Extraction 3: Death By A Thousand Cuts

Once you officially initiate what is called the "departure clearance", things begin to happen much more quickly than I expected.


Remember my list of dated events? It's been replaced with a changing array of sticky notes and scribbled instructions on the margins of other documents. I now cart a bulging manila folder everywhere I go.


Many of the items I need to clear off my "departure clearance" list require multiple emails and phone calls requesting information or action from this person or that. A good half of them require me to go to another office in Aramco and deal with the matter myself. A large number of the things that I am required to do could easily be done by a couple of admin people in Personnel. But I suppose Aramco continues to pay me either way.


Something new or unexpected pops up every day. These are not crisis events, but in combination they take up hours of my time. I'm not getting much done at work as a result. I've already spent hours on the phone in the evenings talking to banks and airlines on the US end of things.


The very good news is that I sold my car. There was a pretty narrow window of time for me to sell it, and selling it is absolutely necessary. I must have the car registration off my iqama and the camp entry sticker off my badge number (and off the car) in order to turn in my iqama and passport so that my final exit visa can be processed. And I have to turn those in by the first week of March in order to have everything done in time.


I sold it to my geologist friend MG. I gave him a good price, less than I planned to advertise it for. The deal was arranged over coffee and closed with a handshake. He's still working on the wire transfer directly into my account from his (you'd think banks would make this a little easier), but I suspect that in the end, no money needs to directly change hands. Very neat, very easy.


I was very lucky to sell it to a westerner. Not only is he willing to let me continue to use it until I leave, but the financial and legal hoops are so much more simple than if I had sold it to a Saudi.


See, the Saudis don't really trust each other, and that spills over to financial dealings with us (non-Saudis). When you sell your car to a Saudi, you often have to leave the car with the dealer (for a fee of course) until all of the money is transferred. This prevents the seller from disappearing with the car after getting the money or the buyer from skipping out with the car without paying for it. The dealer releases the car only after all the money and titles are transferred.


We still have to pay the fixer at the Auto Association here on camp to take care of the title transfer paperwork. He charges surprisingly high fees for this service, but he knows he has us all by the shorties. The rules are arbitrary, they change without notice, and no westerner wants to go to a government office if they can avoid it.


I also sent out my first list of "for sale" items over the secretary network. I sold a good part of the list, including my fridge. I'll miss that awesomely enormous fridge.


Most of my non-dog time is taken up with these endless tiny tasks, each one contingent upon two or three others. Death by a thousand cuts.