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The images on the news and the Internet last November of yet another compound bombing in Riyadh were especially disconcerting, as the damaged compound just below King Fahd’s palace was our home for 2 years from 1996 to 1998. The Muhayya compound was previously known as the B-2 compound, housing mostly US citizens working for Boeing and its subcontractors working on the Peace Sentinel program, the Saudi AWACS effort begun in the early 1980’s. I arrived in Riyadh in mid-June 1996 after taking an aircraft maintenance job on the Peace Sentinel program, but our journey to “the Kingdom” as its called began a couple months before. Preparing To Deploy to Saudi I accepted the position in early April 1996 and immediately began an exhaustive series of processing steps to ready myself and my family for the move to Riyadh. This included several shots for each of us (my 2 year old son was NOT happy about that!), local and national background checks, transcripts from every school I had ever been to, urine and stool samples, and several other unique items required by the Royal Saudi Embassy in Houston. The most bizarre document we had to fill out was called the “death letter”.  The death letter was a statement saying that we acknowledged the fact that import and/or involvement in drugs, alcohol or pornography was a serious offense and that trafficking in any of these items was punishable by death. Every single member of the family had to sign this letter, even my kids!

Musmak Castle was built in 1865 and lies in the heart of old Riyadh. In the center of the castle there is a diwan (or sitting room); there is also a courtyard with a well.

Working In Saudi Arabia

The main areas where Westerners work in Saudi Arabia are defense, healthcare, and the oil industry. IT, telecommunications and banking are other areas that employ substantial numbers of Americans and Europeans. Many professional opinions have been offered that if all the Westerners working in these industries either went home or were forced to leave the country that the economy of the kingdom would come grinding to a halt. Saudis are more than happy to pay large sums of money to have others do their work for them. There has been in the last several years an attempt at “Saudization”, turning jobs traditionally done by outsiders over to Saudis to reduce the reliance on foreign labor, but there are a number of jobs that either require skills they do not have or are types of work that the affluent Saudis simply will not do.

Most of the menial and physical labor is done by Asian people such as Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and Philippinos. The more technical work is done by Europeans and Americans, although the huge salaries and almost unlimited benefits of the 70’s and 80’s have been greatly reduced. Still, it can be quite lucrative to work for a few years in the kingdom.
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Abayas

Life In Saudi Arabia The primary item of interest in getting a family into the kingdom is the “iqama” Every person who applies for a residence visa gets issued an iqama (pronounced “ih-gaa-muh”). This was the equivalent of a national passport; only a male or the husband was issued this document and you did not leave it at home! Without this you could not even apply for accompaniment status for your family. My family finally arrived in late August; I picked them up at the airport and gave my wife her abaya I had purchased a few weeks earlier. The abaya is the floor length long sleeve garment that all women in Saudi must wear when out in public. The Muslim women in Saudi must also wear a headscarf, and most of the actual Saudi women wear a veil. Western women were never required to wear a veil, but there were several times when we were downtown and the “Mutawwah”, the religious police, told my wife to cover her head. She would put on her scarf and after the officer had moved down the street she would take it back off. Life in Saudi is measured mostly by Sharia, or ultra conservative Muslim law, of which the Saudi version includes women not being allowed to drive, wearing the abaya at all times, forbidding all alcohol and virtually all other Western “vices”. Cigarettes were about the only vice allowed in the kingdom. There are no theaters, no public bowling alleys, no bars or nightclubs and definitely no churches! Some hotels had private bowling alleys, and some larger compounds had a small theater for movie viewing. All restaurants have two sections; a single males section and a family section. Women downtown by themselves or with other women had to sit in the family section; otherwise they could be arrested for “prostitution”.

In Saudi, however, when prayer time comes, the entire economy comes to a screeching halt! Stores close, restaurants shut their doors, and things come to a complete stop until the prayers are over. Considering this happens 5 times a day, you can imagine how much of a hassle that becomes! Every westerner I knew carried a prayer schedule with them at all times; you planned any day out in the public or downtown around the prayer schedules.

If you were in a restaurant or grocery store and prayer time was called, you were able to be locked in and continue to eat or gather groceries into your cart. The lights would be dimmed, but you were able to go about your business. If you went to eat at night though you always carried a candle so you could see your food when the lights went out during prayers!
 

Housing In Saudi Arabia For Westerners there are two types of residences; most live on large resort-like compounds where you can wear shorts or swim suits or even halter-tops. Most compounds are provided rent and utilities free for working on a particular contract, usually with the Saudi military. I have friends who still live and work there, and their current compound’s villas each have 4500 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms! Life inside the compound is like being back in the States or Western Europe (there are more British and European workers in Saudi than American). Most compounds have small convenience stores, libraries, gyms, several swimming pools, beauty shops, recreation centers, and other amenities. Some compounds have villas with their own swimming pools along with the large community pools dotting the compounds. Fortunately the mutawwa cannot come onto the compounds and hassle the residents, but when you leave the compound, the women have to put on their abayas and follow the other strict rules. The other type of residence available is renting an actual house on the economy. Most people try to stay on the compounds even if they have to pay rent, as it provides some insulation from the stark living outside. We knew a few people who lived in rather large and luxurious villas, but they felt a bit like a fly on a plate due to the surrounding Muslim families and environment.

Life inside the compound

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Since there is not much in the form of Western entertainment, about the only thing Saudi and other families have for recreation is shopping and eating out. As such, there are several large shopping malls which are very close to Western malls in layout and selection. There are many restaurants to choose from, some local varieties but many Western chains such as McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kenny Roger’s Roasters, Pizza Hut, and others. One of our favorites was the local Turkish restaurant. Turkish and Arabic meals accompanied by huge slabs of Turkish bread and several types of dip such as hummous (chick peas and olive oil with some middle eastern spices) and toubouli (a sort of middle eastern salsa) could be had, and all were excellent.

Other shopping in the Kingdom included the computer, produce, and gold souks (markets). Only 18 carat and above gold is allowed by law to be sold in Saudi Arabia; anything less is sneered at. Gold jewelry can usually be purchased at lower than the spot price of gold. This is due to the extremely cheap labor imported from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Rolex and Seiko watches, jewelry, and electronics are usually much cheaper than in Europe or the US. Computers are higher than in the US, or were in the late 90’s.
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Gold Souk in Riyadh

Alcohol And Other “Contraband” Since Islamic law forbids the use of alcohol, many Westerners find creative ways to get around that restriction. The most common is to “brew your own”. Usually the equipment and ingredients for making your own beer or wine are brought in the country in several trips or shipments where by themselves they are not suspicious. Once assembled, people make their own wines, beers, and even “bathtub gin” and other hard liquors. Cantinas and “social clubs” are often run on compounds where the Saudi guards are either unaware or look the other way. Regular alcohol and even drugs can be had in Saudi, but the prices are very steep, as is the penalty if you are caught with them. My recommendation is wait until you vacation outside the country if you must have some alcohol or participate in other activities that are forbidden in Saudi Arabia. Travel Within The Kingdom Travel within the kingdom is restricted; you must have a travel letter to go beyond about 10 miles outside of the city limits. It was previously possible to get a blanket travel letter to use throughout the country, but after the Khobar bombing in June 1996 that was no longer made available.

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Getting a travel letter for each trip doesn’t sound much of a hassle until you figure in the Saudi bureaucracy. One of the key words in dealing with the Saudis is “in-sh allah”, or “God willing”. This is a common answer when you ask when something will be done (“Next week, in-sh allah”). In other words, maybe you will, maybe you won’t! You should always request a travel letter at least 2-3 weeks before you actually want to go somewhere.

When leaving the country, whether on holiday or permanently, you must get an exit visa. If you are returning, you must get an exit/entrance visa. This too takes a few to several weeks to process; without it you cannot leave nor reenter the country.

During the spring of 1998, Saddam Hussein was again massing troops on the Kuwaiti border. As things heated up I purchased exit visas for my family and myself. Exit visas are only good for 30-60 days and must be turned in if unused. They are usually paid for by your employer when you go on vacation; in this instance I paid for them so we could make a fast exit from the country if need be. As it was things ratcheted back down and I turned in my visas. $200 was a small price to pay to avoid a last minute scramble through the clogged offices of the Riyadh government if things got hot!

The Saudis themselves were OK as a people; oil wealth has given many of them a false sense of importance, even arrogance, towards other Arabs and especially towards non-Muslims. Some of the nicest people we met were Egyptians in the produce markets; they were always friendly and almost always gave our kids free fruit or candy. The Arab culture places a very high esteem on children; one of the few recreational things available other than shopping and restaurants were amusement parks with the usual rides for kids. The Saudi women would often rub my son’s head; he has blonde hair and the Saudi women found him irresistible!

Saudi Justice System

One of the more gruesome parts of living in Saudi was “chop-chop square”. This was an open courtyard area just off the gold souks where each Friday punishment was meted out to the criminals convicted of serious crimes as robbery, drug dealing or murder. Islamic law requires a thief to have his right hand cut off; this punishment can be administered after one offense but is usually not delivered until after multiple offenses.

Persons convicted of drug-related offenses, rape and murder all are beheaded. This is done today just as it was a thousand years ago; with a large curved sword. A modern twist is often used in that the person is usually drugged and often has some of their blood removed just before execution so the scene is not so messy.

If a Westerner is near chop-chop square and an execution is about to commence, they are often shoved to the front of the crowd for a close up view of Saudi (or Islamic) justice. I never witnessed these events, but I knew some who did, and it wasn’t very pleasant. Regardless of your opinion of this form of “justice”, they do not have a very high crime rate in Saudi Arabia!

Shortly after the Iraqi standdown in the spring of 1998 we decided to come back to the US. The B-2 compound was showing its age and although a new compound was rumored to be almost completed, Boeing would not guarantee anything so we made the choice to come home. In retrospect, we made the right choice. I have two former coworkers who still live and work in Saudi; one lived on a compound that was bombed in May 2003, and the other returned to Saudi a few months ago. Both they and there families enjoy the luxury lifestyle and monetary perks that go along with work in Saudi and although recognizing there are dangers, believe it to be worth staying.

Life in Saudi is unique and often challenging, but if you have an open mind and are flexible to other cultures and their requirements, many people live and work in the kingdom for many years, traveling all over the world and banking large sums of tax-free income. If your wife absolutely has to drive and you simply must have an after dinner drink, you might want to think twice about moving there. If these things are not showstoppers and the current war on terrorism situation there doesn’t bother you, then life in Saudi can be a very interesting and rewarding overseas place to live.

To contact Eric Click Here.

Check out Eric's other article for the magazine:

Living In North Yorkshire - In The North Of England
 

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