I Worked in Saudi Arabia

In 1985, I traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for being hired as project accountant. I worked for a company engaged in trading large emergency generators (500 to 1000 KVA) installations and spare parts, projects for Airport and airfield lighting installations, and residential electrical connection installations. In this company, I worked with Saudis, Britons, French, Germans, Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians and other Asian nationals.

During that time, there was a recession in the Middle East. Salaries of employees payments were being delayed for about two to three months. Some workers were sent back to their own countries, some companies just released their foreign workers to look for temporary jobs around the neighborhood to save air ticket and accommodation costs.

Some Asian foreign workers illegally left their employers for being not paid for their wages up to six months. They were illegally working secretly in other places in order to survive, through the help of Asian friends and other Arab nationals who were benefited for paying very low wages, sometimes not being paid for being illegal.

After working for one month, I was about to be sent back home to my country. I must do something to show that the company needed my services. I found out that they have no annual company budgets, wherein the preparation of budgets was one of my expertise in my previous employers.

While waiting for my airline flight departure schedule, I voluntarily worked on preparing budget for one of the company airport/airfield lighting installation, without any instruction from the management to do it.

While I was analyzing my budget presentation, the sales manager (Christian Lebanese) entered our office room and inadvertently seen what I was working. He became interested and told me to continue doing it and he will present it to the board of directors.

My flight departure was postponed. The sales manager gave me all the supporting information I requested. Upon completion, he instructed the company secretary to help me binding twelve copies of the project budget.

The sales manager presented the project budget during the board of directors' meeting. After the meeting, he accompanied me to the office of the company managing director. I was instructed to make annual budgets for the whole company and will adjust my monthly salary accordingly upon completing a satisfactory budgets. All the department heads were instructed to provide me all the necessary information I needed to complete the budgets.

The company annual budgets was satisfactorily completed, became known to the board of directors, have harmonious relationships with general manager and department heads, as well as to other employees. My salary was adjusted accordingly and my position was changed to Financial Analyst.

The Saudi management likes an employee's aggressiveness attitude of defending his beliefs and ideas for the business operation. I adjusted myself to that attitude and succeeded in asking for salary increases and benefits from the company.

Sometimes, during the company's board of directors meeting, they were speaking with loud voices and there was a time that they were talking about thieves. They were shouting to each other, but after the meeting there was no any grudge to each other.

The members of the board of directors were USA educated and some were married to American women. They were generous to employees and were provided allowances for food, housing, transportation and medical benefits. We were so lucky landing to a good employer, unlike other workers being deceived by their employers.

In 1988, the economic recession condition in the Middle East started recovery.

There are also biblical stories about Saudi Arabia. They said that the body of Eve (the woman created by God as suitable companion of Adam) was buried in Jeddah, near the airport.

Vast numbers of Muslim pilgrims are visiting Mecca yearly. They are saying that the water well (fountain) that appeared, when Hagar (the slave woman who bore the son of Abraham) and her son Ishmael wandered in the wilderness, was in that place (Genesis 21:9-21). The pilgrims are taking home containers filled with the fountain's water due to the belief that it can heal ailments.

There are much, much more to write about my stay for years in Saudi Arabia. I mentioned some in this article.

Jeddah City is located in the banks of the Red Sea with abundant fishes. If you go down the ocean reef, different kind of fishes are coming near and easy to catch if you have fish net. The authorities prohibit using dynamite for catching fish.

The Saudis fishermen were beheading big fishes and throwing the heads to the garbage. They were only interested for the fish body parts. Well, these heads were the favorite of Asian people as soup food. They were getting these heads, cooking and eating in groups like having party celebration. The were also drinking secretly self home made wine.

Drinking wine was prohibited in Saudi Arabia. If caught, you will be in jail and subjected to whipping on Fridays. A foreign national who will be caught for having Christian Bible will also be subjected to punishment.

There was an Asian woman maid in a big house near our office building. While we were about to ride in our service car, she threw from their window a small rolled paper in the street. We knew that there was a message written in it asking for help (this kind of incident were happening in other places). We did not try to pick up the paper for her master might see us and we will be placed in jail and be subjected to whipping. It was hurting that although we wanted to help her, we could not do anything.

Some Asian maids escaped from their masters and being helped by other Asian men. However some of those men had vested interests for helping. They became hiding live-in partners and as helpers at home while the men were working for a living. This led to broken family relationships because the man could no longer send sufficient amount of money to his own family back home.

There were two Filipino workers in Makkah. They have good body built and strong for being hard laborers. They went to Jeddah commercial center for shopping. While they were waiting for a bus to ride on going back to Makkah, two men with a car asked them where they were going. The told the Filipinos that they were on their way to the same direction and can ride with them.

While they were on their way, the Filipinos noticed that the car was heading to an isolated dessert area. The car stopped and all of them went out. The Filipinos were about to be raped but they fought back. For being used to hard labor and stronger, they beaten the bad guys who drove their car away as fast as they could.

Saudi authorities are beheading prisoners who committed very grave crimes and adjudged as dangerous criminals. Beheading was done in public park where people can watch. I did not watch for I could not stomach it. My friends who watched described how the body without head and the head reacted after. I could not describe the whole event for it might affect your mind.

The Mutaween are very powerful. They are religious police who enforce the Islamic code of law known as Sharia in Saudi Arabia. The actions of this organization are sometimes viewed as extremely controversial, as the Mutaween have far-reaching authorities over citizens and visitors in Saudi Arabia, a country with very traditional and conservative religious values.

Members of the Mutaween patrol the streets of Saudi Arabia, often with an official police escort, looking for violations of Islamic law. They have the authority to arrest people for violations, and they can order floggings, imprisonment, and public humiliation as punishments.

Going back to the fish part, when the fishermen have known that the fish head was the favorite part of the Asian people, they started selling those fish heads.

The events mentioned in this article were during 1980's to 1990's. Some of my friends who are still working in Saudi, told me that there are now lots of changes and having harmonious relationships between the Saudis and foreign nationals people. You can feel excitement and fears when you travel to the Middle East due to their culture and religious beliefs.

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