Brainscrubber

So, my first year anniversary (and, hopefully, my last) has come and gone.  I have fulfilled the full terms of my contract and can now leave this position with no financial penalty.  Employment is month-to-month, though I still should give 30 days notice before I take off to greener pastures – again, hopefully, back in the United States.  At work, we jokingly refer to that first year requirement as out term of indenture.  Unfortunately, for some, it is not a joke. 

Most labor contracts for expatriates are for 1-year or 2-year postings, the majority being for the latter.  Assuming you’re from the West.  The West being defined as European or American.  However, the vast majority of expatriates working within the borders of Saudi Arabia are not Westerners.  The majority of foreigners working within the Kingdom are from Southern and Southeast Asia.  Specifically, the predominance of laborers come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, or the Philipines.  Little brown people.

There exists within our company, and within the customer’s organization, the job title of Tea Boy.  For the purpose of our discussion, we’ll call him Mowgli after Kipling’s character of the same name, mostly because our Mowgli is also from India.  Currently, he is in the 6th year of a 7 year contract.  For his efforts, I am told (I have not verified this, but the numbers used seem consistent from person to person) Mowgli receives 400SAR – 500SAR per month, which equates to roughly $107 – $133 per month in salary.  He receives no vacation.  I am not sure about other benefits such as health care, but I am told  that most companies provide these workers with a food and housing allowance.  Mowgli sends home a huge chunk of his income each month.  Westerners and Saudis pay Mowgli 100SAR (~$27) per month to wash their cars.  If he does 5 cars a day (either before or after work), he can bring in 500SAR extra per month.  Many of these guys also sell used cell phones and phone cards on the side, or some similar endeavor, to further supplement their incomes…some able to send home up to about 1500SAR ($400) per month, though there is no guarantee for that.

Now, realize that there are three janitorial employees working for roughly the same wages.  Further realize, this is the common wage for these guys throughout the Kingdom.  But, it must be worth it for some of them…I have talked to two of the guys who are back for their second tour of duty.  Understand, too, many of these guys are poorly educated and read very little, if at all – though, they are bilingual, which is more than you can say for most Westerners.

How terrible must the economic conditions be in one’s own country that it is better to accept seven years working away from home?  No hope or way to return early unless you break the law and get deported? 

Next time…we’ll talk about the maids and nannies – two jobs a foreign woman can get in Saudi Arabia.

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Probably the most difficult change to which I have had to adjust is the change in weekends.  I have spent my entire life loving the idea of Friday afternoon and the idea of Saturday and Sunday, occasionally Monday, being a time of respite and repose.  You know – The Weekend.  Not so in Saudi Arabia.

Where I work, we refer to Wednesday as Virtual Friday, and it’s the day we all show up without ties, maybe no jacket, sometimes in jeans.  When we plan a weekend trip, we are talking about Thursday and Friday.  Usually, on such a trip, one would leave on Wednesday night.  When I went home in February, I planned it so that I completed my work week and left very early on Thursday morning.  On my return trip, I set it up so that I’d get back to Riyadh on Wednesday, which gave me Thursday and Friday to recover and regroup for Saturday – the start of the work week.

I understand Friday as part of the weekend.  Friday is the Islamic Holy Day, complete with special prayers around noontime and a sermon.  There is a specific prohibition in the Q’uran against conducting commerce during Friday prayers, so you don’t find a lot of stores or eateries or anything, really, open prior to the conclusion of the prayers and sermon.  Some stores do open.  Carrefour, a French-based clone of Wal-Mart/Target, opens on Friday morning.  During the normal workweek, if you happen to be in the store at prayer time, they’ll close the doors and let you stay inside and shop – you just can’t check-out.  On Fridays, though, they boot you at 11am, no questions asked, and they don’t let you back inside until 1pm.

Thursday, as may have been surmised, takes the place of Saturday.  Most store open during the morning, with many open during the afternoon (though, as is traditional, most stores close from about 12pm to 4pm or 4:30pm).  Most restaurants operate their normal hours, so lunch time is just like the rest of the week.  There’s a twist, though.

The weekends are very, very family oriented over here.  On Thursday evenings and on Sunday evenings, families often go out as a group, particularly the malls in this shopping obsessed nation.  Some malls will not allow single males to shop in the mall proper during these times; although, some of the malls limit their prohibition to younger males and figure that we older gents are not going to harass the women folk.  But, when it comes to restaurants, families rule.  Some eateries provide only access for males, but most have family sections.  Those that have family sections will often close the singles sections to singles and use those spaces as additional family spaces.  For example, on Thursday evenings,  a friend of mine will often go to a Japanese restaurant in a mall near the compound.  Any other day of the week, we eat in the restaurant proper.  On Thursdays (never eaten there on Friday), we’re stuck on a small, circular dais with enough room for about 12-15 unaccompanied men/boys.

The choice of Thursday as the second weekend day seems to be peculiar to Saudi Arabia.  Most of the surrounding countries (and other Islamic nations on the whole), the weekend is Friday and Saturday.  One of my Syrian friends, who grew up here, says that there has been some talk of making Thursday a work day and making Saturday an off day, to bring KSA in line with other Arab countries, but it just has never happened.

For me, the whole thing is disconcerting.  The end of my work week comes, and all of my friends (the Internet is an amazing tool) are knee deep into the middle of their work week.  The start of my work week  begins, and the email lists are DEAD because all of my friends and family are sleeping in, or are on a trip, or just don’t want to mess with a computer on their day off.  Then, when they fire up on Monday morning, rearing to go, I am in stride with the meat of the work week – thinking that Wednesday is only a couple of days off.  TGIVF!

So, here it is Thursday night – the very middle of my weekend.  Tomorrow is Friday – the day I buy groceries, maybe do some laundry, vacuum the carpet, clean out the cat box – you know, weekend stuff.  Saturday brings a new week with problems to resolve and planning for the week and all sorts of meetings.

I have been doing this for a year, now.  It still seems as odd to me as it did a year ago.  I am guessing that it will be odd to me until I leave here.

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