (the name of the common grocery store), I watched the pineapple man slice the pineapples. He made a mess-but that comes naturally around here. He had what I would call a small machete to slice the outside, then he put it in a medieval contraption which removed the core. Next he took the small machete and sliced the cored pineapple into 1/2 inch rings. He tossed all of that (and the core for some reason) into a container and put it on the sticky table for customers to pick up. I watched again, this time I saw him cut the top/bottom off first...then he took the bottom and squeezed it into a container, he was essentially juicing it. I was intrigued. From the corner of my eye, I see Phillip's new 'produce friend'
(Phillip managed to get the man from the produce section to remove the moldy peaches from the containers before we select one; side note: produce man has a kind smile) quickly make his way over to pineapple man. With a great big grin, he nods his head to the pineapple man and the pineapple man hands him the container of juice. Produce man picks it up and drinks it. They exchange smiles and get back to producing and pineappling. I grabbed my sticky container and felt awesome.
4) Dates.
Top/Right: Dates as we purchase them. Bottom/Left: Dates after I pit them (while I eat them).
I would never ever ever go near dates because they looked like cockroaches. Gross. I could not get my head around it at all. Then, Phillip and I went through our diet transformation and my world changed. I eat things I never liked before..like DATES. I have at least one every day, which is probably bad because I am sure they are high in sugar. But, they are my new dessert. And, in Saudi Arabia..dates are EVERYWHERE. My only problem is that there are several varieties and I have no idea what the difference is. (there are probably as many dates as there are wine varietals... ahh a connection to home!). I ask people, 'What makes a good date?', and they look at me funny. Someone responded with 'The kiss'. Then I looked at them funny...
Luckily, Panda has been consistently carrying a kind that I like (Inshallah they will stay consistent with it). I get a container, come home and pit them all at once, and then put them back into the container for a quick treat. We also started using them in our smoothies...yummm.
5) The guards.
Guards praying
We have a unique relationship with the compound guards here. Imagine, every time you pull into or out of, lets say, your driveway/garage, there are 2-4 men that have to sweep your car and lift two gates to let you through. You see these people at least two times a day, but never speak-ever. It is odd, so I do what I do in other odd situations...I just smile and wave. Most of them smile and wave back. I have no idea what their names are-so we started naming them. First, there was
Smiley. This guy had the biggest smile and liked to wave back. But one day we saw him on his cell phone-he looked angry like one of his girlfriends dumped him or something. Everyday since that call, he has had the most apparent GRUMPY face. So now he is called
Grumpy. Then there is a guy with one eye that is bigger-we call him
Eye-gore. There is a newer guy that looks very young-like he will graduate high school in 2017-so we call him
Class of 2017. One guy has the face of a baby=
Babyface. One guy looks like the rapper TI=
TI. One guy has a hat that says 'homeboy style'=
Homeboy Style. A new guy has this curly wild mohawk/mullet look, and kind of a skeleton face. It reminds me of MJ in Thriller =
Thriller. There is a guy that graciously places his hand over his heart and nods his head whenever I wave=
Heartie. We like to assume they have nicknamed me '
Wavey' for always waving. We observed that they will mimic the kind of wave I do: a fast side-to-side wave, a baby/puppet wave (four fingers to the palm), a spirit finger wave (moving fingers one and a time, like pretending to type-upwards?). I would like to salute or something...but maybe that is inappropriate. Let me know if you think of other wave variations to try.
For your viewing pleasure...us on the first day of school. This is Phillip's 5th first day. Fortunately/Unfortunately, it is my 1st first day....I missed it last year.
Masalema for now...
-B
