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Over The Coffeecups
Warren Mitchell - Editor
TODAY'S
PROGRAM
President Winstead will distribute assessment
questionnaires for members to fill out. The purpose of the
assessment is to help the Club formulate goals for the coming
year. Members are asked to put down their priorities to help
the Club focus on projects and activities that will help the
Board in making decisions. When the assessments have been
completed there will be time for fellowship. Results of the
assessment will be shared with the members at another meeting.
LAST
WEEKS PROGRAM
Ken
Carrick introduced T.L. McCown, who spent 10 years
in Arabia with her husband and was a friend to a real Saudi
princess. Rather than give his usual long introduction, he
thought it would be better to give her a warm Kiwanis
greeting.
She said in Arabic,
"Welcome, my name is Teresa. I am very excited to be with
Montgomery Kiwanis". In a short time she couldn't touch on
everything she wanted to. She talked about how and why she
went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a little about what
she did while she was there.
Back in the late 1980's, she
and her husband went back to Auburn University for the sole
purpose of going to Saudi Arabia. They fell in love with the
country through their parents. Her father had been with the
Department of Defense on the depot maintenance program in the
Kingdom. It was through them she and her husband decided to
go to the Kingdom.
After graduation a large
company hired Jim and they were ready to go. In 1990, two
weeks before their graduation, Saddam invaded Kuwait. Jim and
she lived in Montgomery for a year waiting for
McDonald-Douglas to call them in spring. In March the company
called and asked if they were ready to go. Jim left and 90
days later she followed him.
She landed at night at the
airport. It was like landing at an old airport in India like
you see in movies. It was a little bit frightening for a
Georgia girl 8,000 miles from home. Looking up she saw 3
women in native dress fully veiled standing against the wall.
She had seen pictures of this, but to be honest, it scared her
to death. She thought she had jumped into the deep end of the
pool without testing the water.
Jim picked her up and took
her to their villa. It didn't take long to learn that by
dialing 38, a gentleman on a bicycle would show up to change a
light bulb. All she had to do was buy flowers and the next
day they would mysteriously appear in the ground. Everything
she wanted and everywhere she went Madam this, Madam that.
She began to look at what she could
do. In the compound on Saturday mornings, she would go to the
McDonald-Douglas wives coffee. On Sundays she would go to the
British compound and play bingo. She also went to other
group's coffees and lay by the pool and got tan.
After 3 months, she realized
she had gotten lost along the way. She couldn't travel away
from the compound without permission, drive a car or
anything. Something very important to an American was lost
and that was freedom.
She wanted to get out and
work, but legally she couldn't. She heard the base was hiring
people. She could have gotten a job in inventory lifting
boxes; she didn't want to work that badly. She finally
decided she would tutor, but didn't have an English degree,
but she did have one in communications. She felt she could
teach Saudi children English, but she could not publicize it,
so Jim took her papers to the air base.
A gentleman wanted to know
if she would be interested in working with a family with 5
kids. She went that evening and met the family. She met a
lady 6 feet tall, with beautiful raven black hair, wearing
blue jeans and a tunic blouse. They seemed to click
immediately. Her husband was an F-18 pilot at the base. It
wasn't until the next day, having been hired to work 20 hours,
that she discovered the lady was a royal princess.
For the following 2 years
she traveled with the family working with the children. The
princess valued education and looked at things from a Muslim
point of view.
One day the princess was a
little more serious that usual and said she wanted to do
something for the women of her girls in the schools. She
said, "If I knew there was a lady sitting in a classroom
somewhere, she could sleep at night". She put forth the
mission to start an educational learning center in the Eastern
province for women.
In 1995 the doors to the
center opened. The janitor, hostess, director, and assistant
director were all named Teresa. It was done underground; the
Department of Education knew nothing about it. By the time
she left the Kingdom in 2001, they had over 300 regular
students and 32 employees.
People know about Saudi
Arabia from what they hear on the news and that is some times
lies. Saudi's don't share information with outsiders.
The Kingdom is a very
private place; they don't like publicity. We don't look at
the world the same way they do. Americans believe in
separation of church and state. In Saudi the government and
the church are one. Religion determines all phases of life in
that country.
At the base power prices are
higher than those outside. The base Commander said the power
company had to make money.
If you broke the law you came
under their power.
After the talk she asked if
anyone had any questions. Al McLellan asked, couldn't we make
moral judgments about people who restrict freedom? Doug
Speight said he had worked with the
Saudi's at a different level than Mrs. McCown, found they
didn't like Americans.
LAST
WEEK'S GUESTS
George
Wilson had his wife, Linda, join him for
breakfast. It's always good to see her.
ENTERTAINMENT
Al McLellan gave a
talk to the retired men's group; 40 nice fellows. Part of the
talk was on aging and keeping involved. After the talk a
fellow walked up to him and said he was 95 years old, and last
year he competed in the Florida Senior Olympics. Al said,
"That's great, what did you do?" The man said he threw the
javelin and ran. He said he wanted to compete in the Alabama
Olympics, but he was the only one in his category.
His goal is to write a song
a month. He sang his latest, "You Get Hurt Sometimes".
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
President Winstead
said one way to get rid of mosquitos is to take a white
plate, put a few drops of lemon fresh joy, dish washing
detergent in a dish with a little bit of water and sit it
outside. They will drink it and it'll kill them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
July 12th, Board
meeting will be held.
John Burch is on his
way home from the International Convention in St. Louis.
The District Convention
will be held at the end of July in Dothan.
Barnie Paulson said 4
times a year members go to the V.A. Hospital. The 4 or 5
members get more out of the visits than the veterans. Small
gifts are distributed at each visit. He spoke to a mother
recently who lost her son in Iraq.
[See Kiwanis International Convention Reports - click here]
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