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Welcome to Home Sweet Home, Saudi Arabia! As the the title above reads, here is a brief tour of the Vinnell Arabia compound, which my fellow English teachers and I lovingly refer to as "Gulag Vinnell". A little info about the compound itself: the Vinnell Arabia compound is located on the eastern edge of Riyadh near the King Fahad Stadium along the trans-Saudi Arabian Mecca-Dammam highway. When the Vinnell Arabia compound was built in the early 1970s, it was in the middle of the desert with nothing around for miles. However, as I may have mentioned in previous emails, the city of Riyadh is in the midst of a building boom and the city is expanding exponentially in all directions. As the suburbs come gallopping out into the desert, Camp Vinnell is quickly being taken into its fold, and the sense of living on the edge of one of the harshest deserts in the world quickly disappears. There are approximately 500 people who are employed on the compound, 276 of whom are Americans. The other 224 compound employees are Saudis (in airconditioned, managerial positions), Muslim Philippinos (in entry level office work, and indoor opperations management of the facilities), Muslim Indians (blue collar managerial positions) and Muslim Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who do all the interior and exterior physical labor (compound maintenance, building maintenance, custodial work, and any other work which requires human body power). The above labor divisions are common throughout all of Riyadh. The pay for these various groups ranges from $35,000 to $75,000 a year for the Americans and Saudis down to $100 a month for the Bangladeshis. (Keep in mind that $1,200 a year for the Bangladeshis is 300% higher than the average per capita income for the country of Bangladesh, so compared to where these men come from, they are "raking in the dough" here in Saudi Arabia. . ."). A few quick stats about the 276 Americans here: Average age: 45, Oldest: 62, Youngest: 26 (me!!!) All are highschool graudates. 95 are four year college graduates (34%). 113 of the 181 non-college graduates have some college (62%). Degrees conferred: 2 PhD, 31 Masters, 62 Bachelor, and 79 Associate degrees or equivalent. 199 are married (72%), 77 are not (thought most of these men's wives live in the United States). Of the Americans at Vinnell Arabia, 179 served in the military long enough to retire (70%). 76 did not. 234 of the men served in the Army (92%), 3 were Navy (1%), 11 were USMC (5%), and 7 were Air Force (2%). 52% of the men have served in military combat. 21 Vinnell employees are not from a military background, including the 9 of us in the English Language Department. And now, Camp Vinnell. . .
Up until three weeks ago when it started raining here and the daytime high temperatures dipped to a frigid 80F (22C) (from summer highs of 140F/60C!), this is where I called home every afternoon. Since we start work at 5:30 a.m., we get off work at 2:30 p.m. which means that during spring, summer and fall I have several hours of beautiful sunlight to bask in after work. Usually I would get home from work, change into my swimming shorts, lay out in the sun and read for an hour or so, then roll off my sun chair straight into the pool. Yes, the life of an international English language teacher is a rough one indeed! However, as seen in the picture below, there are a few rules to abide by at the pool. In particular, under no circumstances may I ever feast my eyes on the uncovered flesh of any of the women on the compound, so the above pool is for single men only. Below, the gateway into the family pool.
Unlike many of the foreigner compounds in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia, the Vinnell Arabian compound is Saudi Arabian National Guard territory/property, so we are subject (to a somewhat large degree) to local Saudi customs. But this does not bother me since if I were in America, I would naturally expect Saudis to abide by American social customs. The result of this is that I haven't seen anything remotely resembling a woman's body since I've arrived here. And humorously enough, on the rare occasion that I do see one of the wives here strolling around the compound I get all giddy and start thinking, "Oh my God, a woman! What should I do???" And for anyone who knows me, that should come as a great shock! As for the picture above, the words "Door Locked" can be translated to "Enter at risk of being arrested and deported! STAY OUT!!!" Alas, not seeing middle-aged wives in one-piece bathing suits is hardly a burdon on me, of all men, but I must admit that all of this gender segregation has suddenly added a little mystery to the female "species". Who knows, living around all this forbidden fruit may just transform me into the lusty, salivating womanizer after all!
Above left: the mosque on camp which blasts "Allah is great!" five times a day of the loud speaker. And during Ramadan, this is the mosque which announces (via screaming "Allah is great!" (Allah akbar!) during the morning prayer) that it is time to begin the day's fasting. That takes place around 4:58 a.m. and at 5:05 p.m., I hear "God is great!" which means it's OK to eat again. This is also the location of the Friday noon prayer (in Arabic) which I've been told often includes such surmons as "Saudi Arabia must purge itself of foreign, unMuslim influences." Above right: home sweet home. Yep, this is the building where I live. Don't be shocked, I realize it's not much of a looker, but actually, in it's own way, I think it's kind of cool. Fear not, though, there are windows on the building, they just happen to be on the north and south facing sides of the building as to keep sunlight out during the hot months (March to November). The above is the east facing side of my apartment building and behind the protruded brickwork are the windows to the bathroom, which allows desert breezes to blow into the apartment but keeps out the blazing rays of the sun. It's quite a good design, actually, and helps reduce the need for aircondintioning the building (chalk one up for energy efficiency and environmental protection!)
Above left: here are the dining halls and the library. The building to the far left is the library, which has a sizable selection of books (all things considered) as well as subscriptions to all my favorite science, technology and automotive magazines. The building in the middle is the "International Dining Hall" which is the segregated dining area for the non-Saudis and non-Americans. Since those men earn far less than their Saudi and American counterparts, a lot less money is spent on their food preparation. This bothered me at first (i.e., the general concept of segregation repulses me), however, in light of the reality of Saudi Arabia's culture of "separate and unequal", this no longer surprises me. And, if it can be rationalized, the fact is that the foreigners who work here all do so voluntarily, so. . . The buidling on the right is the mess hall for the Saudis and Americans, which my fellow English teachers refer to in jest as "Truckstop Nebraska 47", since we imagine that if there were a Highway 47 in Nebraska that the kind of people who would eat there would look eerily similar to the American ex-military types here on the Vinnell compound. I shall let you imagine yourself what I'm talking about. . . In any case, the food served at Truckstop Nebraska 47 consists of the following items: Breakfast: fried potatoes, fried eggs, French toast, biscuits and gravy, and a full selection of Wonder Bread (tm) and Tang "orange juice". Mmmmm... yummmmy... makes my stomach churn just thinking about all that grease oozing through my body... Lunch: some sort of meat concoction, sometimes quite tasty, sometimes quit horrific. In general though, I stay away from the meat. Then there's white rice, yellow Arabic rice, some sort of boiled vegetable, pita bread, rolls, French fries, chilli, hot dogs, and a full hamburger grill. Also, there's a decent salad bar (thank Allah!) and a desert selection. Needless to say, the average American here on camp isn't exactly the epitome of physical excellence and there's more frump and bulge here than you can shake a stick at! Ironically enough, even though the International Hall is segregated, they actually have much healthier "third world" entrees. But as you can probably imagine, the average middle-aged American ex-military man isn't exactly hip on steamed vegetables, tofu, and rice soup, and if the main entree didn't consist of lots of greasy red meat, the dining hall administrators would certainly never hear the end of it. Dinner: see "Lunch" above, and then just mix up the left-overs. Needless to say, my "snooty", "snobby" and "arogant" international culinary sense of right and wrong simply doesn't function very well at Truckstop Nebraska 47. In a perfect world - according to moi - breakfast would be German, freshly baked breads, fresh cheeses, fresh juices, and a full selection of vegetables, sliced meats and various spreads. Lunch would be North American (whatever that might be, including Mexican) and dinner would be Japanese (rice, tofu, fresh raw fish and green tea). Sigh. . . as it stands, during a non-fasting month, I eat breakfast at home (German Vollkornbrot (full grain bread) with cheese and orange juice). After work I eat lunch at The Truckstop and then usually skip dinner, maybe eating a granola bar or some bread and hummus (Arabic mashed garbonzo beans and olive oil). During Ramadan, since I fast during the day, I eat breakfast in my bedroom as soon as I wake up at 4:15 a.m., then I skip lunch and break my fast at 6 p.m. in the mess hall, usually eating rice and vegetables. What I wouldn't give to have my own little kitchenette in my bedroom. . . |
As you can see, there is a total of five bedrooms in the
"quad". Currently only four bedrooms are being used since
the one guy who moved in next to me in October moved out last week.
(Did I scare him away?!?) But this all good fortune for me since I
get to have my own bathroom again, which is something I quite enjoy.