The First Two Years In Saudi Arabia:
ARAMCO
By Barie and Christina Fez-Barringten
www.bariefez-barringten.com
This is an account of the first two of twenty years we spent in Saudi Arabia. There are many other chapters already written of the years that followed. There are also photographs which we will eventually make available. This is an ongoing project which we began in 2000 and have converted into memoirs, brief essays and lectures.
This section covers the period from August 3, 1981 at ARAMCO’s orientation in Houston to arriving in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on August 11, 1981 to group termination March 1983. (One year and seven months or nineteen months).
Within two weeks of ARAMCO’S formal offer in June, Christina and I were married again in order to receive a marriage certificate (since the one from New Haven would not be available for several months), packed all of personal effects including one large carton which would arrive first from which we would live aside from our suitcases and two cats, and attended a five day orientation at a very nice hotel with many other new hires. During this time we met a couple and their son with whom we would remain friends for many years (Ed and Mina Pleasance with son Ted).
In August we boarded a Pan Am charter flying first class. Fifteen hours later we arrived at 2:00 am at the Dhahran airport. Before landing I can remember the plane diving quickly and then turning sharply followed by a silence and then the typical landing in the hot desert, bump, bump, lift up, then down, bump, bump, up again, then down hard and then hard wind breaking with the flaps.
As we approached we saw the lights in the desert of small camps and tiny villages. Before landing the moon lit the sea so I could see the shores of Bahrain, emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia platelets of land covered by the Gulf.
Christina, cats and suitcases departed into the sultry heat, met by a crowd of people including James Young and his sign bearing our name. After various and very brief formalities we were whisked onto buses to head for our accommodations passing blazing GOSPS then to Rahima after internal security forces searches. We arrived in camp and found our way to our apartment in a one-story barrack type building.
It was very hot and very humid. We were over one hundred people who exited the plane, each to be greeted by some one who would give us papers, sign for us, etc. In our case the very man who came to college station, Jim Young and he made sure we got all our stuff and boarded the bus and of we headed north to a labor compound in Rahima near Ras Tanura just about 80 kil north of Dammam. The Jubail/Ras Tanura highway had not yet been built so we drove for hours on a sometime dirt and some time paved road past black desert until we reached our destination and saw 2 fiery flames like giant candles on the desert spewing fire and black smoke.
These were the GOSPS burning off gas from the many oil wells in the oil fields we were passing. Finally, we arrived at our compound after having passed through two checkpoints where our passports and our persons were spot-checked by Bedouin officers with machine guns.
We disembarked and were escorted in the dark to our various bungalows and urged to keep the air conditioners going and get to sleep immediately because we would be awoken by some one to go to work the next morning. And, indeed that is what happened. An Arab Shiites guard had been assigned to care for us. So after dressing quickly and leaving the bungalow I was to see what place we were in and just simply walked though a hole in the fence to the entrance of the compound where I would board one of three buses to take me on my ride to Dhahran. ; after waiting for 20 minutes where I was able to get breakfast at the Ras Tanura commissary cafeteria building.
But on this and proceeding mornings for nearly three months I routinely had a breakfast before the long journey to my work place at Dhahran.
After waiting for 20 minutes where I was able to get breakfast at the Ras Tanura commissary cafeteria.
It was a one-story building with a second story at its far end housing a special executive dining room and a few rooms for traveling guests. It was directly on the beachfront and had swimming pool and locker facilities. Later a dance floor, out side seating, benches, and terraces were added. Over the years to come this place would be a source of rest and relaxation.During the next three months we had house parties, learn to shop in Dammam, Al-Khobar, and Rahima. Close relations ships develop with families who came on the same plane and lived in Khobar, Dhahran and Rahima, most notably Ed, Mina and there son Ted.
We swam in the gulf from the club house/beach in Ras Tanura and I bussed to work on three buses from Rahima to Dhahran. Highway was not yet built so all this travel was on poorly paved to dirt road.
I bought a car (ten year old delta 88 Oldsmobile) during this time.All ARAMCO met at the pool and entertained each other at home. We went shopping and explored together. Our first residence was at the Rahima Family Camp in a one bedroom, 1 bath with small living room and dines room. ; very small windows in a building of 12 units with low roof and minimum ceiling height.
It is where we lived from August 11, to October 1981. It had a large central and partially shaded swimming pool with a clubroom and kitchen manned by Philippinos serving hamburgers, chicken and cold drinks all day long. It had been built as construction workers labor camp in the seventies, and abandoned.
It had a giant central warehouse, which one night caught fire and burned for several hours until the ARAMCO fire department finally came. We called the guard, police and fire department and watched it burn. I recalled my watching a factory burn near Faile Street and in a tire housing project burn to the ground in Houston. When it was over the warehouse skeleton still remained. This was one of the events, which taught us that God, not man would be the one to keep and protect us from harm.
There were to be many lessons on this subject in the next many years that followed.
It greatly resembled an industrial farm’s chicken coups. It is where we lived from August 11 to October 1981. chicken and cold drinks all day long.
The compound had two walls with one surrounding our “chicken coups. It had a hole in the wall, which I passed daily to get to the main gate and my bus daily. I passed other trailers/manufactured homes occupied by non-ARAMCO people. I had no idea that they were.Others who came with us from Houston stayed in our camp while others were in different other camps. ARAMCO’s shuttle bus allowed Christina and the other ladies to visit each other daily and in the evenings we would go shopping in the village of Rahima. It was in walking distance from our camp and I bought a loose fitting thoub so I could perspire in comfort. Afterwards we would swim in our pool. On the weekends we’d somehow visit and sleep over at each other’s houses and go swimming in the “hot” gulf. At some point I fainted and could not stand up for several days. I probably had heat exhaustion, malaria or some virus. The doctors did not really tell me any thing.
By the way most of the doctors at ARAMCO would prescribe “Valium” for most any complaint. The social life on all the compounds was extraordinary including the milieu and casual nods and recognition of westerners toward each other all over the compounds.
It was exhilarating and familiar. Wherever you went on Dhahran you’d see the same faces day after day at the same time just like in a small town. At the post office, mess hall, parking car, and entrees, at the commissary and at shops and libraries one rarely knew the names only the familiar faces and the types of cloths.
The same could be said in the offices of Lee County and Del Tura where ones says hello and some odd and inane comment about the weather or the day of the week as a confirmation of being in the same context.
Later I visited Rahima to see one of my consultants and even later in 1997, when job searching, he offered me a job as a director of his company at a very low salary and to live in a manufactured home in a barren labor camp. Oh no, I thought, I will not repeat the whole story all over again. I been there and done that.
Pictured to the left is a Shamal (north wind) coming upon Riyadh.The heat combined with humidity was our immediate first impression as we came off the plane on our initial arrival at the Dhahran airport at 2:00 am, August 11, 1981.
The impact was immediate and overwhelming, permeating ones cloths and resting on the skin. One does not walk fast in such a heat. This is the heat we lived with until we relocated to Riyadh but returned to in 1991 till 1999. It is a heat, which produces a huge amount of condensation on windows, roofs and car’s windshields. It pervades the climate for at least six months and then dramatically subsides making ways for six months of beautiful spring like weather.
The climate changes other than the excessive temperatures and humidity are much as Florida’s'. During the day the combination of sun and humidity produces dangerous conditions, which warrant caution and keeping indoors.
If going out of doors, be brief and well covered. It’s the kind of condition, which let’s petrol stations permit keeping the car and air conditioning running while filling up when parked to keep cool.
The air conditioner is a very valuable and necessary item. Indeed there are other methods the Arabs have invented for keeping the air flowing which is a an giant rectangular air exhaust shaft on the roof in the center of the house opening to below to facilitate cross ventilation.
This, along with shrubs and palms keep traditional houses comfortable.
However, the apartments and villas constructed and occupied by over ninety five percent of the population rely upon air conditioners.
The most inconvenient one we experienced were in the Bin Jumah building where we resided for the first year and the last eight years of our stay. They were always broke and getting spare parts was very difficult. This difficulty compounded by our building janitorial and mechanical crew being subject to give priority to repair Mansour Bin Jumah’s residence made us focus on the maintenance and repair. It also, affected our life style having to use the rooms that were air-conditioned.
However, the noise of air conditioners working is pervasive and a welcome sound where ever you go.
Bin Jumah Bldg in Al-Khobar
After visiting the ARAMCO housing office and being assured that there FIFO (first in first out) list and the availability of our of camp housing close to where I was working was being given lots of effort, we were notified that we had a choice to either accept in-camp (Dhahran) old hosing with no hardship allowance and a high rental price, or a hardship allowance and a low rental price to live rather in Al-Khobar. Christina’s choice was instant. So we joined many others who had come with us from Houston, and others who were there just a few weeks before to fill up this ten stories plus penthouse building with ARAMCON’S. We were assigned apartment 10 a facing King Abdul Aziz Blvd. We had three bedrooms and two beautiful bathrooms; a dining room and kitchen with a beautiful built in cabinet and two balconies (one facing the main boulevard off our dining room and the other off one bedroom which Christina made her studio.Each room came equipped with a water-cooled Canadian manufactured a/c/heater. These were at that time ten years old and required weekly maintenance. By the time we returned to the building in 1991 they were even in worse condition and were the source of daily and weekly encounters with the building uninterested maintenance staff. While under the ARAMCO contract the Philippine maintenance staff was 100% assigned to our building and very happy to be requested to fill our requests. We had a European electric stove with oven whose temperatures got much hotter that US comparable; and a very tiny refrigerator, which we eventually became quit used to stocking.
Four months later we resided in the Bin Jumah building’s tenth floor Apartment at a time when Half Moon Bay had sand dunes where we could see young teenagers in dune buggies, cars and trucks racing straight down dunes at high speeds. Maxims restaurant on a near by corner on King Abdul Aziz Blvd. was a landmark for us. We ate their one time and had snacks at other times. Khalid liked to visit this place when I lived with him in Dammam, by then in 1991 it had become famous. It soon closed and reopened across the street as a very sheik club restaurant. It had the same name as Maxims in Paris. We knew the owner of a restaurant bearing that name in Houston; He was on Christina’s board of the German wine society.
Amongst the many peculiar ARAMCO concepts was the FIFO list. First In First Out applied to housing and I later found out employment. It was the system by which administration regulated the waiting list for in-camp housing. ; including, new entries, upgrades and any requests for furniture and maintenance. By the time our turn came we were terminated just within days after we received notice of the house we could occupy. However, since it was all-department purging coinciding with a hiring freeze it was not a FIFO deployment.
The first Christmas in Saudi Arabia was spent alone in Bin Jumah building with us standing on our balcony overlooking King Abdul Aziz Blvd. Wishing and praying because we were alone and not invited to any thing. Several days later we were invited and traveled to Bahrain to spend the holidays in a beautiful hotel and had a grand dinner with all the fixings including a beautiful Indian girl who sold and lit my cigar after dipping it in Grand Mariner.
It was very nice. There was Christmas music and se toured the Island. The Griffith organized the trip. Everything was so special in Saudi about Christmas. We would go to the souks and King Khalid Blvd and Ghazzas to buy gifts including glasses, cloths and carpets. In the early eighties we invited our ARAMCO group to turkey dinners and later our church groups to dinners. We shopped in the malls.
I’d go and come to work daily and so many friends and neighbors in the building and the neighborhood kept Christina well accompanied. She gave classes in painting in the apartment and at villas in the neighborhood. My many ARAMCO Saudi Arab trainees visited us and friends form other compounds. Except on holidays when they would all disappear to return to their homes and families in the USA. We needed to save every dollar so we made no trip except for the first new years to Dubai for a splendid few days and great secular Christmas dinner at the Hilton. I remember the Indian female hostess lighting my cigar and dipping it in orange liquor.
In our Tenth Floor Bin Jumah Bldg. apartment Christina gave art classes and invited ladies for coffee and tea during the day. I rode with the men on the bus to and from the main camp; Walter and Eve; Vince and Rosa; Lenore and Gordon DePree and others were to be long lasting friends. It was during the Lebanese war and we met several couples whose families were there and they told us the trouble they were having traveling and living in a war zone. Tony adopted us as his parents and told us many stories of his home and brought us Lebanon food for breakfast lunch and dinner. He visited often. It was also the place in which I brought the Saudi falconer.
We resided in the Bin Jumah building’s tenth floor Apartment when Half moon bay had sand dunes where we could see young teenagers in dune buggies, cars and trucks racing straight down dunes at high speeds.Maxims restaurant on a near by corner on King Abdul Aziz Blvd. was a landmark for us. We ate their one time and had snacks at other times. Khalid liked to visit this place when I lived with him in Dammam, by then in 1991 it had become famous. It soon closed and reopened across the street as a very sheik club restaurant. It had the same name as Maxims in Paris. We knew the owner of a restaurant bearing that name in Houston; He was on Christina’s board of the German wine society.
Tony Haddad: He was like our son and then we lost him when relocating because Jane Boyhan did not give him our forwarding address as agreed.
I was initially employed by ARAMCO from 1981-1983 by Jim Young, and worked for both A. Lee Griffith, Andy Battenbaugh and Hank Z. I learned a lesson that was to last the duration of my doing business in Saudi was that no matter how many plans, meetings and agreements were made, management was by “crisis” or as is said in the USA by “triage”. People never follow plans. In construction in Texas I learned that detailed schedules were made but every one did every thing possible to beat and complete before the scheduled completion date. , the sooner the greater the profit.
Another way of expressing the style is management by “fiat” which is an arbitrary order or decree. This usually starts form the top down. , and, every knows the source. So most live in a limbo waiting for the next fiat and triaging out their days. However, in Saudi I learned Triage as a process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment. Triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites when limited medical resources must be allocated. It is a system used to allocate a scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it. It is a process in which things are ranked in terms of importance or priority and for millions of Americans each week becomes a stressful triage between work and home that left them feeling guilty, exhausted and angry”
ARAMCO’S referred to their style and the style of the board as “crisis” management.
I had to take a two week long defensive drivers class which totally disoriented me from the expert skills I already possess. I had to repeat this course in Lee county twenty years later when I was caught speeding on Tamiami trail five miles from our home. The course led me to believe that I had to fear and be defensive so I was constantly keeping my mind in high anxiety instead of using the good God given and good training given to me by my Dad. Finally Christina told me to forget every thing I learned and drive normal. From that day on I enjoyed driving in Saudi.
We resided in a variety of places including the Sea View Apartments where A young Saudi guard took us many times to drive surf our Delta 88 "Olds" across the desert to visit various ruins out in the desert. North Camp was amongst several double wide trailer camps where friends resided. RUSH housing projects in Dammam, Khobar, Riyadh and Jeddah. were deserted projects which were rumored to be unoccupied for many cultural and economic reasons. Later they filled by Iraqis after the invasion of Kuwait and then by US military and then open to the public to buy and occupy.
Mid November 1981: we were relocated to the tenth floor apartment of the bin Jumah building: here we met a new set of couples and friends in the building (which at the time was all ARAMCON’s) and in the neighborhood, Some Saudi trainees and families and some Lebanese/ Europeans.
In 1981 we spent our First Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve in Saudi Christina and I in our apartment. We stand on the balcony and prey for all of Saudi to be blessed. We also realized that besides God, were quit alone in our faith. We were certainly alone on that balcony and our building was practically empty. All of the people we knew had children and family and scheduled them selves to return to them for the holidays, we did not. So there we were cats and we. Below us, the city of Al-Khobar and in the horizon Dhahran with the blinking lights of the newly constructed UPM stadium. Our doorman’s name was Mustafa, a Muslim Indian who bought a green scooter and cleaned our apartment once a week.Visits to desert historic places, many invites to dinner parties at ARAMCON’s homes, invite Saudi trainees to our apartment; Hamden, Faisel Al-Naimi, Aziz (a Bedouin) , Tony (from Lebanon); buy breads, zata from local bakery; cats on shoulder to esplanade and roof top of bin Jumah building; many trip to Ras Tanura on weekends and sleep in Plaissance home. , many turkey dinners in our apartment with our many friends, including Vincent and Rosa Rossi.
Weekends we would visit and sleep in the home of Ed and Mina P. in Ras Tanura. We would enjoy the warm gulf and the cool swimming pool. Work filled with strife and misunderstandings between our unit and division. Evidently, too many people hired with not enough workload and rapidly falling price of oil. For example Lee Griffith, my supervisor, had a nervous breakdown because the proponent for whom we prepared an Engineers Workbook would not attend presentation meetings.
By March 1983 division, department and our unit was phased out. During this time Christina made trips to Kitzbuhel and I told me that if I were to leave they would terminate me. I finally visited her after fifteen months with out a vacation. On that vacation, I arrived exhausted and slept for days having visions of the cross. I made pen and ink sketches of these visions. All of these are with Missy, our friend in Sanibel. One, she tells us, hangs in the home of the Priest of a Catholic Church in Sanibel. My Superintendent and Supervisor put me on probation and I visited her while we were paying house guest of the Ruprecht. Finally when I returned to KSA they terminated me. There we got to know Kitzbuhel and some people; namely, Ruth, Maria, and Lotti.
Al-Khobar was just a delight of discovery and mystery. We often went out to shop and explore the Dammam and Khobar Souks, Thugba markets and restaurants. There were Arab, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, etc. restaurants and shops. The Arabs taught us how to see what they had, how to bargain (negotiate, haggle), and how to pay quickly in Saudi Rivals. I still think about prices of every thing is 3.75 SR to the dollar for everything. I still price things in Rivals and dollars. I still remember the prices I paid for each item and commodity.We also spent weekends with the Plaissance family for the beach at Ras Tanura and the accompanying great Persian meals at their house. We also visited our other friends. The beach was very warm and then the pool, with its cool sweet water was very refreshing. There were outdoor dances with Philippino playing copy music sounds of disco, ballroom, etc. It was like being on an old fashioned military camp listening and dancing to the big band sound.
Everyone except us was making sadeeki (in Arabic this means friend, but it’s the expats and Arabs name for white lightning {distilled alcohol). We bought many audiocassettes and watched lots of taped movies. We brought hundreds with us along with a Sony Beta and RCA /vhs/VCR (lots of connection wires, and learning the different speeds, e.g. 4.1, etc.). We had them interconnected so we could play and copy. At the time Saudi and ARAMCO TV was close to non-existent. I listened to the short wave radio at night for the current news and entertaining programs, mostly from USSR, Britain, and some from the USA. WE attended Arabic language classes and on weekends I’d make videos of our art and Christina. I did some writing and generally tried to keep cool and live simple. My Saudi Arab trainees took us on trips to historic landmarks in Abquiq, Turkish fortress, Tarot Island, etc. They visited and filled our lives with a strong sense of Arab presence. I became a great customer of tape shops on King Khalid Street and the JVC shop.
Christina made a couple of trips to Kitzbuhel to explore the area for a potential second home venue. To do this we got to know several really good travel agents. At the time, Austrian air just opened it office and gave us special price help to schedule her flights. It only took her less than eight hours to go to Vienna and then six hours to get by choo choo to Kitzbuhel. Even Austrian Air made parties and there was a new Austrian restaurant, which opened. We go to know the Famous Saudi lady who owned an art gallery in Khobar. There were specialty dress shops, tailors, and even barbers who came to our apartment to give us hair styling and haircut.
We had a houseboy who was one of the Moslem Indian doormen. He was very nice and helpful. He drove a green scooter, which he bought with the money he earned from working extra. Bakeries surrounded the neighbor hood and the esplanade was so convenient for walking and playing with Spatzel on the weekends. She loved to accompany me on my shoulder to the bakery and then play on the grass and climb up trees. I’d buy Zata and other just baked bread and cakes. Otherwise we went up to the rooftop to play and see the city.
During this time we were visited by Howard Cook (wife Dianne who documented poets in different languages at Columbia University):President/CEO/fund raiser International House: Visited us in Puerto Rico; Houston, Saudi (Dhahran and Riyadh) and Manhattan at Harvard Club. Chris resided in “I” house from 1964 to 1966. I had visited I house in 1960 for reception held by Swiss girl in my class from Pratt. Sea View was the compound shown in College Station to us by Jim Young and the one I eventually lived. I met the Boyhans here. There was also a young couple who bought a Chinese living room interior set up and installed it in the living room. We met many people by the pool and the young Saudi guard of the compound introduced us to driving our car over the desert.
January 1983 ARAMCO housing terminated there contract with bin Jumah and moved us to Seaview apartments to the very unit Jim young had occupied, and, the one he showed us in the photographs in College Station. After finally cleaning the place from palmetto bugs we stayed there until ARAMCO terminated me along with hundreds of other due to the economic downturn.
Three months prior to hundreds of ARAMCONs being terminated we were moved from the bin Jumah building to Seaview townhouses; remarkably, the very one shown to us by Jim Young in his slides of Saudi he showed us in College Station. A young Saudi guard took us many times to drive surf our Delta 88 "Olds" across the desert to visit various ruins out in the desert.After one year living in the bin Jumah bldg ARAMCO decided not to renew there contract with Mr. Bin Jumah and offered us to come into camp or go to sea view. We found out that it was to be the very same unit at SEAVIEW that Jim Young had lived in and shown us in pictures in College Station so we decided in favor of Seaview.
In the Seventies, Zachary an Austin, Texas developer built Seaview. It was pre engineered and prefabricated and furnished modular two story shells. Later I was to learn that my friend, Shahid Sohail came to Saudi with Zachary to build these. He later rejoined Zachary and managed their compound in Riyadh.
Our unit was one of about 200 in a compound directly on the Gulf. Our unit backed up to a wall, which faced the gulf, and we could hear the water at night. I had two bedrooms, two baths up, a half bath kitchen, and long living dinning room down. You entered by a big sliding glass door, which faced the auto driveway. It had a big wooden media center. We delayed our move in because the company had failed to clear out a big palmetto roach nest.
We stayed in the Al-Ghosaibi hotel while they did that. We enjoyed the use of the pool and some neighbors we met such as the young couple who order a Japanese tea house shipped in which they built into their living room. I remember recording balalaika music off of late night classic radio. , ARAMCO radio broadcast several specialty music stations such as classic, country, and pop.Forest Wilson encouraged me to photo and write about what I was seeing. With the help of Hamdan I took pictures, wrote descriptions, and then found out I needed official ARAMCO permission to publish any material. So I applied and went through a lot of red tape to finally be told that I was wasting my time that no matter how clean the text and benign the photos I would not get permission. I dropped the project and put away the material for another day in the future.
One evening we could hear noises; and when we looked out our rear window facing toward the Gulf we saw a ship pumping sand into another ship. This went on every night and eventually Christina put a ladder over our fence and was able to attract one of the workers. He came to our house over the wall and every night for weeks had coffee with us. He spoke only Dutch, so only Christina could understand him. Years later we were able to see the results of his labor as the entire Corniche land mass was extended into the gulf with enough space for a grand Corniche highway and development to either side of it.
Suicide in Saudi Arabia
Long before we ventured to Saudi I read an article in the New York Times that Saudi Arabia had the highest suicide rate in the world. The following is a contemporary view reflecting the same issues. Things haven’t changed very much.
For twenty years in KSA we were there, but visiting; not connected: We learned to live accordingly with roots and rights elsewhere. As a Non-resident alien in KSA with and Igama; having physical presence in KSA and for many years passing the IRS non-physical presence test for Non-resident tax status.
All visitors to Saudi Arabia must hold a valid passport. Citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates do not require visas for entry into Saudi Arabia. All other citizens require a valid visa. There are two types of visa - Entry and Transit. Exit visas are also required. For business an entry visa is mandatory since Transit visas are only valid for 3 days. All prospective visitors must obtain a No Objection Certificate or letter of invitation in the first instance, issued through a local sponsor. Visa applications should be made to Saudi embassies abroad. Visitors’ passports should be valid for at least three months and must be accompanied by photographs, sponsor’s NOC (letter of no objection) or letter of invitation and a supporting letter from the visitor’s employer. Multiple re-entry visas are not usually granted
Along with hundreds of others, I was terminated and stopped working for ARAMCO in 1983 but I alone started working for Al-Suhaimi and UPM after we visited Paris and Washington DC’s Tyson’s Corner's Holiday Inn.
Along with hundreds of others, in March 1983 ARAMCO terminated my contract but unlike all the others I was offered two positions, which encouraged us not to leave Saudi.Thanks to the facilities offered to us by Suhaimi, Christina and I celebrated the conclusion of this very miserable time with ARAMCO by stopping over in Paris for a week headed for Washington DC to get our re-entry visa for re-employment with Al-Suhaimi.
Christina could not return with me so as I returned to Saudi and our personal effects while she headed for Kitzbuhel to settle in our condo/apartment by Schloss Liebenberg. I assisted her in her search for this place and before leaving we had found one. I also suggested she find a lawyer to help her with all the arrangements. This advice later proved to be a disaster as the lawyer she selected turned out to be a dishonest opportunist, not a surrogate to help and assist Christina.
Making Kitzbuhel our point of repatriation was wonderful. It was an easy six-hour flight followed by a very pleasant six-hour train ride. At first Christina would meet me, but we soon learned that the late schedules made this awkward.
This first Eastern Province period employed and housed by ARAMCO and Suhaimi had its own set of events and circumstances. In a country where who you knew made all the difference, we knew nobody! And those we knew less than we did. Our circle of friends and acquaintances were made from the people living in our building.
However, by the time we left the Eastern Province we did know so many of the people in ARAMCO, many more by face than by name, and, many of my Saudi trainees and Arabs, Indians, Philippinos we met in restaurants, shops and on the road. Christina got to know a young Lebanese couple living in a villa in the neighborhood. A friend of there’s managed the RCA tape shop in Khobar. I eventually bought my blank tapes from him. Several very interesting Saudi’s visited us with wonderful gifts. They were extraordinary gentlemen. One of the advantages of our location was its accessibility and access to down town Khobar. Many families form Ras Tanura and Jubail could visit us and shop in Khobar. We could also easily reach the shops and make friends with many of the shopkeepers who were anxious for our business and conversation.
Desert:Unlike the Bedouins and our boys and girls in the US military we spent little time directly in and on the desert. In all the time we lived in Saudi, probably more sand came into our rooms through cracks in the window and doors and air conditioners then we directly experienced. The exceptions are our drives to and from Riyadh and especially when we drove on the desert with our Oldsmobile. Oh how wonderful that was. The guard at Seaview took us to specific destinations and we got hooked on this thrilling experience. It was like being in a speedboat. You have to keep up your speed and you bounce and glide over the short dunes as you would over water, we would visit various ruins in the desert.
The other desert experienced we had was visiting the Rube Cali (Empty Quarter or red desert) with an ARAMCO cargo. It was all red sand and we walked and slid down the dunes. We traveled on a cargo plane and landed on salt flats and were I by buggies and brought tot the camp. Wee were fed in air-conditioned manufactured buildings. It was splendid. Another tremendous experience was being taken by Mohammed Al-Bajasch to his family’s desert farm. There we danced with the farmers and shepherds; we experienced a sandstorm, known as: "Shammal” and saw a large flock of camels, a large mixed flock of sheep and goats. This was an exciting event which we were able to video tape and later add music.
Other events included a trip with the “hash Harriers” where we walked over sand in the desert of the Eastern Province. I have worked in the desert as the project engineer building a sports park stadium for the Presidency of Youth Welfare and when I first arrived and worked for ARAMCO many of our facilities were located in the desert. Many of the concerts we attended were at compounds in the desert. Our ministries were often in the desert, particularly surrounding Riyadh where about 1000 Christian’s believers gathered to praise and worship God.
UPM was in a desert context and many of our friends had desert locations. The desert is one of God’s awesome creations. Just as the Alps, Rockies, and other mountains; as the Sea and lakes, as the tundra on the plains and the great coasts of South Africa’s Cape Town or the ocean drive on the California coast. The desert is awesome both from the air and land. It welcome forbids and inspires. It can be a place of tragedy as it was for our friend Roger Standish who died on his desert trek. Its sands can sand blast a windshield and fill a car’s motors.
Social customs include the one where when invited for a meal one talks and drinks and converses for a very long time; however, after completing the very big feast one politely gets up washed (ablutions) and leaves.
The other, is the custom of visiting someone while he may be entertaining another and be kept waiting, even they’re in their presence until he has completed. Related to that custom is “custom” being invited and visiting but not returning the favor? The host is using you to build his Harem and majalis without really having any regard for you personally but only as a measure of his accomplishment and power. So while you may be invited and entertained very well by your hoist, he will never visit you. I also noticed this custom reaching Europe and America with my relative’s. So long as I called and visited my parents welcomed us; but they would not call or write to us. Yes, in response to a call or letter, but they would not initiate a contact.Rightfully, the Saudi religious authorities and writers have published many articles about the negative influence of commerce on the spiritual and family life. On the other hand, these urban commercial institutions and natural wonders is the key to life and distinctive urbanity of Saudi. It is in their complaint and thought that I find my self in perfect agreement that urbanity and its operational elements are opposing our spiritual natures and reality. Indeed they are worldly and becoming even more worldly.
The argument goes back to the time of John the Baptist and the Essennes whose idea of holiness was separation from the mundane and fleshly nature of the world. The word of God has taught us to be in, but not of the world. But the concern is real and the epidemic is growing as Saudi now has met the franchise craze and begun to add Popeye, McDonald's, Wendy, Pisa Hut, etc. chains to the shopping malls and strips. Souks are being engulfed with modernity and the restaurants and hotels are only growing in number and quality.
However, it all of these things in contracts and combination which gives Saudi its unique and peculiar urban identity. The freedom of pedestrian movement and limited relations between the sexes and restrictions on meetings, etc is off set by these other strong natural and commercial elements. It is where the “UR”-like Arabic derivative nature manifests and we see the stirrings of vitality and life in a kingdom, which has no public movie theaters (but, every home has a video and rents and buys tapes); no nightclubs, dance halls, orchestra, dance halls, and other forms of entertainment.
The first Christmas in Saudi Arabia was spent alone in Bin Jumah building with us standing on our balcony overlooking King Abdul Aziz Blvd. Wishing and praying because we were alone and not invited to any thing. Several days later we were invited and traveled to Bahrain to spend the holidays in a beautiful hotel and had a grand dinner with all the fixings including a beautiful Indian girl who sold and she lit my cigar after dipping it in Grand Mariner. It was very nice. There was Christmas music and se toured the Island. The Griffith organized the trip.
Everything was so special in Saudi about Christmas. We would go to the souks and King Khalid Blvd and Ghazzas to buy gifts including glasses, cloths and carpets.
In the early eighties we invited our ARAMCO group to turkey dinners and later our church groups to dinners.
After a few months living here ARAMCO informed me that many others and I were terminated. My division was being abolished and there was a hiring freeze. I could not be transferred into another division with in ARAMCO. So the living room desk became my office and I began to make so many calls seeking offers. I got many, but the special combination, which attracted us, was with Al-Suhaimi for six months and a permanent contract with UPM as associate professor.
We were exuberant to leave the strife and angst of ARAMCO. We decided to celebrate the lifting of this ARAMCO burden by stopping off in Paris on the way to Washington DC to get our new visa, etc. Christina and I had a wonderful time in Paris, then Washington staying at Tyson’s corner and Alexandria. I returned alone to Saudi while she and I went to Kitzbuhel to find us a place to live. I went with her and we found a lovely two-story condo. This was a major turning point in our lives. Deciding to have ARAMCO move all our household possessions to Kitzbuhel having a vision for remaining Saudi for a long time and having a nearby place to spend the many-needed holiday and vacations that were offered.
First of all, I did not go to that country as a tentmaker–missionary. I am a Yale graduate architect and went there on business. However, shortly before departing I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and was "born-again".
When we got there I looked for other Christians. To find them was not easy because they where all underground. After a joyful discovery, which is a story in its self, we began helping in serving spiritual needs to all. After several years of serving, my wife and I realized, we are missionaries. God has simply drafted us to be soldiers in His mission field. Fighting the good fight in God’s mighty army, on the front line in a most hostile Moslem country. Finally the Gulf War brought a halt to all our efforts. But we recall the many persona of that era as noted below.
Aziz was Bedouin, falconer who I met on the way to my job at ARAMCO one day there was an automobile accident and I stopped. I helped and met Aziz. He visited us many times in our Bin Jumah apartment and brought many gifts. He brought his falcon and sat for Christina to make a painting of him and the falcon. He became to us like our son. Finally he got married to his cousin, invited me to be his best man, and for us to attend the wedding. Plans were made but the last minute the family adjudged that we should not attend. Aziz was shocked, embarrassed, and lost face. This was an arranged marriage necessary for his family. Aziz loved us and finally said that we could no longer see each other. This was in 1982 and we never heard from him again. We have the painting.
James Young: ARAMCO came to College Station and offered me a position working for him in ARAMCO. He showed us his house at Seaview, which was in-fact, assigned to us several years later. American who initially recruited me into ARAMCO.
Bernie Schaeffer: ARAMCO Rahima; He was the one who drove me from Rahima to Dhahran and in 1981 helped me to select car to buy at auction (car (sarrayaya) “Souks” on the Dammam/Khobar Highway. In 1991 I bought another car (Buick Park Avenue) at same auction at a slightly different location) I bought Oldsmobile, Delta 88.
Tom Thorstonson was my first manager in ARAMCO and American and former military man
Andy Battenbaugh a Welshman and one of supervisors in ARAMCO who navigated me through ARAMCO challenging my performance and later a dinner guest in Amy’s villa. I met him when he became my supervisor in ARAMCO in 1983 before I transferred out of his unit work for Hank Z. and . A Welch unit supervisor for ARAMCO.
Charles and Pat Brake worked for ARAMCO as the chief engineer of the Ras Tanura Refinery. They came with us from Houston to Rahima and later visited us in Kitzbuhel. They were good friends who made good beer, wine and liquor. Charley and Wife very good friends in Ras Tanura and electrical plant manager who visited us in Kitzbuhel.
Hank Z. : Supervisor of the Open services contract section of ARAMCO. He was my supervisor and the last section in which I worked at ARAMCO. After I received my termination notice and I asked him for people to contact to find other work he refused saying that if he helped me it might detract from when he would have to use the same contacts to seek work. He was also the person who encouraged me to visit and meet our consultants and contractors. He soon let ARAMCO and the kingdom.
Shoukri N.: Was the superintendent over my unit in Resource Planning department (RPD). Recently his family’s name has come up as a member of the Lebanese Syrian and Iranian supported “Hezbollah”. In his attempts at being friendly he told me of his children living in the USA and that he also owns a Delta 88 was the superintendent over my unit in Resource Planning department (RPD). Recently his family’s name has come up as a member of the Lebanese Syrian and Iranian supported “Hezbollah”. In his attempts at being friendly he told me of his children living in the USA and that he also owns a Delta 88 Oldsmobile. He gave me nothing bout trouble the whole time I worked in his group. ARAMCO; Resource Planning Department's; he gave me nothing bout trouble the whole time I worked in his group.
Sabri: Syrian in charge of our department’s education and to whom I coordinated work with ARAMCO trainees.
British man who house sat for us while we traveled and when I returned I took him shopping for night gown for his wife. He used my Oldsmobile in our absence. He was a very suave and kind man.
Kim Ralston of ARAMCO was a working colleague and very kind. She invited us to her home in Dhahran but would never come out of the compound to visit us because the only time she ever left the compound was to return to the USA. She was born and raised in Dhahran. She always s listened to the radio and was a very social person. Kim Ralston, who would never leave the ARAMCO camp except to travel the airport, was raised as a child inside the camp.
Lee (A.L.) and Pat Griffith: ARAMCO Lee and Pat Griffith now married and a tech writer was my supervisor in ARAMCO.
Magdi alDawas is an Egyptian doctor and excellent diagnostician serving KFU who helped me through much difficult illness especially prescribing Betazirk for Vertigo (equilibrium ear infection causing imbalance and dizziness).
DePree, Gladys and Lenore: Lenore DePree in Bin Jumah
Lenore Dupree in Bin Jumah American artist who missioned to china before coming to Saudi and working in PR for ARAMCO One and the same person who was taught painting by Christina in her art class in the bin Jumah building in Al-Khobar in 1981. She and Gladys became good friends and under the advise of Christina changed her name from Gladys it Lenore. In Saudi her artwork is still famous and her book as Gladys is still in print.
It was while working as a writer for ARAMCO in the Saudi desert that De Pree "discovered" classical Persian art, and knew the time had come to again (she had never painted before that time) take up her brush. The next two years (she was a student of Christina’s in the Bin-Jumah building) she explored and researched this method of painting and in 1987 began an art business in Saudi Arabia.
Fine artist, Christina’s art student in the Bin-Jumah bldg. in 1981. She and her husband had missioned to China and she was public relations writer for ARAMCO in Dhahran. An abused child by her father, she wrote a book on her experience and recovery. Her artwork is sold internationally and in many galleries.
Dhahash Al-Subai: ARAMCO trainee who traveled with me to Riyadh and we stayed in MARRIOT Hotel and we visited his relative the Sheikh and his son could not believe that the shoes I was wearing were older than he was.
Mohammed Al-Bajasch: He visited our house many times and eventually took us to his farm where we experienced a Shammal out doors in the desert video filmed his camels, sheep and goats; and, danced with his shepherds.
George W. Baulch Special assistant tot the Executive Vice President of Our division took a liking to me and invited Christina and I to his home in Dhahran and explained that the numbers of people being employed by ARAMCO was all political and a power game played by the royal family. Later I was to discover that Lee County’s Barbara “B” Mann had the same name as “Baulch”. Was the executive assistant tot the senior vice president of the division at ARAMCO to which I was assigned? He invited Christina and me to his home in Dhahran and amongst other things told us that the reason for the large number of expatriate employed by the kingdom is that people is power. We are all pawns in keeping the royal family power stable. George’s friendship provided Christina and I a sense of dignity in what was otherwise a very demeaning period of employment in our career. Demeaning only insofar as I was employed as a very low-grade code and subject to the whims and whiles of some very nasty people such as Sukri Nasrallah. George kept ion touch but ultimately could not be of very much help when I was terminated because of the across the board hiring freeze. Barbara B Mann’s middle initial stands for Baulch who was the name of her first husband; which was not George. Ms Mann name is used for the major theater here in Lee County. She was the one who raises d the funds to sponsor its creation. Special assistant tot the Executive Vice President of Our division took a liking to me and invited Christina and I to his home in Dhahran and explained that the numbers of people being employed by ARAMCO was all political and a power game played by the royal family. Later I was to discover that Lee County’s Barbara “B” Mann had the same name as “Baulch”. In 1982 I met George when I worked for ARAMCO. It was at diner that he told us both that ‘people are power” indicating the system and policy governing ARAMCO’s recruitment of various quantifies and qualities of which specific. This is what George did for our division and although I was only a mere grade code 13 he gladly invited us into his home. I believe he really enjoyed our cosmopolitan and educated points of view. His conversations with me were intelligent and candid. George, too was a misplaced urbanite in 2000 in Fort Myers, Barbara B. Mann who’s founded the Lee county theatre bearing her name told me that the B in her name stood for Baulch but she did not know George. Was the executive assistant tot the senior vice president of the division at ARAMCO to which I was assigned? He invited Christina and me to his home in Dhahran and amongst other things told us that the reason for the large number of expatriate employed by the kingdom is that people is power. We are all pawns in keeping the royal family power stable.
George’s friendship provided Christina and I a sense of dignity in what was otherwise a very demeaning period of employment in our career. Demeaning only insofar as I was employed as a very low-grade code and subject to the whims and whiles of some very nasty people such as Sukri N.. George kept ion touch but ultimately could not be of very much help when I was terminated because of the across the board hiring freeze. Barbara B Mann’s middle initial stands for Baulch who was the name of her first husband; which was not George. Ms Mann name is used for the major theatre here in Lee County. She was the one who raises d the funds to sponsor its creation. In 1982I met George when I worked for ARAMCO. It was at diner that he told us both that ‘people are power” indicating the system and policy governing ARAMCO’s recruitment of various quantifies and qualities of which specific. This is what George did for our division and although I was only a mere grade code 13 he gladly invited us into his home. I believe he really enjoyed our cosmopolitan and educated points of view. His conversations with me were intelligent and candid. George, too was a misplaced urbanite,
In 2000 in Fort Myers, Barbara B. Mann who’s founded the Lee county theatre bearing her name told me that the B in her name stood for Baulch but she did not know George.
Hamdan Al-G., ARAMCO trainee and a leading ARAMCO executive living with family in Dammam and Riyadh. Hamdan was more than acquaintance but a very good friend. He was from a very large and well-known Saudi tribe from the western mountain region. He had just completed his bachelor’s degree in the USA and was beginning his masters in Industrial engineering at the new program at K.F.U.P.M in Dhahran.
Hamdan loved America and its cars, opportunities and culture. I have many photographs of him his friends on visits we made to the desert, Safwa, Tarak, Island, etc. He was capable of expressing his affection for us by his many visits and when I was sick brings me my favorite chicken and rice from a shop at the northern n outskirts of Dammam. When we left ARAMCO our friendship did not end. He completed his studies and received his masters.
One day he lamented about his kingdom and its prosperity concerned that the profits and benefits of development and growth of his country is being squandered into the hands of foreign business and not the Saudis. He further was concerned that even he was not able to begin his consulting business or get a position of because such contracts and employment opportunities were being handed out to foreign companies.
He loved the Country in which he had studied but saw a tremendous fleecing of Arab people and a lost moment in the history of his country. A moment he said that would never come again. To Hamdan it was a tragedy of epic proportions. I t was a dilemma to him because he loved the cars, cloths, music, etc. but the results and impact on his “life” was horrible.
Later Hamdan got reassigned to Riyadh and visited us there now more mature and married to one of his cousins. He built a house in Dammam and spent time with his family on the weekends. Our affection for each other never dawned.
Later, when we reentered the kingdom to work for the university Hamdan immediately volunteered to be my sponsor for the apartment and the telephone, etc.
He bought us a framed brass 3d rendition of an old car, which we have hanging in our home and he visited us often. We had dinners at the hotels and in our home and his. We met his wife and he gave us videos to watch. When Christina was not in town he would take me around and one night to his favorite “hubly bubbly” in sunset beach along the corniche. Now much older and tired Hamdan further lamented his frustrations about the limitations on his potential and his Hopes to overcome this quagmire he and other lived. He was not specific and I told him that I would help in any was I could and did introduce him to my employers as I could. I did the same with Mohammed in Riyadh.
For our discussions I understood that Hamdan’s views were that independent Saudi business people were not benefiting from the outpouring of wealth and the continued expenditures by the royal family. We never spoke in any treasonous way about the government or the kingdom but I sensed Hamdan’s heart was heavy and filled with disgust. It was not good.
Before leaving the kingdom I contacted him to offer him the telephone line but he declined and I sold it to CDE’s Abdul Latif.
In the mid-eighties Helmut Schmidt and other world leaders encouraged Oil producing states to reinvest its earning in world stock markets so as to participate in the profits of the growing globalized economy. Amongst the, Saudi did just that and today stock premiums and income distribution represent am significant share of the Saudi kingdom’s government and individual income.
This further exacerbates the dearth of investment and development in the kingdoms indigenous industries because the incentive to use principle investment now yielding high gains with minimum risk to high risk, low return and possible future value is discouraging. In 1999 I attended a conference in Georgetown University hosted by a former consultant of Citi Corp about identifying the policies and proformas for investing.
In Saudi Arabian infrastructure, communication, industry, and transportation. In the early days Hamdan was at our apartment very often and would take me to special places to buy broasted chicken in Dammam. Later when I was very sick he made a special trip to bring me that chicken. He would take us on field trips to Al-Kharj and some Shiite villages to homes of other trainees. When I returned in 1991 was without Christina he invited me to lunch at the Meridian Hotel and then another time to a humbly bubbly place in the sunset beach area. He also brought us a decorative brass plaque, which we still hang in our home in Del Tura. It was here Hamden told me of his special projects and ambitions to do things he could not give me details about but asked if I would help him edit the business plans he was planning to do for others.
John & Jane Boyhan (deceased 2003) , formerly an ARAMCON living in Seaview. Jane was an epidemiologist, and her husband John, a satellite and telecommunications specialist formerly with Bell Labs. Jane later worked in Manhattan and John went back for a second career with Bell Labs. Daughter has house in Cape Coral.
Vincent and Rosa Rossi now live in Trenton and working the tables at Atlantic City, New Jersey, Before coming to Saudi Vincent worked for many years in Greenland. He now was an inventory control man. Rosa dressed in her best dresses every day and rode the ARAMCO buses all over the Eastern Province. They visited our apartment often. When were in Kitzbuhel they visited us and took a room in a nearby pension. We had a wonderful time together exploring the area. It was there first time to see such things.
Walter and Eve Stork, ARAMCO. We lived together in the Bin-Jumah Building before they were relocated to Dhahran. Walter used to jog on the dirt road (Pepsi Street: 21 Street) which was later paved to be major access to the Dhahran highway. He was manager of Material supply for ARAMCO. Eve later got and won out over cancer. She and Walter were always hospitable and kind. When Christina was out of Kingdom Eve would invite me for dinner. She was the first person I knew to use her computer for email and newsletters to family and friends.
There were others such as Mina and Ed Plaissance: Persian and American with son Ted,; Riyadh Al-Gatari: ARAMCO trainee under my supervision; Scottish man who wore his kilts to all ARAMCO social events.ARAMCO,Saudi Arabia,Bahrain,GOSPS,Rahima,Ras Tanura,Jubail,Faile Street,DePree,globalization,Kitzbuhel,Hamdan,hubly bubbly,Riyadh,Shammal,Shaikh,
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