We're Here!

We checked into our flight on a cold December 30^th evening. Sixteen checked bags, eight hundred pounds of luggage, twelve carry-ons, one stroller, and an hour and a half later we were checked in to a cancelled flight. We went ahead and took a flight to D.C. and spent the night there. Our room was very nice but freezing. I think they had it set at 63. It was so late that we just adjusted the thermostat, bundled up and went to sleep. When we walked in from breakfast the next morning we were hit by the smell of vomit. So that’s why the thermostat had been set so low. When the maid came by I asked her for some Lysol or something that would cover up the smell. She didn’t speak English but did understand my “throw up” hand gestures but misinterpreted what I said. She ran down the hall to her cart thinking one of us had thrown up and brought me back some spray. I sprayed it thinking it was something like what I had asked for. Nope. Shot like a water gun across the room.

The big bonus of a layover in D.C. is it’s where Chris and Jennifer live. They kindly met us at the hotel and we all went over to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was one of the museums we had hoped to visit last spring but didn’t have time. If you’ve seen The Transformers movie (which we haven’t), some of it is filmed at the museum. We enjoyed the museum, but for us nothing really compares to the Air Force museum in Dayton. The bonus was getting to spend one more day with Jenny and Chris. And it was a good day.

The plane to Germany was so big! Thanks to Greif we flew business class. I’m not sure our kids will ever be the same in economy. Our family spanned one whole row, the back row, thank goodness. When the flight attendant came around with the warm washcloths Dano and I both tried to get the kids' attention from either sides of the row (we were the anchors) to signal what to do. I’m sure we looked a little silly circling our faces with our hands while they just stared at these warm, wet, limp washcloths they were holding with their thumb and first finger ten inches from their faces. Finally they looked and wiped their faces just in time for the gentleman to bring the tray around for disposal. Ethan, still a little confused by this “special treatment” reached for more washcloths off the tray. “Uh, no” he was told. He made another quick swipe at his face, put his washcloth on the tray, and got back to his movie-the real benefit of overseas flights.

After the movie the kids reclined their very reclining seats and went to sleep. Enter Abby. Up until now she had been just fine in her carseat and quietly sitting with the kids. She was not going to have anything with sleep…no matter how we showed her that everyone else was sleeping. She was very sweet, playful, and funny singing songs and saying multiple prayers beside her airline seat. After two hours the cuteness had to end. Dano walked with her by the bathrooms then I held her while she cried for about twenty minutes (personal apologies to the other passengers would have to come later) before falling asleep. By this time it was about midnight Ohio time. Happy New Year! She tossed and turned and slept on me like a rock for the next two and a half hours while I got about twenty minutes of sleep. Danke schoen, darling.

When we arrived at the airport in Frankfurt Erin desperately needed to go to the bathroom. We rushed with all of our carry-ons to the Lufthansa lounge, checked in and headed for the sign with the women. There were only three stalls. One door was opened but the toilet was clogged…Erin groaned. The other two doors were closed so we waited…and waited. Having never been to Germany I can’t speak for all of the bathrooms but these stall doors are like bedroom doors where you can’t peek under to see if anyone is in them. With Erin now doing the “potty dance” I began to strain to listen for any kind of noise indicating anyone in the stalls. Then a woman walked in, stood there beside us, spoke something in a language to which I had no clue how to respond other than hoping she understood my English (yeah, right). She was assertive enough to just go ahead and push the stall door open. Yup. Sure enough. We had been there alone the whole time. Just me and dancing Erin. We then quickly proceeded to the third unoccupied stall. Erin did her business, I did my motherly business of flushing with the foot, and we both stood there and stared as the toilet made this whooshing noise and a mechanical arm came out of the wall and the toilet seat began rotating with a loud urrrurrrurrr. I thought of the toilet seats in the Chicago airport that have automatic seat protectors and assumed they must just have different technology here and they’d run out of tissue. After we had a bite and rested for a moment Erin was all too excited to take Kennedy on a trip to the bathroom to see these “cool toilet seats.” When they returned to tell Ethan about them, Kennedy made the intellectual guess that the arm sprayed antibacterial sanitizer on the seat (well, that would make more sense). Then Erin burst out “Oh good ‘cause before I was thinking ‘Oh great! The lady before me tinkled all over the seat.’” Much needed family laughter ensued.

After a much-needed nap in the airport lounge we boarded the plane to Jeddah. It was an even nicer plane, if that’s possible. Abby slept for four hours, making up for the previous flight. We watched the moon rise over the Red Sea. It was amazingly beautiful. Arriving in Jeddah we were met with ‘Mr. Dano’ signs. We were able to bypass customs and immigration and were taken to a lounge area where our passports were stamped, fingerprints scanned, pictures taken (after a whole day with no shower and airplane hair…I was thrilled…and they couldn’t even speak English well enough to get my jokes about it), and carry-ons searched. Dano’s co-workers arranged for our luggage to be picked up and delivered so we were just taken straight to our villa where, after the kids checked out “our awesome new home,” they slept for about the next twelve hours.

The kids began school at Jeddah Prep and Grammar on Monday, January 4. It is a British/Dutch International School. Let me first say I love the school uniform idea! Theirs may not be my first choice in uniforms (Erin looks like a darling little nursemaid) but I am loving not hearing “I don’t know what to wear today!” I also am enjoying them all being on the same bus and same campus, going to and coming from school at the same time. They are making friends from many different countries. They are enjoying the challenges of learning a new curriculum. Farce! But I am enjoying watching them be challenged and meeting these challenges head on, with no complaining. But, that’s this week. Ask me again next week.

Friday is the holy day in the Muslim culture so it’s the day we also go to church. Because Christianity is not recognized in Saudi Arabia we meet in small, inconspicuous groups. Our church has rented a villa in Jeddah in which a family lives. They set up for church each Thursday night in their living room/dining room. When we arrived we rang the bell to the courtyard and announced our family via the intercom. There’s a small pool in the courtyard, common in many private residences. How many other church buildings have their own pool?! We entered the home, hung up our abayas and sat down for sacrament meeting. There are about 45 people in our congregation/ward. There are a few Americans but most of the people are Filipinos. There was one time they jested with Dano that they were planning to teach the lesson in Tagalog but since he was there they had to teach in English! The kids had primary upstairs in one of the bedrooms. There are only a few children, less than a dozen, and only a couple of nursery age children so Abby is part of the primary…much to her delight. She was a little sad when Kennedy had to go to class and she had to stay with her class…until someone produced Oreos! (Kennedy who?) We had Relief Society (the women’s class) in another bedroom. They’re good-sized bedrooms, perhaps 12x12 (that’s in feet…I haven’t gotten the meters down yet). When it was time to sing the opening song, I was a little curious how the eight of us would sound. They have a clavinova but no one was playing and overly-cautious me didn’t jump in and volunteer. Actually they move so quickly there’s no time. When we began singing, those eight sisters sounded like a choir of forty angels! I could sing as heartily as I wanted to. It was heavenly! Who needs a clavinova? After classes as we came down the beautiful staircase we were greeted by a man who just said, “I take picture of you send home Phillipines?” He just wanted a picture of us. The kids were a little confused but smiled graciously. Dano and Ethan took off their ties. Kennedy and I donned our abayas and we left as unassuming as we came, as if nothing had happened. This is a completely different church environment, one like I’ve never experienced, but the teachings are the same and the spirit is just as strong…the gospel is true in Saudi Arabia, too.