From Tennessee To Texas to Saudi Arabia

We’ve been here one day shy of 3 weeks now. It’s strange; it feels like the time has been longer than that. Thankfully, everyone seems to be settling in nicely and enjoying some slower days after the whirlwind journey of the last few months.

One of the more exciting things that come with moving to a new area, as many of you know, is learning your new surroundings. It’s one thing to look at it from a Google maps standpoint versus actually experiencing it using all of your senses. Everyday thru the week we have a bus that takes the women and children to different places in town. The kids were out of school this week for Eid holidays so they were able to come along with us!

The destinations vary depending on the day of the week. It can be grocery shopping, mall shopping, old Yanbu and pretty much anywhere else you request within reason. The ladies on the bus will usually start out the ride discussing what all they need to accomplish on the trip that day. Then all you do is ask Kumar the driver and he will accommodate. The kids and I have shopped at the mall and grocery store several times during the day (alone and with friends), and we have managed well. I believe the reason these trips have went off so smoothly is the advice of so many women I’ve met online before we came, women here on the compound and all the advice from Brian from his time before our arrival. One of the days each week, the bus visits old Yanbu, which is the more historical part of town.

I’ve heard over and over what a neat experience this part of town is to see, but to not go alone. The people are very nice there, but it is much more traditional than the Royal Commission area and a much bigger language barrier in this older part of town. So for this reason, one of the women from the compound who has lived here for 18 years went with us and helped with communication. She was AMAZING.

We were very excited for what we would see that day. Once on the bus, just like normal the women all chimed in about where they would like to visit that day. When the time came around to us, we simply responded “we are just along for the ride.” We started out going to a store called Top Center. Think of the old WalMart and Montgomery Ward mixed together with a little hint of Sally’s beauty supply and a dash of K-mart. We enjoyed looking thru lots of kitchen gadgets, beautiful rugs, lots of pretty china sets, and shoes.

While we shopped there, Kumar took some of the ladies to other stores and to check out some souqs. Our next stop was a fruit stand.

This wasn’t like any fruit stand any of us had visited before. One of the benefits of going with people who know the area is they know stores that are “off the beaten path.” We pulled up to what looked like normal downtown store front. We followed the women through an alley and once through the other end, it opened up into this massive market. Fruits and Veggies galore! Rawa translated all the many questions we all had and the workers willingly answered. We saw what we thought was a not so appetizing cucumber but learned it was indeed a bitter melon that helps people manage diabetes. Rawa explained she steeps it in water with some ginger.

After walking around and taking it all in, we decided to go with red and green grapes and some cucumbers. Rawa explained that they sell in even kilos, so even if you said you just wanted one of something, the workers would keep adding to the scale until they reached 1 kilo. While we were on our way out, Cade spotted some oranges he wanted, so we walked up to the man and asked for some. He was so friendly and tried his best to explain to us the oranges we were wanting weren’t sweet and pointed us to a different variety. We took his advice and went with those. We paid him and as we walked off he stopped us put his hands up as if to say hang on a sec. He filled up another bag full of plums, pears, and even more oranges. He smiled, handed the bag over and did a head nod towards us. He wouldn’t accept any money. It was truly a moment that, even though we couldn’t communicate very well, we connected at a different level. I saw the effect it had on the kids. It was a moment I won’t soon forget.

Up next was a fruit juice shop some of the ladies raved about it. Between the four of us, we drank 2 strawberry, orange & banana, 1 strawberry, kiwi & peach, and 1 green apple. It was so inexpensive and so delicious!! While we waited he offered us a drink that was made of dates with strawberry juice swirled on the top. It was equally amazing and something I will most likely get the next time we visit there.

We picked up some of the women from other locations and off we went to the fish market. We were really looking forward to this since we had never been. The ladies told us to keep our abayas pulled up off the ground inside and assured us we would get used to the smell. We stepped off the bus and over to the left, not 10 steps away, was the Red Sea.

Once inside, the smell was pungent but doable. We walked in to see many men cleaning fish on the left, and on the right stand upon stand of fresh fish with men waiting to make a sale. Rawa showed us many types of different fish, shrimp, squid…the different types of seafood seemed endless. We were approached by our neighbor, who asked if I would be interested splitting one. It was 500 Riyals. During this time Rawa was negotiating the price for us, all in Arabic of course. She talked them down to 400, so I paid my 200 Riyals and we continued to watch the process. They took the fish over to be cleaned. We all watched as he scaled and cleaned the fish in no time flat. We tipped him 4 Riyals and paid 8 Riyals to the fish market and off we went.

It was a day I hope the kids will never forget. Lots of first times, lots of interaction with people and lots of new experiences. This day goes down to one of those “this is why we moved here” days.