Butterfly in the oasis in the desert: June 2014

This is a blog about odds and ends.

First, I have to clear up an incorrect statement from my last post. When I was talking about preparing decorations for the last party, I had said that I asked a friend to tell me the Arabic word for adventuress. I said that she did, and I put it on a poster, and a guest said that was not the word for adventuress, but it was something like "out of the cave". So, my poster became "Karla, out of the cave". I had thought that it was just that the words in Arabic for Adventuress and Out of the cave must be similar. Well, it turns out that my friend had given me the correct word, "ilmughamara", but on my notepad where I began trying the word in different script styles, I left off two letters after the first iteration, and it became "ilmughara" . It was ME who put Karla in the cave!!! :(

The writing didn't come out very well in the copy process, but this is the evidence.

The next thing that I wanted to post about is the different styles of attire for men, mainly headdress, of the different Middle Eastern countries. When I am travelling and I look at the male headdress, I try to figure out where they are from by the color and style. Now, I can whip out this handy chart and know. Or, maybe, I should just memorize it. :)

The last thing is something that I learned when my friend, who is moving to Houston, The Woodlands, wanted to ship her dog back. She was told that the dog's flight was cancelled. After many frantic calls, she found out that it was because of the "heat embargo". When I asked what that was, I was told that there is a heat embargo from shipping animals to Houston in the summer. Her dog can go to Washington DC and other places, but not places in the South where the tarmac gets so hot. The thinking is....that even though the pet is flying in an air conditioned cargo area, when the cargo is unloaded, it is possible that all of the cargo might sit outside for 30 minutes or so and the pet might be in severe stress. And, of course, the airline does not want that responsibility.

I learn something new everyday!

As I have mentioned before, June would be a month where many people leave to go on other projects around the world. We have a couple of ladies going to The Netherlands, one going to Milan, Italy, another to Singapore, one to Thailand, one back to Australia, one back to Canada, one back to S Africa and then possibly back to the Middle East, one to the US, one to Riyadh and probably others that I have missed in this list. Supposedly, there are somewhere between 30-50 men leaving. A big project that involves Exxon, Worley Parsons and KBR is over. Also, we have several ladies leaving for the summer. If this keeps up, it will be me and the gardeners here this summer. :)

This week has been very strange seeing the moving trucks each day parked outside of friends' villas packing up their stuff. A funny thing happens because the ladies are frantically deciding what to bring with them and what to leave as it gets closer to their moving day. They cannot bring food items. So, they have given me an interesting assortment of groceries from around the world-Asian packaged mixes, tomato jelly, concentrated sugar cane natural vinegar, cans of strawberries, Louisiana shrimp and crab boil, tons of spices, pasta, oregano olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pomegranate vinegar, Miracle grow, tortillas, fajita mixes, lots of interesting cheeses, etc.

I have also gotten other things that I needed: a vacuum cleaner (good timing because my old when just pooped out), a waste bin, etc. So, it is a little like Christmas getting all these presents.

To acknowledge these ladies special contributions to our compound society while they were here, I had a party every week for four weeks honoring different ladies each party. (Some ladies have slipped out of the Farewell party process by leaving when I wasn't here or when I was just getting back. :( ) Yesterday was the last one (until August). So here is a description of the four parties. It might take two blogs because of all the pictures. :)

The first party was for two very young, very sweet girls. The theme was flip flops and flowers. We had an amazing assortment of foods.

Here is the Ma Salama on the door:

The pictures that we signed for them:

One of the ladies here is from Germany. When her daughter, who is in hotel management visited a few months ago, she taught us how to fold napkins. And we have really used her info a lot lately. Eileen has gotten very good at this. Here are all the napkins that she folded:

Our centerpiece base is a South African Christmas tree base that a lady gave to me. She and E helped decorate the tree with shells and flowers.

A place setting:

The celebrants:

And of course, the sweet young girls who we told goodbye:

The next party was for three ladies who play Mahjong. So, of course, the theme was "Mahjonging in the Desert".

Ma Salama poster on the door:

Table settings, where you can see Eileen's napkin handiwork again:

Decorations:

Ladies of honor:

The beautiful cake that are compound restaurant made for the occasion:

I forgot to take a picture of the food! :(

Party #3, Theme: Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Here are a couple of ladies (British and Belgian) cutting out all the letters:

The two ladies of honor are just the sweetest and most kind ladies, making the theme very easy.
Here is the Ma Salama poster on the door:

The theme:

On the cut out letters, I glued M&M's using regular Elmer's glue. Well, unfortunately, I noticed that the glue melted some of the M&M's. I was very afraid that the M&M's would start dropping, leaving a chocolate mess. I kept the air conditioner, just below the sign, on all night to keep the M&M's in tact. :)

Decorations (candies and cookies)

Table setting with a new style of napkin folded by Eileen:

Another beautiful cake by the compound restaurant:

The last party was yesterday. K is a fun person who is always ready to help out or participate in an activity. She is inclusive. She invited me to engagement parties and to Jeddah, Zumba classes, etc. Also, K is a very adventurous lady-loves snorkeling for shells and hiking in China. I thought that the theme should be "Karla, the Adventuress" and have exotic or jungle decorations. I asked a friend who speaks Arabic if she could tell me the Arabic word for "Adventuress". She said that it would be difficult, but she would try. After a couple of months, she emailed me that it was "ilmughara". I made a big poster board displaying the theme:

But when one of the guests, who is from Lebanon, looked at it and asked me about it, I explained about the theme, Karla, the explorer. She said, "That is not actually what it says." I asked what it said and she said, Karla of the Cave. So, it was pretty funny!

The Ma Salama poster on the door:

Magic carpet of pictures:

Table settings:

Decorations:

For one of the centerpieces, I picked up tree branches during my farm visit, painted them bronze, and hung apples on it that had peoples memories of Karla on them. Three friends decorated it with rushed fabric, butterflies, lizards and insects.