Basically 2 things have happened since my last entry, one good, the other the biggest farce ever imagined, like something from a comic horror film. Let's start with the good stuff, especially as it was longer ago.

One evening Emma, Halima and I were invited to a student's house to meet her sisters and her mother. Ibtisam is one of Emma's students, and I'd met her a few times through watching lessons, covering lessons, and invigilating exams. We took the compound bus to her house in the evening, put on our niqabs to cross from the bus to the gate to her house, greeted Ibtisam and 2 of her sisters in their garden with our niqabs still on, and then took them off and were taken inside. We stayed for about 2 hours, during which time we met 2 more sisters and their mother, but no brothers and no father, but that was what we expected. Interestingly, we weren't invited to remove our abayas. We were given juice, a few snacks of various sorts, and sweet mint tea with fresh mint. They were very friendly and inquisitive, and we did our best to be inquisitive back but were never sure what sorts of questions were ok and what weren't. I later discovered that it was a very good thing I refrained from asking what their father did. At one stage the conversation came round to cooking, Halima told the mother I enjoyed cooking and was quite good at it, and the mother told me I was ready for my husband. I did my best to hide my "this is what everyone always says and it's beginning to bug me a bit" face and told her I want to run a restaurant one day. I think, sadly, my point may have been missed.

And now to the crazy stuff. I'll really try my best to be logical and clear, but I have a feeling it's going to come out as an incoherent splurge of anger and confusion that makes no sense to anybody.

Our holidays were originally scheduled to start on 4th August. Before I even arrived, people had booked flights home for that days and soon after. Then during my first week it was decreed from above (by a man named Dr Youssef, who is the Dean of the university, you'll probably hear more about him) that it would be delayed until sometime much later in August, with no explanation. People were understandably pretty angry about that, but adjusted their plans accordingly where possible. It wasn't possible for everyone - a lot of people had non-refundable tickets, and/or things at home that they'd really counted on being around for, etc etc. So a large fuss was made and the leave date was brought forward again, though not to the 4th. It seemed nothing further could be done about this.

Yesterday (7th August) was officially our last day at work, a lot of people had planned to leave the country yesterday afternoon and today, and had applied for their exit visas well in advance to make sure it was possible. (Unlike any other country I know of, Saudi requires you to have an exit visa from your employer before you can leave the country.) They didn't arrive. We were then promised them by 2pm - several people had already missed connections by this point - and again they didn't arrive. We left the women's campus at 2pm and drove, for 20 of the most tortuous minutes I have ever experienced, with everyone shouting and arguing all around me, to the men's campus, where The Powers That Be sit in state, to attempt something akin to a sit-in. NB I wasn't waiting for an exit visa, as I'm not attempting to leave the country (more complications over not yet having the right paperwork to even apply for an exit visa - different problem but almost as annoying).

Upon arrival at the men's campus - which was hard to get to because the driver was being given firm instructions not to take us there, and if he disobeys instructions his pay gets docked - we were told that all the exit visas had accidentally been sent to Al Khobar, which is a city quite a long way from here, and wouldn't be here before Saturday. But we weren't to worry because some kind soul in Al Khobar was scanning and emailing them and they were getting printed off here. Now, I don't have the greatest technological aptitudes, but even I can scan and email a few bits of paper in under an hour. Here is what happened.

Francis, the driver, was sent into the men's campus to collect the visas. He came back clutching an envelope, which contained one photocopied visa, belonging to Marian. We were at this point told to go back to the compound and stop complaining. We refused. We managed to make contact with one of the guys, James, who came out to the bus to talk to us and see what he could do to help. He's just a teacher like us so has no power (other than that naturally ordained upon him by his sensible choice of being born male) and was in an even worse situation than most of us as he has finished his contract and was waiting not only for his exit visa but also for his final settlement, which for some inexplicable reason can't be transferred electronically. But he made himself useful running around telling people in the university that there were 6 women outside waiting for visas, in danger of missing flights and connections (some of which had already been missed), and doing some helpful photocopying of documentation which was soon to be illegally taken away from people. Eventually someone with some power took us vaguely seriously and another envelope was produced, containing more visas, but there were still 2 missing. For some reason this was the cut-off point and we were taken back to the compound.

Just as we arrived at the compound, we discovered through a series of phone calls that the visas would be worthless at the border or the airport because they hadn't been freshly stamped since being photocopied, so there was no way of proving they weren't forged. More panic, phone calls, and a promise that we would get stamped ones by the evening.

I phoned Rob, who had missed his initial departure to Jordan to catch a flight home from Amman, and fortunately he had been able to get his visa and get a taxi to Jordan, although he would have to book a new flight when he got there. Apparently the lack of stamp was less of an issue because he was due to cross at a land border and they're less fussy there.

The next news to break was that the visas had never been sent to Al Khobar at all. In fact, they had been lost and no one had any idea where they were. The scans we'd been given were fakes. I wasn't sure I believed this at the time, but have heard it confirmed by so many different sources since, that I do believe it now. And I wouldn't put anything past Dr Youssef who, incidentally, got onto a flight and left without telling anyone beforehand, in the middle of the whole fiasco. And he's supposed to be in charge. Previous Dr Youssef stories: 2 of the female teachers a few months ago had been granted leave, had their exit visas in their hands, were at the airport checking in, and Dr Youssef turned up out of the blue and hauled them back to the compound, just because he'd changed his mind. They never got their holiday. A few weeks before I got here, 3 of the girls decided to take a taxi into town one evening and go to Pizza Hut. They had permission from the compound manager; people knew where they were and what they were doing; it was their free time and in theory they could do what they liked. Dr Youssef somehow heard about this (he has spies all over the town) and they had a series of angry, threatening phone calls. A few months ago, everyone had a scheduled holiday coming up, everyone had booked flights, but Dr Youssef then decided to cancel the holiday on a whim. Everyone lost money and time at home with family and friends. Soon after I arrived, a cover teacher who isn't even under Dr Youssef's authority because he's here on loan from a different project, had flown to Riyadh to collect his exit visa (I'm not sure why it couldn't be sent here) for leave which had been booked and approved months in advance. He turned up at HQ to collect his visa, and discovered that Dr Youssef had made some calls and made sure no one would give him his visa. He was flown back to Sakaka and remained here until he finally managed to escape yesterday.

To be quite honest with you I don't know what's happening now. I think most people have managed to get real exit visas, or will have them very soon. James and a couple of others who are leaving managed to get their final settlements today. I'm still trying to get a flight back to Riyadh for the holiday - a fantastically useless man called Mohammed Qudah, who is in Dr Youssef's pocket, has promised to ring me at 8pm today to tell me what's happening with me. This is after 3 days of phone calls, wondering when I'll be leaving. I can't book a flight myself because: a) I can't book online because I don't have a Saudi bank account; b) I sincerely doubt the compound manager would give me permission to go into town to the airline office, and anyway the company are supposed to pay for my flight for me and I've seen from the website that the flights are pretty expensive at the moment. I wondered about running away, but - even if I left in the middle of the night, and slipped through a gap in the barbed wire fence, leaving all my luggage behind so I could run faster, the armed guards would chase me down and bring me back. It's kind of ridiculous, but I know it'll be funny when it's over so I'm trying to find it funny now. Doing better than I expected, actually. I have food and water here, and air conditioning, and company. I'm looking forward to getting back to Riyadh, though.

Oh and they have my passport.

If anyone has access to an international squad of Amazing People, those of us left stranded here would appreciate their immediate arrival.