November 26, 2007 - Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
"Your strength is how calmly, quietly, and peacefully you face life."
~ Yogi Bhajan
Dhahran temperature high: 79 degrees F
Hood River temperature high: 43 degrees F
For some reason, I still feel salty after showering each morning.
Saudi Aramco has carefully prepared our group for the transition towards a more conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our first three nights were spent on the protected Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, just outside of Dammam. On this little piece of walled-in suburbia, often referred to as “Little America,” women liberally walk around in shorts, tank tops, are allowed to drive vehicles, and have most the pleasures of any American.
Security on the other-hand is very tight on both the outskirts of the compound (including multiple vehicle checkpoints to get into the camp) and near the schools. Additional walls around the schools were requested by parents after the 2003 Riyadh Compound bombing, where 35 people were killed and over 160 wounded.
At the 3rd Street Middle School we visited today, the distribution of students is 52% US, 12% Canadian, 36% others from around the world. There is no lunch because the bus takes all students and faculty home at 11:30am for “family time” and mid-day prayer for the Islamic. Throughout our visit on the compound, we have found most revere working for Saudi Aramco and truly enjoy the way-of-life provided in the utopia community. Many families choose to not leave for decades. This unconditional love for the lifestyle has also been referred to as, “drinking the cool aide.”
The Aramco Compound attracts the best and brightest engineers and other industrial workers from around the world. Their children are also very motivated, resulting in highly functioning schools. However, the facilities do not accommodate sophomore, junior, or senior high school years, consequently Aramco pays for students to be educated at elite schools in the U.S.
Aramco schools starts their teachers pay around $80,000. If I was to work on the compound, with my masters degree and years of experience, my start-out would be around $97,000. Benefits include:
• Company paying for 90% of an advanced degree (masters or in my case a Ph.D.)
• Travel back to place of origin (Oregon) once a year
• Extremely low cost of living (about $400 a month for a 3 bedroom house)
Gas prices in Saudi Arabia are as follows:
• Free to employees driving Aramco vehicles
• 16 cents for everyone else living on the compound
• 60 cents for the remainder of the country (not living on the compound)
With the major issue in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia being absolutely no natural fresh water anywhere, there are a number of desalinization plants throughout the country. As a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by salt water, Saudi Arabia is increasingly converting this salt water into usable water. It took three days for me to figure out the reason I feel salty each morning is because the shower water is piped in from the desalinization plant.
It is important to note that Saudi Arabia pays more per gallon of water (usually from India) than U.S. citizens pay for a gallon of gas.
Is oil a basic necessity to survive? Or is water a basic necessity to survive?
