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Dear Mr. LMN, Hope you are doing well. How are things at the Academy? I am
doing just fine here in Al Arabiyah as Saudiyah1, ever heard that name before?
It is just the local short name for Saudi Arabia. It is already a year since I
left US and now I am almost half way through the two years that I am spending
here.
There’s a lot that I want to tell you about my experience so far. I always
wanted to leave Westford for good, but had never imagined that I would someday
be doing a job in Saudi Arabia! It all started when I got this new job with the
Saudi Arabian Specifications and Standard Organization (SASSO)2.
My Uncle has a
close friend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. So one night my uncle asked me if I would
like to live for two years in Saudi Arabia, and then he told me about this job
opportunity for which they required a qualified engineer in structural
architecture.
It wasn’t exactly something that I had planned in life, but I
always wanted to experience life in a different atmosphere, and this was the
perfect opportunity for me to do so… so here I am! I work in a Water
conservation-desalination1 plant in a town called Khumrah which is 30 miles
south from Jeddah3.
It is a small town with a population a little less than
Westford3. Where I live is very close to my work, barely a 5-minute walk from
the plant. Since there aren’t many trees around the place I live, it is usually
very hot in that area. The average temperature here in Summer is really
killing!! Sometimes it gets as high as 94 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, it’s an
extreme climate here4!
It certainly is a big change from Westford! It makes me
sweat a lot, but I have gotten used to that. Even now I still calculate the
temperature in Fahrenheit, whereas this country follows the metric system, which
is sometimes confusing, but that’s just part of the experience.
But I am really
thankful to my uncle, he did give me a lot of tips about staying here. For
instance the kind of clothes that I should pack, what vaccinations I should take
before leaving other than those required by the Saudi consulate such as the ones
for cholera5.
So I guess, I was pretty much packed up when I left America. I
live in a small 2 story building, in a 2-bedroom apartment- building6 with Umar,
the son of my Uncle’s friend. The apartment building has no parking lot, there
is no reason to have one because not many people in this town own cars for
themselves. At first, that really surprised me! I and Umar have become really
close friends now. He too works in the same plant with me.
He can speak some
English, although he can understand everything I say in English, which is
something that I am really thankful for- It’s one of the best things to happen
to me. You will not find many English-speaking people here. In only 60% of the
population of people 15 years and older can read and write1.
Anways.. so we live
on the 2nd floor and there is an Arab family that lives downstairs. The first
day, when I arrived at the Jeddah airport, I was amazed by the way the airport
is designed, it looks more like the ancient Islamic architecture that I had seen
much of in the travel brochures on the flight.
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