Arrival

I am glad GMA is winning. But she’s not out of the woods yet. I have been following the elections (and MTB, ang Saya-Saya!) on The Filipino Channel and at least part of the way, I feel as if I’m back home or just vacationing in some other part of the Philippines.

I arrived in Dammam, Saudi Arabia last March 22. It is my luck that on the maternal side of the family, I have two uncles, three cousins (and a cousin-in-law), and three other “relations” on the other side of my uncle’s family working in Saudi. One uncle is in Khobar, the other is in Khafji, which is due north near the Kuwait border. (He has since moved to Jubail, closer to Khobar, but still a good distance away - O.)

My uncle in Khobar is working for one of the companies in the same family-owned conglomerate that I work for (Edit: I've reconsidered posting the name of my employers, so I guess I would have to remove it. I'm no Queen of Sky who's about to lose his job). At the very least, I can say that the owning family is one of the magnates this side of the Kingdom, and they are into almost everything in FMCG, construction materials and services, and heavy industry. Their interests are widespread throughout the Eastern Province, of which the Dammam-Dhahran-Khobar axis is the principal metropolitan area, but collectively called Dammam. Dhahran is probably more familiar to most people.

I work in an industrial park area called Dammam First Industrial City. The office I have is a lot better than the one I left, in more ways than one. Though I cannot say that it is private, at least I have my own filing cabinet, I have my own cubicle and I relatively have some amount of personal space to call my own. Right now I haven’t been able to customize the space yet. (But I’m getting there, IF my supplies arrive). (Edit, February 2005: A struggle really, getting materials in this organization, even 11+ months into my service).

The primary purpose of hiring me is to make sure the policies of the three companies in this part of the conglomerate work properly and are part of the company culture. When I first arrived, I first stayed at the company-sponsored accommodation (a cool euphemism for "camp") in Rakkah, a district of the city. It is about 20 minutes away by bus from the office. At the airport, Kuya Ronnie (my cousin), who works in the X-ray Department, met me so we had a chance to hook up. Meantime, the company driver picked me up and brought me to the camp.

The camp is like a construction site home – prefab buildings, dormitories, a communal cafeteria and other amenities. There is no way to go around in the city if you do want to go … assuming you can find a taxi in this part of town. The room is well-appointed: small refrigerator, TV with cable (with just a few choices though), airconditioning, hot water in the pipes, and a little carpeting. Meals are served as early as four a.m., close at 7:30am for breakfast, and the evening meal is served from 7:00pm to 9:00p.m. At work, meals are served beginning 11:30 for the laborers and 12:00nn for staff, and close at 1p.m. Pity the fool (me being the fool in question) who comes in late for lunch, because by 12:20pm Filipino food will have been eaten. So you eat Indian food (more on this later). On weekends, lunch is served at camp.

There is no accessible public transportation from the camp to anywhere, so moving out was a priority. Plus, I was being charged SR52 a day for every cost that I had – of course they cleaned my room, had cheaper laundry service, and cooked my meals – but I had no freedom to do what I wanted.

We kept our own eating utensils to prevent pilferage at the camp. The first night I ate I forgot that I had my own eating instruments in my room and I had to fight with the food server (poor man) to get a plastic spoon. The fare is pretty much Filipino – there is a Filipino chef in service at the camp. So passed my first night.

At the office I did not get my computer until after two days and I didn’t even have my internet connection up yet, which ticked me off greatly. But anyway after one week everything was a bit okay.

Our work schedule is from Saturday to Wednesday and weekends are Thursday and Friday. Up to now it's a struggle to get the days right, as in I would refer to Friday when it's actually it's a Wednesday. The other guy will reply with the date, and schedules can get screwed up that way. I am thankful it hasn’t happened to me yet.

The first day I went to get a medical again – the urine, blood test, etc. I also had a malaria test. The medical was meant to ensure that I am fit (sorry, no way to cheat on medical, so to speak) for work. Once this is validated I will be issued my Iqama or residence permit, which basically says I am a qualified worker in the Kingdom. This document is so valuable that losing this will cost you about SR 1500 – about P18,000, though some said it costs as much as SR 2000 – so losing it will cost one dearly.

With an Iqama I can apply for a driver’s license, buy a SIM card for my cellphone, qualify to put down deposit and advance on an apartment, get a loan on my future salary, and even buy a car, which I’m sure I wouldn’t get until I saved up everything. It took over a month to get that document, which was a letdown and a frustration. Now that I have my Iqama, I was able to breathe more easily (finally!), send money back home and purchase a cellphone.

On my first nights going around town, I first visited Khobar, which is the area preferred by Filipinos but it has its own Pakistani, Indian, and Bangalis (Bangladeshis) quarters. Many of the shops cater to Filipino tastes. Dammam city proper, on the other hand, has more South Asians but there are some Filipinos there too. Dammam is also older, and the lay-out is not as distinct from what I have seen of Khobar, though both cities follow the traditional American city layout. It is just frustrating because the darned Saudis keep naming their streets after their royalty, and have no indications on the numbered streets. So, you may be referring to the same street (say, King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Road, which is a common name) or even a numbered street (there is a 14th Street in my area and another 14th street a few minutes away in a district called Aziziah), but the places are all scattered. So, people have nicknames like Dammam-Khobar Highway, Dhahran Road, Riyadh Road, or name the streets after the first establishments that got built there (like Expo Road, and Pepsi Road).

People who have visited the United States, particularly the Mountain States and the Midwest, would find themselves at home here except for the fact that the signs are mostly in Arabic. The plant life is mostly scrub, but in many places the government has endeavored to plant trees, flowering plants, and Bermuda grass, the watering of which must surely cost the government a pretty penny. The architecture is pretty much box-like, and the Arabic touches are mostly left to the cornices and columns. Structures are pretty much “modern”, i.e. ugly and cold. The only elegant architecture in this place would be best appreciated in the private palaces of the very rich and the mosques.

The highways are well-paved except for a few spots here and there, mainly because some of the trucks are too heavy! And the Arab drivers are probably the worst in the world, excepting some Filipinos on shabu.

Food… my first try was the local version of a value meal – Broasted Chicken. That’s about 4 pieces of chicken, a large serving of fries, and a large flat piece of pita (about 6 inches in diameter). Pita is refillable (as in you can ask as many as you want). This goes for about SR10, or about P150.00. This is the kind of meal one should order if you want to get stuff on the cheap. Shawarma goes for about SR3, which is also good enough, but the thing is too rich. There are several varieties, though at first I joked we should have chocolate or strawberry (which of course wouldn’t go down well with roast beef). Food at our familiar fast food joints, on the other hand, is too expensive. A Hardee’s (or Carl’s Jr. to Filipinos) roast beef sandwich meal is SR18.

When I arrived, it was still spring so the air was still nippy in the morning. It’s not advisable though to turn off the a/c unit because ventilation would also invite the omnipresent dust. Too much dust – there was even a sandstorm before my airconditioner got installed and I mistakenly forgot to board up the hole where my a/c was supposed to go. Thank God there was not much dust kicked up into the room, as I thought, but later on it took me three weeks to get rid of the dust.

As to the rest of life here, it’s the same as always, except that walking to downtown Khobar (which is a good 30 to 45 minutes away from my place) would be the best alternative for the usual weekend off.

Dammam and Khobar are on a north-south axis along the coast of the Persian Gulf, with Dhahran due west. Khobar is mostly residential and commercial. There is a park along the coast called Cornich (a generic term for beachfront) which is pretty much like Roxas Boulevard in Manila. It's a 2km stretch with space for picnics, rollerblading, jogging, and even a train. I jog there on Thursdays. It is about 30 minutes away on foot from my place.

Life and work and most everything else has settled down over here. I moved out of camp last April 15 and found my own apartment. Actually, I’m subbing for another guy who managed to find a cheaper apartment to share with someone else. But I don’t mind the arrangement that I got into – the apartment is in a quiet neighborhood (just beside a very nice mosque, by the way), it’s just a few paces away from the main highway where I can get a ride to work, and the room is big enough to match with most places back home.