11.5.09 - Today, many things have fallen into place and I can't believe how easy life has become, compared to London and compared to the past few weeks. For all of you with children and/or stressful lives, you may not want to read this, or do, if you are thinking of moving out here.
The children now take the compound bus to their school, it's free, there's a monitor on board who makes sure all the children are accounted for and are wearing their seat belts, and it departs at 7.30am, very close to our house so the children can walk to it alone. The children also take the bus back from school (which is also a great advantage as they finish at different times). Saving: compared to London I'm now saving at least 10 hours a week in school runs. I still find it strange to be pottering around the house and suddenly Oliver will appear, home from school.
wave pool and slide - 30 seconds away
Rosalie now goes to the compound Montessori every morning 3 minutes walk away. It's well staffed, cost effective and she gets a chance to mix with lots of other children. Which means I have my mornings free, hurray! I collect her around 12 and we come back home, have lunch together and she has a snooze.
If I need food, there's a little supermarket on the compound, one minute away, they have all the basics, and they deliver if I'm too lazy to carry. If there is a problem with the house, I just call maintenance with electricians, carpenters, plumbers, etc on tap to come and fix things, at no cost. They'll put pictures up, change plugs, service air conditioning units, etc etc. They turn up on a bicycle with their tool box mounted on the back and it's amazing what they can fix with a few simple tools.
When the children come back they do their homework (Seb has surprisingly little) and then they are off. They play outside, scoot around the compound, hook up with other children or we all go to the pool together which is 30 seconds away and is practically a private pool, a handful of people use it as there are many others dotted around the compound. The children are now friends with with some of our neighbours and people's doors are usually open, so we're in and out of each others houses. It's all very informal. I usually hang out at the pool playing with the children and chatting to other mums until Dirk comes back (around 5.30pm - he starts at 6.30am so it's a long day for him). We'll then head back to the house for dinner, or to someone else'shouse for a group dinner.
view from our back door
Compound life is quite unique way of living, cross between a holiday resort and a gated community, a lot of the time is spent outdoors and this has many benefits. The children get plenty of exercise, they don't fight as much, they get to meet and play with other children (much more fun than playing with siblings), the house doesn't get dirty or messy nearly as quickly and you have company if you want it.
Socialising and meeting people is effortless, everyone is relaxed, also keen to make friends and there is an interesting mix of nationalities and life stories. There are also many activities and outings on offer: Bridge evenings, parties, book groups, shopping outings, coffee mornings, cake sales, etc. There's a gym on the compound, yoga and pilates classes, a bowling alley, tennis and squash courts, playgounds, and a huge wave pool with an impressive spiraling slide. All free. The rent (which is sky high due to shortages of accommodation on Western villas) includes the use of all the facilities. There's also a hairdresser, beauty salon, dry cleaning, DVD rental shop and restaurant. We've yet to use any of the facilities, we've been happy hanging around the pool so far.
We have a lady from the Philipines starting tomorrow who will do cleaning and ironing. Some people have full time maids, I drew the line at 3 half days a week. One day a week she'll cook us a Filipino meal. Saving: having a cleaner, and spending so much time outside probably saves Dirk and I about 20 hours of household chores a week.
Before leaving, when I first talked to people about life in compounds, I was quite convinced it was not my type of thing. I would be bored, wanted more from life than hanging around the pool getting my nails done. But I am enjoying it thoroughly (have not had my nails done!), the simplicity of it, the easy socialising, the children's freedom and independence, the much reduced mindless chores, and I have so much more time and headspace. It's peaceful here and hard not to enjoy. I know that soon I will want to add another dimension to my expat bubble, and hope to meet local Saudis, get to know their culture, and hopefully leverage my skills and experience to find interesting work. But for the moment it still all feels like a holiday and I'm making the most of it.
Next posting: it's not all rosy here, and there have been and will be more challenges....
Oli has lost all inhibitions - jumping into
our local pool, 15 seconds away
Seb, as mad as ever
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