The Internet is amazing. Being easily connected to the world, friends, and family when in a remote location is a technology miracle. I don't feel like I am 10,000 miles away. I went for a drive in my minivan today to explore the community. I drove around the camp perimeter. There are a mix of stone walls and wire walls surrounding the camp. It is sort of like a gated community in Houston, but at a larger scale, about 5 miles in diameter. And the gates are more secure. Cars have stickers, and residents have ID badges. People travel in and out freely. Getting proper IDs, stickers, driver's license and registration has been a beaurocratic labyrinth. I think they create extra admin jobs to keep the Saudis employed. I can't drive off camp until my vehicle is registered and I have a driver's license. I am anxious to explore the beaches. I watched an episode of Babylon 5 at a friend's house the other night, and it reminded me of work. B5 is a space station that has a diverse community from across the galaxy. The difference at Aramco is they don't have antennae and scales, and we all breath the same atmosphere.
dlt 1/17/2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Common Threads
The opportunity to work with folks from so many different cultural backgrounds is priceless. A thread of humanity transcends all cultures. It is truly a joy getting to know people from other places and learning about the traditions that shape their lives and belief systems. I have observed that the family unit has a tighter bond than what is typical in the USA. Respect for elders seems to be more pronounced as well. There are many causes for this erosion of values in the USA - books can and have been written on this topic. I just wanted to point out the value that I see in stepping out of our box of traditions and embracing diversity.
dlt
dlt
Denver to SA - Chapter 1
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Adventure may be a strong word to describe the routine life that I have been enjoying in Dhahran for the past 2 weeks. I departed Denver from my beloved family on Dec.28 on a comfortable business class Lufthansa flight thru Frankfurt, and onto Dammam, with a brief layover in Kuwait. The plane flew around Iraq airspace. I arrived in Dammam at 11pm on Dec.29, 10 time zones east, with my life pared down to 6 suitcases and a guitar. My new Bose sound system filled 2 of the suitcases. With my Aramco tag on, I was rubberstamped through customs. My luggage was not searched. The Saudi x-ray guy asked my how long I would be staying. When I told him that this was my new home, he welcomed me with a big smile. And so it has been - one big welcome fest for the past 2 weeks. I was greeted by one of my new expat colleagues at the airport. After waiting almost 2 hours to get a temporary Aramco ID (I was at the end of a long line of new Aramco employees), we ventured about 15 miles through sand rather than snow, to my new abode in Dhahran, an 800 sq.ft. apt, spartan but comfortable. They furnished it and supplied me with kitchen stuff and some food rations to hold me over.
After resting and settling in for a few days I visited the office, a complex of several large modern 7 story buildings. I was taken around to meet everyone in the exploration dept., 3 of whom are friends from prior work and rafting adventures. The demographics in exploration are about 50% Saudi with many N.Americans, and others from India, Europe, Africa, Asia, etc. Pervasive cultural diversity, with the common thread of the English language. The mood is positive, people are gracious, and good humoured. I was assigned to the Arabian(Persian) Gulf exploration team. My team is comprised of Saudis, Americans, and folks from India, Australia, and China. I was invited to 2 operations meetings and met my bosses boss, his boss, and the VP of exploration. They were all very friendly and concerned that I was doing OK.
Rapid assimilation - I was invited to a new years eve party and met a pile of expats from all over the frigging planet. We had a jovial time and imbibed in a variety of liberal libations. I also attended a bday party a few nights later with similar activities. People are very committed to enjoying life here. I have ventured into Khobar several times to go shopping. Khobar is a booming city about 10 miles from Dhahran with several mega malls, N.American style, but also shopping areas that are 3rd worldish. They are building sky scrapers now - over 40 stories. You can get anything here. I bought a PDA/smartphone with Windows apps, media player and GPS. It came with a pre-installed program that sings in Arabic for prayer time notification(5 times a day). It took me several days to figure out how to turn this off. Now I am shopping for a big TV and a car. This morning I joined the running club and ran a 10K race around camp. The temp was 50 F. Competition was fierce and I was humbled, but finished. I am getting in shape with my leisure time. There are 3 huge rec centers with giant outdoor swimming pools. One is walking distance. It is a battle, since the food is quite good and plentiful.
If you were dropped in the middle of Dhahran, you might think you were in a suburb of Orlando with lush vegetation, flowers, ponds, and palm trees everywhere. When you get to the edge of camp it looks more like Moab, arid with sand and some outcrops. My apt is next to a 9 hole grass golf course, that is surrounded by a joggers path. I am temporarily without transpo, but the buses get me to work, around town, and to nearby towns.
My only complaint is that they ran out of bandwidth for residential broadband. I got dial-up working yesterday, and have to wait several months for DSL. It is also weird getting used to Thursday/Friday weekends. In closing, life is routine with much leisure. It still seems like a vacation, considering I was shoveling snow a few weeks back. Everyone is very friendly here, especially the Saudis. Cheers.
dlt - 01/10/08
Adventure may be a strong word to describe the routine life that I have been enjoying in Dhahran for the past 2 weeks. I departed Denver from my beloved family on Dec.28 on a comfortable business class Lufthansa flight thru Frankfurt, and onto Dammam, with a brief layover in Kuwait. The plane flew around Iraq airspace. I arrived in Dammam at 11pm on Dec.29, 10 time zones east, with my life pared down to 6 suitcases and a guitar. My new Bose sound system filled 2 of the suitcases. With my Aramco tag on, I was rubberstamped through customs. My luggage was not searched. The Saudi x-ray guy asked my how long I would be staying. When I told him that this was my new home, he welcomed me with a big smile. And so it has been - one big welcome fest for the past 2 weeks. I was greeted by one of my new expat colleagues at the airport. After waiting almost 2 hours to get a temporary Aramco ID (I was at the end of a long line of new Aramco employees), we ventured about 15 miles through sand rather than snow, to my new abode in Dhahran, an 800 sq.ft. apt, spartan but comfortable. They furnished it and supplied me with kitchen stuff and some food rations to hold me over.
After resting and settling in for a few days I visited the office, a complex of several large modern 7 story buildings. I was taken around to meet everyone in the exploration dept., 3 of whom are friends from prior work and rafting adventures. The demographics in exploration are about 50% Saudi with many N.Americans, and others from India, Europe, Africa, Asia, etc. Pervasive cultural diversity, with the common thread of the English language. The mood is positive, people are gracious, and good humoured. I was assigned to the Arabian(Persian) Gulf exploration team. My team is comprised of Saudis, Americans, and folks from India, Australia, and China. I was invited to 2 operations meetings and met my bosses boss, his boss, and the VP of exploration. They were all very friendly and concerned that I was doing OK.
Rapid assimilation - I was invited to a new years eve party and met a pile of expats from all over the frigging planet. We had a jovial time and imbibed in a variety of liberal libations. I also attended a bday party a few nights later with similar activities. People are very committed to enjoying life here. I have ventured into Khobar several times to go shopping. Khobar is a booming city about 10 miles from Dhahran with several mega malls, N.American style, but also shopping areas that are 3rd worldish. They are building sky scrapers now - over 40 stories. You can get anything here. I bought a PDA/smartphone with Windows apps, media player and GPS. It came with a pre-installed program that sings in Arabic for prayer time notification(5 times a day). It took me several days to figure out how to turn this off. Now I am shopping for a big TV and a car. This morning I joined the running club and ran a 10K race around camp. The temp was 50 F. Competition was fierce and I was humbled, but finished. I am getting in shape with my leisure time. There are 3 huge rec centers with giant outdoor swimming pools. One is walking distance. It is a battle, since the food is quite good and plentiful.
If you were dropped in the middle of Dhahran, you might think you were in a suburb of Orlando with lush vegetation, flowers, ponds, and palm trees everywhere. When you get to the edge of camp it looks more like Moab, arid with sand and some outcrops. My apt is next to a 9 hole grass golf course, that is surrounded by a joggers path. I am temporarily without transpo, but the buses get me to work, around town, and to nearby towns.
My only complaint is that they ran out of bandwidth for residential broadband. I got dial-up working yesterday, and have to wait several months for DSL. It is also weird getting used to Thursday/Friday weekends. In closing, life is routine with much leisure. It still seems like a vacation, considering I was shoveling snow a few weeks back. Everyone is very friendly here, especially the Saudis. Cheers.
dlt - 01/10/08
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