Volleyball Tournament

Looking South on the Rastanura Aramco Beach on the Persian Gulf

This past weekend I got a chance to see what it’s like to live as Saudi royalty. All right, not exactly royalty, but pretty near to it. I went along as a chaperone with the JV Boys Volleyball team to their season ending tournament at the ARAMCO compound on the Persian Gulf side of the kingdom.  For those of you who don’t know, ARAMCO, is the biggest oil company in the world and they have serious money to throw at their facilities and employees. Teachers working at Aramco schools earn 100-150% higher wages than our district, and the compounds they live in are like countries within a country. For example, the compound we were housed on had an actual movie theatre! Yes, outside the Aramco fiefdom, movie theatres are HARAM! (sinful/unlawful for muslims) Not only did they have a theatre, but there was a beautiful, 5km stretch of white sand beach where women could dress as they would at any North American beach. All in all, we had a great time. Our boys thought they had entered utopia! They primarily come from upper middle class Indian or Pakistani families and so the wide streets, suburban yards and homes, green sportsfields and baseball diamonds, not to mention the peaceful security of the compound was something most of them had never seen before. The Rec centre was also a big highlight with it’s pingpong, fussball, video games, and billiards. It was heaven for boys who live a pretty boring life of seclusion and have hardly any social outlets in Yanbu. But in all honesty, I think the part these 14 year old guys liked the most was that some of the female teens watching the volleyball action at the Aramco school were wearing short-shorts. That’s something they NEVER see in Yanbu!!!

In Other News…

• Elisha is still expecting! The due date is the 25th, so everytime my cell rings I hurriedly answer it hoping it’s news from her.
• umm…that’s about it.