By J. Fernando Cevallos-Candau
As a staff scientist with SABIC, a large petrochemical company based in Saudi Arabia, I live in a compound for western expatriates in the outskirts of Riyadh. At first, the compound appears to be located in Sing-Sing. It is surrounded by tall concrete walls with barbed wire on top; there are also concrete barriers, like those you see on U.S. highways, all around it. To get to the entrance, one drives through a maze formed by the same barriers.
I have a three-story villa which comes furnished. The place was recently refurbished so it feels like new. Most of the appliances are new as is some of the furniture. A 25-meter pool with lanes for lap swimming is right outside next to one of the two clubhouses. The one next to me has a fully equipped gym with all the newest Life-fit machines. In the lower floor there is a squash court and a play room with ping pong and other games. The locker rooms have a sauna, steam rooms and Jacuzzis. Once inside the compound, it feels like Club Med.
SABIC has in place pretty much the same work processes and services you will see in any large global company, which means lots of new acronyms to learn. The technical center is staffed with people from all over the world; therefore, the default language is always English. This also accounts for the very poor progress I am making on learning Arabic, which is a personal goal of mine while I am here.
The technology center is very modern and very well equipped. The central building is a very interesting mixture of modern architecture and Islamic elements. The building wraps around a nice garden with a fountain in the middle. There are other lab buildings that look more like the typical glass buildings you see in America. The center is located in an industrial zone away from the city, meaning that all employees have a long commute.
Every morning, as soon as I get to my office, the “tea boy,” a young Nepalese man, shows up with a tray of coffee and a glass of water. This ritual is repeated through the day. Saudis are more formal than Americans, and if someone comes to your office, you are supposed to invite him to sit, offer tea or coffee and then summon the “tea boy.” The real business does not start until after you have exchanged a few pleasantries and the drinks have arrived.
The tech center offers some comforts that disappeared long ago in the West such as two travel agencies and a company doctor on the premises. The tech center has a mosque, and three times a day the chanting of the muezzin calling for prayer is piped at a very low volume through the PA system. Many devout people go to the mosque to the prayers. It is important for non-Muslims to keep in mind the prayer times when organizing meetings or simply visiting a co-worker in their office. It is important in the evenings too, since restaurants and shops all close for prayers.
Since we are located in an industrial zone we eat at the cafeteria, which is heavily subsidized. The food is good, particularly if one likes Middle Eastern fare. Occasionally the meat entrée is a bit chewier but very tasty—those are the days they are serving camel meat.
One of the most notable aspects of working here is the near total absence of women in my work place; even those roles that are usually stereotypically associated with females in the West, such as secretaries and the nurse at the clinic are filled by males. I must note that at the global level there are many women at all levels of the company and that some groups located in Saudi Arabia do have a female manager located in Europe or the USA.
When friends ask me about my safety, I always tell them that the most dangerous aspect of life in Riyadh is driving. If you have not driven on a Saudi highway, you have not driven! Some people here are absolutely crazy and pull the most amazing stunts and do so at very high speeds. On the other hand, there are incredibly slow drivers in the left lane going 30 mph on an 80 mph highway. Lately, we have been visited by a seasonal danger in the form of wedding cars used by the groom to take the bride to their honeymoon. The cars are highly decorated, including the windows and the windshield; add to the mix nervous grooms in the driver seat and you know it is best to avoid them.
And yes, there are many camels in Saudi Arabia, just not in the city. I see them most often in the back of large farm trucks when I return from work. To see them in their natural habitat, one must drive into the desert like the time I drove to a city called Jubail on the Persian Gulf. I saw many herds of camels while driving, but the one camel that caught my eye was alone on the other side of a six-lane highway. When I stopped to take a picture, the camel started to come towards me, got close and then kept on going, and I was left thinking, “Why did the camel cross the road?”
