Goin on 72 hours!!

11/23, 9:37 pm KSA: Well, I only slept two hours last nights, so I've had 2 hours sleep in the last 72. I'm hoping to rectify this sitchy-ation by getting some good shut-eye tonight! I haven't been sleepy at all until this evening, so I'm starting wind down.

I went to bed at 5 am this morning...I was trying to find a way to make a call to my wife to let her know I had arrived safe and sound, but my international phone was, and still is, not working properly, so I had to go out and buy one today from the compound's commissary. I got up at 7 to shower and to eat at the compound's dining hall.

Let me explain about where I am staying for the first few days of our trip. We are staying at the Saudi Aramco Compound in Dhahran. In many ways, the compound reminds of Hilton Head Island or planned communities in Florida. There are many condos here for the Saudi Aramco employees and their families; there is a lot of greenery and landscaping here. When you leave the compound, you are promptly met by the tans and grays of the desert. The compound has security gates with guards wearing blue flak jackets and kevlar helmets, and they have substantial barricades to prevent people from driving straight into the security gates. We eat breakfast at the dining hall, and this morning I had a chocolate-frosted doughnut, scrambled eggs, chicken sausage and hashbrowns. You can also get pancakes, waffles, beef sausage, bacon made either from beef or turkey, and who knows what else. Tomorrow I will try more traditional Saudi fare for breakfast. The dining hall also offers amazing fresh fruit and various juices that taste really good. The orange juice here tastes better here; and they had a great banana punch (basically a smoothie).

After breakfast, I walked over to the commissary to look around and buy a few items. I took some pictures and I will post them later. I was able to pay with American money; my $20 bill was the equivalent of 72 Saudi Arabian Riyals (SAR), and received my change in SAR. I came back to the compound's hotel to send off my laundry to be cleaned and to have my laptop configured so I could use the hotel's wireless internet system.

The group met in the lobby at 11 am to go to Ras Tanura, the world's largest oil refinery. We got on a tour bus, and no, it wasn't a Mercedes Benz, and had our first views of the country by daylight. The trip lasted about 30 minutes, and I noted at a couple of checkpoints that there were trucks "hidden" behind steel bar structures with heavy caliber machine guns mounted in the beds. We didn't go to this Saudi Aramco compound and refinery for a tour. Today was a rest and relaxation day because we need a little time to decompress from the long flights, and an environment where we can meet Saudis in a more relaxed environment. So today, we were allowed to wear shorts and t-shirts because we were at the company's beach!

We waded in the waters of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, played volleyball and frisbee football on the beach, and had lunch on the patio of the community center. We walked down the beach and met Saudis. Here in Saudi Arabia, the weekend is not Saturday and Sunday, but rather their weekend consists of Thursday and Friday, and they were enjoying the beach and the community center.

The men are friendly, and respect you for attempting to speak simple Arabic phrases. Some wear pants and shirts, while others wear the thobe, guthra and igal. A thobe is a cross between a dress shirt and a robe that flows down their ankles. A guthra is the headcovering men wear on their heads; Saudi men wear either red-and-white checked or white cloth guthras. The igal is like a cord that encircles the head to keep the guthra from falling off. The men wear their guthras in different styles, and you can catch them adjusting and fixing like a teenage girl plays with her hair.

The women are expected to wear the abaya, which is like a long robe, and the hijab, the cloth that covers their hair. Some women will wear a veil, so that all you can see of them is their eyes. It is interesting to note that Saudi women are making strides for women's rights, and many of the younger women are making the abaya their own through the use of pastel colors, elaborate embroidery, and even in a few instances, tropical floral prints under sheer material.

We also met one of the engineers whom will be meeting with tomorrow. He introduced himself to us, and then introduced his child, and when he did this, his wife lightly slapped his arm as if to say, "You dope, you didn't introduce me" and he quickly introduced us to his wife! They were very nice, and their children laughed and played with Tom, a tall thin man in our group.

At 5 o'clock we had supper in the community center's entertainment room on the upper floor. We had a Saudi Arabian thanksgiving, complete with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and several local vegetable salads. For dessert we had strong coffee and pumpkin and pecan pies.

On the ride back to the compound, several of us spent time speaking with our host, Tariq. Tariq is a Sauid Aramco employee; he is 40 years old, is married and has 5 children and is expecting a sixth. Tariq is married to only one woman, and I've learned that the practice of having multiple wives is highly uncommon here because it is very expensive to have more than one wife. Another reason for having only one wife is because a Saudi family consists of a husband and wife, their children, and their parents. Saudi couples have on the average about 8 children, so you can imagine how large a house would need to be if a man had multiple wives!

Tariq is glad to be a host for this program, because he said that he enjoys the person-to-person diplomacy because it is much more effective than government-to-government diplomacy. I asked him about his reaction to September 11, 2001 and he geniunely expressed sadness for the innocent lives that were lost that day. I did not ask him to give his reaction to the fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis; I am saving that question for another time when I have to ask him about his viewpoint regarding the situation in the Middle East.

Before I sign off for the day, I would like you to know when you are viewing the photos in the slideshow, you can click on them to open them up in a new window so that they will be enlarged. You can also see read the captions describing the photos if you do this.

Good night!