I lived in al-Jubail and have been to your compound to compete in soccer, basketball, and baseball tournaments when I was in school. I too explored the desert and occasionally found a desert rose. We would go to Bahrain once in awhile to get bacon, salami, or any other pork products and bring them back home to Jubail. My compound even purched two whole pigs one Thanksgiving from the Navy. Its funny how things are much more deirable when they are illegal. One year my school had a beach clean up on Earth Day and all we picked up were thousands of alcohol bottles, Vodka, whisky, Tequila, you name it. Sidiki is some nasty stuff and for those of you who know what I'm talking about, check your water bottles and make sure its water. My friends and I also fought the Saudi kids with all the white rocks lining the sidewalks. We never shook hands nor became friends though. I believe by the time I was there in the mid 90's right after the first gulf war tensions were a little high with our military presence. Saudi is one of the most beautiful places on Earth and some of my greatest childhood memories are from that region. Good times, good times! Living in that region has made it so easy to understand the situation we are in right now. I try to explain it to all the freepers in my family but there is no common experience for them to understand. Ironically, my best friend of the last 12 years is arabic from Jeddah.