Business Trip

I was invited to be part of a team from our company that went out to the Eastern Province this last weekend to gather some information for a contract proposal. Located on the Arabian (or Persian depending on who you're asking) Gulf, the Eastern Province of the Kingdom is largely Shiite and sits on some of the largest oil reserves in the world.  It's home to a large number of Westerners in the oil business including the Saudi Aramco headquarters and just across the causeway is Bahrain.  The result of all of these influences is that it's a much more moderate part of Saudi and apart from maybe Jeddah, is the least conservative.  It also has a climate and landscape that isn't as dry and barren as the central plateau thanks to its proximity to the water.  While there I noticed some things.

The surrounding desert was a lighter shade of sand than the more orange-looking sand I'm used to.  Scattered along the horizon were shrubs and even a few trees.  I realized how much I've missed vegetation.  On the complex where we stayed there was landscaping with flowers and a variety of trees that made Riyadh seem rather desolate by comparison.  There were also open green spaces of grass for anyone to sit on and enjoy which made me wish I could have found someone to put my frisbee to use with.  There were also birds chirping.  Which weren't remarkable except for the fact that they made me realize that in the last three months I haven't seen or heard a bird. I really do live in the freaking desert.  I also realized that while I miss being by bodies of water like lakes and rivers I don't really need to be by the coast.  I guess I'm an inland kid, and unlike others I've known who feel they have to be near an ocean, I'm perfectly content being landlocked.  But it is nice to hit the coast for a vacation.

 The conservatism of Riyadh also became apparent.  I saw boys on the boardwalk jokingly serenading some passing girls, something that not too long ago I wouldn't have thought I'd see in Saudi.  I also saw a group of young people, boys and girls alike sitting in the family section of a TGI Fridays.  They were joking and carrying on.  I could have been in Ohio.  Most of my colleagues at the table said something along the lines of "Wow".  It was also really nice seeing young children on the street, whole families just hanging out in public, something I'm not sure they'd do around here, but since there aren't really any places to hang out except malls, I wouldn't know.  A few kids even came up to our group and practiced their English.  They were pretty adorable and made me miss my nieces.

As you can see below, I was also able to put my new camera to use (Thanks, Amy!!).  Taking pictures in public is something Saudis are still getting used to and I've heard quite a few stories about Westerners in Riyadh getting detained, fined, and even arrested for doing so.  Most government buildings have signs indicating pictures are forbidden and I wouldn't envy anyone who was caught by religious police photographing women.  Khobar and Dammam were much more relaxed though, and these kids were glad to pose for a picture.  After I took it they said, "Facebook?  Facebook?"  and when I told them yea, they replied with a laugh-filled, "Thank you, white man" as they ran off.  

The streets of Khobar were abuzz.  King Abdullah has just returned from almost three months abroad for medical treatment in the States and recuperation in Morocco.  In addition to promising increased social benefits to the Saudi people, he also declared Saturday a national holiday giving all state employees (including me) a three day weekend.  People were celebrating.  This mostly consisted of teenagers with painted faces clogging the streets while hanging half out of their cars waving flags.  Some kids were even sitting on top of the cars or standing in the backs of pickups.  It seemed more than a little dangerous but after three months of experiencing how little people around here regard automotive safety it didn't surprise me at all.  We saw at least one kid who looked hurt, sitting in the middle of road.  The whole scene provided a stark contrast to what's going on in the rest of the Arab world including just 20km away in Bahrain, and we all had the thought that we're probably in the safest place we could be in Middle East.