Hello World,
As of yesterday, I have been living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for six months. Some days it seems like six weeks, other days like six years. Overall it has been a very good experience. For the most part, everybody has been polite and helpful. Some days you find yourself wondering, if I had it to do over again and knowing what I know now, would I take the offer.
I feel like I have experienced a lot in six months but I have a lot more to experience in the next year and a half. The attached picture was taken 2 weeks ago when we were in Paris. We were on a "hop on hop off" sightseeing bus.There are a tremendous number of expatriate personnel working in Saudi Arabia, about one third of the 27,000,000 people living in Saudi Arabia are from other countries. There are some countries like Qatar where the expat population is almost fifty percent. If you talk to these various expats it will open your eyes to a different world. Most of the people from India, Indonesia and Pakistan cannot afford to go home except once every 5 to 7 years. Laborers work 60 hour weeks to earn 500 riyals ($125) a month, to put it another way they make about five cents an hour. They live in camps where 4 to 6 people share a room and there can be 4000 people in the camp.
My expat life here in Yanbu is a very different lifestyle from what we experience in America. Living inside a walled compound is not the same as living in a "gated community". The 12 foot walls, razor wire and armed guards give you regular reality checks however, you tend to get used to it with time. For the most part, you build more friendships with your co-workers that live on the compound than you would in your neighborhood back home. You see them at the one restaurant, the one store or out exercising within the limiting walls of the compound. There are very few "outside the compound" activities and the ones that do take place are usually made up of co-workers (scuba, snorkeling, shopping). In our compound there are 386 homes/apartments with most of them being occupied at this time. There are 14 swimming pools, 3 squash courts, a gym, sauna and steam room. Additionally I think there are eight tennis courts, two basketball courts, a soccer field, a playground and a putting course. They have a day care, they provide bus transportation to town and a plant nursery to keep the grounds landscaped and looking good. There must be 60 people working behind the scenes keeping this place running. They water all the trees and plants every day, maintain the water and sewer systems as well as maintaining the AC systems and painting the compound. You might think of it as an apartment complex but the compound is really much more to manage. It really is impressive all the things they do.
Most of the expats working on the project (EM, Kentz, Worley Parsons, Samref) are on a rotation plan, mine is a "6 & 2", I work six weeks and I am off two weeks. There are also "8 & 2" and "10 & 2" rotations, usually determined by the terms of your contract. Most people go back home when their off time rolls around. Since we sold our house in the States, we have been traveling a little, we have been to Jordan, Qatar and Paris, our next trip is to Berlin and Prague. The trips have been nice but it can be difficult scheduling them. Most of the flights leaving here fly out of Jeddah in the middle of the night. To get there on time, we leave the compound 6 hours before the flight because it is a three hour drive to Jeddah and we need to be at the airport three hours before the flight. What that means is there are some long travel times and your body gets tired. Sometimes you will see somebody you haven’t seen in a while and ask them “how’s it going?”, it’s not unusual for them to respond “ five weeks and 3 days until my next rotation”. That means they like it so much they can’t wait until their next leave cycle is here. I hope I never start to think of the assignment in that way.
Yanbu is a "boom" town with an incredibly amount of construction going on. In addition to the many refinery and chemical plant expansions there is construction of many hundreds of homes. Most of these homes are huge, usually three story concrete/cinder block construction, 5,000 to 6,000 square feet dwellings. They are for families which can consist of several generations. Yanbu sits on the edge of the Red Sea and they are in the process of developing many miles of beach along the Red Sea.
In the Samref plant you can go to the Clean Fuels Project job sites in the mornings to observe the "line up" meetings you will hear the meetings spoken in Hindi, Arabic, Tagalog (Filipino) and Thai (Siamese). I'm sure there are other languages, I just don't know how to recognize it or what it is called. Most of the workers on the Project can speak a few words of English, similar to the few words I speak of Arabic (hello, goodbye, thank you...).
Food is a lot different here too, besides the traditional Arabic foods there is a heavy Turkey/Indian/Pakistani influence. You will find some "American" style foods put they usually do not taste the same as back home, think about what Mexican food tastes like in Texas and what it is like in Michigan, then imagine what it is like in KSA. Most of the stuff at the grocery store is also different, you will occasionally find a brand you recognize but the flavor will usually be different. Seasoning blends are not available, Tony Chacheres, Slap Yo Mama, Nature Season, Adolf Meat Tenderizer cannot be found. Italian foods like spaghetti, penne pasta and lasagna can be found easily. Lamb, goat, camel and beef can all be had too. We only buy Brazilian beef, all the others have a taste and smell we do not like. When you find something you like, you buy all they have because it could be months before you see it again. There is a company that imports American beef from Maryland. It is vacuum packed and frozen. It costs about twice what it would cost in the US but it is worth every dollar. Eighty percent of the food products you buy at the grocery store are imported into Saudi Arabia.
There are several malls in Yanbu. There is one very modern mall like what you would see in the US. There are several smaller shopping centers that have a variety of shops. Woman's clothing is by far the largest percentage of stores. Cell phone stores are everywhere, KSA has one of the highest percentage of cell phone users in the world. It is nice to drive around at night and see all the different shops and stores lit up and people scurrying around. They are so different from what we see in America, I can't explain it but they are different. Very brightly lit signs that look vaguely the same from store to store. At night all the people come out and shop, between the heat and multiple prayer times it can be difficult to do anything during the day. It gets really busy after the last prayer until midnight.
Prayer times, there are five daily prayer times each lasting about 30 minutes, early morning, noon, early afternoon, late afternoon and night. All the stores close for prayer times, some stores are closed from the noon prayer until after the early afternoon prayer. Because the hours are not posted or they may be in Arabic it can be difficult to figure out when they are open and closed. You will hear the call to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers at each prayer time. From our compound, you can hear three mosques broadcast at the same time, it can be a little odd until you get used to it. Even when you go on vacation, if it is in an Islamic country, you will be greeted by prayer call at 5:30 in the morning reminding you that “you’re not in Kanas anymore”. When we went to Doha, I asked for a quiet room on the opposite side of the building from the mosque. I later found out, there was a mosque on both sides of the hotel.
It is about a 25 minute ride to work, we are not allowed to drive. We have a fleet of Toyota Land Cruisers and drivers to take us where we want to go. When you get a driver that speaks good English it is a really good ride as you can ask questions and learn. When you get a driver who does not speak English it can be difficult getting where you want to go. You might have to call the dispatcher and get him to translate. Driving back and forth from work you see herds of camels most days. You also see frequent wrecks. I do not think I have ever been stopped at a red light and not seen somebody run through the red light in one direction or the other. I’m not talking about yellow, red, maybe 5-8 seconds after it turns red. One of their favorite maneuvers is to zip through the left turn lane and then whip back to the right and get in front of you. When this happens they are usually going 35-40 miles per hour often honking their horn to warn you of their actions. The horn is used to say look out I’m here, watch out I’m coming through, be careful I am crazy and don't even think about cutting me off. I have seen a few drivers make comments about other drivers but I do not think I have seen a case of road rage yet, because this is the normal method of driving, nobody gets upset when it happens. When the road is three lanes wide, there are usually 4 cars across the road. On divided roads with a median in the middle, it is not uncommon to have cars coming at you on your side of the road.
Traveling through the industrial areas (on the way to work) you will encounter military checkpoints, you just show your ID and you get waved through. You will also find checkpoints between the cities on the main roads. Again, seeing military personnel with weapons frequently takes a little getting used to but you get used to it.
Another odd thing is the lack of woman in the workplace, every now and then I will be at work and think “ you know, I haven’t seen any women in a while”, then I remember where I am at and that there are no women allowed. Just recently women have gotten the right to work in lingerie stores, before that, men were the only sales clerks in any type of store. Women do not work as cashiers, clerks or any other position with the exception of the medical field, they can be nurses. They are not allowed to drive or vote and must dress very conservatively according to their religion.
Sorry this got so long, but it just started flowing and was hard to stop. I have said a lot but I have only touched on some of the stuff I’ve seen and experienced. I don’t look at any of this in terms of its good or bad, just that it is different. Difference is what makes the world go round.
TJ in KSA
No comments:
Post a Comment