Clean
In the beginning, i moved in with two suitcases and one backpack….
Okay. It’s retrospective time. Since the blog is about photos and stories it’s hard to keep focused sometimes. Is it stories or is it photos? I’m photo first. But certainly there are lots of stories to tell. Which is the source? Does the photo trigger a story? Or is the story the photo? Anyway I’ve fallen into current events to keep posting each day. And my hard drive organization is wanting at the moment. Files are stored on multiple drives and in Lightroom. I bet you don’t care and don’t want to know how hard it all is. Just tell the story, and get on with it. Anyway, I had to find the photos of the recent bombing near the US Embassy. So I’ll use this as a source of perspective. Some observations about my time in Jeddah are in order. Amazingly, in such a short time I have such a different perspective from expectation and reality. I used to go to a meeting in one of the major US cities. I could get a flavor of the local sights and sounds in a few days. How ignorant of me to think that. I realize and have said that every day I look out the window as I go to work and realize there is something different that I never noticed before. Spend enough time and you begin to understand…. Well, for sure, you understand better with some retrospective comparison. There! Got it?
You should look and laugh. Definitely laugh. When I visited in December, someone pointed to this villa and said that is where you will live. They actually already planned for my arrival and the villa was empty for months and months before I arrived. An empty dwelling is nothing. No rent. No revenue. There is no profit. No one cares. It was earmarked for me and that was it. Period. No worry over empty and unoccupied. It’s the long view?
The laugh? It’s clean! They send in a crew to clean the dwelling. I don’t know about paint? But there were crayon marks in the drawers. The cleaning guys are good but only just so. Who cares about the drawers! I was put into a five bedroom villa! Me! Single. But then I guess they thought enough of me and my rare specialty. So it was welcome and pull out all the stops… To be sure there is one bedroom designated as the maid’s room – off the kitchen. And another is more like a den – for TV. That makes two other bedrooms – legitimate – with private bath, and bidet. The maid does not have one. There are 4 ½ baths. And it’s furnished. Yup. TV and all. No microwave! Dammit?! No vacuum. They don’t seem to use them anywhere around here. And iron and ironing board. Chipped non stick pots. I don’t like eating Teflon. So I did not cook for the first six months I was in country. Yup! Really!
Oh 
Oh! Take note. The curtains are drawn. And since I have been here, they replaced the curtains with blackout drapes. Yes! They keep the curtains drawn day and night. I leave mine open. No one is looking to see me in my underwear. Too funny!
That’s not the laugh. The place has not been properly cleaned since I moved in. Everyone else has arrangements and hired help – a driver for the females and children, and, a maid, cleaning woman, nanny. I am not in need of either. By now, I think I could definitely use a cleaning lady. So there is no after photo – or – a current photo of the state of affairs. As long as I stay out, the other bedrooms have an even layer of dust that, if undisturbed, is hardly a bother. If you are not shaking your head by now… in real life I am fairly particular and meticulous. The A/C is running 24/7/365. The filter is poor enough such that dust settles on every horizontal surface. My cameras accumulate a layer of dust if left on the table for a period of time – weeks. At this point I am beyond help. Any cleaning lady would turn toss her apron and run…
photobackstory 