Sunday

Well, today the temperature started its creep upwards. The day started off nice and cool, but by lunch time it was in the 80s. Can't wait until summer - try 120!! At any rate, today was an ok day. I am making progress with my SMEs. They are really starting to do some work on this course. Its amazing how a little attention and encouragement can get people motivated. I get involved in another course later in the week. Its a high level symposium and I'll be working with senior level, gray-beard technical folks. Should be a challenge.

This country is so different than many places on this earth, and the local nationals like it that way. Islam rules everything and interpretation of Islamic law and culture is strong. The abayah and the veil with only a slit for eyes for Saudi women seems so strange and unnatural. Strange how it is not for from the habits that the nuns wore when I was a youngster. I feel really uncomfortable around these women when I cannot see their facial expressions. The idea that husband does not want other men to see his wife's face seems awfully strange and insecure to me, but that is my Western cultural bias. Perhaps some of those women under the veil are such pigs that the guy would be too embarrased for anyone to see his wife, but frankly, I have seen some really strikingly beautiful women come out from under those veils when I flew back to England when the plane was just inches off the ground. Those veils and abaya quickly came off to reveal tempting western fashions. The men here are usually dressed in a white, gray, brown, or black gown and a gupta on their heads. I am getting used to seeing and dealing with the Saudi people in spite of the clothing, and I find them to be perfectly pleasant and professional. Yesterday I was watching a mother scolding her small son for bad behavior. She was looking him right in the face, leaning into him and to make sure he was aware of the seriousness, she lifted her face covering so he could see her frowning face. Then she glanced over to see me watching and quickly dropped the veil. Sure hinders full communication, but it is their country and I am a guest, so I will adjust. Actually, I am doing just fine with all of this culture difference, but I do feel more comfortable back home in the great ol' state of Texas, where I can enjoy studying a beautiful woman's facial features.


Good night, folks!

Saturday

What a fabulous moon is shining over the Persian Gulf tonight! If you haven't gotten out to see it get out now or when night time comes. I went into Kobar to pick up a few things with Omer and the other Richard on the team. One thing you have to always remember is that at prayer time all the shopping stops for about 20 minutes. You can window shop but the doors are shut and the shopkeepers are outside on the sidewalk taking a break. Well, tonight we headed for the coffee shop to get a kilo of good coffee for the team room and just as we got there the doors were shut, but somehow Omer managed to get a kilo paid for and out the door. Then we went to get a new cell phone for him. We were hiking it pretty fast and poor Richard E. was really having trouble keeping up with the two of us. We did make it to the Latif bakery for a wonderful katar - a small pizza with a cream cheese topping sprinkled with herbs and spices - so good! Around the corner we ran to get a shwarma and a coke before skipping over to get to the bus just as it was leaving to go back to the Aramco compound. All I managed to get was a pencil and some lead along with a drawing paper pad to do some sketches.

Friday

Got up this morning and tried to call home on Skype, but Carolyn must have gone to sleep, so I decided to take a walk around the compound for about half an hour before breakfast. Well, the walk turmed into a 5 hour hike (about 12 miles) following the Aramco perimeter fence (I wasn't always right next to the fence, but I was near it for the whole hike. Hiked over to the sewage outflow lake and evaporation fields (well beyond basic treatment - they use it on the landscape - just not potable). At any rate, I added about 10 birds to my checklist and saw some of the same ducks that I see back home. Much of the walk early on was along the path of a 10k run that was going on, but I soon got off that path and out into the rough away from the housing where the run was going on. Had a couple of security trucks drive across the desert to check on me. When I told them I was a naturalist observing the local fauna and flora and geology, they loosened up and became really excited that I was finding something really neat about their home - the desert. They would point to places to go find something special. Found a local skink under a old garage door piece someone had pitched out in the desert, but that was the only reptile I found. Saw lots of tracks, mostly dogs, cats and, what I believe, were fox prints. They are fairly common around here, but I have yet to see one. I was really looking for the spiny lizard that I saw in the presentation the other night. It's a large ugly lizard that lives in the desert. I think it is just too cool for them right now to be out. They are more visible when it is hot around here. Walked by the Hobby Farm and the Arabian Horse Association stables. I want to visit that place next weekend - Steph, my daughter, would love it.

Just got back from dinner with one of my former ExxonMobil colleagues who is now here with Aramco. Nice dinner and conversation. Doug, a petrophysicist with Aramco, knows my Shell colleague, David Murphy.

My hot bath was great and I am now ready for a few winks. Tomorrow its back to work. thje weekend is now over :(

Thursday night

Today was a pretty good day. Just got back from a party for all of the group on this project. Lots of good food, but too many sweets. It was also a birthday celebration for the group's leader and one of the consultants, hence all the sweets. Had some good conversations with some of the group that I haven't had a chance to get to know.

This morning I went into Al Kobar to the big hypermarket to get some things that I needed. While I was there I had to walk over to the corniche and photograph the beautiful white mosque set off the corniche into the Gulf. The tide was way low due to the north winds blowing down the Gulf, so I didn't get the real sense of the building being out in the water. I remember this place when I was here 20 years ago and fished around the rocks. The low tide allowed me to get some good photos of some of the Persian Gulf anemones in the shallow water off the corniche Everything else has changed so much.

The sunsets have been really beautiful the past few days with the shamal winds blowing in the dust.

Wednesday night

Ahh, the end of the workweek. This week went by so fast! Went to a coat and tie dinner and presentation of the Arabian Natural History Association. Nice evening. Good dinner and great table guests. The presentation was marginal, but helpful, nonetheless. Learned of a couple of nearby places for good wildlife observation - most right here on the compound. One of the table guests recently drove his family from Saudi Arabia across East Africa to South Africa, his wife's homeland. What a trip it was - a wonderful experience for his three teenage sons.

The wind is still around and it is chilly, but should get better tomorrow.
Cheers!

Tuesday -Shamal winds

About mid-day today a norther blew in here. The winds have been gusting out of the NW at 15-20 knots. Tomorrow they are expected to pick up to 20-30 knots - real Shamal winds that bring in the sand and dust from the desert. I took walk after work (the 6km walk) and it was breezy and cool. Will surely want to wear a jacket tomorrow with the overnight temps in the mid to upper 40's.

Tess, the mother hen in the office, has arranged for a car caravan out into the desert on Friday. I've signed up and will have to wait to see if there is room. Anything to get away from the compound for a little bit. Several of the guys are taking a weekend flight to Dubai. Others are playing golf, and a coupe are just hanging back here in Steineke to read and catch up on stuff. There is a cookout at Heather's place on Thursday night to celebrate the team and Les' birthday. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other folks on the team that I haven't met yet.

I just like getting away from here to get some better food. It's amazing how the dining hall can screw up things like pasta sauce. I thought I would try pasta with meat sauce tonight and it was absolutley tasteless! I had to put Louisiana hot sauce on it to eat it. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a big plate of Carolyn's wonderful pasta sauce right now.

Cheers for now!

Hump day

Not much to report today from the workplace. I am in a wait and see position with my SMEs. i've given them an assignment for this week and will check on progress on Wednesday. If there is no progress then I will set up lunch meeting for the group and introduce them to the good old SWAT event that we did at Shell and at Exxon. It is a 3-5 day intense workshop event with the team of SMEs and me (the instructional designer) where we collaborate to come up with the content and design of the learning event (course).

Things are not going well back home. Seems that the computer is back up and running, but is marginal and seems ready to crash at any moment. The coffee maker is apparently about to crash (puts out lukewarm coffee). The TV is on the blink. Carolyn seems to be about to go on the blink, as well, if things don't get fixed. I expect to hbear that the truck ot car is on the blink, as well. It all waits until I leave and then it all comes apart. There have to be some gremlins around that house. Poor Carolyn. It's hard when I am half a world away. I feel so helpless.

More on Friday's post

Yesterday, was an interesting trip to Bahrain. We started the morning off at that Bahrain Country Club for breakfast. While the place looked nice, the service was nonexistent. They apparently were only interested in getting us to buy into the brunch buffet (which was marginal) and not in a la carte. Two of the guys got the brunch, but the rest of us tried to order off the menu and gave up. I ordered a beer out of desperation. We left the and went to the big mall to get tickets for the air show, but they were sold out. The mall was a carbon copy of malls everywhere. We did grab a quick bite to eat, but not at any of the American standards (KFC, DQ, etc.). From there we went to a 15th century Ottoman fort that is being excavated and restored. Rather interesting visit, seeing a place behind a moat and wall that was a small town with a mosque, living quarters, markets, and livestock pens. Next stop: the old town souq with all sorts of vendors selling everything. Lots of Rolex watches, Gucci purses, computer software - you get it - all knockoffs from China. There were some fun fabric shops with lots of color and fabric for saris. The bulk of the vendors were Pakistani and Indian. The next stop: a drive down through the office towers and then to the hotel section next to a large and beautiful mosque. We ended up at the Gulf Hotel - a Bahrainian classic - for some beer and snacks, along with a game of pool with Omer. From there we headed back to the kingdom. Will be back there every 30 days while I am here to keep my visa active - it is a huge fine ($10,000 US) if I fail to leave the country and come back. One guy faced the problem and he was unable to leave for 8 months until the company settled the problem. Laws are strange and harsh here in the Kingdom.

Friday (AKA Sunday)

Today is the end of the weekend. I went to Bahrain with five of my colleagues to tour around. We wanted to go the the airshow, but it was sold out, so we asked our driver to take us to some of the sights: Breakfast at the Bahrain Country Club, the big mall, the old Ottoman Empire fort built in the 1400's, the old souq market, the main mosque, and finally the Gulf Hotel to finish out the day. It was exhausting, but fun. Nice to get a beer or two! I'll write more about what we saw tomorrow as I just want to get to bed.

Thursday (AKA Saturday)

Went south of Kobar to the Bahrain causeway to try fishing the Persian Gulf. Conditions were calm and sunny, water cool (mid 60s) and clear, no tide movement. Caught one fish - a sculpin of sorts.
Saw a flock of flamingos about 100 yards off shore. Took a cab out from Kobar and ended up walking back to the LuLu market (8 miles?). My buddy, Omer, one of the graphic designers on the team, was whipped by the time we got home. Got back into Kobar to go through some of the seafood markets to check out the fishes that are cought in the Gulf here. A lot of very similar fish, same genus but different species. Had a shwarma and caught the bus back to Aramco. Good day overall.

Wednesday (AKA Friday)

Ahh, this ends the workweek. This afternoon after work I took the bus into Kobar to pay for my sunglasses and check on webcams. Missed the 7:00 pm return bus so had to wait for the 8:00 pm bus - bummer.

Today was rather uneventful in the office. One of the writers was let go.

Tomorrow is Thursday and I am going with Omer to fish in the Persian Gulf (the shoreline).

Tuesday (AKA Thursday)

Today was a bit better than yesterday - I now have my badge - I can come and go from the compound and the core area where my office is located. I really was able to get some work done today on my Aramco computer rather than this old Apple laptop. After work I headed for Rashid Mall (huge retail mall between here and Al Kobar) to see if I could find a webcam for this iBook, but I had no luck. I think it is time for a new computer with a built in camera and microphone.

Tuesday nights at the dinning hall is fajita night, so I had to try them. Well, forget it. They are awful. I will definitely stick with the local favorite down in the souks - shwarma! Much tastier than those dining hall fajitas.

This weekend I plan to wet a line down at the base of the Bahrain causeway with Omer, one of my colleagues here. We plan to go Thursday and then on Friday there is a big airshow in Bahrain that some of thguys are going to, so I might tag along over to Bahrain to check it out. Next weekend is coat and tie dinner with the Arabian Naturalist Club - one of the guys in the office invited me to go and meet some of the birders here. Gotta make a a life here for the next few weeks.

Monday (AKA Wednesday)

Well, I finally got my real security badge at the end of the day. I had to spend the day in my room in the hotel/dorm (Steineke Hall) since I had no badge to get me into the core area where my office is located. What a relief, so I went with a couiple of my colleagues into Kobar for shwami dinner - the standard taco like meal here. The place is a corner store (very small), but it is a favorite among the Aramco folks because you catch the bus back to the compound right across the street. Prayers started just as we finished, so we had to leave the store so that they could close up for the prayer time. Prayer time is 5 times a day and all the stores close up and all the owners and clerks stand around outside, while most of the Arab muslims go to the nearest mosque to pray, the outside speakers blaring the mulla's prayers in a song like chant that reverberates all around the town. This is the time to catch a cab back to the compound to clean up and get ready for bed. While there in the souks, I did manage to get nice, but inexpensive pair of Ray Ban sunglasses that are really needed around here with all of the sun. Also picked up a knockoff Rolex, to set to Saudi time, for much less than a Timex back home.

Sunday (AKA Tuesday)

Today was a better day. I still had trouble due to the ID card. I had to have someone take me to the main gate to get a visitor badge in the morning and take me back in the evening to trade it back for my passport. Nevertheless, I did get my computer today - a brand new desktop, so now I can finally get some work done.

Talked to Carolyn a short while ago. She is doing better with our son, John there for a visit, but it is hard on her with me halfway around the world. If we can get our computer set up at home and linked into the internet things will improve, but for now it is hard to keep a positive outlook. The both of us are extremely frustrated with the communication barriers. Thanks to my colleagues with phone capabilities I was able to talk to her tonight. I can't imagine the frustrations that families dealt with a century or two ago when all there was was slow moving ships to deliver mail around the world. Husbands would be gone for long months at a time with no communication at all.

Saturday (AKA Monday)

This is a day that I would like to take back and start off on another foot. I apparently misplaced my temporary ID card over the Saudi weekend. That is a serious no-no. I am now on the Tess' s... list (she's the mother hen in the group that I work for). Top that by the fact that I forgot the key to my office and could not leave and go back to my room for the key. Then on the way in to the office, I tripped over a curb and took a hard spill, tumbling over a couple of times on the concrete Chevy Chase style). It looked awful and several people ran over to help, but I was fine. No harm done, but a little embarrassment. My Aramco computer is still not set up, so I am working with paper and pencil. Surely tomorrow will be better. Right now I am holed up in my room.

I got up at 4:00 am this morning to re-trace my 16 km walk of yesterday with a flashlight to look for my ID card with no luck. I don't need to do any walking tonight!

Friday evening

Took a walk around the perimeter of the Aramco compound today about 18 km. Oh, my aching feet! It was actually a nice walk. I hiked through some outcrops with nice views and interesting rock formations. The tops of the mesas are apparently a favorite hangout in the evenings expat teenagers, where they obviously drink beer and smoke (probably pot) and otherwise hang out. There are small campfire sites and graffiti on the rocks. One of the favorite pastimes is taking off road vehicles out into the rock and sand barrens. Along my walks I am frequently coming across small campsites used by the domestic help from the far east. You'll find a couple of jugs of water, a pair or two sandals, a shirt or two hanging out to dry, and a small rug or pad to sleep on. (See the photo) They are here to work as house boys or other casual work and are trying to save what little money they make. At least they are working - there are no beggars here like back home - but they elect to be homeless. Since these sites are well hidden behind hedges and walls I doubt many people realize that there are homeless folk here in the compound.

Friday Morning (AKA Sunday Morning)

Slept in today as I was up until 1:00 am last night working with the Internet. I found out why I haven't heard from Carolyn - the desktop computer is down! What a bummer. Going to try out MagicJack later today to call Carolyn. If it works well I might investigate further and report on it's capabilities. So, Carolyn, if by chance you read this blog before I call you, be sure to be near the phone about noon or so Houston time.
It's a beautiful day again here in the Kingdom. Breakfast about 10:00 am of omelet and a bowl of cereal. The dining hall is just across the street and is heavily subsidized. For example, my breakfast today was 12. 00 Ryals (or about $3.00 US dollars). It is steam table fashion (cafeteria style) with an array of ethnic foods. There are a lot of Saudis that eat there as well, so, like this morning, there were a number of Saudi families in there eating. One thing I have noticed since I was last here, almost twenty years ago, is that the habayah (sp?) is really more previlant now, and many more wear the full head vail with only the eyes showing. The old military term for these women is BMO (Black Moving Objects). You might hear me use that term on occasion. At any rate, the women on the team all wear the BMO outfit, minus the head gear (although they drap it around their shoulders just in case). There are a lot of the Saudi men in traditional garb, as well. One of the things that you will also notice if you get out into the Aramco compound are the labor pool of Phillipino and Bangledesh men. They are omnipresent on every corner, sweeping, raking, watering, etc. It is no wonder the place is so clean and neat. Every plant that they can reach is trimmed and shaped! The irrigation system is extradinary - much of it using drip irrigation aith a line to almost every plant. They use a lot of circular dams to contain the water around each large plant or group of smaller annuals. They do use sprinkler systems for large expanses of turf like the golf course. All of this irrigation water come from processed waste water gathered from the compound, wso it is not potable. Just seeing all of the partially exposed black plastic water lines says something about the massive effort to make this place look like home to the expats. The photo is of one of the greens on the golf course with some of the newer housing in the background.

Thursday night (AKA Saturday night)

Slept in a little today (7:30 or so). Played around with Facebook a little and then went to breakfast in the dining hall across the street. The favorite Arabian breakfast is Foul Madamas (kind of a bean well cooked with who knows what else is in the mix). You laddle it out of an urn (the laddle just fits the neck of the urn) and into a pottery bowl and them pour olive oil, chopped onions, chopped italian parsely, and chopped sweet peppers over the top. It's not bad, but can be a little unsettling on youir stomach the first time or two. I just had to follow it with a waffle with chocolate syrup - now do you fell really sick? From there I went on a long walk around and through the golf course. The current golf course fairways and greens are nice and green, but around the edges are remnants of the old course that was hers when I last visited this place. The old course had no fairway grass - just racked gravel and the greens were astroturf. You would carry with you a 2 ft square of astroturf to put under you ball out on the fairway. Anyway, it was fun striking out across the land that has reverted back to its original condition (almost). The rocks are a mix of sandstone and carbonate (no wonder the oil is so easy to get to over here) and full of crystals and an occasional geode, so I picked up a pocketful for my grandson, Ford. Once back at the room I changed and caught the bus into Al Kobar for dinner, to find another watch that I can use for this time zone, and to visit a couple of fishing tackle stores. Struck up a friendship with the old man and his son in one of the shops. He put me on some of the better places to catch some fish without a boat, so I'm going to see if Omar (the graphic designer on the project) wants to go out tomorrow and give it a try. Later I'll download photos from my camera to post. It's closing in on midnight so I had better close.

Ennd of first week

Tonight is Wednesday, the end of the work week. Thursday and Friday are the Saudi weekend. I went with several of the team into Al Kobar to have a nice dinner at one of the better restaurants. Had French onion soup and a chicken salad. Needless to say, the soup was not any where near as good as Carolyn's French Onion soup. It was more like something that you would find at Luby's cafeteria. Several of the others on the team had a Tomato basil soup that was really quite good. For liquid refreshment I took a mint lemonaid. It was served in a tall glass and appeared like mixed drink in a bar (but no alcohol!). Actually, it was quite refreshing. For dessert I shared a creme brule with one of the women on the team and it was pretty darn good.
Wow, how things have changed since I was here nearly 20 years ago. Al Kobar runs all the way to Dahran now and is full of new retail shops and malls. Traffic was horrible along the road into Al Kobar (we ride a regularly scheduled bus run by Aramco). There are all sorts of American and European restaurants and hotels in the city now. Lots of lights and glitz. I'll go back tomorrow during the daylight hours to shop for a cheap watch (the one I have been wearing isn't working well enough to change the time zone) and post some photos.
I mentioned that there were several women on the development team - that is quite different from the last time I did work for Aramco. Before the only women working for Aramco were either local Saudis or casuals (usually expatriate spouses). More later...

Good Moring, Saudi Arabia!

I arrived in Dharan, Saudi Arabia on Monday morning at 5:00 am to start a 3 month consulting assignment. I left Houston after a month of frantic preparation. I left Houston Friday evening fopr an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I was in 1st class, yet I still have a difficult time sleeping on planes - I guess I did manage to get maybe 3 or 4 hours of shuteye. Service on Continental was just fine. Europe was under several inches of snow so Frankfurt airport was jammed with aircraft. Flying over the British Isles was beautiful with dusting of snow all over the couintyside, but once we got to the continent the cloud cover blocked any view. My flight to Bahrain was delayed 5 hours due to weather, so I imbibed in just a few German beers in the Business Lounge. Finally we boarded the aircraft only to wait for nearly an hour in line for the de-icing station. On this leg of the trip it as dark so I could not see anything, so I tried to catch some sleep - maybe an hour or two is all I managed - again 1st Class. (had a lot of fine wine). I did watch the movie "Julie & Julia" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Carolyn had seen it with some friends and they all talked about it, so I thought I had better take it in while I could. Meryl Streep has awsome skills with characters.
Once in Bahrain I was finally able to find my driver (who was asleep in the terminal when I arrived) and was driven across the Kig Faud Causeway to Dharan. Had to take about an hour to process into Saudi Arabia at the border gate on the causeway. Finally arrived at Steineke Hall at 5:00 am - just enough time to shower, shave and change clothes before arriving at the office to be given an orientation. More later...