Stuck in Saudi - China Trip part 1

Have you ever noticed that no lesson in life is ever free? As we gain wisdom, it usually seems to come at the expense of something else. We may have paid with our time, such as a missed opportunity that resulted in a long wait. We may have paid with the loss of something valuable, such as jewelry carelessly left in a hotel safe. And of course, there are those lessons that cost us money. Our latest acquisition of wisdom cost us just that: cold hard cash.

To get into Saudi Arabia you need a visa, pre-authorization to enter and stay for a specific amount of time. Without a valid visa you can't get into the country, ...or OUT of it either!

On March 22nd we were heading to the airport with our bags packed for two weeks of travel in China and HongKong. On this particular trip we would be leaving out of Bahrain at around midnight, requiring us to leave Saudi and drive across the causeway. Our excitement and anticipation level was quite high; we'd been dreaming about this trip for several years already, well before coming to Saudi.

It was apparent that there was a problem at immigration on the Saudi side rather quickly. The normally languid official in the booth roused himself from his boredom-induced stupor and began speaking rather animatedly to our taxi driver in rapid Arabic. After a brief exchange, our taxi driver told us that our visas had expired and we would have to turn back. Excuse me, turn back? TURN BACK?!? Didn't he know we had a plane to catch in three hours? After talking with a supervisor and learning that there was no way we could get new visas on the spot, we had no choice but to go back home. And then the waterworks started...

You see...because it was already 9pm with no flight to catch, there was no reason for our exhausted boys to stay up. As we were putting them to bed they naturally had some questions. When would we be leaving? When could we get the visas? Would we be able to afford the very last minute airline tickets to replace the ones we were likely not going to get a refund on? What about all the hotels, tours and transportation within China for which we had already paid in full, and was past date of even a partial refund? Were we going to China now AT ALL? We had to leave them to drift off to sleep without any answers, for we had none at this point. What a mess, or more accurately, what a nightmare!

In a nutshell, Steve was able to get the visas the next morning and our amazing travel agent in Khobar found us four affordable seats on a flight leaving that afternoon. We only had a 15% cancellation charge on the tickets we cancelled two hours before the flight. We got to Beijing only one day late, but quite a bit more than a dollar short!

We were lucky, incredibly lucky . The wisdom we gained cost us thousands of dollars less than we were anticipating when we went to bed that sleepless night. So as not to tempt fate in the future, we've had our visas translated by a co-worker (even the numbers are in Arabic) and the dates kept in our travel planning folder. There are plenty of other lessons to learn without relearning this one!

Peaches the Puppy

Being the epitome of impatience, I was really hoping that the 2nd time was going to be the charm.

In the midst of all the college class stress in February, I thought it would be a good time to try another dog - a puppy this time. My husband thought I was nuts. If you had seen my stress level, you would be agreeing with him. But please hear me out...

Remember Skippy, the aggressive, possessive Chihuahua we gave back to it's foster parent in October? The dog with the incessantly loud bark that only liked three of us? And...the subject of Michael's dreams as well several heart wrenching essays he wrote in school? He was still sleeping with her picture and her collar under his pillow. Even Jacob, who was terrified of the little ball of fire, kept asking when we were were going to get a dog again. We really wanted to try another dog sooner, rather than later. But there were a couple of factors that made the timing of getting a dog somewhat out of our control.

We thought we would have the best chance of success this time with a puppy. There are resources stretching as high and wide as the Cascade Mountains for raising and training a puppy. Books from Amazon.com, books at our little compound library, books in the elementary school library, videos on YouTube, internet articles, etc. There is very little information, outside of the Cesar Milan Dog Whisperer DVDs, to assist inexperienced dog owners with integrating an adult dog with possible issues into their home. We don't even have access to dog obedience classes here. So, a puppy it was going to be.

Secondly, it couldn't just be any puppy. We absolutely needed something off the hypoallergenic list because of Jake's allergies. And not just any breed on the list - it needed to be small. The smaller the dog, the less dander. In addition to being hypo and small, the breed temperament was a HUGE consideration, as we wanted a friendly, family dog this time. All these requirements narrowed the options down quite a bit.

Getting a dog in Khobar at a pet store was nearly impossible for us. Muslims don't like dogs, so dogs aren't in high demand around the Middle East. We found a couple pet stores in town that sometimes had dogs, but they couldn't tell us exactly what kind of dog it was. The standard answer, no matter what it looked like, was "terrier."

If we got a puppy from a breeder in the US, then we'd know exactly what it was. That idea was pretty quickly squashed - Saudi Arabia limits the kind of dog being imported to guard dogs only and has started cracking down on people trying to skirt that issue by having a vet certify their Yorkshire terrier as a guard dog. In fact, we know a family here that has 2 pure bred puppies still being boarded by a breeder in the US four months after purchasing them because they haven't been able to get them into the country here. And quite honestly if all that wasn't a deterrent, the price would have been!

Well then, how about getting a puppy from someone on camp? Possibly, but not the best odds. There is an Aramco compound rule that no one is allow to breed dogs here. I have no idea what the consequence is - I doubt it's a one way ticket back to the US - but it's severe enough that IF anyone has puppies, it's not advertised. If you have gotten a puppy from someone on camp, you heard about it by word of mouth only.

So. What to do? We started spreading the word anyway, keeping our fingers crossed for a miracle. Then one day in February a friend of ours told us about a Havanese puppy they smuggled in over the causeway from Bahrain, who happened to have a sister still waiting for a home. Was Havanese on the hypo list? Yep. Was Havanese a small, friendly, family dog? Absolutely. Was a dog going to be easy to get into Saudi by car? Not at all. But the worst that would happen would be that they'd make us take it back before letting us across the border back home.

Keep in mind that I'm going crazy from stress at this very moment from all the studying. I was still trying to hit a stride, find some routine and keep my life in balance - and not doing a very good job at any of it. Adding an untrained, not housebroken, 4 month old puppy to the mix sounds like the straw that would break the crazy lady's back, right? Come on people...when have you ever known me to back down from challenge? In fact, I thought it was the perfect time to get a puppy - while I'm establishing a routine, not in a year when I've already settled into a one. And besides, considering all the factors, when would another puppy that met all our criteria come available again?

We brought the puppy home the following night. She was quiet as a church mouse in the little crate we hid between the boys, who were pretending to sleep. The customs official looked in the window but said nothing and let us through. We had a dog again!!

Peaches is working out great. We've taught her to ring a bell that hangs by the sliding glass door when she wants to go out (we haven't decided on a dog door or not). And while we rejoice that she is clever enough to be easily trained to ring the bell, we groan about opening it for her non-stop on the days she just wants to go out and play every 20 minutes (just who is training who, I ask?). Jake is having absolutely no health issues at all - she licks him all the time and he does fine. She LOVES when people come over, especially kids that play with her.

Oh - I have to cut this short. The bell just rang - someone needs to go out...

Ali, the Fish Monger

Fish Monger: a dealer or trader of fish

Another really cool benefit to living on our compound in Saudi Arabia is being able to enjoy the services of Ali the Fish Monger. Ali comes on camp to sell seafood to the residents here. And he doesn't just sit by the side of the road - he comes right to your door.

Ali usually calls up out of the blue. He describes what type of seafood he has available in the dirty styrofoam coolers that fill the back of his rusty truck and if I'm interested, he comes right over. I've never been one to buy food from door to door salesmen, especially ones that drive rusty trucks. Not that I've had a lot of them, apart from the Schwan's frozen food man and this one time some guy was selling steaks out of the back of his car (that one still puzzles me). But I was eased into Ali's services gently...

One day Julia called up and asked if I was interested in buying some really nice, big shrimp. She'd have them cleaned and deveined for me, and put into whatever size ziplock bags I wanted. And all of this for an amazingly dirt cheap price. I leaped at the chance and arranged for six pounds of shrimp. Sure to her word, she dropped by 6 bags of beautiful, cleaned shrimp later that afternoon. When I asked her where she came by this housewife's dream, with a little grin she simply replied, "Ali. Don't worry - I'll get you hooked up." It felt like a drug deal.

And over time, it actually has become a bit of an addiction. I hate buying seafood at the store now. Ali's seafood is usually better quality, at a better price, AND he cleans / deveins / fillets however I want it done. I know you are thinking that the guy at the supermarket fish counter can do the same thing. Sure, if he speaks English. And that's a BIG if here.

I Didn't Really Fall Off the Edge of the Earth

...though it's been close - there were a couple times over the last four months that I was only holding on by my fingernails. And quite honestly, even if I had scrapped together the time to post some entries here, you wouldn't have wanted to read my tantrums.

Remember those online classes I was so excited about? I only took two classes: math and world history. However, I grossly underestimated how much more time it takes to teach yourself math from a textbook compared to attending a lecture. In a classroom you are able to see a demonstration of the math, hear how it's done, write the process, listen to classmates ask questions you never thought off, etc. Online classes consist of you and the book. To be fair I did have lecture notes, but reading is reading. I also was able to participate on discussion boards with my "classmates" and get help there, but again, reading is reading. I found some YouTube videos that helped a bit, but weren't really worth the time it took to sort through the duds. And I'm good at math: I shudder to think of what it would have been like if that wasn't the case.

So, I lowered my expectations , stayed up until the wee hours of the morning far too many nights, missed Jake's field trip, stopped writing the blog... and basically cut out anything that wasn't absolutely necessary in my life, and somehow ended up getting a better grade that I expected in both the math and essay-heavy history class (gotta love those participation points!). I am taking another math class this quarter (business calculus), but ONLY that class. Hopefully I can get some balance and joy back into life!

I have so much to catch you up on now that I won't be lacking for topics for a while. In addition to normal everyday news such as our new puppy, Michael's Statue of Liberty cake, and the Crocs that make Jake look like Donald Duck, we just got back from a fun-filled two weeks in China. If you haven't been checking the blog very often these days, I can't say that I blame you - four months is a long time to go without posting - sorry about that. But I'll try to get in several a week going forward. Thanks for hanging in there with me!