The Dirah Souq

Today I took the kids to the Dirah Souq, a market where scarves, carpets, jewelry, and trinkets are sold. Most of the goods are imported from India, Pakistan, Afganistan, Central Asia, etc. However, local  artifcats can be found. In fact, I came home with a couple of beautifully embroidered clothes, stitched together locally (or so the vender told me). It was fun to walk around and see what was on display! I'm sorry I haven't got brave enough to pull out my camera in places like this, but here's some of my treasures.

The vendors spoke very good English and were polite. Not at all pushy. One of the salesmen even brought me a cup of coffee after I made my purchase. He told me repeatedly that he liked America and that he was giving me a good discount:) 

I got several questions about Benjamin - he certainly is a curiousity here. When I tell people that he is my son, they usually look confused and I believe assume that I have had several husbands. I always try to immediately correct them, saying that Benjamin's parents couldn't take care of him, so we took him into our family. Adoption does not happen in Saudi Arabia, but I believe it is considered a virtue to care for orphans. 

The Dirah Souq has two interesting attractions. One is a small castle, which apparently is sometimes open. I have yet to figure out when things are open or closed around here! The other attraction is "Chop-Chop Square." Though my first thought was that I was entering a livestock butching zone, I was informed by a friend that this is where crimial executions used to take place - beheadings! Wow! Hard to imagine! Sometimes it feels almost normal here...and then Chop-Chop Square!

A Lovely Neighborhood

The Diplomatic Quarter is surprisingly green and colorful. One of our chief concerns coming here was that we might be starved for beauty. Over the course of the last four years in Virginia, we had grown to love its many parks and trails, having favorite groves and riverside haunts. So what kind of beauty is there in the middle of Arabia? Well, we are determined to find out over the next few years! But starting close to home, the DQ is lovely. 

I'll try to learn what I can about the vegetation here - I thought it may be similar in some ways to NM, although I've seen some very different plants from the American SW. We have a date tree in our front yard, certainly a predominant tree of the city, not just the DQ. We thought they were just palm trees, until one day Benjamin brought us one of their seeds, saying "Cookie." Also, there are many varieties of Acacia trees, some with the cutest little yellow pom-pom flowers. If you see anything you recognize in the photographs, let me know what it is!

More on playgrounds another day...

Settling in

We've spent much of the past weeks settling into our home.  Lots of trips to stores for food and stuff around the house. It's a mixture of excitement and tedium. We've been reminded of how we're created with a deep instinct for making order out of disorder and putting down roots.  At a few moments, the trips have been lessons that heaven is the heart's deepest longing and our true home. (As an aside, if you want to read a good book on heaven, try Peter Kreeft's Heaven, The heart's deepest longing.)

J