26 17' 11.20" N 50 06' 30.00" E
Elevation: 130 ft
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| Nothin like downing an icy cold Bud when it's 50 C |
Much like the elusive Fuggarwi Tribe that lives in the remotest part of the Congo jungle and walks around announcing who they are, the Harrington Family seems to have followed suit after arriving in Saudi Arabia. "We're The Fuggarwi" I exclaimed to the stewardess as we touched down in the very hot and extremely beige city of Doha, Qatar. I've never seen so many shades of beige. The sand, the buildings, the limestone walkways, the armored vehicles, the uniforms, the walls and the horizon - all beige in one form or another. How extraordinarily nondescript. I'm glad I wore my new XM (Extra Medium) fluorscent khaki shirt, shorts and sun hat to experience this. Arriving at the lounge I enjoyed a shower and coffee - an extremely civilized and much wanted way to be introduced to the Middle East knowing that there was only one flight left.
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| Front of our Saudi house |
We then jumped on a hopper and were in the Kingdom of Sauna Arabia within 45 minutes. "Hot" took on a new meaning for us this day. Even the non-worn "Jesus was just a guy" T-shirt in my suitcase was soaked with sweat. I heard someone say it was 52 C the day we arrived then stopped talking cause they burned their tongue just saying it. It was so hot that day that Dick Cheney waterboarded himself. It was so hot that I learned that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron. It was so hot that I experienced condensation on my butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl. Hot water now comes out of both taps.
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| Suburbarabia (thanks Wendy) |
We arrived at our home pleasantly surprised by the potential to make it our home away from home (we had convinced ourselves that we would be living in the back of a toilet bowl with a family of goats). I of course, rushed out to the backyard to see what I had to work with and was amazed to find 8 shrubs and a palm tree. I was also amazed that this was all I had to work with. I later found out that as soon as our house was vacated, the local gardeners come by and steal everything (topsoil, hoses, plants and the lawn) for their other clients. Fortunately Aramco provides a onetime landscaping service where I will be able to pick plants, get topsoil and replace the lawn. We have since hired Ruby our gardener who comes by everyday and hoses off our walkways and does the gardening. There is not much yet for Ruby to do but he has built me some stairs to access the back walkway. He also put in a little pool so that the kids would have some fun. Actually, Ruby is great and is looking forward to maintaining my present landscaping plan.
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| Ruby setting up the pool for the boys |
On a side note, I would not recommend eating at Mamma Fu's Asian Bistro. I should have known better when Gabe had the "Ninja Noodles" and William ordered the "Scooby Fu". Gabe's first bight resulted in a ninja move by his stomach that lead him to be "full" all of a sudden after the previous hour had been the constant drone of his voice telling us "I'm hungry" every 15 seconds. William tried to talk after his first mouthful and sounded just like Scooby himself - "Trastes rike shrit Drad. RI'm frull too." Like most people, I ignored the warnings and took a bight each of the kids slop. "Zoiks!" well why didn't they just bring a family style salt lick to the table instead of Ninja/Scooby meals with Dead Sea sauce.
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| Will pumped about his new sandbox |
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| Sand dunes at Half Moon Coast near Dhahran |
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