The Grand Arrival

When the second flight finally landed in Dammam KSA everyone was feeling better after some sleep and relative relaxation on the second flight. Anna literally skipped her way into Saudi Arabia and had all the Saudi police and airport workers smiling. We cleared immigration and moved on to baggage. We had 10 pieces of luggage and only lost one peice. I suppose that's not too bad. It turned up three days later. Some people that came in that night are still waiting for bags. When we finally cleared customs and make our way out to the arrival area we were suprised to see a large contingent of Saudi Aramco teachers from the Ras Tanura school waiting to greet us. This included the superintendent of schools, the principal of the RT School, the vice principal of the RT School and 5 other teachers. It was quite overwhelming. Lots of hand shaking, names and conversation. With that Sarah screamed and out of hiding comes Cheri who came up to the airport to greet us as well (see pic below) What an arrival. After going through Armaco processing at the airport it was off to RT - about a 35 minute ride. The kids fell asleep and Marie and I preceeded to drill the teacher driving us about life in RT.

We arrived at our house at about 10:30 (I think - It has been a week now) and were greeted by some friendly gecko's running around the front entrance. Sarah smiled and started speaking in an English accent like the gecko in the Geico commercial. The house is really nice. Not nearly as big as what we had in C'Ville but nice all the same. It came equiped with new everything. New fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer, oven, tile floors, corian counter tops, ac unit, carpeting upstairs all brand new. Very nice. The company is renting us furniture to use for now. Marie and I are sleeping in a double bed. We are used to a king. Oye. The best part is we all fell asleep at 11:30 that first night and slept through until the next morning when we were awakened by the gardener ringing the doorbell. We have slept through the night since and have had no jet lag at all!! People we talk to keep saying "just wait it will come" but it has been 8 days and nothing. I think we beat it - this time.

So the first week begins. I have worked a lot and Marie has done her best to get the house togther. Cheri has been a huge help and has lent us a lot of things we did not realize we would need. The people of this community are amazing. They are constantly dropping off food. Fruit, banana bread, shwarma, chicken and rice among other things. The community holds 3200 when full. It is at about half capacity right now but on every street they are gutting houses and putting in the all new everything like they did for us. There are a lot of people on the way. Just to give you an idea the school enrollment at the end of last year was 130 K-12. Right now it is at 190 and by next week it will be 210. By November they anticipate 250 with a total of 300 by years end. They are talking about building and new school building. That's it for now. I will write more tonight as I find I really enjoy doing this.

Happy Birthday to my sis Missy!

Steve - Ras Tanura KSA 8/29/07