Bulgaria

Right before we left for Turkey we decided that we should rent a car and drive to Bulgaria.  There are places to ski in Turkey, but they are more crowded and they are on the Asian side.  So on the fourth day of our trip we packed two bags, dragged them down the 51-stair spiral staircase, braved the hill, and hopped the train to the airport to pick up our car.  We reserved a BIG car so that all five of us and our luggage would fit.  Welllll, it was big relative to the last rent car we got in Europe, but it wasn't exactly a sedan.  It was a four door Renault and it was crowded....BUT, the girls were troopers and off we went to drive to Bulgaria.  We paid extra to get a navigation system so that we would have to worry about being lost.  Again, why we thought it would be like it is everywhere else, I don't know.  The navigation system was only for Turkey....no other countries.  Uff.  We had to stop and get gasoline anyway (they give the car to you on empty here???) so we bought a map.  I have now honed my map reading skills. 

It didn't take very long to reach the border.  Once we were out of the city and in country it became apparent that NO ONE spoke any English at all.  We stopped at McDonalds (the only place we could find) and got lunch. THAT was a huge ordeal...because not only do they not speak English, but you apparently can even point to a picture and order.  I think she was just nervous because there was the huge language barrier.  When I went back up to the counter to get sauce for Maddie's nuggets I was thankful that there was someone in the line that could speak a little English and translated for me!  There was a Starbucks and a little bakery attached to the McDonalds so we also went there to get various sundries.  We spent the first 4 or 5 days visiting all Starbucks on a quest to find two "Istanbul" mugs....one for me and one for a friend.  Even if they had had the mugs at this particular Starbucks I am not sure they would have understood me!  The funny thing is that all the Starbucks take Euro, Lira, AND USD....weird.

When we got to the border we thought we would just FLY on through!  At the Saudi/Bahrain border we have a few stops and it has never taken more than 20 minutes for us.  Yeahhhhh....it was interesting.  There were no less than 7 different checkpoints and we got searched more than once.  When we make our way to say the fourth checkpoint the guy asks us for our "green card."  Unfortunately the window was on my side so I was the lucky one to answer his questions.  We didn't know what a green card was and he didn't speak any English so he called a colleague over to explain.  Apparently, just like in Saudi, you have to have insurance when you cross the border.  We were going from a non-EU country to an EU country.  So we pull over and John goes in to some building for about 20 minutes and then comes out with a green slip of paper.  The shortest amount of time you can buy insurance for is one month (in Saudi it's good for 3 days).  It cost something like $120.  Three more checkpoints, a couple more searches, and we are finally through the border...there was ZERO traffic and it still took over an hour.  Once we were on the other side in Bulgaria there were allllll these little portable buildings where you were supposed to buy vignettes.  We didn't know what a vignette was because the sign explaining them was written in Bulgarian.  As best as John could figure out you needed one to drive on the roads there...not sure.  So we had to stop and buy one, but they were only sold in Euro so he had to first change his money to Euro...which is what we thought Bulgaria traded in, but it isn't.  So now we got our insurance and our vignette....$150 poorer and two hours later we were on our way to ski!

The countryside wasn't very pretty....well, it was covered in a blanket of white snow so, in that sense, it was pretty.  It looked much like you would think a former communist country would look...it was kind of sad.  We drove through lots of small one street towns before getting to Plovdiv...the first real big city. Buy the time we got to Plovdiv it was dark and we had to rely on MY map reading skills to get us to the ski resort....THAT is never good.  It gets dark around 4:30-5:00pm so we really didn't get an early enough start as it turns out.  Navigating the snow covered roads in Bulgaria where NO street signs are in English in the dark really wasn't the best laid plan.  As we started south in to the mountains there were several ominous signs with pictures of tires with chains on them.  That was a bit unsettling as we had the smallest Renault known to man...and no snow tires.  As we were driving up the mountains we were following instructions that we printed from the resorts website using google maps...we will never use google maps again.  Yeah, we made a very fatal error and turned off the beaten path to follow said instructions and ended up in the middle of nowhere trying to go up a mountain of snow and ice.  We stopped once to ask directions of some random worker wearing a hardhat and holding a machine that was making a loud noise...it was bizarre because it was late and he was standing on the "street"...he also apparently had a huge earring as well.  I was too flustered and worried to notice.  He spoke NO ENGLISH, of course.  He managed to point us in a direction using sign language and Bulgarian.  We stayed on this course until we got to a part of the mountain where our car just couldn't make it.  We were slipping and sliding and getting a little stuck in the snow....I was terrified as we were on a snowy, icy, dark road winding up the Balkan mountains.  We are essentially from TEXAS and have little business driving a Renault toy car up the Balkan mountains.  Uff. 

We decided to turn around...just short of me getting out and pushing (which would never happen) we weren't making it up that mountain.  We made it back down a ways and saw an open "establishment"...not sure if it was a bar or restaurant....it was weird...but we stopped and brought our map inside to ask for help.  I really don't know what we were thinking.  We were stopped at a tiny "bar" in Laki, Bulgaria where 7 men and one woman were all sitting around getting drunk (which is apparently all they do there) and we thought there was going to be an English-speaker in the bunch!?!?!?  Wellll, we asked questions in English and they answered in Bulgarian...this went on for a while until they showed us on the map how to get to Pamporovo (which is where we were going).  We told them that it was too snowy and our car wouldn't make it and they "signed" us other directions.  We finally decided that we were going to go BACK to the place of the fatal error and get BACK on the beaten path. 

When we finally got back on the road to Pamporovo it really didn't take us too long to get there.  People passed us like this little mountain road was the autobahn!  Scary!  I was a nervous wreck by the time we got to the resort.  I was praying that it wasn't a dump...we had had a long day and we deserved a break!

We parked, checked in, and asked if they would keep the restaurant open long enough for us to get something to eat as we had been travelling all day with nothing to eat.  As we were unloading our stuff and going up to the room ONE of the girls busted it on the ice (I won't tell you who, but she knows who she is).  It wasn't funny AT ALL, but she couldn't stop laughing....which meant that I couldn't stop laughing...which was completely inappropriate for the situation!  Uff...while we were there for two days there were at least THREE falls...I didn't fall luckily, but I fell in Turkey so maybe God was being kind.

We got to the restaurant...which smelled like an ashtray because EVERY SINGLE European in the world smokes.  We all ordered...which can be challenging for poor Maddie...and ate.  I asked the really sweet waitress to point to something Bulgarian on the menu because I wanted to try something that was native to their country.  Turns out they eat a LOT of potatoes and cheese.  I got a big huge potato dish...it looked and tasted like a hashbrown pancake.  It was delicious.

The next day we get all dressed to go to the slopes...hop the 5 minute shuttle to the lifts...and off we go.  We get there and John and the girls are getting their rental equipment on and John goes to pay with his credit card and, as it turns out, they don't take credit.  No credit...only LEVS.  Well, at this point we have USD, Saudi Riyal, and Turkish Lira...no Bulgarian LEVS.  I ask and the nearest "bankamatic" is in town...so the ski guy negotiates a deal with a taxi driver and off I go to the city center to get some LEVS.  The taxi driver was driving some old beater with no chains on the tires and he was whipping through those turns and curves like he was Mario Andretti.  He spoke NO English, of course.  The first place we stopped and I got out and went in only to find the "bankamat" was out of service.  Uff...starting to panic as the next town is quite a bit away I get in and tell the taxi driver in sign and yelling "out of service...no work" and he talks to some local workers and finds another one at another resort.  Off we go to the other resort...I get my LEVS...and back to the slopes. 

The slopes there are beautiful.  The greens are more like blues in America, but it is awesome.  The trails are VERY long and there are several towns and restaurants to stop at along the trail.  They don't have blues...it is only green, red and black.  It isn't very crowded there and apparently it is a resort town for upper middle class Europeans...not Americans.  We did find a lot of workers that spoke English, but they were always shocked that we were from America. 

Madeline wasn't too keen on skiing.  We haven't been in years since we went to Santa Fe and she was very young.  She was a trooper and decided to do it...with not so good results...but I am proud of her for trying.  Her dad was the real trooper as he had to walk/ski down the mountain with her!

We decided to stay an extra night in Bulgaria rather than try to brave the mountain road again in the dark.  I also wanted to be able to see the views in the daylight.  The next morning we started off to Plovdiv early so we could get back to Turkey before it was too late.  As it turns out, Bulgaria in the daytime is just as depressing and scary as Bulgaria in the night time (lol).  There is not much there.  We were going to attempt to find a Starbucks so I could get my mug, but the only Starbucks in Plovdiv is in the airport so I decided against it. 

Getting back across the border we thought was going to be easy...notsomuch.  We got to the passport control checkpoint and policeman checking our visa said in very broken English to go to B3 and pointed towards a building that had a huge B3 on it because we needed a visa.  We had multi-entry visas in our passports, but since he didn't speak English, he didn't understand us.  In retrospect, I wish I had tried harder to make him understand.  We were in a long traffic line so I decided to take all five passports and walk to B3 and let John pull up and wait.  I get to B3 and NOTHING is in English.  There was a grumpy old policeman out on the other side of the building taking a smoke break so I went out and asked him what to do...he spoke NO English, of course.  He directed me to platform 53 as best he could.  I walk to platform 53 on the OTHER side of the border and find a man inside a booth and present my passports and problem to him.  He speaks almost NO English, of course, but luckily there was another man in there that spoke a little.  They read our visas and tell me, "You are good."  Yessss, I KNOW, but the border patrol on the other side of the border won't let us in...Uff, that was another 10 minutes of sign language and broken English.  Platform 53 sends me back to the police station at B3 where I find a nice young policeman that seemingly speaks English...looks can be deceiving.  He spoke better English than most, but still not great.  I explained my problem and he deemed us "good."  Yes, I know we are good, but they won't let us in...Uff...finally after a call or two he sends me BACK out to the border and I walk through passport control, get our passports stamped, and then walk through the vehicle check, and finally we were through.  Uff...it shouldn't have been that hard.

Three hours of driving later we were back in Istanbul and we found a mall...all is well!

Turkey

Merry Christmas from Istanbul, Turkey!  We left Saudi Arabia on December 24th and arrived for our Istanbul adventure on Christmas Day!  We rented a two bedroom apartment in the Taksim area for 10 days.  It is a decent enough apartment...much like one would think an apartment would look like in the middle of Istanbul.  It isn't luxurious, but it serves it's purpose which is to allow us to experience Istanbul in a different way than normal...more like natives.  Our apartment for the first three days was a fourth floor walk-up.  Yeahhhh...51 stairs to get to the apartment.  Uff. 

The weather in Istabul was absolutely fabulous for the first few days.  In the high 40s during the daytime and the high 30s at night.  As tired as we were, we still spent the first couple hours walking around and seeing the sights around the apartment.  After a brief nap, John and I left the girls sleeping as we ventured out to see what Taksim Square had in store for us.  It turns out that even though our apartment is on a steeeeep hill....Taksim Square is STRAIGHT UP from there.  Once we made the trek and explored I was so excited to go back and get the girls!  The square is all decorated in Christnas lights and coming from a strict muslim country this was awesome for us!  The square and the streets surrounding Taksim are full of stores!  It just so happens that the girls favorite thing to do is shop!  We walked up and down that street shopping.  It was packed!  It reminded me of Times Square at New Years.  I loved it! 

Day two was spent going to see the Blue Mosque and the Sultanahmet area.  We wanted to see the Hagia Sophia as well, but it was closed on Mondays....we really need to learn to read our travel guides better!  We visited the Blue Mosque and, as most people experience, we did it with at local "guide."  The guide is really a carpet salesman that brings you to his family business for a sales pitch.  We knew that going in, but we decided we wanted to experience it anyway!  The pitch wasn't that high pressure...the family was very pleasant.  If we didn't live in an area that had beautiful Persian rugs (or the fact that we will have to girls at A&M next year) we might have considered buying one.  We spent the rest of the day just wandering the streets and enjoying the sites.

The people here are really nice, but it is very similar to being in a souk in Bahrain or Dubai where they yell at you and try to get you to come in to their shops.  All of the shops have the same thing and pretty much the same prices.  Stuff here is really beautiful and very reasonable!  The food is very inexpensive as well.  The girls...welllll most of the girls, have been adventurous about trying the local cuisine.  The food here is similar to the food in Saudi....they have "schwarmas" but they aren't wrapped in arab bread...they are more like sandwiches.  The Kebap is a big thing here.  The girls really liked those as well.

We found our way to the Grand Bazaar without even trying.  It was amazing.  I think that I read that it is the largest shopping center in the world.  It is like the Dubai souks on steroids!  It really is crazy.  Everyone sells the same stuff but it worth the visit.  It is amazing and crowded and amazing.

We just love it here...coming from Saudi we appreciate the freedoms even more than normal I think.  There aren't very many Americans as far as tourists go.  The fact that there are so few Americans here is baffling to us.  It is very inexpensive to get here from the Middle East and the accomodations are reasonable, the food is inexpensive, and there is freedom here.  If we ever decide that we have to "get out of Saudi" in the next few months this will definitely be where we come.  If Istanbul is on your bucket list...you need to just do it!  It is full of sites to see and it really is an amazing place.

On the fourth day here we rented a car at the airport and drove to Bulgaria to ski for a few days....

Sooo Long 2011...The Year in Review...

If you have read my blog you probably already know about our year, but I thought I would write a re-cap...maybe it will be a cathartic experience and I can fully let it go and go in to 2012 with a renewed outlook!

After a rough year of moving and change, our year started out well.  January 2011, we were living in Bahrain with Madeline and Janie and Alison was visiting/home from Texas A&M and Sarah (Walker, although she might as well be a Watkins) was also visiting.  We spent a week excitedly showing them around our new country that we loved and then another week in Dubai for Christmas.  With the exception of the fact that someone stole a large chunk of money out of our bank account the night before we left for Dubai, it was an awesome time.  It was nice to get away and see some more of the Middle East.  Dubai was a lot like Bahrain in that there are quite a few Westerners living there, there is alcohol there, but I think you can only get it in hotels and at the airport, Abayas (the black choir robes) are not required.  In fact, I think Dubai was much more liberal than even Bahrain in the dress code.  The girls actually wore shorts and summer dresses in Dubai...in Bahrain that would just be an invitation for creepers to WHOOT at you or follow you around and ask for your phone number.  Dubai had an awesome public transportation system.  It really was much more modern and green than Bahrain.  I loved it there!  They have a lot of American stores and restaurants....we were in HEAVEN when we saw P.F. Changs!

Christmas in the Desert 2010

The Beginning of the End...

After New Years, Alison and Sarah went home and the girls and I went back to our lives in Bahrain.  The girls absolutely loved Bahrain...it was our home. We had volleyball, basketball, friends, sleepovers, etc. just like in the States.  In February we started seeing on the news the rumblings about the Arab Spring in Tunisia...then Egypt.  We lived on a daily basis with "protests" in Bahrain...and tire burnings.  Everyone just shrugged it off as that had been going on forever...literally.  Every week from the day we moved there we would get a list of planned demonstrations...we just knew to steer clear of that area.  Quite honestly, we never really paid too much attention to the postings because it was usually confined to areas we didn't visit.  I even stopped to take a quick picture of a burning tire one night on my way home from the gym....We just weren't scared or worried.  After the Egypt protests became such a worldwide event and they got such worldwide coverage, Bahrainis decided to follow suit.  They started to congregate in the Pearl Roundabout (a big huge troublesome traffic circle with a pearl statue) and called it their "Tahrir Square."  It wasn't until the government fired on their own people in February that we started taking a keen interest in the situation.  Our company requested that we temporarily relocate to Saudi Arabia (they do a better job of keeping their people down ;)), but we couldn't because the girls and I did not have Saudi visas.  Most of the families relocated for a week or two...things calmed down...and everyone came back.  The company started work on a visa for us just in case. 

We still lived our lives pretty much the same.  We determined whether to keep the girls home from school that day by whether the school was open and whether Janie's arab friends told us.  By the middle of March, things started getting a little more violent.  We never ever felt scared or in danger.  The girls school closed off and on due to protests.  The danger wasn't where we were living or going to school necessarily...but it was on the way to school.  The military was scared that we would get stuck in traffic due to protests...I guess the thought of a bus load of military/DoD and American kids stuck for hours in traffic is not the ideal situation.  Each bus had a trained Nepalese Gurkha (or at least we think they were...no one really knows, but they are the ones that guard the gate in to the school) and they carried a briefcase with a gun, but the bus caught in a four hour traffic jam is still a sitting duck.

After a few days where things seemed to be escalating, John called and said to get ready to go because the company was making it mandatory that we evacuate to Saudi Arabia...I was just coming out of the grocery store and I was obviously not happy about the situation as we did NOT feel unsafe.  We weren't being naive...we were being realistic.  We would not leave our children in a place where we felt there was eminent danger.   BUT, we weren't given a choice so in four hours we each packed a suitcase and waited for John to get there...he had to sit and wait for two hours at the border for all the Saudi military to cross over in to Bahrain to help keep the peace.  We each only packed a suitcase because we thought it was going to be just like the previous evacuation and be for just a few weeks.  We got in to Saudi and waited.  The school was closed for a week or so, but then re-opened.  For two weeks we sat in Saudi with nothing to do waiting for the company to decide when it was safe enough to go home.  And we waited....and waited...On March 27th they called the families together and told us we could never go back to Bahrain.  So in the middle of the school semester the company officially moved us.  They gave us two choices:  stay in Saudi and put your kids in school in Dhahran (an hour and a half drive one way on a very dangerous highway) or go home.  We cried and agonized over the situation and we chose to go home.  Given only those two choices, it was the best decision for our family.  It was a gut-wrenching decision.  Within 6 hours of our decision we were on a plane home to Texas.  We wanted to keep life as normal as possible for the girls who were just uprooted from their home, life and all their friends.  The best way we could think of was to put them back in to their previous life. 

Back to Texas...

The evacuation back home was an easy in the sense that we moved back to our old house, the girls went back to their old schools, Alison was there, and I got to see my sister and my parents...but it was also a bit difficult.  There was no closure for the girls.  They had a life in Bahrain and in a blink of an eye they had to leave everything behind.   We came home and did a few renovations to the house before realizing that we were not going to be staying.  John was in Saudi and loved his job there...our choices were stay in Texas and see John once every three months, or move back to Saudi and live with him.  The girls were clear that they wanted to go back to the Middle East as soon as they could.  John and I weren't sure what to do.  Janie was going to be a Senior, Maddie would be starting high school....Once we found the home school program for Janie through the University of Texas, we decided we could move back.  So we enjoyed our summer in the States spending time with friends and family before moved back to Saudi on August 23rd.  We got to go see Wicked on Broadway and the Alexander McQueen Exhibit at the Met AND the girls got to shop in New York in June.  It was an incredible vacation....we LOVE NYC!

From Bahrain to Texas to Saudi...

The transition back to Saudi has not been easy.  We moved in to a huge compound with all the other Chevron Phillips families.  The compound is like a luxury resort...it is so beautiful that you almost forget that it is smack dab in the middle of the desert.  Compound living has proved to be difficult for us.  There is little privacy, the people here have been here for a year so they already have their friends/groups, and we are unable to drive so we are completely dependent on the use of a company driver and car.  If I'm being honest, I was still harboring much resentment towards the company (and a little anger towards God) for uprooting our lives without really a chance for us to plead our case.  There were no considerations made for those few families that had high school aged kids...they made a blanket rule and we had no recourse.  On top of being an resentful, not having many friends here, and having to start all over again, Madeline got sick.  We had been here for a week or two when she started feeling sick.  She has always been hypoglycemic, but her symptoms changed.  We spent the first two months of our stay here going back and forth to the hospital....it is an hour and a half drive to the good international hospital.  She ended up having to stay for three or four days in the hospital to no end.  We did blood tests and ultrasounds and more blood tests.  It was a long and tiring two months....It is very draining to drive to Khobar every day and see doctors all day and never get a diagnosis. 

After months of tests with no diagnosis we decided to take a break from doctors.  That is when I heard about a woman here on the compound that had just gotten a PhD in Natural Medicine.  She had a lot of diagnostic equipment and machines that could help us.  After having seen her for a few times we finally got the diagnosis of Epstein-Barrs Virus/Mononucleosis.  Which in hindsight, I could have figured out....I remembered that Madeline had been exposed to a friend with Mono right before we left for Saudi.  Long story short...she is doing better.  We have been here for about four months and she has had about two to three weeks of good health.  She is still exhausted, but she is starting to improve.  Her mood is improving as her health improves.

The other sticking point in living here, Bahrain still being closed to visits, has now been rectified...sort of.  Last week our company finally decided to start letting us visit Bahrain on a very limited basis.  We are allowed to go on day trips only with the company vehicles.  So hopefully as the year progresses we will be able to go more often and for longer periods of time.  Unfortunately, many of our friends have been reassigned and have moved on without us getting to say good-bye.  BUT, we will take what we can get!  We feel less like caged animals now that we can go to Bahrain and have a few hours of freedom a week!!!!!  We are happy about that.

What's next...

Well, who knows what is next?  John is off for the rest of the year and we have been discussing some short term goals as well as trying to decide about long term goals.  In the short term, Janie is attempting to finish her high school classes by February or March.  We are going to Istanbul for Christmas for ten days.  There is NO celebration of Christmas in Saudi so it will be nice to go somewhere that isn't so strict about that....Bahrain has quite a few Christmas decorations so it is fun to go there, but we are excited about getting out of here for ten days....

We are in discussions about where to go for spring break.  Alison will be spending her spring break in London...her Shakespeare class at Texas A&M is going as part of the class....it should be awesome.  Her spring break doesn't coincide with ours so we wouldn't be able to spend it together anyway.  We are talking about Jordan, Beirut, London, or Cyprus for spring break.  We cannot decide.  We want to see as much of the Middle East as we can before moving somewhere else in a few years.

Because of Madeline's situation with the school, she has decided to go to boarding school next year.  Her school of choice is in New York...just outside of the city on the Hudson River.  It has a great Fine Arts program which is what she is looking for.  She is hoping to take voice lessons and go to some acting camps and workshops this summer.  It is so difficult for me to let her go...my idea of having three years left with my youngest at home with us is shattered.  I am mourning the loss of proms, homecomings, etc.  I know that it will just be a new normal for us, but it is still difficult to let go of her so soon.  I have been praying about this situation for the guidance to do what is right for Maddie.  She is excited because she really wants to live in NYC (and who doesn't!?!?)! 

Janie is planning on attending Texas A&M and living with Alison in College Station next year.  She is going to enjoy her last few months in the Middle East before heading home to the States.  We are planning on selling our house in Sweeny and buying a house in College Station.  Our home base will there for the forseeable future.  We will make the decision on when to sell it within the next few weeks.  BUT, if you know someone in the market for a 4-2-2 detached garage with new tiles floors, updated bathrooms, a new paint job,  and a new A/C on in Sweeny...let me know :)

For me, with no kids home, it will be hard.  I can't even think about it without getting sad.  I will have some freedom to go back and forth between the States and Saudi because they won't be here...I will definitely be home more!  I will get to see my family more and I want to go to parent's weekend at A&M in October, go to an Aggie football game, go to Parent's Weekend at Maddie's new school in October.  BUT, ultimately, my home is here in Saudi with John. 

It has been a year of changes and adjustments, but we are doing well.  We really are blessed beyond belief.  We have so much to be thankful for.  I am so thankful for my husband...I still get butterflies thinking about him.  I am thankful for my girls...they have been such a blessing and they have been so easy to raise.  They are amazing children and I love them so much.  I am thankful that we have this opportunity to live overseas even if it hasn't always been smooth sailing.  God has kept us on our toes to say the least.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Conversations with the "Internet Repairman"

Our internet has been very slow...so I ask John to call and ask when or if it is ever going to be fixed.  I am sure that it has something to do with the fact that it was Game Day and everyone was watching their Slingboxes.  Nonetheless, it had been a trying day and I wanted some answers.  John, knowing better than to disagree with me as he knew about my day, picked up the phone and told them that our internet was slow and then he said, "ok," hung up and gave me a shrug.  Um, not exactly what I had in mind, but unless I wanted to call myself, I wasn't going to complain.

Ten minutes later the doorbell rings.  It's an "internet repairman" come to fix our internet.  Well, the internet works...it's just slow.  Debating whether to spend 15 minutes explaining to him that it isn't broken, just slow, I decided against it to see what kind of magic he could work...lol

He comes in....looks at the tv....asks a question that John answers....he looks at the wall...he looks at the tv...he goes to the panic room and looks at the connections...he then resets our wireless router (interrupting what we were watching)...and then the rest of the conversation...

HIM:  Fixed.
ME:  Did you just reset our wireless router?
HIM:  Fixed
ME:  It wasn't broken...it's just REALLY slow and it has been for a week or so.
HIM:  Yes.  Fixed.
ME:  Um, thanks?

Conversations with a Plumber...of some sort...that doesn't speak English...

This is how the conversation went when the "plumber" showed up to turn the thermostat on our hot water heater up...apparently the hot water heater is above the second floor somewhere....

Me:  Hello...how are you?
Him:  Fix water heater.
Me:  (trying to debate whether I should explain to him it isn't broken just that it needs to be hotter...I decide against it)...Yes.  Where is it?  How will you get to it?
Him:  No
Me:  How will you get to it??? 
Him:  ***gives puzzled look then says a word I am unfamiliar with***
Me:  Do you have to go through a room to get to the hot water heater???
Him:  **puzzled look**
Me:  How do you get to it?
Him:  undecipherable word...thankfully a small cherry picker comes around the corner and he then points to the cherry picker.
Me:  Ohhhhh...ok
Him:  Housekeeping?
Me:  What?
Him:  Housekeeping?
Me:  I don't know what you mean?
Him:  Housekeeping?
Me:  Yes.
Him: Who?
Me:  I don't know.
He then proceeds to do his work and I go inside.  Once he is finished he comes inside and tests all the water.
Him:  New
Me:  What?
Him:  New
Me:  Oh, thank you very much.

Ugh.

Things that make you say, "hmmmmm"

We have learned some things and made some changes to help Madeline and all of us get healthier.  I wanted to share some of the basic things we have learned and changed in hopes that this information might help someone else.

Dehydration is responsible for 60 to 80% of the health issues people have today.  We started drinking a glass of water before every meal.  The rule of thumb should be that you should drink at least half of your body weight (in ounces) every single day.  It is hard, but it works.  My heartburn is virtually gone.

Refined salt can make you sick - arthritis, peptic ulcers, asthma...Unrefined salt can lower blood pressure, prevent diabetes, cancer.  We started using Himalayan unrefined sea salt.  We drink a big glass of water first then we take about a half of a teaspoon of salt and wash it down with a few sips of water.  Again, this coupled with the increased water intake has virtually cured my excessive heartburn.

The high amounts of sugar consumed today is toxic and creates high oxidative stress.  The diet sweetener, aspartame, makes you gain weight, produces methyl alcohol, & a host of health problems.  75% of complaints to the FDA are concerning aspartame.  The Gulf War Syndrome is thought to have been caused by our soldiers drinking diet sodas containing aspartame that had been sitting out in the sun.  We are trying to eat better....we are slowly taking refined sugar and processed foods out of our diets...but we are taking baby steps here.  It won't happen overnight, but every small step we make is a step towards better health.

1Tbsp of raw honey before bed helps the liver detoxify while you sleep.  We have been taking the teaspoon right before bedtime with a big glass of water.

Low protein diets increase the toxicity of xenobiotics (toxins).  Proteins provides the amino acids which are the building blocks for body growth and repair.  Different body types need different protein sources. We are in the process of determining our metabolic type to try and help Madeline determine which proteins are better for her.  She has hypoglycemia and ate mostly empty carbs so we have been experimenting with different foods to help keep her from crashing in between meals.  So far we have found that Babybel cheese seems to work very well...they are like little protein pucks! 

Coconut oil has gotten a bad rap as a saturated fat.  Saturated fats do not increase cholesterol, but polyunsaturated fats do.  Coconut oil promotes a decrease of white fat stores, improves brain function and improves immune system functioning,  We have been cooking and frying using coconut oil for a few weeks now and it is fabulous.  Eating foods fried in coconut oil makes them far less heavy.  We really enjoy this change.  I think it is more readily available here than the U.S., but I did buy it in the the States before...I think GNC is where I bought it.

New airport scanners emit cell destroying radiation.  They never were subjected to any critical evaluation as is medical equipment.  We will be opting out of scanners from here on out...what's a little pat down compared to the increased risk of cancer, infertility, etc. that the scanners have.  We also will not be doing any more vaccinations.  I have done more and more research on this and am convinced that they do more harm than good.  Laugh if you want, but first do your homework...read BOTH sides and make an informed decision for yourself.  Five years of having an annual flu vaccination increases your risk of Alzheimer's by 10-fold.

These are just a few of the changes we are making.  They are easy and so far we have seen a marked difference in the way wee feel.  We are also using different energy treatments such as a laser, cell stimulators, frequencies, etc. to try and help Maddie's body heal itself.  Because of her diet being so poor for so long (as most teenagers diets are), when she was exposed to a virus like Epstein-Barr her body just didn't have the reserves to fight it off.  She was hit hard and it has been a long 10 weeks of illness and fatigue.  We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  What we have learned is that you have to take ownership of your own health.  You have to do your research and make a conscious decision to eat better. 

Take this with a grain of salt (unrefined, of course) and do your own research.  Hopefully this might be able to help someone else who finds themselve in a pit like we were.

Postcards from the Edge...

I haven't updated our blog in months!  Not much to tell...not much to do here in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.  We live on a compound that is literally a master planned resort.  Unfortunately there is little contact or integration in to the local culture.  We are just like one big American neighborhood set in the middle of Saudi Arabia....except our neighborhood is guarded with machine guns and the Saudi National Guard...they are disguised for the most part.It's kind of sad how little contact we have with other cultures.  Madeline has more contact with different nationalities as there are lots of different countries represented at her school.

Madeline goes to the International School here in Jubail.  Americans seem to be the minority there.  The majority of the Americans that attend school there are the CPChem kids.  Half of the school (and our compound) is French.  Total, a French company, is building a plant here so there is a large group of French people.  Maddie has friends from Asia, South Africa, New Zealand, Venezuela, Canada, etc.  We really like the school here...and she has some awesome teachers!  The teachers really seem to want to be here (unlike the Bahrain School) and many of them are from Canada.  Unfortunately this is the last year Madeline can attend...they do have a tenth grade, but it only has a few kids and it gets harder and harder to get a kid into boarding school the older they are...for whatever reason.  She is in choir and theater and loves them both...she also has Rock Band as an after school activity two days a week.  She wants to play soccer too....she was too sick during volleyball season so she had to miss that.

Janie is still home schooling.  Those of you that know Janie know my challenge with this...lol.  She is finishing up three classes in the next week or so.  We have had some internet challenges, but she shall overcome!  She taught two cheerleading clinics in October that were very successful.  The first clinic we had 15 girls and it was so successful that the teacher/sponsor asked if she would do another one.  The second clinic she had 30 little girls.  It was so much fun!  She starts teaching a cheerleading class after school the first week of December.  Some of the little girls that joined have never even heard of cheerleading.  They are so excited and full of energy!  I am excited that Janie will have something do to outside of this compound even if it is only once or twice a week.

John is working all the time.  He is in Italy on business right now.  They are having some difficulty getting the (Italian made) equipment started....the plant can't start until his compressors do soooooooo....Hopefully the plant will be up and running by the end of the year so that he won't have to work 14-16 hour days anymore.  He loves his job so that is good.

We are planning on going to Istanbul, Turkey for Christmas vacation.  Alison is coming to visit for a couple of weeks, but we have to take a vacation somewhere because it isn't very fun to be here on this compound for more than a week.  I miss Alison desperately and I cannot wait to see her!!!

We are planning on coming home July 1st.  I am counting the days.  Madeline is trying to decide where she wants to go to school next year.  She is leaning towards a boarding school in Dobbs Ferry, New York.  It makes me sick that I won't be with her every day, but it is what it is.  We are praying about it and I know that God will reveal his plan for her and us.