Dhahran Camp

For those of you that are computer-savvy and are willing to give Google Earth a try, you can see the entire camp there.

If you navigate to Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, you'll be close. Dhahran is halfway between and a bit west of Dammam and Al Khobar. These towns are on the Persian Gulf coast (east coast) of Saudi Arabia. If you get close, you can't miss the golf course.

Here's a fairly low-res screen shot of camp (low-res only because I dragged it into PowerPoint to add the annotation AND because the phone-as-wireless-modem setup is slow and chokes on large files).

Main Camp encompasses most of the original camp. There is only one original building left from the original camp that was established in 1938 and it is scheduled to be torn down in a couple of years. The Dhahran Hills housing area was built later and is about 20 years old, I believe.

A Small Desert Adventure

On Thursday morning I took the dogs out to the edge of camp to see the desert.

In the desert, looking north back to the Dhahran Hills housing area in camp.

The southernmost road at the edge of camp. Looking to the southeast. Housing on the left, desert on the right.

Roads into camp are heavily guarded but as you can see, the camp is accessible from the desert by off-road vehicles. This isn’t quite the security risk it might seem because almost every transaction in and off camp requires that you produce your Aramco ID if not your iqama as well.

There isn't much trouble someone could get into on foot in camp. Most old camp hands leave their cars and houses unlocked all the time (I can't quite bring myself to do that and so lock my house when I leave for the day). Punishment for most crimes is death so the risk of theft or other mayhem of that sort is very low.

The guards at the security gates wear bulletproof vests and are heavily armed. There is a main set of gates at all of the roads leading into camp and a second set of gates and a fence entirely surrounding the “core complex”, the set of administrative, exploration, development, and engineering buildings where I work, and yet another set of gates at the entrance to the larger housing areas within camp. ID has to be produced at all of these and before you can get into the "core complex" admin area, you have to send your bags through a scanner.

There is a Saudi military base not far out from camp to the south as several large Aramco production and refining facilities. I can see the lights of these installations glowing at night.
But the housing area isn’t entirely fenced off and as I mentioned, the back end of it is open to the desert.

Looking north back into Dhahran Hills housing. Mimi on her tether.

[I discovered after downloading these photos that I’ve dropped my camera one too many times so you’ll have to excuse the quality. I’ll try to get into Al Khobar one night next week and get a new camera.]

Camp is heavily landscaped but wherever you see a living plant there is a drip or irrigation line running directly to it. There is even an 18-hole golf course glowing green as can be!

I took these next pictures on Friday morning. There is a paved walkway around most of the golf course that is just behind my building. I take the dogs out on it twice a day, half an hour in the morning and an hour every evening. About 10 minutes' walk from my building, there is a small jebel at the edge of the golf course. We climbed up it this morning to get the big view.

Looking north over the golf course. Main camp is on the other side of the golf course, Dhahran Hills housing is behind me.

Looking west along the boundary of Dhahran Hills housing which is to my left. You can see the path around the golf course with some housing to the left. My building is just around the curve in the path.

Looking south back into the center of Dhahran Hills housing. This housing area is separated from main camp by the golf course. You can see the circum-golf course path edged by rows of landscaping below then a main road, Rolling Hills Blvd, then the housing area. Beyond that is the desert area where we were on Thursday morning.

All of this lush greenery is watered with reclaimed water. They used to spray untreated water out into the desert in the “spray fields.” Now they clean the water up a bit, hopefully removing the nasty bits such as E. coli and other pathogens, and return that to camp for landscaping.

The former spray fields represent a wonderful place to take dogs, or so I was told. So I decided to check it out on Thursday morning.

We got there at 6am just as the sun was coming up. It is always hazy in the mornings because there is a lot of moisture in the air at night (no rain, so if native plants can't survive on dew they don't do too well).

Harry and Mimi investigating a pile of trash in the desert at sunrise. The Saudi military base is visible in the background. Taking pictures of things like that is strictly forbidden so I'm skirting the rules a bit with this picture.

Harry got to run free but I put Mimi on a 30-foot steel tether line (I would be embarrassed as a dog trainer to admit that she doesn't have a recall except that she's a 4 yr old fox terrier; that pretty much says it all). That cable tether still gave her plenty of running room. Here are some more photos.

Harry baptizing a little tiny jebel.

Running along a road in the former spray fields. Looking west.

I had been told there are wild dogs living in the desert and, to my surprise, I saw two of them on Thursday morning. They have the body plan of a saluki but have relatively short coats. Both of them were identical, light beige/tan on top, erect ears, longish snout, narrow faces, longish tail with some feathers, white bellies and white feet. They were pretty tall, maybe twice as tall as Harry, but not massive or heavy boned. Both of the ones I saw took off when they spotted us. I had also been told that they can be aggressive but I don’t want to test that theory at all. Sorry, no pictures, but I can probably get some at another time.

Blooming frangipani and agave.

We Have Internet At Home (sort of)!

I am writing this on my Mac in my home in Dhahran. So clearly I do have internet connectivity. Sort of.

Why sort of? It's complicated. As I mentioned in the previous post, Aramco IT told me 13 weeks before DSL here in the house (and that's just an estimate--but there's a holiday coming up and after that I plan to be a squeaky wheel).

I don't want to live without internet for 13 weeks. So I asked around and found out that the two main phone companies out here, Mobily (mo-BY-lee) and STC (Saudi Telecom), also provide wireless internet. There are people on camp that use both to connect to the internet from home. I decided to test this to see if it would work for me either as a stopgap until DSL or perhaps permanently. I borrowed a fancy USB modem from a friend. Then today I went to the Mobily outlet in the Al Muneirah commissary and bought a SIM card and pre-paid plan with unlimited internet access for SR 300 per month (about USD 80-90).

I put the SIM card into the modem and plugged that into the Mac--only to find, whoops, the modem/SIM/provider/some mysterious special code is not recognized by Apple.

Hmm. What to do.

Then I remembered my SPIFFY NEW cell phone. I splurged earlier this week and bought a very nice Nokia E71 3G phone (silver, in case you were curious). All cell phones out here are multiband and unlocked. And all cell plans here in KSA, and in fact, the rest of the world, just like internet plans, are prepaid/pay as you go affairs. Only in the U.S. do you find the stupid locked phones and contracts and such expensive post-paid plans. I had been using my new phone only as a phone with a very cheap SIM card that supports phone calls, no internet.

Anyway, using Apple's built in WLAN software, I took a look around and found a neighbor who had an unsecured network. So I hopped onto his network (called Mohammed at Mango--the street we live on is Mango Circle) and did a bit of research. Turns out I can use my 3G phone as a wireless modem for my iMac. And hey, look, I have this brand new unlimited internet access SIM card that will just .... slip right into that new phone. Of course my cell phone number is different now since each chip has its own number (966-054-6013310, in case you are interested--please don't call unless you know what time it is in GMT +3!).

It took me almost 2 hours to bail on the USB modem, research the wireless modem option, set up the phone for the internet, test it, then get the Bluetooth settings on the Mac set correctly, test that, then...handshake and connection!

So, you see, complicated.

My connection is a bit slow but I think that is because it is the weekend here and 8:30pm and local 'net usage is bound to be really high. I won't even try to put pics in the blog right now.

Still, I am utterly amazed at several aspects to all of this. First, I'm using my PHONE as a wireless modem to connect my COMPUTER to the internet--and they aren't even connected to each other! The technology that went into creating that kind of thing is crazy sophisticated. And second, I actually managed to do all of this myself! Well, okay, I did make a call to Mobily tech support but they got my phone connecting to the internet in about 5 minutes.

And the good news is that I hope to be able to get some pictures up this weekend (remember, that's Thursday and Friday for us). Stay tuned.

Service Interruption

Well, not really interrupted. But I have become super busy at work, leaving little time to post to the blog. And I found out from Aramco IT yesterday that it may be 13 weeks or more before I get the DSL turned on at home! I'm not happy but there's not much I can do about it.

I am working on a short term fix to home internet connectivity with a USB aircard and a service plan through one of the local companies. I may even have that set up by Wednesday. Vonage probably won't work well with that so the phone calls will have to wait until the DSL line is active. So be patient! I'll start posting again in a couple of days.

The DSL delay is a hitch but other things have moved along quickly. My computer arrived today in my E box along with such critical items as microwave, vacuum cleaner, and dog beds. I got my iqama (KSA work and residence permit) yesterday in a record 6 days. And I got word from Shipping that my household goods might arrive in KSA by December 9! Give them another week to clear customs and I might be able to pull my house together by mid-December.

Today I hired a houseboy to walk the dogs every day at 11am (we start work at 7am). Yes, that's an unpleasant word to our politically correct American ears but that is what they are called. That is what these folks call themselves. Most are from Sri Lanka or India. His name is Upul and he insisted on taking the dogs out right away! They seemed to be just fine with him. I'll probably pay Upul around SAR 120 per month or about USD 30.

Hiring Upul is a relief because while Harry is a perfect gentleman always, Mimi is having accidents during the day. Getting around in camp is a bit of a hassle--I've got a whole post planned on just that topic!

I know you folks all want to hear more and see pictures too--and believe me, I can't wait to send pictures--but be patient!

Oh, not that you'd ever use it but I now have a local cell: 966-55-5894542. Splurged and got a slick and shiny Nokia 3G phone. Unfortunately I didn't splurge for the 3G service yet! It's just a phone for now.

Through the Looking Glass

It is definitely strange here. And I mean strange beyond the usual thrashing around associated with moving to a new place.

Anytime you move to a new place you have to learn your new phone number and new address. That's not a big problem for most of us. But I've also got a new mail box and combination, office phone, loaner cell phone (more on this in the Strange section below), badge number...I have to be ready to whip out any and all of these numbers for just about any transaction.

The compound is tightly clustered in some places, sprawled out in others. I'm learning to navigate unfamiliar streets with unfamiliar names either on foot, in a taxi, in a bus, or in a friend's car. That's a tough transition for a North American used to learning a new place by car!

have gotten a bunch of administrative and personal settling-in tasks done in just these four short days. The weekend is coming up (Thursday and Friday are the weekend in KSA) and a new friend and I (a geologist I met in orientation) are planning to make a grand shopping expedition into Al Khobar tomorrow.

Besides this geologist friend, I see other people from my orientation here and there in camp. Plus I keep getting introduced to new people who, when they see me around, introduce me to whomever they might be with at the time. And everyone is unrelentingly friendly and helpful.

This leads me to tell you about the two most important things I'm learning that are key to making this work: ask questions of everyone you meet (where to buy a TV, a couch, a mixing bowl, how to get cash, where to catch the bus, on and on)--and I do mean everyone because it is amazing how much some of these folks know--and remain patient.

The whole concept of inshallah (god willing) makes me twitchy because I am by no means a believer in the predetermination of the outcome of things such as the date and time my Ebox might be delivered. But the Saudis are in large part quite fatalistic about everything large and small. Pitching a hissy fit won't get you very far in KSA.

So now to the strange bits.

Quite a few Saudi men wear thobes to work--along with dress socks and shoes (that alone is pretty comical). If a man wears a thobe, he is often wearing a red and white checked scarf. There is apparently something like gang symbolism in the way a man folds the kaffiyeh. Some of them are elaborately twisted and folded and tossed over the shoulder--attention to detail that is strangely feminine. An equally large number of Saudi women veil from top of head to toe with only their eyes visible. So you see these flapping white and black human-sized sails everywhere. I even see women in abbayahs and head scarves on the running track around the golf course--running. In their abbayah. In 85degree temps. This wiki article has some good photos.

I take the dogs out in the morning and evening for long walks around that same golf course. By a fluke, I am nearly always out there when the calls to prayer start (around 4:30am and 7pm or so). Most mosques just play prerecorded tapes over loudspeakers. Very loud speakers. There are at least half a dozen mosques within hearing distance and the calls weave into this weird, echoing, dissonant chant. Since I am out before sunrise and after sunset, it is kind of eerie.

I can't buy a scooter or car or mobile phone until I get my iqama or work permit. Well, that's not quite true. I can buy a cell phone but I can't buy the SIM card that makes it work!

Stores are usually closed from 11am to 2 or 3 in the afternoon for noon prayers, a long lunch, and presumably a nap. You have to schedule your shopping excursions around prayers because shops close and kick your infidel butt out onto the street. Most prayer times last about 25 minutes but that could be quite an inconvenience during, say, August. During orientation, I was thoughtfully given a daily prayer schedule for 2009 in the form a little foldout wallet card. But that sort of information is available online too.

Life in the compound is a series of rules and silly administrative hoops. To get home internet, I had to get my Aramco login, go to a special site and set up a home internet password that was different from my Aramco password, then go to another site and request a second phone line. That will be installed Saturday (first day of the workweek). After that is done, I can go to yet another site and request DSL service. Then I wait. Inshallah, I'll get home internet sometime in 2009.

I'm sure I'll return to the Strange theme in future posts but I'll close this one with screen shots of my Outlook calendar showing both regular and hijrah dates (in which it is the year 1430) and my blogspot login screen.

We Have Arrived!

The dogs and I arrived safely Friday night. I only have internet access at work so may not be able to post much for a while until I can get home internet set up. Like everything here in KSA, getting home internet set up is a rather involved process (large bureaucracies result in plenty of jobs for the relatively unskilled Saudi workforce).

The weekend here is Thursday and Friday so I will be out of touch until we return to work on Saturday.

I made a mistake in my earlier Fun Facts post. There are 5,000 residences in Dhahran camp and between 12,000-15,000 people live here. I'm sure Aramco knows exactly how many people are here but they aren't telling.

The dogs are settling in, sort of. They are not dealing with the long days in the house (townhouse sort of affair). I got tired of cleaning up pee everywhere so today Mimi got left in her crate. At least the mess will be localized.

My Little Sweet Pea

The hardest thing I will do today is leave my sweet Dyna. She is going to stay with my mother and her dogs and cat. I know she will be loved and well taken care of but I am going to miss her fiercely.

I got Dyna in 2000 from fox terrier rescue. She had been in the Sprucehill Kennel that suddenly fell apart when its elderly owners died. From the day she arrived, she attached herself to Iz, earning the nickname "Mini Me" because she followed Iz around so closely.

When Iz died, I thought Dyna would be the one to mourn but she quite happily transferred her attentions to Gracie and Mimi. She had in fact already started to do this when Iz became so sick.

Dyna is now 11 years old and although she is in excellent health (only a touch of arthritis), I decided not to take her with me. If I could have taken three dogs, I wouldn't have hesitated to bring Dyna but with a limit of two, I decided that she needed to stay in the U.S.

She is a happy little fox terrier, very affectionate and loving. Saying goodbye to her is as hard as letting my Iz go.

Dyna sweet pea, be a good girl!