Saudi Insights #1,2,3,4,5,6,7

1. My glasses fog every time I open the door and go outside. The temperature today could be above one hundred degrees –Humidity being closer to that number on most days. And all of this muggy weather does one thing to me: it makes me miss beer -More than the temperate shores of Central California.
   
2. Currently, our family lives in Saudi Arabia; the wealthy country that staunchly prohibits alcohol, pork, pornography and drugs. Its power structure is ambiguously divided into a theocracy/monarchy, with the remaining portion of power dedicated to the mass refinement of fossil fuels. And there are daily reminders of these intertwined realities. For instance, a king is on every bill; the smell of crude oil permeates the air; and the cry of a muzzein pours from every mosque speaker five times a day.
   
3. Getting accustomed to the transition of a Western lifestyle to a Middle Eastern will take some time. Going shopping requires a literal transformation for some. My wife, a feminist and Berkley graduate, must change her clothing on each outing. She covers herself with a black flowing gown, known as an abbya to avoid nuisances from the religious police and onlookers -She calls it her Hogwarts uniform. Of course, the Saudi women in the malls have a different protocol to follow. Most are fully covered from head to toe; some of the women have just two eye holes to peek from. The entire scene is reminiscent of a Halloween ball. As for the men, they congregate in groups away from women. Most women are not even allowed in a café with men. Some men wear the traditional white robes, while other go for more Western styles of dress –Some men even hold hands and dress like twins. No comment.
   
4. We spend a great deal of time in the confines of a secured compound. These large, self-sufficient communities are the backbone to the Kingdom’s infrastructure: oil. Thousands of foreign workers flock to them for work: a virtual stratosphere of classes. Here is a modest attempt to explain it. First, you have the contracted workers. Mostly comprised of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi origins, these dark men are scattered throughout the compounds wearing assorted work suits, very similar to U.S. prisoner fatigues. Within the worker ranks you have everyone’s status revealed by the color of their work suits: the orange (sanitation) outfits are the lowest jobs; green ones (landscaping) are a step up; blue (construction laborers) work indoors and outdoors; beige uniforms (repair men) are usually assigned to the Filipinos, and they seem to be in the highest tier of contacted workers. The next class is housewives; their husbands pull large sums of money, while they raise children and attend social clubs, etc. Up from that, you have support staff consisting of American, Canadians, etc; they consist of teachers, nurses librarians, etc. Doctors, engineers, finance make up the next level. And finally, you have the Saudi sheiks/women running upper level management. I’m sure I omitted some parts, but that is the best I can offer for now.
   
5. Daily tasks such as going to the store, calling maintenance, checking the status of official paperwork can be very challenging. Inshalla mean if god wills it. But it also has the polite designation of “F-u, leave me alone.” When we call about the status of anything, the ambigoius inshalla comes out. I imagine it is hard for large scale projects to be completed in this country –Depending on collaboration, things get stymied easily. In fact, a colleague mentioned that in the capital, a developer attempted to build a massive shopping mall. The architects drew up the plans, the contractors came in and most of the plumbing was laid down. Along the way, however, the religious police got hold of the plans and insisted the bathrooms needed to be torn out because they were facing west towards Mecca. After several arguments about the curvature of the earth, the developer lost and they ripped out all of the bathrooms. A costly oversight. I’m still not certain if this colleague’s story is true or not.
   
6. The gardener sort of picked us one day, and that was it. Reina said she saw two men yelling at each other in the back yard the first morning we awoke. It now makes sense that they were fighting over who would be our gardener. We really didn’t have any choice in the matter. Every morning and afternoon for the first two weeks, the “green tiger” (my name for him) would toil in our yard. He first used a tiny hand sickle to cut away the tall grass. A few hours later, he popped up unexpectedly and deposited small plants into the quicksand looking soil. For hours, the hose would run along the border of driveway, in a desperate attempt to revive the shocked roots. As each week passes a larger and nicer plant appears. He tried desperately the other day to plant a bougainvillea in the backyard. Day five and it is not looking good. Reina noticed a sign on someone’s door a few weeks ago saying, “please don’t steal my plants -I still live here!” I guess the gardeners assume people on vacation have vacated their homes and their gardens are free game. Or perhaps, they are bitter about some old pay dispute or something. Nevertheless, the gardener hasn’t received a dime from us, but he works in earnest with hopes of us keeping paying him someday. We are going to pay him the first of the month. I hear that they make 200 riyals a month through the company, and they supplement their pay with gardening or house boy (think butler) work. That means on a good month they can make 400-500 riyals which equals $140 or so a month. A disparate comparison to our income; but better than what they can make at home.
   
7. Child care poses a problem for us. Again. Reina is tentatively set to work in January but we can’t line up a childcare provider. It is harder than we thought it would be. The only option we see is outsourcing. India, the Philippines and a few other Asian countries have nannies that will come to Saudi Arabia to be your nanny. You pay 600 dollars to an agency to select and deliver one for you. Your job is to provide housing and 300 riyals a month salary (150 bucks). They are then expected to work 6 times a day, 12 hours a day.
   We are not sure if we can morally accept this. Not to mention, it is hard to trust a total stranger to provide for your toddler. More on that dilemma to come…