Arrival, 2

I'm sure my reflections on life in Saudi Arabia during my arrival would bore the hell out of anyone. Sue me, I'll write anyway.

These are the best conclusions on life for a Filipino expat in Saudi Arabia:

1. The sun is hot.
2. Water here has high salt content because it is only desalinated from ocean water.
3. Arabs stink, though maybe I'm being unfair.
4. Indians also stink. Filipinos, in the usual way, have found a way to deride Indians by calling them "itik" or "pana."
5. Saudis are very rude drivers.
6. Gasoline is cheap. So is electricity.
7. There are so many Filipino homosexuals. That is why, even heterosexual men are thought of to be gay too.
8. It is hard to say whether Arab women are beautiful because the ones I've seen wear black veils and abayat all the time.
9. You have a run of bad luck if you are a light sleeper and live beside a mosque, since early morning prayer will rouse you from sleep.
10. One needs to use lotion to avoid dry skin.
11. Avoid lining up at the remittance center at the start and end of each month because it will be an exercise in queueing. That is, if you hate queueing. Ditto for banks.
12. Arabs love sweets. This is probably caused by the strong spices that they use in their food.
13. Filipinos are real winners, above all, regardless of calling.

Work life is not that hectic (yet). My boss (who’s a Filipino) has a laissez-faire style but has a lot of demands - time to roll out those cramming skills. The big boss is a Saudi, since I don't think real positions of power will go to expats. There are two other Filipinos in the department. One of them is in charge of Training, and other handles Recruitment (who is exiting soon, so we have an opening for a recruitment specialist).

We have three personnel supervisors, one based here and the other two in the other two offices, who are all Indians. We actually have two other segments: Administrative Services (equivalent of Building Administration) which handles the building and other properties of the company (including the employee camps) and Personnel (which handles employee documentation, passport control, flight bookings, etc.). In those two areas, the people are mainly local or Indian. There is only one Filipino there, and he is likely to disappear too.

When I said that homosexuals are everywhere I mean it in the sense that even if the guy were straight back home, here he is a homosexual. I'd say the chances of a Filipino here being homosexual is 1 in 4. They work the beauty parlors in Khobar, a lot of the food establishments, and most of the secretarial positions. Skilled technicians, engineers, etc. are mostly straight, though there are some who are homosexual or are in a homosexual relationship. I don’t deplore the situation; it just is. My point only is that I don't want to be a "papa," and more importantly, I don't want one! (LOL!).