To compound or not to compound

GE (Wade’s employer) does not provide their employee’s housing, but instead gives them a housing stipend and charges them to find their own, where they wish.  When we signed up for this Mid-East shenanigan I was fairly hell bent that we end up on a compound. The idea of not being able to walk out my front door without an abaya on, or to have neighbors I could not communicate with was not only foreign but intimidating. I was convinced that if we were to live on a compound, I would be eased into Saudi life at a much more manageable pace and would be able to escape it should I ever want to. I even made Wade promise when I dropped him off at the airport to do his best to get us on a compound. I knew they were expensive, I knew there were waiting lists to get on many of them but I made him promise anyway.

He started looking as soon as he was able to get to Riyadh and find the time but quickly came to the conclusions I already knew. Those compounds worth living on were too expensive (they would eat up our whole housing stipend and then some, a lot some) and they had waiting lists. There were other small compounds but they were old, dingy and quite a ways out of the city.

So, with much begrudgement on my part (totally made up that word), we opted to go Saudi raw (also made up this phrase) and rent a villa in a middle class Riyadh neighborhood. Some pro’s and con’s attached to this decision:

PRO: We would be able to pocket a large portion of our housing stipend. (Or in my secret thoughts, use it for travel.)

PRO: Our home would be ours. i.e. no 1980’s cheap, hotel, whose knows what’s happened on this, furniture. We would be able to decorate as we wished.

CON: We left all our furniture in storage in the States, thinking we’d move into a furnished unit. We would now have to furnish an entire home.

PRO: We would dare to venture where few Westerner’s have dared to venture before. Saudi in the raw.

CON: We were venturing where few Westerner’s have dared to venture before. Saudi in the raw.

PRO: We would be able to experience Saudi Arabia in a way, many Westerners never do, even after living here for 10 years.

PRO: We would live right next to Scott and Sophie. We’d have friends, support and playmates one door over.

CON: They would probably be the only support and playmates on the street.

PRO: Compounds are much higher targets for bombings or other violent political demonstrations as they are full of western ex-patriots.

PRO: We would be close to the city center, but far enough to avoid the downtown congestion and traffic.

CON: There would be no sidewalks, no yard, no outdoor space to speak of for the kids to play. Other than the rooftop deck and front inner courtyard.

PRO: Anyone could come visit us at anytime (and however many people we wanted) with out making a call to security, showing a passport, having their car searched etc.

CON: I wouldn’t be able to step out my front door, take out the garbage etc. without donning the abaya.

PRO: We’d have enough money to hire our own driver.

PRO: The villa would include a driver’s room, a space for him to hangout and relax in between running us where we needed to go.

Hells bells. The pro’s won. I got behind the decision best I could and we moved forward. And by get behind the decision I mean, I didn’t tell anyone we weren’t living on a compound because I didn’t want to hear the reaction. People would look at me like I had 3 heads and then would quickly beginning spewing forth all the reasons this was a very, very bad idea. So, I just began nodding my head and smiling when people told me, “Oh it will be fine, you’ll be on a nice compound, make lots of friends etc. etc.”

Landing and immediately having to furnish an entire house and by entire house, I mean not only furniture, but dishes, glasses, many linens, décor, rugs, a broom for heavens sake was a daunting task. Think about everything in your house. Everything. I pretty much had to buy it. In a foreign country. That speaks marginal English. And that thinks this is not only an acceptable, but desirable way to decorate your house.

All this while simultaneously getting my child into school, trying to help my children adjust to a new place, new life, living out of a hotel room, trying to remember to throw on an abaya every time I went anywhere, dealing with the dramatically different culture and a husband that was traveling 3 days a week. It was a lot peeps. But, in the famous words of Boyd K. Packer, “It will all work out.” It did. Three months in and we are living comfortably in raw Saudi. We don’t know the difference. We moved to Saudi, moved into a Riyadh neighborhood and this is how we do it. Once we replenish the moola it took to furnish the place, we will indeed be able to save that money we came here to save. I will admit that I take a little pride in doing something than many others would never do. And last, but definitely not least, we have been able to have some experiences that some people who live here for 10-15 years on a compound never have. Like being invited to the Al-Sudari family’s house (multiple times now) across the street to eat chicken kamsa and rice on the floor, with our hands, followed by a Saudi dance session to go until 1 AM, all the while either interpreting through the housemaid or making dramatic hand gestures. This deserves a post all it’s own and will get one. But suffice it to say, we made the right call.

And because many of you have expressed interest and because I think it will be fun for the kids to look back on one day, here’s a looksy into our neighborhood and villa.

Home sweet home. Our door is the one that is open, to the right is the Terry’s. The small doors on either side of those are drivers rooms.

Both sides of the street.

Lots of new construction around us. But we do have a Tamimi, my favorite grocer, going in right at the bottom of the street. I’m taking this photo from the front of our house.

Our front court. I am standing at our front door, looking at the large steel doors that you see from the street.

When you enter our home, you go right up a flight of stairs to enter the main house.

Top of the stairs. To the right is the family room, women’s dining room (which we have made a playroom) and kitchen. To the left, the men’s dining room (which houses our treadmill). It is very common in traditional Saudi homes to have separate dining and sitting areas for men and women. This way when extended family or friends are over, the women don’t have to veil the whole time in front of men they’re not blood related too (this includes in-laws), they just go to the women’s area.

(sigh) Those mango floors. There’s only so much you can do. And that box of Quaker Oat Squares on the counter? I may or may not have paid $8 for them. An American in Saudi wants what she wants.

Upstairs are the bedrooms and laundry.

The closet/storage. Nary a closet in the house to speak of. You want to store anything, you must buy a piece of furniture to store it in. This too, I am finding is common here. Apparently, Saudi’s don’t have as much crap as Americans to squirrel away in closet after closet.

The upstairs/master/slash only bathroom in the house with a tub. This is where we all shower and brush our teeth.

There are still things I’d like to do. Pictures that need to be hung, décor and final details. But they will come with time and money. Ha. Wade has put me on a “no more buying anything for the house until after the summer budget”.

So there she is. Home.

And this morning, this is the best feature Ms. Villa has to offer.