Thomas journals

After a harrowing time on the metro (why didn’t we send the luggage ahead in a cab as planned?)  - with doors closing on Kerri Caramella inside with her luggage outside, and the Camponeschis still inside the car – we all finally rendezvoused at the Acropolis Museum Boutique Hotel.  We immediately went to our quirky modern rooms and should have slept, but most wanted to get out and about and see the city.  Cole and I went two blocks, past seedy sex shops and closed businesses to a mom and pop restaurant called “Smile” for a souvlaki (gyro) and local brew. LOVED it (and went back several more times during our stay in Athens.) Then we went back to the hotel and crashed for an hour before meeting with our cohorts for an investigation of the Plaka – near our hotel.  Lots of souvenir shops, jewelry stores, cafes – and finally, a view of the Acropolis.  We found Diogenes Café on Lisikratous Square and had a tasty meal and wine. Thirteen of us then wandered the streets ...

From Cairo to Athens: A Birdseye View Square green plots of farmland, fed by the delta of the Nile, intersected by long straight roads – or are they irrigation lanes? The big city of Alexandria, crowding the coastline and seeming to push out into the sea. Incredible clouds rising up above the sea – huge masses of puffy cumulus Flying across the open expanse of aegean blue Mediterranean Sea in a NW direction Passing over the huge island of Crete rolled out like pie dough in all directions, surrounded by small uninhabited tiny islands with huge cliffs rising out of the water. Karpathos to the east, then more and more roads running along high ridges with towns nestled in depressions, lowlands. A white ferry pushing ahead, connecting two islands. Unusual contrast of blindingly white snow on mountains in distance with irridescent blue water ringing the islands. White windmils slowly turning on the highest tree-lined ridge. Banking west into the Saronic Gulf for a first sight of Athens. M...

Two recent news items spur this post: First, an article in Saudi's Arab News -- our main daily newspaper -- headlined Saudi Downstream Forum in Jubail . It includes an aerial photo of the petrochemical industry here. As far as I can tell, the photo shows an area very close to our school; but the photo seems to have been taken several years ago, without the new superhighway. The headline is at first curious, as there are no rivers in Saudi Arabia, and no dramatic ocean currents either. Here in Jubail, the term Downstream is a standard metaphor for the big factories here that receive petroleum pipeline rivers and process it into now-essential products of modern life: petrochemicals, polyethylene, polystyrene, and myriad items named in advanced chemistry classes. Our proximity to the factories was reportedly the main reason our recent school-expansion plans were rejected -- the Commission has now sited our new high school construction ten miles further north, away from the facto...

December 2011:  An Update from the Thomases, former mission workers in Northern India During our weeklong Eid-al-Adha break from our teaching positions at ISG-Jubail School in Saudi Arabia, we took our son Coleman back to Woodstock School in northern India.  Believe it or not, Cole is a senior this year!  He wanted to visit his former classmates at the boarding school in the Himalayan foothills one last time before they graduate and go their separate ways. For us, it was a time to visit with former colleagues and students and check on the progress of projects that this church supported during our four years in India. Some things had changed – the new international airport terminal in Delhi was stunningly beautiful and modern. Many things had not changed – the air pollution upon exiting the airport still burned the throat and stung the eyes. The eight-hour drive from Delhi to Dehra Dun was still fraught with fright as we dodged camels, ox carts, huge trucks and peopl...

Americans in Saudi Arabia invariably complain -- rightly so -- about the incredibly casual and selfish driving style, and the apparent breeziness with which local drivers run stop signs, red lights, and other driving behaviors we have been conditioned to abhor.  Recently the government started publicizing its "Sahel" crackdown on speeders, by launching several radar cars and remote cameras at intersections -- this slows drivers to the 75mph limit in the immediate vicinity of the radar car.  But that is the only obvious enforcement of any traffic laws. Yesterday when driving home on the expressway -- 3 lanes in each direction -- traffic slowed for an accident up ahead.  Cars immediately filled the three lanes and each lane on either side.  As an ambulance plaintively wailed its siren behind us, slowly inching through the cars blocking its way in the "breakdown lane", Barb bemoaned the stupidity of the local drivers and the apparent inability of traffic police to ca...

Thanksgiving in Saudi -- ironically, as Thursday is the start of the Saudi weekend, taking off Thursday is what we do every week, so Thanksgiving is by definition a holiday.  We had long ago planned to attend the St.Andrew's Scottish Gala with colleagues -- 8 teacher-couples all told from our school and Cole's school booked hotel rooms in Bahrain for Thursday night.  We drove over to Bahrain mid-day, went to (fancy) beauty parlor and (Pakistani) barber shop, then got our hotel minivans to drive us out to the party, on a remote British compound.  Very Scottish, indeed...lots of kilts, including the UK ambassador who spoke of his Scottish roots.  After speeches and a surprisingly good dinner, a ceilidh band played and all danced for several hours.  What great fun...and the hotel van took us home.   The next day was easy with some shopping on the way back to Saudi. We were a bit hesitant about Bahrain, as news of demonstrations is troubling.  We saw seve...

We watched the sun set behind the winterline tonight -- the line of temperature inversion at around 6000 feet, where the dust and fog and smoke from ground level is trapped, forming a very distinct curtain behind which the sun's light completely disappears. We are now at 7500 feet, at the Rokeby Guest House in Landour Cantonment, Mussoorie. The guest house is a luxury renovation of Christopher's old school dormitory, so it is a special treat for us to stay a night here. We are visiting Woodstock School for a nostalgic return to the mountains and the campus, and particularly so that Coleman can meet up with his classmates before they all graduate from high school -- he will not be able to attend their graduation here, as he will be preparing for his own graduation in Dhahran next June. Our Eid-al-Adha holiday week allows just a few days in the mountains, given the lengthy travel time and the fact that Air India preponed our return flight by a day. It has been a marvelous ...