|
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Earlier this year the Saudi-American Forum, a companion Web site of the Saudi-US Relations Information Service, published a serialization of Honey and Onions by Frances Meade. It is a charming memoir of the early days of American expatriate life in the Kingdom. From the author's forward:
There is an old Arabic proverb, yawm 'asl wa yawm basl; "one day honey; one day onions," that is to me the universal description of life. Certainly it characterizes my own and I can't think of a more fitting title for a book that invites the reader to share my life in the Saudi Arabia of thirty years ago. That those years and the ones that have followed have been happy ones is self-evident; the honey has been very sweet and the onions surprisingly mild.
This is a personal memoir of the years before the economic boom that transformed the kingdom. My story is a preface to that period of tumultuous change, a backdrop against which the larger story of unprecedented development can be better appreciated. For those of us who lived through it, the metamorphosis of Arabia was a gradual evolution, but looking back over the years, we can see that it was a breathtaking leap into an unknown future.
We recently learned that a revised edition of Honey and Onions has been published and Mrs. Meade is working on a new book telling the complete story of her 33 years in Saudi Arabia. We were pleased to talk with her about her experiences in the kingdom and her observations on the state of US-Saudi relations.
��
This interview was conducted by telephone from her home in Arizona on November 30, 2004.
A Conversation With Frances Meade, Author of Honey and Onions - A Life in Saudi Arabia
SUSRIS: How did you come to be in Saudi Arabia?
Frances Meade: We went to Saudi Arabia in 1965 for 18 months and stayed for 33 years. It was to be an 18-month contract for my husband with an architectural and engineering company. They were designing and supervising the construction of the first highways. It sounded like a real adventure, and we were all very excited.
I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing, but it was obvious from everything we had heard, women simply did not lead any kind of public life nor did they go to work. I made up my mind that I was going to spend the 18 months at home. Well, I found out what we heard was wrong. I wasn't there a month before I was tapped to come to work at the
international school that was opening that year. The international community numbered slightly over a hundred -- the whole community, not the students. There were only 30 some students when the school opened.
SUSRIS: This was in Riyadh?
Frances Meade: Yes, in Riyadh. I soon heard about
Queen
Effat, one of the most dynamic Saudi women ever. Her efforts in education and in improving and enhancing the life of girls and women in Saudi Arabia were stunning examples. We discovered we could follow her example and do things that might not have been sanctioned by the Saudi government, but certainly permitted, like the school. It was not sanctioned at the time. Unfortunately, it had to be licensed some years later, and as a result, had to segregate the boys and girls into separate schools.
Incidentally, a few days ago, my daughter told me I was mentioned on
my college's list of "notable"
alumnae. I thought, "How exciting, but what have I done?" So, I went online to look and discovered that I was there because I was the first woman to have become the principal of a boy's school in Saudi Arabia. It made it sound as though the Saudi government had conferred this upon me, and of course, that was far from the truth. It just happened that when the school had to be divided, it was necessary for me to be the principal of both schools for financial reasons.
I have to say that I have never been treated more professionally in my life than by the
Ministry of
Education, which had never dealt with a woman principal before. I found it to be a rewarding experience -- to know that in Saudi Arabia you are accepted for what your capabilities, your skills and your interests are. And, it was a good introduction that resulted in many long lasting relationships.
SUSRIS: Talk a little about the relationships between Americans and Saudi Arabians, not just professionally but socially as well, during those early years in the Kingdom.
Frances Meade: We were, of course, a very small foreign community, and everyone there was working for some branch of the Saudi government. They had Saudi colleagues with whom they were friendly, and when we were introduced to fellow foreigners, we were also introduced to their Saudi contacts. Suddenly, we had a circle of friends among Saudis that would be awfully hard to achieve now.
Present-day living, exclusive of the fact that there is a dreadful security situation now, doesn't allow for such close contacts. After the boom began in mid-'70s, there were so many people coming into the country, who were essentially banding together in compounds, and they were walling themselves off from the rest of the city. There were people who literally spent a contract term of two or three years in the country and might never have met a Saudi, which is pretty sad. But, I think it's inevitable when you have that kind of influx from a different culture.
When we arrived in 1965, we were a very small group. The Saudi world was open to us. The seclusion in later years among foreigners, among Americans, was self-imposed. I suppose from a purely financial point of view, it's a lot cheaper when you bring in a lot of people to put them in one place and provide services for them than to do as we were all doing, living independently in various areas around the city. But, it does mean that you are withdrawn from everyday Saudi life and culture.
SUSRIS: What would you say were the most remarkable memories from those years before the boom of the 1970s?
Frances Meade: There's no doubt that those of us who were there, and there were probably about 50 to 60 American families, actually total Americans, not families -- we could sit down tomorrow, not having seen each other for the last 40 years and immediately pick up where we left off. There's a bond in being a very small group of people in what was to us a completely alien culture.
You see, little was known about Saudi Arabia in the States in the 1960s. I didn't even know, for example, when Dick said we were going to move to Jeddah -- which was the original plan -- where it was. He just said, "Jeddah," and I automatically started to think, "Somewhere maybe in Yugoslavia?" It didn't mean a thing, nor did it mean anything to the people we told about it.
There is a tremendous difference from then to now, since Saudi Arabia has become a global nexus. The period between was a dramatic change for the people we knew. It was not just the foreigners - ultimately, we were the only ones who remained of that original group -- but also of the Saudis who were our friends.
In fact, their lives changed far more dramatically than ours did over the years. Many of them were young people, some recently graduated from universities in the States, who were coming back to work for the government in the various ministries. In a very short period of time, they became entrepreneurs -- very, very successful entrepreneurs -- in a climate that certainly encouraged entrepreneurship among the Saudis. So, their lives changed, their economic status changed, but it didn't change our relationships, which I think is a very telling thing.
Other than the relationships, I think my fondest memories certainly are of the desert and the traveling that I was able to do because of my husband's job.
SUSRIS: You mentioned in an early chapter of your book,
Honey and
Onions, that travel was relatively easy, as small as Riyadh was it didn't take long to get out of town.
Frances Meade: Well, you just drove across country out into the desert. I enjoyed those drives, but we flew more often because the company had a small plane. So, I was able to go to places that were probably not otherwise accessible because before the roads, it would take days to travel by Land Rover on desert tracks.
It gave me an early opportunity to see, number one, what village life was like, and to have contact with some of the women, who were leading extraordinarily hard lives. They were literally going to the town well and carrying water back to their houses.
It was amazing to see the transformation during those early years. When I say early years, I mean 1965 to about 1970. In that short time, all those villages had been transformed, by the highways and by the thrust of the government's investment in the villages and towns. They had clinics and schools. They began to get dependable electricity and running water before much of the development started in the cities themselves. It was remarkable to see the lives of these people so immensely improved.
SUSRIS: You eventually moved from Riyadh to Jeddah. Can you compare the two cities during that period?
Frances Meade: They were infinitely different. Jeddah was, after all, the diplomatic capital of the Kingdom at the time. You not only had the influx of foreign pilgrims during the Hajj season, but you also had an established international community of some size. Traditionally, Jeddah had always been, in terms of public life and social life, a far more open society. Of course, again, just the geographical location -- there you are on the Red Sea. You're living in a sub-tropical climate. All of those things made life there very different from life in Riyadh. Having said that, I'd also have to say that we were delighted three years later to go back to Riyadh. We preferred the desert climate anyway since we came from Arizona.
SUSRIS: How had Riyadh changed while you were away?
Frances Meade: It had improved. There was more housing available and more amenities. For me, it was a very exciting time because that's when I became principal of the school. So, I had my own agenda in coming back to Riyadh.
In fact, I came back before my husband moved the company from Jeddah. I was by myself and had the experience of being a single woman living in Riyadh. Again, people were just wonderful to me. I started work immediately at the school on an emergency basis after the death of my predecessor. That was why I had come before the company moved.
I began to appreciate the kind of introspection that I think you need as a single person, regardless of gender, living in isolation in a restricted society. You have to make your own entertainment. Well, we did then. Remember, we didn't have television and, obviously, no public entertainment of any kind. People were good about sharing books. You did a lot of reading. That was an interesting time for me, but it only lasted for about six weeks.
SUSRIS: What were the attitudes in Saudi Arabia toward America and Americans? It was a period of turmoil in the region -- after the 1967 war. The relationships among the United States, Israel and the Arab world must have been on people's minds. Was that reflected in anyway people were treated?
Frances Meade: Not at all. Of course, the 1967 war was a pretty sad event. But, it was amazing, in fact, how quickly the initial feelings of antipathy turned around. I found the Saudis to be a pragmatic people. They were really on the cusp of doing something dramatic in terms of the development of their own country and their own society. That is what really drove their attitude. They recognized what kind of assistance they needed to implement their plans and if the Americans were providing it -- great. They appreciated what was needed, and it was a matter of self-interest and self-sufficiency that dictated their attitude towards Americans.
SUSRIS: When you say "Saudi Arabia" to many Americans, they may think of the oil embargo around the time of the 1973 war. Was the pragmatic Saudi outlook still there?
Frances Meade: The 1973 war was a very peculiar time. It did not in any way arouse the kind of interest and excitement that the 1967 war did. I remember sitting in my office at the school, when the secretary said that there was a Saudi man there to see me. I thought we might be having a little bit of a problem. He came in and sat down. But, it turned out he wanted a job for his wife at the school. There was no discussion about the war that was going on. It rather startled me because I expected at least a reference. It was an interesting little cameo.
SUSRIS: Was the nature of relationships changing as the expatriate community was growing?
Frances Meade: Not in the early '70s. The period of the great build-up was from 1975 on, when you had a tremendous inundation not only of American companies but also of other foreigners as well. Toward the end of the 1970s, you began to sense a division between the Saudis and everybody else not in terms of liking or disliking one another but in purely social terms. In a sense, the Saudis put the wagons in a circle because they preferred their own society and their own culture. They could perceive that there was a certain threat to it with the number of foreigners coming in, and I think that was not an unreasonable perception. In any case, there was a certain reciprocity with the foreigners isolating themselves in compounds.
Interestingly, for those of us who were able to maintain our relationships with Saudis, it was really quite a dynamic time. I was always struck by the fact that the Saudis are so outspoken. I heard for years the conventional wisdom of what a repressive regime theirs was. I never found it to be so. You could be sitting at a dinner table next to someone you had never met before, and he could very well be expounding very freely on what he liked and disliked about his government.
I think that has always characterized my relationships with Saudis. They have always been extremely candid, especially with people they know. People I met there never appeared to feel that they were being oppressed by their government. "Oppressed" is probably not the best word, but I think that in the West, that is how it is portrayed -- that you have a regime with everybody under their thumb. Saudis are very individualistic people. They are not easily kept under anybody's thumb.
SUSRIS: Can you share some of your experiences in Saudi Arabia after the boom period began in the 1970s?
Frances Meade: Well, my perspective changed in the late 1970s when I left the school and went to work for the U.S. Information Service, which had established a very small office in Riyadh in addition to its school for English as a second language. It was a forerunner to the eventual move of the embassy to Riyadh from Jeddah. The ambassador began to spend time in Riyadh, although not in residence until 1984. In 1986, the diplomatic quarter was completed, and the current embassy building opened. But, before that, it was housed in a building downtown.
Being in Riyadh is was much like living in mini-Washington where everyone was somehow connected to the host government. My husband's company, for example, operated on a contract with the Ministry of Communications, and his first job was as the company liaison to the government since the company headquarters were originally located in Jeddah. The government had a direct impact on all our lives as foreigners, so it was a constant topic of discussion, and we became very knowledgeable about its operations.
Now, working for the U.S. government, after having been part of the Saudi community for so long, made me turn around and look back, if you will, at the life I had been leading and the context in which I had been leading it with a slightly different eye. What I accepted as normal I was now seeing through a new American filter, and I began to realize how fast things were changing. First of all, there were, through my job, meetings with and access to people in the Saudi government at a level, which I had not enjoyed before. That was, of course, extremely interesting.
Eventually, I moved into protocol at the
embassy, and we were flooded with visitors from the United States. There were congressional delegations everywhere you looked -- back-to-back sometimes. It was an exciting kind of life. It gave me an exposure to an entirely different level of Saudi activity that I certainly had never had before and an opportunity to share my own experience with official visitors.
SUSRIS: Any stories from those visits?
Frances Meade: Yes. I made some discoveries. One was that when escorting the female half of a delegation, to the university or the museum, there would be a singular lack of ladies' facilities in these exclusively male venues. I finally solved that problem by making a sign in English and Arabic that read, "Ladies." In an emergency, I would just stick it on a door and then stand in front of it trying to look forbidding. It worked. There were mishaps too. The wife of one of the most distinguished members of the House of Representatives insisted on a close-up visit to a camel and was bitten in an extremely embarrassing area, much to her chagrin. And, wonderful events like the visit of the Challenger crew with whom
Prince Sultan bin Salman had flown. I escorted
Dr. Shannon Lucid to the magnificent party given in her honor by the prince's mother at which we were entertained by women wearing the traditional costumes and performing the dances indigenous to the different areas of the Kingdom. It was a night when I was particularly proud to be an American watching the enthusiasm with which Dr. Lucid was greeted. The Saudi ladies obviously saw in her the possibilities for all women. We had some very interesting visitors including the Carters and the Bushes. I can't say too much about Rosalyn Carter, who was one of the most professional and adaptable women I've escorted. I always found that the higher the status of the visitor, the easier they were to be kept to a schedule.
SUSRIS: How did Americans in these delegations react to the culture and life in the Kingdom?
Frances Meade: I remember very well the visit of Congressman Wilson of Texas who brought with him a group of Jewish businessmen, community leaders and their wives. They were people who really had their eyes opened I think. They knew little about Saudi Arabia before their trip, but having the opportunity to visit the country and talk to Saudis affected them. I had several letters after they left saying "Thank you," and that it really gave them a different view of the Kingdom. This was rewarding because I think we are such slaves to the media that anything they want to hand us, we lap right up, but a firsthand encounter is the real thing.
SUSRIS: Official visitors were probably able to attend briefings and meetings that most media wouldn't have been covering or that most Americans wouldn't have been exposed to. Were there any other reactions you can tell us about?
Frances Meade: Yes, I think that is true. But, I used to make a particular effort to get visitors into the schools, for example, to see what was going on, and to meet the women I was talking about. And, I wanted to get them into social settings, not with the wives of the top-level people but with women who were doing interesting things or were housewives who were educated or educating themselves. There were many of those.
I can't say enough about the capability of Saudi women. They've done some really remarkable things. They do it in a very low-key way because that is the way it is done, but they have achieved a great deal individually and as a group. The business about the election coming up and that women are going to be excluded from voting actually surprised me. Maybe I'm just out of touch, but when I was in Arabia last year, there was so much talk about it among women who were convinced that this was actually something that was coming to them that this edict is a little bit surprising. But, I don't think it is the last word. I think ultimately, the vote will come for women.
This week, we got an annual report from the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council. I thought it was very interesting that, listed among the Saudi Chambers of Commerce, the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce was the only one that now has a women's division and lists the women who run it. So, again, these are incremental steps, but I think we ought to stand back a bit and accept a society that moves incrementally. After all, it did take a very long time in the United States. I think our expectations are a little high about a relatively young country, and I have great hopes for the things that women will ultimately achieve in Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately, we in the West only see the picture of a veiled woman. I remember back in the '60s, a Saudi friend, who was one of the first women to work for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs saying, "Why are we talking about the veil? What do I care what I'm wearing when I am talking to the minister, and he's listening to my advice." Of course, that is it in a nutshell. We, I think, emphasize the wrong thing.
SUSRIS: What can be done to challenge these stereotypes, especially about women's issues?
Frances Meade: One of the things I have been doing, in connection with the exhibitions of my Bedouin jewelry collection, is to speak to various groups. The exhibit is called
"A Woman's
Treasure," and the women I talk to are absolutely stunned to discover that the jewelry represents portable capital. It is something that belongs to women and represents what they own. Bedouins were traveling people. But, this belongs to a woman. Nobody else, not her husband, has a right to it. She is strictly in control. They are so shocked to imagine that this is possible. We go on from there to the kind of independence that women value and how it is reflected in their lives, particularly those who are very hardworking. Certainly, the nomadic tribes are hardworking.
SUSRIS: A significant amount of media attention has been focused on Saudi Arabia, especially after 9/11, and much of it has been negative. Are there any perceptions of Saudi Arabia that may be circulating that strike you as erroneous based on your experience in the Kingdom?
Frances Meade: The first thing that occurs to me is the prevalent notion that Saudi Arabians are an enemy or that they are out to get us. Now, this is based obviously on the participants in 9/11. We probably would not say the same thing about the Italians if there had been 15 Italians on the planes. We wouldn't lump them altogether as evil people. We would say these are 15 terrible people who happen to be Italian. But, somehow, the entire Kingdom and its people have become the objects of our antipathy.
I can only judge by my own experience, and I was there about this time last year. We met not only with officials but also with friends and with people in public places like the souk. What I saw was that people are simply leading their lives. The only real difference that I sensed in this atmosphere -- other than the physical presence of checkpoints throughout the city -- is a pervasive thread that runs through everybody's conversations of wondering what is going to happen next. I don't think you find this in people who are going to do the bad deed. These are the people who are worried about what's going to be done to them again and who is going to do it -- the week after we left, terrorists blew up a major compound in Riyadh. Meanwhile, Americans here are making enemies out of people who are victims in much the same way that we are. You just don't know when the other shoe is going to drop.
SUSRIS: In a recent interview, Wyche Fowler, who served as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 2001, told us many Arabs are frustrated and resentful about the U.S. government's policies in the region and that he was worried that those feelings might be transferred from the American government to the American people. Do you see that happening in Saudi Arabia?
Frances Meade: I think the Saudis have always -- certainly in my experience -- recognized the value of individual foreigners rather than their governments. I particularly remember when during the 1967 war when tempers were pretty high in general, there was no problem for us as individuals with our Saudi friends.
I think that for this present generation, it's quite possible that we are going to maintain the kind of relationship that we have seen over the years, but I worry a great deal about the coming generation. For one thing, they are not going to experience living and studying in the United States. Their predecessors came here in droves for education. Since the Saudi university system burgeoned during the 1980s, many stopped coming for undergraduate work, but they still came to study in American graduate schools. Sadly, those who still come for graduate work are gradually being turned away because it is so difficult to get visas.
What are we going to see when this generation takes over with a very narrow vision of life because they have gone from kindergarten through advanced degrees in their own country and within their own culture? They may only have seen the Western world firsthand on holiday, which is probably not the best way. They know that even if they wish to come here for higher education, they can't do it. This does not augur well for the American-Saudi relationship, individually or governmentally -- it can't possibly. It's a major concern.
SUSRIS: What's your read on business-to-business ties? Are American businesses still enthusiastic about Saudi Arabia or are they concerned about the security situation?
Frances Meade: It's hard to say. Obviously, American companies are continuing to work there. I think they are finding it harder to get people to go. I was doing consulting work for Lucent, cross-cultural training for their employees going to Saudi Arabia. Well, that has completely dried up.
I just don't think people are encouraged at all by American companies to go to Saudi Arabia. I can understand why. The present climate is pretty difficult to deal with. Americans who are living there and who have been living there, of course, adapt. This is life as it is lived. Externals may change, but your life goes on just the same. But, that is a hard sell for an American family. Now, you may be getting American men on bachelor status. I am sure there are fewer and fewer American families that are going.
Certainly, the American school is a barometer with a student population predominantly of Asian and Middle Eastern students. So, you can tell in what direction things are going. It doesn't speak very well for our future there.
SUSRIS: Are you still in touch with the school?
Frances Meade: Yes. In fact, the school celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. I was asked to send a video describing what the school was like in its early days. They sent me some wonderful videos in return. It was a delightful exchange.
Its name has changed again. It was originally the Riyadh International Community School, then the Saudi Arabia International School-Riyadh, and now it is the
American International School -
Riyadh.
SUSRIS: In summing up, where we are in the people-to-people relationship?
Frances Meade: My biggest concern is the younger generation. I think there is no question that there is going to be a division. There has to be.
As I mentioned earlier, when I went to Saudi Arabia in 1965, I didn't even know the names of the cities. It was just a remote place that had no connection to me. If you transpose that, you have young Saudis who know all about the United States from television, but it's a remote country that means nothing to them if they have never been there. There's going to be this whole new generation without the kind of experiences and relationships we've had in the past.
In a sense, it is the human face of America that they are missing. This is what many of the leaders in the present-day government enjoyed. They understand that there are real people not just a country and a government on the other side. It's exactly the same as we felt in Arabia -- the people connection. It's very sad to contemplate really, because Saudi Arabia is a country that has come so far in such a short time. To see it isolated from us means that a great deal of time, energy and enthusiasm on the part of many Americans who helped in bringing about that development is being lost and forgotten. It's sad to see it slip away.
SUSRIS: Your book, Honey and
Onions, when was it written? Tell us about it.
Frances Meade: It was written in 1996 and published in Arabia. There were a number of things that I did not put in the book because -- not that they were scandalous -- they could possibly offend some sensibilities. One must take that into consideration.
In the revision, I have added some anecdotes that might be humorous and some that might be rather revealing of the context of the society. It's nothing dramatic, I assure you, but I had so many requests for it that I figured, "Okay, why not?"
I'm bogged down as I have been for the past six years in trying to finish the other book, and in the meantime, I thought that this one might probably fill a gap.
SUSRIS: What's the other book?
Frances Meade: The other book will attempt to cover the whole period of our time in Saudi Arabia. Interestingly enough, it was 33 years, which is the cycle of the Islamic calendar. I hadn't quite realized it until we were getting ready to leave, and I suddenly thought, "Good heavens! It's Ramadan again. That's where it was when we came here." I think there is something to be said for that particular cycle, which of course was so dramatic in terms of development, and I feel very lucky to have lived through it.
SUSRIS: Well, that sounds like a wonderful project. So, the
Honey and Onions that is available now is a revision with new material?
Frances Meade: Yes.
SUSRIS: Earlier, you talked about exhibits. Can you tell us more about the
"Arab Americans in
Arizona" exhibit?
Frances Meade: It's fascinating. It traces the arrival and the blossoming of some very prominent Arab American families, who have been highly successful here. It's basically divided into the different phases of their experience. Starting with the arrival phase, there is wonderful documentation about people's visas, the papers that were needed to get here and how they arrived.
Then, there is the development period when they went into various business ventures and what they accomplished. They even have a shopping cart from the first supermarket owned by an Arab American. It is now one of the largest supermarket chains in Arizona.
There is a section on tradition and culture, and religion is folded into that. My contribution to this is the
Bedouin
jewelry, costumes and various artifacts. I've been delighted to be part of this because I think it is such a worthwhile thing to do, especially now. Let's hear it for the Arab-Americans who really made it here and enriched our community with what they brought with them from the Middle East.
The exhibit runs until April at the Mesa Southwest Museum in Mesa, Arizona.
SUSRIS: This has been a wonderful conversation. These are the hard to come by insights that Americans need to hear more about. Do you have any final thoughts on the U.S.-Saudi relationship?
Frances Meade: When you think about it, the relationship almost follows the curve of development, which peaked and started falling off with the decline in oil prices in the 1990s. At the same time, this new curve of hate and bigotry seemed to ascend.
It's just a very sad thing because certainly the Kingdom is more than oil. It's got some awfully bright people and some people with good instincts in terms of what they would like the country to be. We are almost at an impasse now wondering which way it is going to go. Clearly, the economy is on an upswing with the higher oil prices, but I don't think that is going to reverse the other trend.
It's hard to know how it all will work out. I am still willing to place a bet on the royal family's sustaining their position and influence. Their downfall has been predicted for so long that I think it has become the automatic response of the media to any Saudi problem.
I don't place any bets at all on the long-range attitudes of "us" and "them" toward one other. That's a little bit pessimistic perhaps, but it may be realistic too.
The greatest contribution that anybody can make to improving the relationship is to bring people over there, sit them down and let them see Saudi Arabia as the
National Council [on US-Arab
Relations] has been doing for so many years. For myself -- and my only expertise is my 33 years in the Kingdom -- I don't believe it will slide into being the enemy's camp. People are people, and the ones that I know and appreciate are still doing constructive things that enhance their own society. I guess that's about as much as anyone can say at this stage of the game. It's a difficult world.
As trading partners, we really don't wish to lose them. We share a whole range of interests -- security, energy and their influence in the Islamic world. It's mind-boggling how people can continue to focus on things that should be below the radar but are brought to the forefront to tear the relationship apart.
We should also recognize that a country can be its own worst enemy in its public pronouncements. This goes for us as well. If there were a foot-in-mouth contest, I think it might be a draw.
Related Links:
About Frances Meade
Frances Meade is an American who has lived in Saudi Arabia from 1965 to 1998. Born in New York, she and her family moved to Arizona in the '50s and still call it home. She has a degree from
Mount Holyoke College and has written and edited educational texts as well as a monthly magazine column.
|
