I went to Jubail last week for a school visit at the Indian School - it was about a two and a half hour drive each way and that is sitting on about 150 km per hour.
We were told to go to the city centre and call the principal for directions to the school. We managed to find the centre and gave him a call as directed. We told them where we were and he told us someone would be there to show us the way. After about 20 calls back and forth and still no escort to show us the way, we decided to try and find our own way as our driver had been into a hotel on the main street to ask if they knew where it was and was given some sketchy directions.
We then took off back toward where we had come from and all the while the phone was still ringing trying to find out where we were. We stopped sort of safely not quite on the freeway, not quite on the exit road to wait for the man to come and get us. When he realised exactly where we actually were he told us he would be 20 minutes, so we decided to follow our vague directions to see if we could find it – amazingly we fluked the correct freeway exit, we fluked the correct turn after we got off and when we pulled up to ask some guards where it was they vaguely pointed to the right and down :( – we took off once more and our driver sort of pulled up 1/2 stopped, 1/2 going and we saw a roughly made up road with a bus down the end – we all looked at each other had a quick discussion on whether it could possibly be the school - consensus that’s a bus maybe it’s the school!
Eureka – it was exactly where the school was and after we got over our amazement of actually finding it from such vague directions we started congratulating ourselves at how clever we were as well as for a job well done :D
We were ushered into the principals office where we were warmly welcomed by the principal and given a brief history of the school, and served refreshment which was very sweet milky tea. He then explained the problem of why the driver wasn’t able to find us. We were in the new town waiting – the school is located in the old town and the driver had gone there to find us – 20 minutes drive away……lol – one has to live here and get lost on the roads – they all seem to turn and wind around yet all seem to lead to the same place.
We were then ushered into the assembly hall where we were treated like honoured guests. The hall had been set up very official like and they had tech guys to set up the computer and sound system. They also had a table on the side for the four of us and a written program with the names and title of who would be speaking. Our male colleague gave a fantastic opening speech then we presented our power point and photos then it was question time. It was a very formal type of question time with each student being given a microphone to ask the question and we all had input into the answers. The students asked really mature and relevant questions especially for students that are so young and then it was time to make our way back…… but first lunch :D
We decided to go back to the new part of town and had a very nice late lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. The new part of town is very nice with an almost resorty feeling as it is built along the gulf with nice paths, paved zig zag type roads, lots of palm trees, and new shops & restaurants, but the old part where the school was located is heavy industrial with petro chemical tanks, gas processing plants, with a port with tanks in for pumping the oil products.
With our tummies full and our thirst quenched so it was back on the road back to Al Khobar where we were dropped back at our compounds by the driver.
The school visit was very successful – although Jubail seemed to be quite a lot hotter than Al Khobar.
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