This week, I hosted what I think is the last of the farewell parties for a month or two. There have been several this month. It is difficult when someone leaves because these are all great ladies. This lady that I am going to blog about has helped to make MANY people's stay here easier, especially for my husband and me.
I met her online before my husband came to KSA. I had been trying to find out information about Yanbu before coming here and found it almost impossible. I found the normal Wikipedia article telling population, layout, etc, stock pictures, maps, but not much else. So, I asked a friend, who had just come back with her husband from an expat assignment with ExxonMobil from Singapore if she had any friends on expat assignments in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. She didn't have a friend in Yanbu, but she did have one in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Within a day, she had me in touch with that lady, who got me in touch with two ladies in Yanbu, one from each of the two compounds here in Yanbu. It was amazing!
I emailed back and forth with Tammy. She was an encyclopedia of info on life not only in Yanbu but also Saudi Arabia. She suggested things that I should bring and not bring, etc. My husband came here about 6 months before me. When I told her that he was arriving, she had put a meal in the refrigerator and many staples like bread and milk. Then, since he was alone, she began bringing him food, cookies, fresh bread, etc, which was nice because he does not cook. I had envisioned that he would just eat popcorn every night. One day, when he and I were Skyping (me in Houston and he in Yanbu), I heard his doorbell ring. He got up to answer the door and within a minute came back and showed me a warm loaf of French bread that Tammy had just delivered to him!
When I arrived, I found out that it just wasn't Ken that she was doing this for, it was for lots of people. Once a week, she made cookies for her husband to bring to work for the guys. Her home was not only a bakery, it was also a grocery store. Usually, if there was some item from home that you could not find at the grocery store, like food coloring, or corn syrup, Tammy had it and would give it to you. One person needed an ace bandage, Tammy had it. If you had a headache, or cold, Tammy had the medicine. She didn't have the biggest villa here, so how she was able to store all of this stuff and easily retrieve it, I don't know. My husband and I don't have a car or a driver here. She and her husband have taken us to the beach and to several restaurants. I could go on about this, but the bottom line is that she is one of those people that makes a difference.
So, I hosted a Farewell party for her. I had wondered before what the number of cookies and baked items that have left that apartment would be. I decided that the theme HAD to be cookies and baking. My friend, E, asked Tammy to borrow her cookie cutters because ostensibly she wanted to make cookies. Instead, E used the cookie cutters to cut out felt shapes and then made a garland of the "cookies" that we hung over the dining area. So these were Tammy's "cookies"!
When I was in the US, I bought a clay that dries hard and is light and made chocolate chip cookies to use in another garland.
A few weeks ago, I went over to the area where Tammy's apartment is. I thought that I would stealthily take a picture of the front of it. But my cleaning lady came by and wanted to chat with me. As we were chatting, Tammy came out on her balcony and suggested I come up and have some freshly baked cookies. I thought that I was busted taking the picture but it turned out she didn't see me doing it, just heard my voice. :) Anyway, I used that picture to do a quick painting of the outside of her apartment. I cut out a picture of Tammy and put her on the balcony and then put stickers of cookies, cakes, pies and cupcakes coming out of her home. I put a little sign on the wall of the house saying "Tammy's bakery, grocery and everything you need store". Then, E cut out felt camels that I put on the wall next to the painting. I also put cookies in their mouths.
When I was in the US, I had found cute polka dot plates. I thought that I had had enough with 18, but the party kept growing and I needed 24, so I added the hot pink plates from the last farewell party. E had bought pretty red glasses.
Although I haven't found cute paper plates here, I have been going to downtown Yanbu with some ladies who know the area and have found the 5 riyal store (which is about $1.33 ). It is loaded with all kinds of cheap stuff. But sometimes you can find cute and crazy things. They had rolls of brightly colored 2 ft wide crepe paper. So, I made place mats. We had polka dot balloons (brought from home). In the 5 riyal store, E found a cut out paper garland banner that had cupcakes. E also made Tammy a felt flower necklace, that Tammy is wearing in the pictures.
Of course, we needed to give her a keepsake. I decided not to frame a picture, so I asked my husband to come up with a limerick about her. He has an amazing ability to do this. All week, I had been having people come over to the villa to sign the mat for the picture. Two days before the party, I asked my husband if he had the limerick ready. He said, What limerick? I said "You know, the one for Tammy!" He had forgotten. He said "OK, I will do it right now." and within 5 minutes, he had it. Here it is:
There once lived a woman in Saudi,
who perfected the art of the cookie.
She’s a legend for sure,
that will forever endure
with those who knew her as Tammy.
The cookies were
delicious, it’s true.
And banana bread and pizza rolls too.
You could ask anything,
Soon your doorbell would ring
‘cause her kindness would always show through.
I had brought cookie and pastry stickers from the US and put them all over the white frame. Everyone signed the blue mat with the white pen. It was done. I thought that I had taken a picture of it, but apparently not!
A Japanese lady, I, (whom Tammy had babysat her dog many times while out of the country) made the centerpiece. It was an oval plate filled with sand colored sugar. She had made 4 camel cookies. These weren't your normal cookies. They were two-piece cookies that you put together like a puzzle. So there was a piece for the front legs, a piece for the back legs and then a piece for the body. Of course they were decorated. But one of the camels had a cutout of Tammy riding the camel holding the reins to the camel. This lady was such a perfectionist. When one of the camels had toppled over and gotten "sand" on its feet, she took out a little brush to carefully brush off the sand. It was amazing!
This was a potluck lunch and everyone brought wonderful food! There was a sweet potato and potato medley, chicken fried rice, greek moussaka, sweet and sour meatballs, stuffed eggs, pasta salad, an Iranian dish, a vegetable dish, several salads, a hummus, mini savory tarts. A French lady brought a freshly squeezed and mixed fruit drink from a new store in Yanbu. For dessert, there was a pavlova. (Also, the Italian lady who did the pavlova was sweet enough to do an individual pavlova for a lady who did not like cream, which was in the big pavlova. Incredible!), a peach pie, beautiful strawberry puree topped cupcakes, cute ginger bread cookies that are made with cookie cutters that make the cookies look like someone took a bite of them-they are missing arms or legs or heads. Cute, cute cute! This group of ladies really step up. I wish that I had taken more food pictures, but after everyone arrives, it becomes very busy and I missed it.
Below is the Scottish lady with her personal pavlova. :)
Here is L, serving the juice from the new juice place that she found:
Here is a cute little french girl, who could not wait to try one of the camels in the centerpiece:
Here are some random pictures:
And I think this may be the only picture that I am in:
Anyway, it can become very depressing here, meeting wonderful people and then after a short period of time telling them goodbye. But it is just a fact of life here. I think that the only thing to do is to is to learn from these interesting ladies and take that away with you.
As you can probably see, the women had to wear their abayas on the way out to the island. It was weird, but best not to upset anyone. In fact, all the passing boats were very friendly, waving and saying hello to us.
Here we are checking out the island:
They had set up a tent (with sides) and covered the floor with Arabian carpet. So, it was very plush. Along with the chicken and meat, they also provided more Roti bread, fruit, olive loaf, drinks. It was very nice.
So, then we went snorkeling a little more and then at 3 pm, we had to pack up to go home. The boat hands broke down the tent, rolled up the carpets and put them on their shoulders and waded through the water to put them back on the boat.
