An answer to an email

I was sent an email by an acquaintance asking for a brief overview of life here in the Middle East. Their family is considering a move here so wanted a basic breakdown of what it's like day to day. I decided to post an excerpt from my response here to the blog. Here it is:

So first of all, I'll start with my less than busy life. I have to say that is one of the best reasons for moving here. I don't know what your experience has been but I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed with all the choices we had in UT. I don't know if it's a UT thing, an LDS thing, or because we have a lot of kids, but we were constantly on the go. The kids would get home from school at 3:00 and it was non-stop with Scouts, Activity Days, Todd's church meetings, Enrichment meetings, school performances and practices, Dr. appts., PTA and SCC meetings, piano lessons, soccer, Jr. Jazz, swimming lessons, playdates, homework, and I could go on and on. All of these were good things but it was nice to come here and make a fresh start with no expectations from neighbors and friends that our kids would be involved in all this stuff. You can find many of these things or others to keep yourself busy but we needed a break. It's been so nice to be home on a weekday evening reading or playing UNO and being able to take day trips on Saturdays with the family.

One way to make this possible is the affordability of house help here. Many locals have live-in maids. We've chosen to have a part time maid. I'll still like my kids to learn a little about cleaning so I don't want our maid to do it all. I've told my kids she's my helper, not theirs :)

Day to day life is very similar to what we had in the States except for all the outside commitments. We get up in the morning and the kids head off to school. We take them in the morning and they ride a school bus home. They'd have to ride for over an hour in the morning which is why we take them instead. Right now they attend International School of Choueifat (ISC). Last year in Kuwait it was American School of Kuwait (ASK). We haven't been impressed with either school--if you'd like me to tell you why let me know and I'd be happy to tell you. But because we haven't liked them we've decided to homeschool this coming year. Most companies that hire expats give great deals on moving expenses, good salaries, and they pay at least a portion of the private school tuition. We've decided to take our portion of school tuition and apply it toward a homeschool curriculum. The kids get home from school and they do their chores and homework. We do have them involved in some things--piano lessons, my oldest is in the school play, and my oldest boy is in scouts. I have a 9 year old girl that I think would LOVE Activity Day and I miss that she isn't involved in it. Here in Jordan they don't do it at all. In Kuwait we did it once a month and involved all the senior primary--even the boys--since there is no church sponsored scouts.

As far as "comforts" of home . . . .hmmmm. Define comforts. We have plenty of food but it isn't necessarily the brands or what we're used to. Any processed type food is outrageously expensive (cold cereal is roughly between $6-$8 a box--even Malt O Meal bagged cereal is $5 for the small bags) and anything like that that comes from the states you may find one week but then can't find it again for a couple of months. You can always find cereal you just may not be able to find the kind you like every time. There are plenty of other options though so we're not going hungry. Sometimes I have to go to two different grocery stores to complete my shopping list. I go to one and it doesn't have vanilla or chocolate chips so I go to the second store and I still can't find chocolate chips this week but I did find the vanilla. I've learned we like the lunchmeat, juice selection, and produce at Carefour but I like the fresh meat and garbage bags selection at Cozmo. So in other words, there isn't a Super Walmart or Super Target here where I can find everything at once.

We have a comfortable home that keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Well, we haven't actually been here during the warmest part of the summer since we're in the States then, but we've been ok the rest of the year. We have beds and clothes. Oh clothes--I'm not much of a shopper but from what I can tell you have the high end stuff available. I don't buy that but I know it's there. Then you've got the Walmart/Target quality stuff and it is more expensive here than actually buying it at Target or Walmart. Then you've got the stuff with the same prices as Walmart but the quality is even worse. The logos come off after one wash, the snaps and buttons come off, the seams come apart after only a few wearings . . .. Like I said though, we're not huge shoppers but if you are you may want to stock up on stuff from the States or you can get like an Aramex account and order online. We have modern malls and clothing stores same as the states--Limited Too, Gap, etc.

Life is pretty much the same when Todd is away. For the most part I can get along even though I don't speak Arabic and if it's really a problem I can wait until Todd gets back into town. In Kuwait I never worried that I couldn't speak Arabic. There are more people here in Jordan that don't speak English so it is a bit more difficult sometimes. For example, our favorite place to get pizza is Papa Johns. When Todd is in town he calls to order because they have trouble speaking enough English that they can never understand me to know where to deliver it (we don't have an address--more on that next paragraph). So when Todd is out of town I handle that problem by going to pick it up instead. Problem solved.

Addresses are really non-existent. Just within the past couple of years they've started putting up street signs and numbers on buildings/houses but nobody really uses them yet. And if they do use street names there are several different spellings and abbreviations of the street. And sometimes one street has more than one name--the one the "locals" call it and the one that is marked. In the area where we live we don't have street names or numbers. When we have to write our address we put "near Everest Resort." Everest Resort is a huge vacant building that is near us.

Driving is scary here--though not as scary as in Egypt. You learn though that there is a flow to it and you really have to go with the flow or you will cause an accident even if you're obeying the law. You have to decide if it's better to avoid accidents by fudging on the traffic laws or injuring yourself and possibly someone else by strictly obeying the laws. We've decided that there really are no traffic "laws" here, only traffic "suggestions."

As far as any culture shock, I suppose there may be some when you see people dress differently. In Kuwait we saw much more traditional dress than here in Jordan. However, there is an expat community and if you seek them out you can find like-minded people. I've never felt out of place here but being LDS I don't have many revealing clothes that would make people stare.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Please let me know if you have any other questions. It really is an educational experience and a fun adventure. I don't regret coming here and I wouldn't be surprised if we stayed longer than our original three year commitment.