A Season in Saudi Arabia

They began in February - headaches - which never seemed to stop. I've never suffered from them before, so I knew something was wrong. The problem with melanoma is any little innocuous symptom you might have - let alone constant headaches - could indicate something very serious. Headaches are a symptom of around 50% of those who experience disease progression in the brain. I spent a lot of time online researching any articles which might help establish whether my headaches were melanoma or something else. The most disturbing article I read was about chronic headaches being experienced by a cohort of breast cancer survivors. For those whose headaches went on longer than 9 weeks, 51% were later diagnosed with brain mets. Of course, the article was about breast cancer, but melanoma loves the brain even more than breast cancer, so when the headaches wouldn't quit after three months, I became utterly convinced I was gonna die soon! Of course, I had to jump through a few hoops to prov...

Something positive finally happened and, ironically, it was connected with Saudi Arabia. Completely out of the blue, the British guy in charge of the newly formed Saudi surf team invited Raf and I to join him and the entire Saudi team at Bristol’s Wave - an outdoor wave pool with pretty good waves - and onto Newquay for a surf competition. All our expenses were to be paid and I’d get a little extra for doing some social media reels. While I knew I couldn’t continue my nutritional therapy, I decided to accept the offer but only for Bristol (which meant only two nights away from the juicing and enema routine).  On a sunny day in the middle of May, Raf and I boarded trains in Cromer and Norwich, crossed London, jumped onto a fast train to Bristol, before checking into a lovely hotel on the outskirts of the city. The Saudis arrived much later than us, so our first afternoon was alone in the mall, where Raf devoured a beef burger and I picked up a bargain beanie for £4 (never one to was...

My world has fallen apart many times since leaving Saudi in July 2021. Typhoons, Chinese construction near your dream home and skin cancer tends to do that. Inevitably, after each set back, I wondered why - why me? why us? why now? Unsurprisingly, I almost felt like we (or I) were under some sort of curse . However, nothing could have prepared me for what God had lined up next. I can tell you the exact moment when my world began to fall apart again: I had spotted a tiny 1mm black spot on my chin in the mirror at work and thought it was just a blotch of ink, so I tried to rub it off but it was a stubborn mark and wasn’t going anywhere. In a sudden state of panic, I kept on rubbing until I caused my skin to bleed a little. I knew this mark wasn’t supposed to be there. And that meant it might be melanoma again.  A few weeks later, in mid-December 2023, I was assured by a private dermatologist in Norwich that the lesion looked totally normal. But I’ve heard that all before. The next da...

When the busy summer season ended, I was offered a lot more work than I expected in the first couple of months of the autumn. While it meant bringing the Gerson juices to work, the extra money was more than welcomed with an expensive two years of nutritional therapy in front of me.  Alongside the work, God delivered some truly magical days of solid northeast swell groomed by offshores. They were surprisingly powerful and the water was warm enough to be sans gloves and boots for now.  I guess I felt like everything was going as well as possible in October and November: both my wife and I had work; my son Raf had company every day when his cousins came home from school; and the surf was about as good as it gets for Norfolk.  Sure, the Gerson therapy was tough and super time consuming, but I was managing okay especially with my wife’s efforts in the kitchen. Most of all, I felt pretty good, sometimes really good, and that meant a lot to me. But it’s worth mentioning that fea...

Nine months ago, when I was first diagnosed with nodular melanoma (January 2023), I immediately saw it as a death sentence. From the very beginning, I had googled obsessively and developed symptoms I’d read about soon after: everything from painful or possibly swollen lymph nodes to new, irregular black patches on my skin. Of course, I knew some or all these symptoms might be psychosomatic or benign, but I had utterly convinced myself I was already either stage 3 (nodal involvement) or stage 4 (distant skin metastasis) and likely to die soon. A month after diagnosis (February 2023), a melanoma surgeon in Davao took a large swathe of skin away from my shoulder and biopsied two other black patches and a lump (all confirmed as benign) and told me I was only stage 2A and everything would probably be okay - 95% sure he said - and I should just stay out of the sun (or use loads of sunscreen) and hope for the best. Out of extreme caution, he recommended a PET scan but nothing else (he was una...

While summer itself was a bit of a blur, there were definitely a few stand out moments. Within a few weeks in England, I quickly realised I had changed beyond all recognition - more fearful, more resentful and a little bit angry. I guess melanoma does that. So my standout moments weren’t exactly good ones. I spent much of July praying about whether to go ahead with the additional surgery recommended by the Spire melanoma surgeon. My mum’s advice about seeking God and him always replying when we need an answer just didn’t play out for me. Sadly, all I heard was deafening silence. Therefore, in August, I conformed with the medical establishment’s advice and had more skin was taken away for the princely sum of £750. The result came back 42 days later clear of any malignant cells. I guess God felt the private hospital needed the money more than I did.  In addition to private skin surgery, I’d tried to get back in the NHS system by re-registering with the local surgery and repeatedly as...

Before leaving the Philippines, I’d contacted my brother via WhatsApp and asked him to “give us a year” at his home. I’d carefully explained what had happened to us and the danger of melanoma. After some time, he said his wife had agreed “in principle” for us to stay one year, but it was likely they’d need a break from us during the year and suggested we move to my mother’s house later in the year. Overall, it was clear they wanted to offer us the exceptional help we needed, but it might unravel at any time given the general pressure of their family life.  On July 1, 2023, we arrived at their house in the back of a van driven by our old friend Tom, who had picked us up at the airport and was visiting us all in Norfolk for the first time in years. While he and his family got quickly reacquainted with my brother and his family, I unpacked our belongings in the room we’d been allotted. Inside the room, I immediately felt the gravity of the situation in front of me: I was surrounded by...

Two years ago, my family and I left the Saudi Kingdom behind right in the middle of the Covid-pandemic. It was a highly-charged, truly epic departure, where we felt the presence of God himself as he worked a series of miracles to lift us out of Arabia against the odds and bring us back to our family house on Siargao Island, Philippines. Final deliverance itself was sweet enough, but once back on the isla we were able to build our dream house  (using funds saved from my second Saudi season), surf every day and look forward to a five-year residency on an island we truly loved. Far from the mask-wearing and app-showing conformity of pandemic Saudi, life suddenly felt free again and the freedom was sweeter than the ripest date in the world.  Quite frankly, the idea of returning to KSA for a third time was the furthest thing on my mind in those heady days. Indeed, I had written off ever seeing Saudi again for the rest of my days. Yet today, unexpectedly writing this blog from Engl...

It might seem like our final deliverance was easy and I'm somehow exaggerating the barriers which lied in our path in the days before exit. But I don't think I'm exaggerating them at all. In reality, we were hit with two completely unexpected blockages: my final exit visa wouldn't issue and Saudi banned all flights (including our flight from Dammam to Dubai, connecting to Cebu) to the UAE. In a country like Saudi Arabia, one challenge might be enough to scupper all your plans, but having two really made it feel like we had a large mountain to move away. As soon as HR confirmed they couldn't issue my final exit visa and had no solutions of their own apart from my wife and son leaving immediately, I felt very, very anxious about the prospect of a lengthy delay to us reaching the Philippines. It's not like I could just fly them to UAE because that would mean being red listed for Philippine entry. Therefore, I suggested they issue me a standard re-entry visa to enab...

After saying two goodbyes in Khafji (one to my polytechnic workplace and the other to the city), ejection came slightly early due Saudi’s unexpected and totally unjustified flight ban . My company transported my family and I to the city of Dammam, where we decided to stay for our final night in order to get a PCR test as a precaution for any unexpected demands during our journey to the Philippines. Alongside the test, we decided to throw caution to the wind and rent a two-bedroom suite at the Ramada Inn and eat at one of Dammam’s finest seafood restaurants.  First stop was at a travellers PCR test centre, where we all got a 6-hour covid test for the princely sum of 320 SAR each. Whatever you think about the pandemic, anyone can see that global pharma struck gold the moment the WHO declared it so. For the first time in human history, healthy asymptomatic people require expensive tests just to move around and narratives have been swiftly changed to ensure the money keeps flowing in....

Sometimes it seems like you’re up against the world itself. Two days ago, from out of nowhere, Saudi Arabia decided to ban all flights to UAE and three other nations. This unexpected flight ban, alongside my company’s indifference towards issuing me a re-entry visa, left my family and I in an extraordinarily precarious position. Our long standing booking on an Emirates flight from Dammam to Dubai to Cebu now looked potentially unviable even if my company decided to relent and issue the visa.  In normal times, a flight ban like this wouldn’t be a major problem. Nor would my final exit visa dilemma, which began 7 days ago. To circumvent the flight ban. we would normally just buy another ticket via Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Singapore, Doha, Hong Kong or Turkey. But Philippine covid policy has slowed down flights into Manila and Cebu to a dribble, pushing up one-way economy prices above £8,000 for the three of us using bucket shop agencies. More reliable bookings direct with airlines li...

As part of a YouTube series my family and I are doing on our YouTube channel, I filmed this short film " A Day in the Life of an ESL Teacher " about one of my last days teaching in Saudi Arabia. Right now, it feels too familiar and somewhat disturbing, but I hope it'll make me smile in the years ahead when I look back upon my time with less emotion and stress.  It's definitely worth watching this film if you want to know more about how it feels to teach in Saudi Arabia. While there isn't too much classroom action, you'll still get a feel of a typical day in a KSA school or polytechnic and learn a few tips about what to expect when you're actually in the class. Comment down below if you like the film and whether it would inspire you to take up an opportunity to work in Arabia or more likely turn it down.  As for me, I’d rather never go back, especially after my complicated and stressful last few days. When the time comes to work again, I'd really like t...

  What should have been a period of peaceful contemplation has, in typical Saudi style, been super stressful. Naively, I thought I’d just be checking CNN Philippines for travel updates and waiting for an EOSB bank transfer. Instead, a potential showstopper came out of nowhere: my final exit visa wouldn’t issue as it showed I had two visitors left in KSA. Suddenly, the fact my company hadn’t even bothered to pay me hardly mattered at all, especially when the local HR contact abruptly informed that me my wife and son would have to leave the Kingdom ahead of me and there were no alternatives.  In normal times, this issue would have proven only mildly inconvenient. I would have booked a flight to Dubai for my wife and son, and they would have waited for me there before flying in together to the Philippines. But these are far from normal times. First, any passenger coming from UAE is currently red listed for onward travel to the Philippines. Second, all flights into the Philippine...

Yesterday, a few of my colleagues kindly gave me a leaving present and my manager spoke for a few minutes about how I would be missed and how much impact I had had on my trainees across the years. It was delightfully low key and the perfect way to end my time at the polytechnic.  Today, on my very last day at work, I feel so relieved that’s it’s all over. Work conditions have deteriorated sharply in recent months (six hours a day in the classroom, hectic exam schedules, compulsory masks and distancing, mandatory vaccination from August onwards etc.), so I don't think I'll ever regret packing up at this particular time. Also, I'm not exactly getting any younger here in Arabia and a stressful life only does one thing to your health: ruins it!  A couple of days ago, HR sent me my end of service bonus ( EOSB ) calculation, which was a little higher than I had expected. I guess working two more months boosted it up, along with cash in lieu of a travel ticket and pro rata holiday...

After such a lengthy second season in Saudi, it's very difficult to believe that I'm now just 14 days away from final exit. Of course, my family and I can't take anything for granted given the volatility of travel protocols across the world and, in particular, in the Philippines. Indeed, two days ago, the Filipinos spotted a Pinoy traveller from Saudi positive with the Delta variant , but they haven't introduced any new flight bans yet. Overall, things are looking quite positive right now with a stable epidemiological situation across the Philippine Islands (5000-6000 "cases" per day) and a spat between the Cebu mayor and the Philippine President seemingly resolved. Cebu Airport has just reopened and our Emirates flight booked for July 7 should be a go if nothing unpredictable happens in the next two weeks.   Despite the general sense of optimism in the air, I've already been deprived of a glorious final exit. It's mostly my own fault since I've...