Qatif & Bahrain

I just can't seem to find the time to write about what I'm doing & experiencing here. The impressions hit me so randomly that it's hard to remember them when I sit down to write. But I have taken some photos here and there although it's difficult in Saudi where they don't like to be photographed. Many of these photos were taken with my camera hanging around my neck, set to Auto, and pushing the trigger, hoping no one would notice.

In a nutshell, I've finished 2 weeks of school and I love the students and staff here. It is an American school with a twist...the twist being the incredible cultural mix of students. They seem like typical American teenagers, but they're not. I'll explain more when I get a chance to write it well. There are some little luxuries here that you would never get in the states: janitors who clean up after you in the staff room & straighten out/clean your classrooms every day, I can order lunch from the cafeteria in the morning and it will be in the staff room at the start of lunch, I can order a coffee from the Joffrey's coffee shop on campus and have it delivered to my classroom any time of day, etc. The down side is that I am limited to how much time I can spend on the school grounds because of transportation. I can catch rides with other teachers from my compound, coming & going from school, or take a bus at an exact time, or call for a taxi if I really intend to stay late. But no personal car and driving for me. It is the one big thing that I miss already. I feel like my independence has been taken away.

Yesterday, a British teacher here (Nick) took me to a local market about a 45 minute drive north of here called Qatif. I'm surrounded in Dhahran/Al Khobar with nothing but modern everything. There are no interesting 3rd-world type markets. It is all big, modern malls & shops, with a small downtown area of smaller, slightly run-down shopping. The Qatif market is one of a few outdoor markets in the area where people set up on Thursday morning (our Saturday) with their wares. Most of it is just odds & ends of clothes, household products, food, live birds, etc. No crafts. But it is pure Saudi. Tourists don't come here anymore after the terrorist attacks. Most of the men and all of the women are in their traditional white robes and black abayas. In Dhahran, most of the women wear a covering on the head and face where only the eyes are showing. At this market I saw a lot of women with a scarf completely covering their face & eyes. I wore my abaya, of course, but forgot my scarf. So I decided to buy one first thing. The man selling asked how long I had been here and when I told him I had just arrived, he gave me a scarf saying that he hoped Saudi Arabia would become my new home. I was so touched. Then I proceeded to ruin it by asking for a picture, which he said yes to, but was clearly very uncomfortable with it. Nick suggested that I put my camera around my neck, set everything to "auto" and just click the shutter as subtly as possible. So most of the pictures you see here from Qatif are shot this way. The one thing that struck me the most was the seeming contradiction of what the women are wearing to what they are buying and who is serving them. There were many stalls with three sides of skimpy feminine blouses and here are these women, covered from head to toe in black, holding up a little green camisole, with a male salesman helping them. When they are at home, they can wear anything they like. But it seems so odd out in a market.

Nick also took me to Bahrain, the island country that is a short drive across a causeway. New people to Saudi have to submit their passports requesting a multiple entry visa so they can come & go to Bahrain. In contrast to Saudi, Bahrain is a much more liberal Middle East country. Many of the women still wear abayas when they go out, but you don't have to, and so women can walk around in their own clothes. Alcohol & movies are legal and the people are quite friendly and open. For foreigners living in Saudi, Bahrain is a life-saver... like breathing smoke and then breathing clean air. I got my multiple-entry in record time (it usually takes a couple of months, mine came in 2 1/2 weeks), so we drove over in the afternoon and spent the day walking around a market area, shopping in a huge modern mall, eating out and seeing a movie(!!). A really great day. Melissa warned me to slow down because I was seeing too much too soon and there wasn't much more to do now.

I will try to put more photos up at the following site: http://imageevent.com/luannecadd/saudiarabia