Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 4)

As the curfew has been moved up and up over the last few weeks and the pools remained closed, the temperature has been slowly creeping up and we are now hitting daily temps of 100-103 degrees. It’s a great time to be in the inflatable pool business as I have seen pools of various shapes, sizes and depths popping up in every single backyard around the compound. I’ve also seen several families buy a modest-sized pool, and then within days post it on the sales chat to upgrade for a larger model. Several families even have a semi-permanent situation now - complete with pool pump and chlorine! After springing a leak in our first inflatable pool, Justin quickly upgraded us to a tarp-lined model and we bought a second cheap inflatable pool to keep as an emergency backup! Although H isn’t much into swimming per se, he does enjoy standing in the middle of the pool and playing with the hose, discreetly sneaking drinks from it every once in a while when he thinks we aren’t looking.

Basketball hoops are also a top item in the summer quarantine survival kit and I’ve seen about half a dozen adult-sized hoops go up around the neighborhood. So H also has a mini-hoop currently sitting in our living room. Justin has been trying to get him to work on his jump shot lately and progress is slow but coming.

When we were afraid that we were going to be cut off soon from delivery
services as well, we did a panic order on Amazon to stock up on toys and activities to keep the little sir busy. Puzzles, wooden toy cars, a magnetic fishing game, a play kitchen, and a teepee are among our latest additions and we have dedicated a corner of the living room to a play area for him. It seems that we got our order just in time because Amazon is no longer delivering to Saudi and even local carriers like Souq are now estimating delivery times of 30 business days.

So we’ve set up our play areas and our swimming pool and we are ready to stay hunkered down until things clear up.

Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 3)

We are now approaching week 6 of virtual learning and working from home. And governmental guidelines and mandates regarding curfew and quarantine have been steadily growing more strict in the last 2 weeks, with the decision being made March 5th that Riyadh is now in a 24-hour curfew situation until further notice. With these mounting restrictions and the continuing challenges of working full time from home while simultaneously entertaining and educating their own children, stress, anxiety and cabin fever have been taking their toll on all of us. However, it is said that necessity is the mother of invention and while there are certainly some new stresses to manage, we have also seen a wonderful bubbling of innovation and creativity from our community members. Our community started a daily challenge game to keep families active and entertained and to foster a sense of togetherness while still maintaining our social distance. 

One of the first events was the “Bear Challenge” where families placed a teddy bear in one of their villa windows or doors. Then, either on family walks or bike rides, the kids would circle around the neighborhood hunting for bears. The kids get very excited that they are finding the “hidden” bears and the parents are happy because it's getting everybody out of the house for a little while. We walked Harris up and down our little street and showed him the bears in the windows which he found thoroughly exciting. One one door he spied a bear that looked almost identical to his bear and this caused a slight scuffle as he kept walking up to their door, removing the bear and trying to take it home. We had to bring his own bear outside to prove to him that his bear had not been kidnapped but he seemed unconvinced. 

Another event was the “Rainbow Challenge” where families put a rainbow somewhere outside of their villa. Some popular choices were watercolor paintings hung on front doors and giant rainbows drawn in sidewalk chalk on front porches and patios.

The “Joke Challenge” had families post a silly joke on their doors and kids could walk up to the paper and flip it up to see the answer revealed. A “Door Decorating Challenge” had families design quarantine-themed displays for their front doors. What’s so fun about these challenges is that it gets the whole family involved, gives them something new to look forward to each day, and at different points throughout the morning and afternoon you can find several families on bike rides going around the compound and checking out the living art displays. 

Not all of the challenges are outdoors, however. There is a WhatsApp chat group where families can post pictures and videos of their daily entries and some of these challenges have included a cupcake decorating contest and even a live talent show hosted through Zoom!

I’ve realized that if you’re going to be quarantined and curfewed, a fully-appointed compound is not a bad place to be locked down. And while the facilities like the gym, sports courts, pools and playgrounds have all been closed, we fortunately still have the ability to walk the sidewalks around the compound (about 1.5 miles around) and we have something to look at while we walk. We are also incredibly fortunate to have a small grocery store, bakery and coffee shop on compound that are all still operating so I think that our situation is probably a lot more comfortable than most people’s and we are grateful for this.