Alsahl Alshriqi Festival

Hello all. Last week was a busy one for me.  I've been working hard to wrap up a project before I head home at the end of the week, and it was a very nice week of evening skies so I somehow managed to get a big handful of very unique sunset images. But that's not what I'm going to write about in this post.  And no, in case you wondered, I don't know how to pronounce the first two words in the title of this post. But I can tell you about it.

Apparently, there is a Saudi Tourism Commission which is working to build tourism within the Kingdom. Now, don't pack your bags yet. They don't want outsiders, they want visitors from the Arabian Gulf region. Maybe one of these days westerners will be openly welcome in Saudi Arabia, but not today. I think it will be good for them, but not yet.

This festival is held annually on the Dammam Corniche (there's your new word for the day! go to Merriam-Webster and look it up, I dare you! No, not Dammam, the other word!).  Dammam (pronounced dah mom) is the capital of the KSA Eastern Province (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for you who haven't read my earlier posts; help yourself to do so, by the way, this one will wait here for you!).  Dammam was founded some 90 years ago by one of two brothers who left Bahrain in two boats - one went north, one went south.

The brother who went south founded al Khobar, which has become a large trading and commerce center in the region.  Dammam was a fishing village, and is still a fishing center, along with a seaport and other things you'd expect of a regional capital. The festival celebrates the fishing heritage of the region. It went on for a week, with a very well-presented play on a large plaza, pretty well lit (when we saw it) by flood and spot lights.  A real fishing vessel is the centerpiece as a man recounts to his grandson the story of how they came to be in Dammam.

A group from my work and from the Aramco went to see the festival on Friday last week.  It was a magnificent day, lovely and comfortable, and I'm confident I got the best sunset shots I've captured here.

The festival included arts and crafts and food - much like a craft fair at home, but quite a different flavor to some of the presentations. There was a fellow making a pearl demonstration but I couldn't get close enough to hear or get a good photo, but I got some nice shots of other craftsmen and women.

The play was very interesting and we were treated very well. Where there were maybe a thousand people surrounding the plaza area to view the play, we were treated to nice benches in the VIP area for the show. I got some good images of the production despite the dark, and everyone had a nice time of it.

After the show we had 20 minutes to visit the booths and find something to eat. While I was in line for something with rice-onion-beans-and spicy stuff that smelled really good (and it was!) a fellow in front of me turned and asked in a very heavy accent if I was taking good pictures. I assured him I was and showed him a few, and he and his family ooohed and aahhhed, just like y'all would!

Then he asked where I was from. You don't realize this but to these guys I could be from anywhere - they can't tell. I could be English, French, German, Australian, etc., and they don't know. When I told him I was from America he smiled big and said "Welcome! Welcome!" Then he looked thoughtful and said, "Your President is here today, yes?" He was right, and I was a little proud of him for knowing that. I'll bet most of you didn't! I wish I'd taken his picture, but right then I was being handed three containers of food in addition to what I'd paid for! I will tell you I was the only westerner in sight, and there were only a dozen of use there, but we were made absolutely at home by a very welcoming Saudi gathering.

Including one young Saudi man, with his wife and daughter. He had a camera like mine and wore a polo shirt that said "National Geographic!" So I had to stop and ask him if he was with NatGeo or just liked the shirt. He confessed to the shirt side of the question, and we compare cameras (same model and lens!) and pictures for a few minutes (I think he was a little crestfallen when he saw mine) and heartily complimented each other (yeah, mine were better, but age and experience will do that!) and parted with a smile and a handshake!

We left the plaza to go by bridge to an adjacent island with a very unique minaret. It was built some time ago, and was modeled on what for a long time had been the tallest minaret in the world. Sadly, for these guys, it is in Iran, their greatest enemy.

Once on the island we shifted conveyance and boarded a tour boat, which essentially took us right back where we came from, just from the water side, and then returned. It was a pleasant trip and we visited and sat and took pictures. Mine came out pretty well, I think!

I've loaded a larger set of images to Flickr to share. I'm not crazy about Flickr, but haven't found anything better right now to easily share a batch of photos. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Click here to see the set; you don't even have to register with a Yahoo account! (thanks to my friend Kris for checking this out!) But please do look, and let me know if the link works ok. I haven't tried this before and it's good to get feedback!

Next time, one of my favorite category of photos: Sunsets!  Best to all! Mark

Saudi Rainy Day

Woke up this morning to the sound of thunder. Hmmm, that wasn't in the forecast. Looked outside to see a serious rain coming down, and me without an umbrella. Oh well, some days you're just gonna get wet on the way to work.  I put on my windbreaker and hat and headed off for the 10 minute walk, which was, of course, directly into the wind. Got there not quite soaked, but plenty damp.

It's funny, most of the Westerners were scowling at the rain, but the Saudis were all smiles! Any day of rain here is a good day and brings good moods.  So we enjoyed a lovely cool, cloudy, rainy day and I dried off after about an hour. My jacket took a bit longer, but by the time I left this afternoon it was dry as well.

I know, this is not the most exciting bit of  information you'll get today, but it doesn't happen very often here, so I thought it worth reporting! And the plants all loved it and will benefit from it. They normally get briny water pumped up from wells - remember we are right next to the Arabian Gulf - so a day of fresh water is good for everything!

A Walk in the Rain

It doesn't rain very often in Saudi Arabia - didn't know if y'all were aware of that or not, so I thought I'd mention it! Today's forecast was unexceptional - 86 degrees F, 15 mph winds, 10% sky cover, 0% chance of precipitation.  That no precipitation part is usually a pretty safe bet.

But this morning there were some lovely high, wispy clouds, and this afternoon it clouded up, as it sometimes does. Still doesn't usually portend anything except some clouds. This evening I went to the mall to pick something up, and watched what had to be a thundercloud on the horizon build and grow, then split. The sunlight was amazing as it spilled around the edges in bright shafts - wish I had a picture but I was on a bus at the time.

The mall shuts down at prayer time (more on that in a future post), or at least, all the stores MUST close so the men can go pray. I don't mean that in any disrespectful way. I honestly don't know if any of the women go to pray or not. There are prayer rooms for men all over the place, but if there are also some for women they are well-hidden.  Mostly the women congregate on benches and talk and/or watch the kids until the shops reopen.

So tonight, since I had my shopping done and had another 45 minutes to wait for the bus back to Aramco, I walked around the mall - on the outside, of course. It was well into twilight, but I could see a rain shaft off in the distance in the direction of where the storm cloud had been before. I thought it was very lucky for someone to be getting that much rain today, since we are getting into the part of the year where it may only rain once or twice again before summer arrives.

As I approached the bus stop I felt a few unmistakable drops of rain on my head! I spent the next 10 minutes waiting for the bus standing next to the shelter where all the women were hiding from the rain! It wasn't heavy, barely a sprinkle, but it felt delightful out in the open with a lovely breeze blowing. Not something I expected here, and I stood there and smiled for 10 minutes!  By the time I got back to camp I was dry.

So, while I'm on the subject of praying at the mall, I must share a photo I took last week. Again, I mean no disrespect, but only offer this for cultural familiarization. Before going in to pray, men must wash their feet - as you may expect, sandals are very popular here. Adjacent to each prayer room is a foot washing room, with walls lined with foot-level basins and water taps for washing the feet. What else is usually associated with washing up in the mall? Here, this should explain:

Shamal

I may have written about this before, last year, but today announced itself as the day to revisit the topic of "shamal," which essentially means "wind."  What it means here is dust storm.

Shamals are common here later in the spring, but today brought one that surprised everyone. The forecast was for a high of 97, with 20 mph winds, and coming to work this morning looked lovely. At lunch I walked from work back to my room to fetch something, and I could see visibility was a bit reduced, but still normal.  At 1 p.m., though, when I went outside to meet the taxi to go to the U.S. Consulate to pick up my passport there was a serious reduction in visibility.  (The image below is the observation at 2 p.m. after I returned.)

Being out in this wind is kinda like being out in a driving rain in a heavy wind, except sharper.  I've been out in rainstorms - heck, let's be honest, I've gone out of my way to be out in big rainstorms. I love it!! There is something invigorating in that, when the air is alive and the rain hitting your skin and drenching you is energized! It is an exhilarating experience!!  A shamal is not quite the same.

I went out, I guess, near the beginning of the peak period of the event. The wind was around 30 mph with some serious gusts. Like in a big rain storm when you can see sheets and waves of raining moving toward you, I could  masses of dust swirling, rolling, and racing my way. But unlike rain that hits and spreads across your skin or clothes, the sand hits and bites, digs, and stays. Not knowing this was coming, I didn't even have my sunglasses for eye protection, but I'm not sure what help they'd have been.  I do have good reflexes, which I know forced my eyes shut many times a split second before a blast of wind-driven sand impacted my eye lids - I am grateful for those reflexes!  It is exhausting to fight your way through the wind and sand. When you come in, you feel pretty much beat to pieces and don't want to do that again!!

From inside a building or car it looks like thick fog, and you have to remember what is going on out there - not an issue when you are out in it!!  Just for reference, below is an image I took from the top of my building last April on a clear day.

 This image is from this afternoon about 2:30. It was after the peak of the shamal so visibility was already improving, but you should get the idea. At the peak the visibility was down to a quarter of a mile, about half as good as below - at the peak I couldn't even see the mosque near the center of the image, which is at center right in the image above.

 Last year we had no significant shamal events, while year before last they had two months of it, almost non-stop from April through March, and we had a very mild year, relatively speaking, for temperatures. It'll be interesting to see how the coming year plays out - I'll let you know!

If you've read this far, thank you! If you enjoy my writing, I'd love to hear from you - it's encouraging to get feedback every so often so I know if anyone is reading! If you don't want to miss a word, there is an option to "Follow by Email" on the right side of the page; enter your email address and click Submit to get a notice when new posts are ready. I'd be happy to have you aboard as I continue this journey!  Best to all, Mark

Clouds, Haircut, & Consulate

Here is an image I took this morning walking to work. Actually, I was there - this is the front of my building! This time of year there have been some beautiful clouds early on, which won't be here as summer progresses. This was a quick capture, as cameras are not allowed inside the area where I work, but with the proliferation of camera phones they are not quite as rigid as just a few years ago,

I came to get a haircut after a short afternoon outing described below. I got one not too long ago, but it was much too long on top so I came to get it evened up a bit.  This sign is posted on the barber shop door, which means the price of my haircut has gone up to the equivalent of $4.99!

I like my barber, Mel. He was the first guy to cut my hair here and does a very good job, so I try to time things so I can get him. It's a ticket/number system, so sometimes I have to wait a while, but I let him know when I arrive and he usually manages to time it just right!  I make it worth his while and  tip him very well.

They provide a "scalp massage" for SR8 (8 Saudi Riyals, about $2) that consists of a brief workover of head and shoulders with a heavy duty massage - I typically tip him the entire amount of haircut and massage and he gives me about a 20 minute workover with this thing - head, neck, shoulders, arms, and back (all while sitting in barber chair)!  All for about $15. And no, don't worry Natalie at Salon Professionals in Fayetteville AR, he can't replace you - but while I'm here he will do! :)

Last week a co-worker found out the hard way that if you run out of empty pages in your passport they won't let you back into the country! She spent two days in Bahrain until she could get into the U.S. Embassy to get a batch of pages added to her book. So after discovering that my passport has only a handful of blank pages left, I went to the U.S. Consulate here in Dhahran today to expand my book.

Interesting experience. I think it's easier to break out of prison than to get into this place! I'm not complaining, much. Given the proclivity around the world for various groups to target any American facility they can, precautions must be taken. No electronics can go in, so check you phone, ipad, etc. at the dooe. and photographs are forbidden! and all surrounded by passive and active defences. not really a fun visit.

I had to wait almost an hour to give them my book and be told to come back tomorrow to pick it up. They typically do it while you wait but they were short-handed today.  So rest assured, citizens, here in what is arguably the most stable place in the Mideast it is nearly impossible to penetrate the U.S. outpost. Even with an appointment!

More soon!

Art Show All Done

The art show is finished (well, a few days ago now! it's already a busy week) and I have somewhat mixed feelings about it.  On the whole, I'm very pleased to have participated and grateful to have some good images to submit. Still, photographs were treated as pretty second rate, and were posted in a an unannounced, unmarked second room down a dark hallway, so there was not much traffic through "my" room.

The artists reception Thursday evening was pleasant enough - lots of people came by to look, and my display was really quite well received. I had many lovely comments, lots of questions, many more suggestions on local places that I must go shoot (and some of them I will try to do so!!). I got a lot of attention Thursday evening. I also won a prize.

My shot of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles (below) was awarded 3d place in photography, so I'm very pleased with that!  My friend and co-worker Mike Thomas got 2d place for a photo he shot in Portugal, and first place was a very dark, grim image of a little girl that looked like it could be the poster for a horror movie - I really don't know what they were thinking with that one!

The event was also a sale, which was the true disappointment. In the photo room, with I'm guessing 200 images displayed, only 4 were marked as sold at the end of the weekend. There were some very nice pieces in there and I'm really stunned that nothing sold.  But I'll get over it and am not worrying it, and will enjoy my wall art while I'm here - I have a lovely assortment I can rotate through my cubicle!!

Dhahran Fine Art Show

There is a very active community here at Aramco's Dhahran camp. Since it is also relatively small, people are very interactive and involved in many pastimes. If you have enough interested people, you can start a special interest group in almost anything! There is a quilting group, motorcycle group (HOG - Harley Owner's Group; love this one!!), even the Hangar Flyers International group, which I joined last year (flying enthusiasts!).  This week I joined another one, the Dhahran Art Group, or DAG.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking - Mark isn't an artist! Yep, must agree with that. But about a month ago a Saudi friend sent me an email about the DAG's upcoming fine art show, and suggested I consider entering some of my photos in it. Hmmm . . . that was something to think about that I'd never considered before.

But I started asking some questions, and learned that yes, they do accept photos for the show, which is primarily an art sale and fundraiser for the group. I can sell my photos for whatever I want, and they get 10% - not an unreasonable deal. It started to sound more feasible.

Then I started going through all the images I've taken here and there and all over the place in the past year. When Dana and I went to Europe last summer we collected some stunning images, and there are some very photogenic locations here that have given me very nice images. Eventually, with the help of some trusted friends, I narrowed it down to six images that I was willing to invest in and print to see what kind of response I'd get. (below - Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris France)

Then I was lucky enough to have a friend recommend a print shop near the mall, and I learned that they could print on canvas and mount it to a frame. I printed one as a test and was totally pleased with the result - great quality product all the way around, and something I would be proud to present as my work. I brought it to the office the next day and hung it there for two weeks with nothing but positive comments, and lots of inquiries about the piece. (below - The Grand Mosque, Bahrain, courtyard)

Then, of course, the person I'd been communicating with about the show told me that no, every photo must be printed and framed - no canvas! Eventually we got that worked out; turns out in the past they've had people bring in loose, unframed prints and canvases that couldn't be displayed.
(below - the London Eye, London UK)

Sunday afternoon (our Monday) was artwork turn in.  I'd been to the photo shop 5 days earlier to order my five other prints, and was a little worried they wouldn't be ready on Saturday night as promised. So I went Friday evening just to check and remind them I had to have them, and was pleased to learn they were already done! They brought out five neatly wrapped packages and opened them up for my inspection. (below - Grand Mosque, Bahrain, interior hallway)

I was pleasantly surprised as each was better than the previous, and all exceeded my expectations. Yeah, these looked like they belonged in an art show, or in someone's home!  I was very excited to carry these out, get a taxi, and head back to camp! It was very reassuring, too, when an Arab man in thobe (the long white robe) and head scarf offered in the shop to buy the image below, right then and there, that he had to have it! I thanked him very much, but conveyed that the print was to be in an art show at Aramco, so he had to know all about the show, when and where, so he could come to buy this print. I'd call that encouraging feedback! He shook my hand many times and told me he would be at the show - it'll be cool if he shows up! (below - Hall of Mirrors, Chateau de Versaille, France)

So Sunday after work, two co-workers and I bundled up our images and carted them over to the large multi-purpose room on camp and turned them in for the art show! Not something I ever thought I'd do, and can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll let you all know next week.

BTW, if you haven't tried it before, you can click on these images to see a larger version!  I would love to hear from you - which of these is your favorite? Best to all, Mark
(below - Tower Bridge, London UK)