So yesterday, I went to a salon with a girl who babysits my daughter. She learned English through movies and music. She is the Zack Morris of the desert, I was hungry and told her, "hey lets eat something." Then she said,"Ok Do you wanna have pizza?" I said yes. then she says, "This place is amazing. Their pizza is so nice. They have a family section and we go there all the time. You are gonna love it I tell you. This place just opened up last year and its a hit" Then I asked her, "Whats the name of it thinking its probably some ethnic version of pizza from a local place. She says, "Its called Pizza Hut" lol I am like "ohhh is that so!" lol.....She was so much fun.

Hospitality here is amazing. People do not count the nickel and dimes and measure every little amount of generosity. They simply give without ever asking anything in return. It is so nice here. This is exactly what I was looking for. Pure fusha Arabic, Bedouin culture, peaceful and practicing community of Muslims.

In short, I was invited to a Saudi’s house who was a dean of a community college here and his wife worked in my uni in the Dean’s office. She was the Dean’s assistant or something. He wanted me to tutor his kids. He tried hard to get my number, finally got a hold of me, and had a Jordanian man who was his translator. He sent a driver to pick me up, negotiated a price to tutor his kids and had fancy Saudi dinner for me, Saudi style. It was amazing. =) We talked about traveling, life in Riyadh, his 5 kids and one on the way, his servant from Sri Lanka and showed me pics from his travels to India. He told me that he has 3 wives – one here, one in Jeddah, and one in Dammam. He said it seriously. Then, his wife said “no he doesn’t” and he said he is joking. I wonder if they are covering it up to impress me. Then I asked him, “Why don’t you have more than 1 wife?” He did not understand my question. Lol In any case, we had a wonderful time. His house was huge like a mansion. Later, I asked about camels in this area, as you know, I am a camel lover. He and his wife then took me to the camel barn and it was fantastic. Nothing but the star light guides the camels in the darkness. So many of them in all sizes and different shades of white and brown. You bet I am going to visit that camel barn again! They gave a present to my daughter and dropped me back to my hotel which is my home now.

What else can I say, its been a week here. Everyone is very nice to me and I miss my kids n family a lot. Ohh and by the way, the rich Saudi guy asked me if I had a website. i accidentally said yes. He wanted to see it and so I told him I will give it to him later. After all this posting, like I really wanna give it to him? lol

So, you know Jasmine from Aladdin, right. So the Jasmine that I found here was a student in the PYP year, her hair, big eyes, eccentric lips, etc was just like jasmine from Aladdin.  Her lips were red as rose, her facial features dating back to Arab roots, her hair had volume like never before and was black as coal ( no, not Snow White, but if I find her, I will write about it) and indeed the way she carried herself truly reminded me of Jasmine in every possible way. She was extremely beautiful and I am sure she must be one of the popular girls. Of course, she had a lot of make up to add to it. Her makeup was nicely put.

My Egyptian driver told me that in this university there are love relationships between the boys and girls, which are not approvable in this culture. He says that it is a problem.  I told him, “really, how? It’s totally separated from the men’s campus and the women are totally covered from head to toe, so how does it happen?” Of course, I doubt that anything happens all the way in western terms but getting to know someone, wow, surprises me.

My colleagues try very hard impressing me. Atleast, in this part of the world Americans are welcomed.

I love Shopping here, I love my hotel suite. alhumdulilah life is great here.

So there is a Yemeni family who have been born and raised in Rafha. They are taking care of Jameelah. The woman who is the age of a grandmother loves jameelah and takes care of her like her own daughter. So i was explaining to her about the expressed milk and I showed it to her. She did not understand it until my colleague explained it to her. She thinks its disgusting. lol So the babysitter would not give her my milk because she thinks that it is bad and will cause her to fall sick. In her mind, milk comes from the breast to mouth - never breast to bottle. It was an unbelievable concept and she feared it would cause harm to Jameelah. Man, there is no convincing an old woman in the middle of the desert. Her expression was like,  "what! how? no! why? yuk!" lol Atleast, Jameelah is in good care, perhaps even better care than I can give.

Here is what I have noticed. The Arabs of the US and in the big cities in the Middle East, speak a different Arabic on a whole different level. Because I am recalling the fushaa Arabic that I learned back at Rutgers. When I would use what I learned in the restaurants of Paterson and the doctors office etc, they would not understand me.(My accent was perfect so that wasn't the issue) Here, in Rafha, I am using what I learned in Rutgers, and they understand me and reply back  to me with the answers I learned back at uni. So the language is pure and has not evolved here as much. I am so glad Jameelah is going to learned the purest of Arabic, Alhumdulilah

From Riyadh to Rafha, I arrived on a jet sitting next to a Bedouin woman. She was very kind. They wear the Abayah, the kind that goes over the head. They are totally draped. You cannot see a single flesh of their body. This will be the sight that one can expect when traveling to Rafha. Riadh on the other hand, has a diverse group or foreigners consisting of Europeans, South Asians, and others. My flight from Munich had mostly Americans, Germans, and British people. Were they there for vacationing? I think not. When I arrived in Riyadh, it was quite funny, not in a bad way, but funny to see the Western nonmuslim women, trying to put on their abayah and hijab prior to entering the immigration lanes. This new site of the ‘white woman’ in full abaya was incredible indeed. They are brave! They are all here for the same purpose, employment, with the hopes of saving up a pot of gold and a good quality of life.

Back to Rafha, I was picked up by my colleagues, who were from Jordan. They were Palestinians with Jordanian passports. When I heard his accent, I said to myself, “Ohh, this is a familiar accent that I know!” Driving back to my new residence which is a one bedroom suite in a hotel, very nice  =), he was telling me with his wife in the car about Rafha and that there is basically nothing to do here. Shortly after unloading my bags to my suite, we headed to the university where I was to meet the director for the women’s campus. Believe me; she was so excited to know that I was American. But before I go there, let me tell about my entrance to the university.

The whole city of Rafha is very old, isolated and not wealthy. It is a Bedouin land middle of nowhere. It is near the border of Iraq. Today, Bedouins do not live in tents as they once used to. They live in buildings and houses that look like a scene from Aladdin. Believe me when I tell you how fascinated I was to see Arabic graffiti on the walls. Moving along, outside on the streets, women are covered head to toe, no eyes, feet or hands can be seen. It is as if they put a black bed sheet over their head. As we arrived at the girls campus entrance, the female college students were waiting outside for their rides in their full black outer garments called the abayah – (a bit different from what city girls wear). Together my new colleague and I entered the campus and behold the site that I saw. I know from my experience with Arabs in the US about their culture and customs. I am aware at what happens when its “girls only”. But here, once we entered amongst all these Bedouin female college students who were not in abayah when inside these campus walls, it was a site that I wish I could capture with Kodak. The walls are so high that no one can escape in or out, or take a peek from the highest building in this town. These girls wore skirts, ankle length as that was the uniform. Fashion in this area was incredible. They would wear bright red lipstick as well as pink. Hair was long and had volume and highlights. Most girls took extra time to fashion up. It was as if I had entered a harem with beautiful gorgeous women enjoying relaxation time with their friends in several parts of this big campus. There are approximatly 2000-3000 girls ages 18-20. They study PYP English, Chemistry, Pharmacy etc. Within these walls was a life of its own. All of these students are Bedouins from Rafha, and from other locations. Some students travel 2 hours by bus to come here. I was so glad to be amongst them. Boy, were they happy to meet an American!

The professors remind me of home and they are wonderful, hospitable and genuinely nice people. Alhumdulilah. So today, I observed other professors here. During the lesson, we discovered that these girls do not know their birthday. They know technology-don’t get me wrong. They have cell phones, Ipads, etc all these things can be found in Rafha. But their connection to the outside world and what’s happening is far too limited. I am dying to interview them about their life plans and future goals, you know me. My colleagues are so interested in me just as I am interested in all of them. I must tell you about my daughter’s nursery. I shall save that story for another day, perhaps tomorrow. =)

I arrived at the Sarah compound. It is nice but not totally. There is a pool, gym and a basketball court. There are 3 drivers on staff, and there is a watch man there 24/7. For Fajr, I heard the athan and went searching for a masjid. So I left with my Jameelah, and together in the darkness of the morning hours, we followed the few men who were entering a building in front of our compound. It was a masjid. I was the only woman there along with Jameelah. It was fun. Then, my driver was there and he told me that women cant enter from where I did. And I told him that the entrance was closed. He said ok. Together he walked me back to the compound, with the look that he did not expect me to walk out of the compound and pray in the masjid. He was a cool guy from Sudan. My roomies are so pleasant. There is a woman from South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. They are nice. Internet connection is horrible here. G2g will write more later.

My journey begins when I left home. It breaks my heart to leave Shaafee and Saleh and most of all Shaafee cried at the airport. I cannot imagine what it is like for someone you love the most to leave you and to not know when you will return. Shaafee has gone through this for the 2nd time - First with my dad leaving to India and now his very own mother leaving and not knowing when we will be reunited. We prays that inshAllah it happens soon – being reunited.

With all that being said, Jameelah has been great and wonderful. No troubles what so ever, it’s great to have a baby, they sure do help you skip the lines. She is comfortably sitting in her cot and is doing wonderful. Its so cute mashAllah her little crib. This flight is packed and she gets a cot! Lufthansa is awesome. =)

I hope that when I arrive there, things will be great inshAllah. I will let you know what happens once I get there. Till then, wasalam .