He was manning his parents’ Trager pellet grill Sunday afternoon with a rack of pork ribs sizzling on the grate. Zachary Zenk doesn’t often get the chance to take in pork ribs these days, or pork of any kind for that matter.
A 2012 graduate of Riverton High School, Zenk earned a BA in Math Education from Black Hills State four years later and headed for his first teaching job at a high school in Kuwait.
He’s been in the Middle East ever since. He’s entering his 10th year as a math teacher on the Arabian Peninsula.
He met his future wife, Storm Baines, a South African, while teaching in Kuwait.
Storm was born in Yarmouth, England, lived in Venezuela and then Kuwait. She speaks Spanish, French, Afrikaans, English and some Arabic.
“You can get pork in Abu Dhabi,” Zac said. “But it’s not easy.”
“The British pubs always have pork,” Storm said.
Eating pork is not allowed in Islamic culture.
“It’s not advertised, its word of mouth,” Storm said. “You can get Scotch eggs or ribs behind a frosted window that reads ‘Non-Muslim.’”
The couple met in Kuwait in 2016.
“We started at the same time at the same school,” Storm said.
They met at the American School of Kuwait (ASK).
As a South African, Storm found a job at ASK through her father, who worked in the oil and gas industry. They moved every couple of years, and Storm had been a student at ASK in her freshman year.
“I grew up all over the place, I went to a lot of international schools,” Storm said. “I told my dad I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel. I finished my BA in French and Psychology. I didn’t quite want to give up the studying life. So, I went another year to get a teaching degree.” She didn’t want to teach in South Africa due to the political turmoil.
“Anyone who leaves South Africa, doesn’t go back to South Africa,” Storm said. “I think of how I was brought up overseas, that I didn’t want to go back. I got an email from an old principal when I was in Kuwait. I thought that was weird. When I lived in Kuwait, I was miserable; it’s not a place for a teenager.”
She interviewed with the ASK superintendent who had connections with Zac’s family, the connection was Becky Ness, from South Dakota, where Zac’s mother Phyllis grew up.
“Mr. Ness gave me his Black Hills State tie, and said, we’ve got to keep the tradition going,” Zac said. “He wore bolo ties to keep the western tradition alive.”
Halfway through the first year, Storm and Zac started to date.
Dating in Kuwait as an American and South African was a little challenging.
“We went to the movies, films are big over there,” Zac said. “We’d go out to dinner.”
Western women in Kuwait were subject to catcalls, whistles, and harassment by expatriots, or expats as they’re often called. These are workmen from Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Korea, India, England, Australia, the USA, and just about everywhere else. There are very few western women in Kuwait.
“There are workers from all over the world,” Storm said. “I wouldn’t go out at night or wear shorts.”
That isn’t a problem in Abu Dhabi, its much more western in their treatment of women.
They live on an ex-pat island.
“It’s called Reem Island and it was built expressly for ex-pats,” Zac said. “They just dumped sand in the ocean and built an island.”
Building offshore eliminates a lot of problems with local regulations since even a few dozen yards offshore is considered International Waters.
Getting your car fueled is different in Abu Dhabi.
“You pay a little extra and they bring a truck and pump gas right into your car,” Zac said. “You don’t have to go to a service station.”
“You get your gas delivered,” Storm said. “I don’t know how to pump gas, because I didn’t drive in South Africa.”
They rented a car for four years until they purchased a Hyundai Creta.
COVID changed the educational world.
“This year we’ve seen the result of COVID, these kids were in middle school and now they’re in high school,” Zac said.
Storm started teaching fourth, then fifth grade and is now a high school English teacher.
Zac and Storm both teach International Baccalaureate classes, a program akin to Advanced Placement courses.
Parents try to manipulate teachers even more than they do in the United States.
“I was offered a car by one student. I don’t know how serious he was,” Zac said.
Storm concurred, “The gifts are lavish. A designer bag, a luxury item, in Kuwait it was common. It’s not like in the US, where you might get an Amazon gift card or something.”
Storm is the senior class advisor and runs the student council.
Graduation is a huge production.
“It’s crazy, you’re in an amphitheater, they have fireworks, and film crews, it’s a major production in the palace,” Zac said.
Zac had coached soccer in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi but took a year off as he and Storm earned master’s degrees.
“We earned our masters’ through the University of the People,” Zac said. “It’s a legitimate institution. They’re recognized everywhere except Arkansas.”
“It’s very affordable and all online,” Storm said.
“It’s the same style as the University of Phoenix,” Zac said.
Storm is in the process of becoming an American citizen.
“That’s why we stuck around in Abu Dhabi so long,” Storm said. “We were engaged in 2019, then COVID hit.”
“We eloped,” Zac said. “We were married in the Seychelles. It’s like the Las Vegas of the Middle East. When we went there, it was amazing. It was after COVID. It was us and one other couple from Russia. We chose it because it’s the one place where your wedding is recognized everywhere.”
Their wedding photos were taken by a less-than-desirable Italian photographer, with bad angles and Storm covered in sand with wet hair.
“I like to forget those photos,” Storm said.
They can’t quite forget the photographer though.
“He was the witness at our wedding and his name is on our marriage certificate,” Zac said.
In 2022, they had a formal wedding at the 12 Apostles Resort in Cape Town, South Africa.
“It’s called the 12 Apostles from the ridge line above the city,” Zac said.
Zac is looking at changing careers as they enter their 10th year of teaching. He is thinking of becoming an actuary.
In the meantime, they’re dedicated to Storm becoming a U.S. citizen, not an easy task these days.
Storm’s path to citizenship has been an arduous one.
“We started getting the paperwork going in 2021 after we were married. I had to supply photos and social media, Zac’s income, his domicile, and then police clearance,” Storm said. “Then you hear nothing, radio silence, and then all of a sudden we get a notice to come in on January 27th for an interview at the American Embassy.”
Part of the process was proving that Storm was up to date on vaccinations.
“She had to prove every vaccine she’d ever gotten,” Zac said. “She couldn’t prove she’d had chicken pox.”
So, Storm went in to get five vaccines.
“I had to get chicken pox, MMR, HEP B, a flu shot and DPT,” Storm said. “I’d never had a HEP B shot.”
“She called me and was worried, is this safe, am I going to die?” Zac said.
“I got all of this paperwork done, had to see the police again since it had been so long,” Storm said.” Finally, I was in a room with 50 other people, mostly parents of American citizens. I met a wonderful immigration officer. He was from Utah, and he said, ‘Oh, your husband is from Lander.’ I said, no, Riverton.”
The agent was friendly but denied Storm, giving her a blue refusal form.
“I wasn’t denied, I was refused,” Storm said. “They wanted me to show liquid assets. What’s funny is what he said, house, car, stocks. I said, this isn’t what my lawyer said, he said, you should get a new lawyer.”
Storm panicked.
Zac looked at the blue refusal form and noticed it required a 2022-23 tax form.
Storm had the tax forms with her, but the agent said she didn’t need to show it to him.
Other conditions were just as annoying.
“He kept saying you can’t have a petitioner that isn’t an American citizen,” Storm said.
She had Zac, but that wasn’t good enough. Finally, she had her father-in-law, Terry, sign the form too.
“We emailed the lawyer,” Storm said. “The lawyer said, they just want your tax form.”
So, Storm filed the report online and five days later, she had a green card for an immigrant visa.
“It was a roller coaster thing. What do we do? It’s ruined all of our plans,” Zac said. “She couldn’t leave the country for more than six months at a time.”
Storm now has a Social Security card, a Wyoming driver’s license, and all the necessary documentation for a citizen.
Storm will have a dual citizenship with the USA and South Africa in three years.
With plans to return to the states, the couple is building a home in Rapid City in the Boxelder area.
“The area is called Rapid Valley and the development is Apple Valley, we chose the “Red Delicious” design,” Zac said.
Rapid City was never the plan.
“We looked at every place in the U.S. in the last year,” Zac said. “She wanted to live near the ocean and have a climate close to Abu Dhabi.”
That doesn’t match the climate of Western South Dakota.
“We were on Zillow one day and Zac said look at this house in Rapid City,” Storm said. “I felt comfortable but a little intimidated.”
“We looked at a few houses,” Zac said. “She likes the city look of Rapid, and it has the outdoors for me.”
International travel is much different than domestic US flights.
“When you fly from Abu Dhabi, you can fly Etihad airlines,” Zac said. “We’d fly through JFK or O’Hare, but just this year, Turkish Airlines has a flight from Istanbul direct to Denver.”
“It’s a 12-hour flight,” Storm said.
“This year when we went to Istanbul, we had to fly all the way around because of the conflict in Iran,” Zac said. “We had to fly south over Egypt, then back to Istanbul.”
The couple has plans to stay in education, but leave the classroom, working behind the scenes in curriculum development.
“That’s all we’ve done since we work at a private school,” Zac said. “We could work from home.”
Zac teaches Calculus I and college-level statistics, so moving to the next level as an actuary would not be that much of a challenge. He’d have to pass qualification exams to become an actuary, but the tests are mostly math-based.
The young couple will remain in Riverton for another couple of weeks before returning to Abu Dhabi for what may be their final year in the classrooms.