The Announcement

It’s been a month since our company has released their announcement.

Four months ago, our company made an announcement that the management level in our head office had decided to remain in Qatar. They advised us to maintain good business relations with our subcontractors, suppliers and clients. That we will secure new profitable projects after a couple of financially disastrous projects over the years our company has been in Qatar.

The management has also prepared some motivations for everyone. A bonus awaits us once we finish our project by 31 March 2010 and another bonus once handed over to the Client by 30 April 2010.

Everyone must have been happy and had revived hope of staying in Qatar. I was one amongst those who quietly celebrated. I was beginning to like Qatar and I want to stay in Qatar. I don’t know with the rest, but everyone was wearing a smile on their faces when they left the meeting room.

Everyone has new hope, new beginning, new motivations and need to work hard to complement the company’s new motivaton and to stay and be competitive in Qatar.

Last month there was an emergency meeting, everyone was surprised. All the senior staffs including Site Staffs were called in. The meeting room was full to the brim.

I thought to myself, this is very unusual and I was beginning to have a hunch. As we were waiting for the Vice President, the room becomes eerie. Slowly and slowly the noise had died down. Everyone seems to realize this must be an important announcement. A very important announcement, that everyone has a stake or will be affected.

When the Vice President has arrived, the silence in the room was deafening, you can hear a pin drop.

After going around the bush a bit, the bomb was dropped.

“The company has decided to close operation in Qatar in the meantime”. Everyone was shocked and surprised, the Project Manager was not spared.

The Vice President went on with his scripted speech, but for a moment no one seems to care. He talked about the justification of such a decision, tried to make some rationale and the measures way forward.

As a solace, he offered everyone to move to Saudi Arabia as the company tries to consolidate its limited resources to cater the substantial projects on hand in Saudi Arabia which is around SAR 14,000,000,000.00, yes with the capital B.

After the announcement everyone left the room very quiet, without a sound not even a sigh and with a common face, a poker face.

Our secretaries might have noticed the eeriness after the conference room door opened. That he cannot help but followed me in my office to scoop what have happened. I shared him the news and his face turned blank.

I was thinking to myself, how they can decide on that drastically. With over one thousand employees in Qatar, have they thought of impact to so many lives. How many families will be affected? What about those who might have passed on the opportunity four months ago, just to stand by the company when they announced that they are staying. Is this what they deserve for staying behind the company through thick and thin?

No one can change that now, the owners had decided. Emotional statements will never overcome the financial interests behind the decision of the owners.

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First Car I Drive Around Doha

After getting my driving license and as promised by our Administration Manager that he will get a car in two days, I was so excited. Two days had passed and the car never showed up…. Only after another two days, not bad after all he fulfilled his promise.

March 4, 2010, Mr. Gabriel gave me a 2005 Honda Civic.

It is not a new car, but at least it is working fine. It was actually the car of an ex-colleague who just left the company. I was a bit dismayed as I was expecting that the company will rent a car for me.

Renting a car in Doha is somewhat a good option to have your ride. Most of the rented cars are good as new, as if you just bought a new car. But look what I have. A 2005 Honda Civic with dents and scratches everywhere, no speaker at the rear seats, a blurry left head lights, the dusty inside stinks as spoiled sweat under the hot summer sun….sigghhs.

I wanted to complain, but my wife with a cooler head, as always, prevails over my ranting. “We will just clean it, freshen the air and would be a modest car in no time”, she said. To lighten me up, she jokingly said the dents and scratches should work for me, even if I scratch and dent it, I will be off-the-hook because the dent and scratches were “always” been there. Hmmm…sounds logical huh?

So we clean it.

Driving on the main road on my own for the first time was really different than I thought. I thought it would be the same as when I was driving during my training. The beating of my heart races against my mind on the thought that I am side by side with another car especially when I imagine I am between two trailer trucks on my both sides.

And so that day, I move out of the office at about 1:45pm, just to avoid the Thursday rush hour.

When I stopped at a red light, I called my wife and told her I’m coming home early. She asked me who’s driving me home. “I am driving by myself, I’m reaching home now”.

Her tone changed, “And why are you on the phone, aren’t you suppose to be driving?”. But before I can say the red light is on, the phone went dead.

I reached home safely, and my wife was there waiting for me, seeing me driving a car for the first time.

She teasingly commented that I was driving very slow. Yeah, alright, am I supposed to be speeding when approaching our gate?

After cleaning the car, I asked her to come with me to pump some gas in the car. We went for a drive to the nearby petrol station. She must have been nervous, it was the first time she rides with me on a car.

The last time she rode with me as the one driving was in a tricyle. With her sister they rode on the tricycle and we went to the beach. I was not really that good driver at that time, I don’t know why I had the courage to take them for a ride. My wife and sister-in-law, swears they will never ride with me again.

Everything went well, we pump some gas, and went back home. So far so good.

It was Thursday and we decided that we move from the Villa earlier and drop some of our packages to our new place and from there we will go to our church.

The road has become busier now and started to get dark. When I was above to enter the main road from the service road, I never thought that it was that hard. I have not gotten used to using the car mirrors, so taking me time to enter the busy main road. Everyone behind was already honking. Terrible and embarrassing and my wife seem to want to tease me or she’s trying to make me cool headed and relaxed.

Using the car mirrors is really one important tool of your car. I was having difficulty changing lanes and because of that I tend to go slow on round abouts and irritates the other motorist. For two weeks, I really cared to learn on my own how to use those side and rear view mirrors.

We once went to Lulu hypermart, as we were parking I was just reversing not noticing what was behind me. When I hit something, my wife shouts with a laugh, “Ok, we’re parked”. We quickly went out form the car and check what we hit. There stand the mart security staff, pointing at the posts, thanks God, it was not the security staff. Luckily there is a post in there, otherwise I could have hit the car on the other lot.

I was somehow disoriented on what had happened. I had a load of teasing and laughing with my wife what had just happened as we proceeded to do our groceries. After more than one hour we went back to our parked car. And there it is, parked and the engine is running. The Security staff was still there watching over our car."Sir, you forgot to turn off your engine", said the staff. "No, I turned on remotely", jokingly as I was showing him my key and he smiled gamely.

And guess what, I got a ton of teasing this time from my wife, enough to laugh ourselves on bed till past midnight.

I realized that driving really requires complete concentration in order to keep you car total control and preserve your own safety and safety of other motorists.

I had a lot of misadventures related to my first month of driving, especially the first 2 weeks which will make this post too long. So, you rather watch out for that post.

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My First Time In Saudi Arabia (Part 4)

As I had already mentioned in the first part of my post about my first time in Saudi Arabia, my expectations in the infamous Islamic Country are mentioned below:

1. I am expecting a desert / rural environment

2. Strict Islamic Culture

3. Backward mentality

4. Unaccommodating and arrogant Saudis

5. Not seeing a woman for the next seven days

My first hand adventure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia begins after I get past that immigration counter.

Saudi Arabia is known as the world’s number 1 producer of oils. Thanks to their vast desert lands where they draw all those oils that makes them rich. Naturally, I was expecting a desert environment wherein anywhere and everywhere you turn your head  all you will find is a desert, dunes, camels and sandstorms.

I was wrong…

Downtown Riyadh is just like any other city…shopping malls, restaurants, offices, business establishments are abound. And the center of it all is the magnificent Kingdom Tower, perch in the middle of the city. Its grandeur is best appreciated during the night where its multi-colored facade changes in the blink of an eye.

 

The Kingdom Tower is one of the many prestigious projects our company had proudly completed.

Saudi Arabia is known as an Islamic Country. Its culture is deeply rooted on the principles and values of Islam.

This is evident by the number of mosques all over the Kingdom. Almost every stones throw, there lies a mosque. This gives convenience to its faithfuls who strictly follow one of the pillars of muslim teachings, the prayer. Muslims prays five times daily.

Obviously you would know when its time to pray as the call for prayers sounds all over the place. At any one time you would hear four or five different call for prayers, which means four or five mosques are just nearby your place.

When the call for prayer starts, everything stops. Literally, shops, petrol stations, works, etc. Streets are emptied of any individual walking and loitering around. The rumors must have been true that if you were caught loitering around during prayer time, authorities will catch you.

During prayer time

In one occasion, after our seminar, I stayed a little while to chat with my colleagues. And when I left our office, I was caught up in the prayer time on my way back to the hotel. I got worried and ran towards the petrol station to hide until the prayer time was over. I did not managed to get in the petrol shop as it already closed when I reached there. Luckily no one has questioned me.

After prayer time

The perceptions that Saudis are arrogant and unaccommodating might not be true at all. Like any other races, they have their bad and good citizens. Such perception might be true to the older generations of Saudis. So far, the Saudis I have met have good manners and helpful. Our trainers and organizer are all Saudis but I never had such negative impression to them. On the contrary, they are accommodating, jolly and have sense of humors.

Although one of our trainers confides that he sometimes feel ashamed of his countrymen. Especially to the older generation and those who belong to the conservative types, that tends to be rude and backwards. Making it worst, they do not want changes, which makes them backward.

I thought for one week that I would be staying in Saudi Arabia, I would never ever see any woman. That’s what I thought until I went to one of the shopping mall one night, and there they are, all dressed in black. I was expecting that they wear those famous abayas but what I did not expect is that most of them were not covering their faces. Of course mostly were expats but “legends” were told that if a woman doesn’t cover her face is a big no-no in Saudi Arabia. Well, not anymore maybe.

But the separation of men and women exist. I noticed this when I went to the food court and buy myself a dinner. As I ordered my food, the staff was staring at me intently. I was thinking, was anything wrong on my looks, or what I was wearing. Then the other staff, a Pinoy, politely told me to queue on the other side. As I stepped back and move to the other side, I realized I was queuing on ladies queue. It was not my fault, the signage was in Arabic.

After paying for my dinner, I looked for a place to eat. With my food on bought hands I walked back about 50 – 60 meters from the stall where the dining area is located. This dining area caters only for men. The dining area for women is separate, enclosed with walls where they are not seen by the prying public.

High walls are standards to Saudi homes. Back home in the Philippines, walls around your property is a status symbol. The higher your wall, the more you have in life. The more ornate your wall, the more your elegance speaks out. The lesser your wall, the lesser you have. But if you don’t have a wall, doesn’t mean you don’t have anything.

But for Saudis, high walls are a must. This has something to do with their culture in terms of the privacy of their female members. Their religion dictates that they must keep their females members “covered”, away from lustful eyes.

Women is Saudi are prohibited to work, may be for now. What would you expect then who will sell those expensive perfumes and make-ups. Well, you must have guessed it right, it's the men. I find it funny but maybe just consider it as one of their backwardness. But then, what's the use of those expensive make ups when you cover your face after applying them?.....Just asking.

My stay in Saudi Arabia has given me the first hand impression of what the Kingdom is. I am now not relying on tell-tale of what is there in the Kingdom. But of course, I may have not seen everything during my short stay. In the end, my impression about Saudi Arabia has changed, not everything is bad after all.

Who knows, my personal impression might again change if an opportunity arise to discover more in Saudi Arabia. Only time will tell.

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