Saudi Arabia, the Country that Changed Me. (Part 1)

Today exactly a year ago, I was in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia starting a trip that I will never forget. Before going I was nervous because before the trip I had only been to Canada and Mexico before, but those were merely day trips. For this trip I was staying in a foreign country 6,700 miles away from my home (yes I looked it up :P ).

I should probably explain why I went to Saudi Arabia before I get too far into the story... so here it is. In February I was in school and my mom texted me out of the blue and said, "Would you want to go to Saudi Arabia with Dr. Qureshi and meet the royal family in April? You need to let me know ASAP!" Of course I was super flustered but always willing to go on an adventure, so without knowing anything else, I said yes! 

Once I got home my parents explained that Dr. Qureshi (our neighbor and church friend) was part of a group of 12 scout people that were going on an exchange for the Boys Scout of America. One of the kids had dropped out and since Dr. Qureshi was in charge, he picked me as long as I fit four requirements...

1. Be an Eagle Scout 

2. Have a Passport 

3. Be under 18 by April 1st.

4. Pay the $800 for the trip that was already super-subsidized. 

To me, I knew this was a blessing from God, because I had met all these requirements!

1. When my family moved from California to Washington D.C. I was close to getting my Eagle Scout Award but had little motivation to get it done any time soon. But since it's near impossible to transfer records when you move, I hurried up and finished it weeks before we moved. If we hadn't moved when we did I probably would not have had my Eagle Scout, and wouldn't have been able to go.

2. Before we had decided to move the previous summer, we had scheduled a camping trip to Canada for a couple weeks, and to get into Canada you need a passport, so our whole family got them. Of course, once we found out we were going to move we didn't go on our trip, but I had gotten my passport. If this hadn't happened I wouldn't have been able to go because passport stuff takes months and I only had days to send in my passport for permission to get into Saudi Arabia.

3. Our trip was planned from April 1st to April 9th. My birthday is April 12th. If it were just a few days later than it had been planned, I wouldn't have been able to go.

4. The $800 was a big load of cash that I didn't have. My parents didn't have it either so we were afraid that I would have to borrow money somehow. But then God answered our prayers again! That winter Washington D.C. was pounded by 3 blizzards. 2 of  the 3 blizzards over 3 feet deep were after I found out I needed $800. So I didnt what any enterprising high school student does...I snow plowed and shoveled people driveways for money. Luckily Dr. Qureshi was out of town and let us use his new snowblower as long as we blowed his for free. So we plowed his driveway and knocked on every door in the neighborhood to see if they would like us to plow their driveway. Most people didn't have snowblowers, (and in 3 feet of snow it's impossible to shovel your driveway in less than 3 hours.) In two days working a total of 24 hours, we raised the $800 for my trip. It was quite ironic shoveling and plowing snow to go to the scorching dry desert...but whatever gets the job done right?

So that was that, I met all 4 requirements with the blessing of God, and there is no denying it was His help that got me on my trip...Now back to the story!

From Washington D.C. to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was around 13 hours long and it was about 15 hours to our final destination Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (The Capitol). We flew Saudi Arabian Airlines, which was the nicest airline I had ever flown in in my life! The had TV screens in front of every seat on which you could watch any of their 50 movies for free! 

They also served full course meals (free again), but if that wasn't enough there was a buffet of free food too! When one of the guys that was with me came back with food from the back, I asked where he got it and he said, "Dude there is a huge buffet in the back, just grab what you want!" I was terrified! I thought for sure there was no way the buffet could be free too and I thought they would arrest us for stealing!!

Eventually I went back there and asked the flight attendant 3 times making sure it truly was free... it was, I felt like a dummy.

They also had these cameras on the front and bottom of the plane so you could see live images of what you are flying over and flying into! I always loved the window seat so I could see everything, but this was the window seat times 10!

Screen showing flight.

Once we landed at the Riyadh Airport we learned quickly that Saudis are some of the most generous and hospitable people in the world. They took us through a VIP lounge and merely put our bags through a meal detector. (Unlike coming back to the U.S. where we had to declare and show everything!) They showered us with gifts and took plenty of pictures and off we went!

Driving in Saudi Arabia was definitely a thrill ride! If it were a ride at Disneyland the line would be hours long. We had two government cars that took us everywhere and our drivers were amazing! If I were driving we would have gotten in dozens of car accidents, but these guys didnt get in a single one while we were there, they were truly professionals! City streets..85mph, freeways...more than that! But by the end of the week I loved our drivers, they were brothers and were so nice and very funny! Even though they didnt speak any English at all, we had translators at the end of the week tell us they called us their kids, and they were right it did feel like that!

Fahad and Sultan. The Racing Brothers!

Sultan, Me, and Fahad at McDonalds.

After we had driven from the airport to our hotel we took a little breather (We had just gone over 30+ hours without sleep), and then that night we had a little news conference thing with the Saudi Scout Association. In my journal that night I wrote, "We went to this big conference room and all sat in these super fancy, super comfortable chairs. They filmed us and took our pictures and everytime someone walked in the room we stood up, shook their hand, said our name, took a picture, and sat back down."

View outside my hotel.

Front view of our fancy hotel.

After we had all greeted everyone and sat down for good, they passed around this communal incense holder. The Saudis being the wonderful guests they always are, gave us Americans the incense first. They gave it to Anish, from Dallas and not knowing what to do with it, he put his face close to the incense and smoked it through his nose.

Immediately all the Saudis start laughing and laughing while Anish is coughing and coughing. Once everyone settled down (which was a while) one of the kind Saudis showed us the right way to use it... merely hold the incense in front of you and waft it onto your clothes so the smell sticks and you smell nice. (Sidenote: I thought this idea was genius! In America we could all have so Old Spice incense and at a party just waft it on your clothes so no one feels self conscious about smelling bad!)

After exchanging gifts and talking about our plane ride to the camera, we were off to bed. The time difference is 8 hours, but after not sleeping on the plane was zonked right away. And that was Day One of my Saudi Arabian trip!

(Stayed tuned for Part Two...)