Saudimeemaw's Blog

Finally Fall

saudimeemaw — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:17:59 +0000

It’s finally fall in Saudi Arabia! We had a wonderful thunderstorm and a good rain here in Khobar tonight! The temperature is actually down to 75 outside as well. The days have been much cooler for us the past couple of weeks and is very welcome. I do enjoy a good thunderstorm! I’m from Oklahoma where we get a fair share of thunderstorms normally but I could do without the tornado seasons. There are supposed to be thunderstorms in Oklahoma tonight as well I read online. Strangely there have been earthquakes, fairly strong ones at that in Oklahoma the past 24 hours. My kids all live there but not all in the same city. Every one of them felt the quakes, and the news said they have been felt in all the surrounding states as well. We used to experience earthquakes when we lived in Alaska and I remember how those felt. We lived right at the edge of the Cook Inlet there and often felt the house swaying during quakes. It’s always a bit unnerving and scary if it’s a big one. I’m glad my kids all knew what to do in a quake anyway! I was glad to have a thunder shower here tonight, but it does make me miss fall in Oklahoma. There are no trees for leaves to change color on here, mostly there are date palm trees here. The smells are so different here in fall as well but fall does seem to be the same everywhere, it’s allergy season! I wonder why that is? I guess it’s just the changing of the seasons and those temperature changes that cause allergies to come.
Today was Eid day here which is something like our Christmas Day in the states. Here it is a celebration at the end of the Haj pilgrimmage. There are animal sacrifices made and food given away and presents given to friends and family. One family had a wedding today! Because it’s a holiday my husband was short a few men to catch jobs out at the rigs and he had to go out on a rig and catch a job himself. He didn’t mind though, he likes to help his men have some holiday time with their families if at all possible. We are old oilfield people and Dad has missed more than a few holidays and birthdays! He’s a good man and he cares about the men that work for him. It was a very lovely day today for a holiday! I spent the afternoon with some friends at the pool on our compound, swimming, playing scrabble and just visiting as we soaked up the sunshine.
Our desert dog Sahjee has grown into quite a large dog and is so smart! He has figured out he can jump up against the back gate from our patio and open it. We had to stack some chairs up in front of it so he can’t get to the handle. There is a place to lock it with a key but we don’t have a key for it so they are going to get us one or fix it where we can lock it anyway. Sahjee hasn’t tried to actually leave the patio, just opens the gate! He’s very loving to us and such a great pet! I think he’s more worried about leaving us is why he hasn’t actually tried to get out. He’s very protective. It’s just that the couple that live behind us that we share a wall with off the patio also got a pretty little female desert dog so Sahjee is in love again! It’s so cute, they “talk” to each other over the wall. One will bark and the other listens, then answers back! They’ve walked together on a walk before too and did quite well the last time. Sahjee loves to play with other animals, he has a few cat friends too he always has to see and try to play with. Oscar, a beautiful and friendly cat, follows my husband and Sahjee to the soccer field to play with them. Oscar has actually chased Sahjee around and around in circles and Sahjee just loves it! Then there is the fierce Jose that most of the other cats fear, but he and Sahjee get nose to nose even and Jose just talks to Sahjee and neither one even raises their hackles or arches backs, they just talk to each other. I don’t think that happens with any other dogs. Sahjee is a Saluki with longer hair, he’s probably a Saluki-Lab mix, so he is enjoying the weather cooling off finally. He wasn’t happy about the rain tonight though, he had a short walk tonight inbetween showers. All the kids on the compound seem to just love Sahjee and they always like to walk along or play with him on the field and feed him treats. He’s a really friendly and good dog. I’m really glad Fall is finally here in Saudi, it’s so much nicer to get out when it’s cooler.

Summertime in Saudi

saudimeemaw — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:21:01 +0000

The heat is heating up in Saudi Arabia this week, and temps have hit 50 C now. I can stand the dry heat much better than when the humidity rolls in from the Arabian Gulf. When the humidity is over 60% and the temps over 100F it gets pretty miserable. I tend to jump back and forth between centigrade and fahrenheit readings I’m afraid, the centigrade one’s don’t sound as bad and of course everyone here is used to giving you temps in centigrade and don’t understand the fahrenheit readings. They really sound bad to those used to using centigrade! You can tolerate dry heat at much higher temps than when humidity is present. But of course you must be very careful in dry heat because you sweat but don’t realize it and can get very dehydrated before you know it. I don’t think I will ever get used to the heat, I’m a cold climate lover myself having lived in Alaska. I acclimated to cold temps much more easily and can stand the very cold much better. When it’s cold you can always add more clothing you know but in the heat there is only so much you can take off you know! Plus as a woman I’m required to wear the black long-sleeved abaya out in public and it just makes the heat that much worse. Summertime in Saudi is lazy dazy trying to stay cool indoors with the air conditioning running all the time and lots of cold drinks

The Economy of Politics

saudimeemaw — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:25:45 +0000

There is a little known or perhaps even unknown fact to having a political system where elections are held and that is job creation. In a system where people run for political offices there are hundreds of thousands of new jobs created in the economy, good jobs, jobs where people feel they are making a difference even. These are actually private sector jobs also, since those running for elected office are helped by people supporting them to be elected by their donations. Money that comes in gets spread around communities to pay people to run offices, pays private businesses to print agenda’s and advertising, media jobs are created as well, as people get paid to cover elections and people get paid to consult about candidates, many more too numerous to mention! Politics has an economy all it’s own that produces jobs in the private sector so the government doesn’t have to nor does it need to pay out as much welfare to recipients since they will get some of these jobs. The benefits to a country is enormous as well as to the constituents. Open politics are much less prone to corruption though there is always that element to guard against but in a closed political system there are no checks and balances by the people and corruption is rife and not usually uncovered unless an enemy catches them out. The uproar throughout the world, not just the Middle East is in an uproar at the moment, is centered most of all at the economy. The world economy is faltering due to many gross inequities but over all as much as anything it is actually due to circumstances out of anyone’s control, such as weather, natural disasters, climate changes occurring at this time, etc. I’m not going to argue climate change, nobody knows if it is manmade or naturally occurring cycles of climate and you can argue until you are blue in the face and never know much less convince anyone. Does it matter what is to blame? We must jump in to adapting to these changes and move forward instead of arguing about blame. Politics is about moving forward. Moving forward means changing with circumstances. Circumstances are changing quickly these days around the globe and people are changing and adapting with them, that will happen no matter what the politics of a country, people do what is necessary to survive and change is the natural result of that. Whether there are good changes or bad, change is always the only way forward in survival. I hope leaders all across the world will realize the right kind of changes to help their own people and change with them for their own sakes and the sakes of their people.

Turmoil in the Deserts

saudimeemaw — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 06:37:37 +0000

By now everyone knows about all the turmoil in the Middle East. Many are wondering about our safety in Saudi Arabia. So far it is safe here but of course we hear rumors all the time of impending events. There are many young Saudi people and unemployment is a problem. They are very educated and many have been educated outside the Kingdom. There has been steady steps in the past years towards more freedom in the Kingdom and a more moderate government but as always young people become impatient. We see the results of that in Bahrain. Bahrain is probably the most free nation in the Middle East. I once had a conversation with a young Bahraini who stated to me, “We are the most free in the world, even more free than America!” And he was very proud of that. They do enjoy a much more free society in Bahrain than anywhere else in the Middle East so what is the turmoil there about? I was surprised to see so many women completely covered in abaya’s and the veils in protest there because the women are not required to wear them in Bahrain. A shopkeeper here in Saudi before Ramadan complained that the Bahraini women that come over to visit relatives in our area don’t know how to dress and get into trouble for not wearing their abaya’s. It’s just not clear to me what groups in Bahrain are complaining and what they really want. Do they want stricter rules? That would certainly not be democracy in action nor more freedom. Each country and each group in each country seems to have a different ideal of changes they want to see. This can only lead to infighting with one another! I think there has been a real Iranian influence in Bahrain, that may be one explanation and another is the Muslim Brotherhood perhaps who wish to see all the world under Islamic Sharia law. We live under Sharia law here in Saudi and it’s very restrictive to women under their interpretation though other places and other groups interpret Sharia differently. I don’t think that is very well understood throughout the world. All of Islam is not the same, just as with other religions. There are groups that believe Islam is the only peaceful religion and of course we know there are Islamic groups that believe Jihad is the only way. How will these Islamic groups ever reconcile their beliefs and agenda’s? These are difficult times in the lands of Islamic beginnings and because of the natural resources located here, difficult times around the world in it’s implications. No matter your religion, please pray for calm, safety, and cool heads to prevail.

freedom

saudimeemaw — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:58:05 +0000

It’s vacation time throughout the world right now, the middle of tourist season everywhere. I’ve just come back from a nice vacation with my family back home in Oklahoma. We had a wonderful time with our kids and grandkids, my husband’s aunt, my mother, brother, and sister! We are very fortunate to have such a lovely and lively family that helps renew our spirits and give us such joy! Many people in this world do not have such as this. And many more are working outside their home country and don’t go home for years because it’s not affordable for them to do so or the one’s they work for do not allow for home visits. How can we encourage those who haven’t seen their families in years? What can we say to them or do for them that would be of any help or consolation? Honestly you never know how your words or actions may plant a seed of peace, love, patience, kindness and perseverance. But we should all try and we should all pray that families can be reunited more often. The fellowship of mankind may sound cliché but it’s so true. We all need words and actions of love, of compassion, and hope most of all.

Ron Newhouse wrote a very moving paragraph that I read this morning; in it he states that a reporter asked Boris Yeltsin what his inspiration was to stand firm at the fall of communisim, and Yeltsin credited a story he’d read about Lech Walesa that inspired him; the man that brought democracy to Poland. Walesa was an electrician that rose to being leader of a free Poland through his inspiration and efforts. Now Walesa credited the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in America as his own inspiration. Dr. King credited his own inspiration to one lovely woman, Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person and sit at the back of the bus in segregation. She was a lifelong member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and she was a secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP at the time of her protest. But she always maintained her protest was simply as a private citizen, tired of the degrading way she was being treated. Yes, one person can make a difference, not just in their own community but even in the world and throughout all time. All people long for freedom from tyranny, from oppression, from degradation. Our actions and our words may be a seed planted in the hearts and minds of others that give them hope and become their inspirations whether we know it or not. Let freedom ring!

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28