by rchakaki | Jan 8, 2011 | Recollections
Our Saudi home was in a gated community on the outskirts of Dammam, close to Kateef. It must have been built in the early sixties. It housed two larger double story homes, and forty some mid-size homes. It was gated in by a palm tree branches (sa3f) fence. The...
by rchakaki | Jan 1, 2011 | Recollections
Allan de Botton’s book Status Anxiety is my favorite read. I read it at age 32; it explained feelings of discomfort, displacement, social anxieties and the yearning to belong. At age four, my mother and I traveled from Damascus, Syria to Khobar, Saudi Arabia to...
by rchakaki | Jun 27, 2009 | Ramblings
To encounter a whale shark on a dive, is rare and special. To see two on the same day in two different dive sites is absolutely remarkable. It happened yesterday, on a trip with the students from JESS (Jumeirah English Speaking School – Dubai). Most members of...
by rchakaki | Nov 25, 2008 | Ramblings
Imagining Sipadan Preparations for our trip commenced four weeks prior to departure. Ernst, our trip organizer and dive instructor setup weekly meetings. The purpose was to review National Geographic Fish & Coral ID coursework, introduce team members to each other...
