nemom

Hi everyone

My family and I are moving to Jeddah after a fairly dire experience living and working in Qatar. Hopefully this will not be the frying pan and fire saga that seems to be following us about at the moment!
We will be living and working on the Jeddah Prep and Grammar Compound. We have been told we have been assigned a villa. I am realistic and not expecting anything grand at all but hopefully clean and safe. We were put up in a dodgy aparthotel in Doha with no hot water, dodgy electrics and rooms that were paid for by the hour....
I just wondered if anyone knows anything about the compound - I am not an expat diva at all, but with 2 kids, it would be nice if the place was not crumbling around our ears!
Also - dumb question, but I am originally from Thailand but brought up in Italy and the UK. I was treated like p** in Qatar and had to restrain my potty-mouth on many occasions. Will Jeddah be similar?

OleJanx

Qatar has a nasty habit, that of being utterly appalling if it goes wrong. It leaves a nasty memory, although I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to go on to Jeddah, but I wish you well: I had a bad experience in Doha, and I can understand why you have a bad memory of the place. Good luck with Sordid...

flares

Think there's an Italian Club in Jeddah so that may serve you well.

surreysaira

Racist experience? Unfortunately it may be the same, but who cares? It won't be on a daily basis and just as you can tell what an American hillbilly looks like, or an English lout..........you can tell when a family has class, and is well educated.

scot47

Investigate Italian Club in Baghdadiya. I think there are other mentions of it here. A competent taxi driver should be able to take you there. It is off Hail Street leading from Baghdadiya to Balad. If in doubt phone the Italian Consulate. the Italian Club is also in the phone book.

Thais, Filipinas and other women from SE Asia are badly treated in KSA, but you will be insulated form the worst experiences. Just keep schtumm !

nemom

Thank you everyone - I will do my utmost to keep schtummm.....it will be very difficult!! At the moment we are wrestling with highly dodgy accommodation....

surreysaira

oh dear! Please update me on how you are finding the school too! and I will be in touch once I move to KSAas hopefully you will be a local by then My son is 19 months! Are you putting your 2 old into pre nursery anywhere?

nemom

surrey saira - not thinking about nursery just yet but he does have a place at the JPG nursery if we want it - the school is brilliant - excellent results, good discipline, great sports teams - my daughter is a fantastic swimmer so she is v excited about being at a school that competes - the one in Doha was a joke...

dragonladyoz

JPGS is great - had both of my boys there during our time in Jeddah

surreysaira

Great thanks, good to know which schools I should be looking into!

nottmbantam

We had two years in Jeddah, my wife worked at JPGS and my step daughter was a student there , she ended up with some really good grades in her I-GCSE's. My wife and I are now in Riyadh, but would move back to Jeddah without hesitation, it's far nicer place than the dry and dusty capital.

THe school has gone through some changes since 2010, so no idea what it's like these days, the compound can be a bit hit and miss I think - depends on which villa you've been allocated. Overall though, whilst perhaps not at the luxury end of the housing market, it should suffice.

In terms of -ahem- cultural awareness, the entire Middle East is still a little backward in my view. Generally speaking, people are very much stereotyped by nationality / appearance, so you may still have to bite your tongue on occasions. Good luck, hope it all works out well for you and the family.

nonthaburi

My wife is Thai and her experiences in Saudi have been varied . When she takes the children to school if the Arab teacher doesn't know here they tend to think she is the maid and ignore her rather than treating her as a parent .
On the other side of it though my wife is not some meek woman and she is not averse to a bit of confrontation with taxi drivers ect telling them where to stick it. A few of them have been quite surprised to see some little Thai women giving them what for , which they aren't used to .
I wouldn't say that she gets treated particularly badly , more looked down on . When she's with me though then that doesn't happen . The other side of it though is that most of the Asians are very friendly towards her . Also , once some of the other Arab parents at the children's school found out that she was Thai they were overwhelmingly positive towards her as some of them had been there on holiday and liked the place . One woman was trying to get her to give her a massage !