From Central to Saudi Arabia: Living in the Middle East

Skip and Dona (Petersen) Johnson in traditional Saudi attire. 

By Skip Johnson and Dona Petersen Johnson

When we moved to Saudi Arabia with our three children in 1981, we planned to stay 18 months to take advantage of an income tax break on foreign income that kicks in after a year and a half. We sold almost all of our belongings rather than put them in temporary storage, and it turned out to be a good decision, because we didn’t leave after 18 months. We stayed until 2001.

We had lived in Pennsylvania, where Skip was a project engineer at Procter and Gamble and Dona taught pre-school. Skip took a new job in Saudi Arabia as a project and construction manager for the Saudi Aramco oil company, which was considered the country club of expatriate jobs. 

The Aramco camps where employees lived had golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools, a movie theater, very nice housing and excellent schools for the children. During our time living in Saudi Arabia, we traveled often to Europe and Asia on our annual vacations. And, of course, the pay was good, too. Our kids all went to school in Saudi Arabia through the ninth grade, then transferred to the Mercersberg Academy in Pennsylvania for high school.

As you all know, Saudi Arabia is the desert, so the most difficult adjustment was the extreme heat. Summertime temperatures frequently exceeded 120 degrees.

Aramco’s headquarters is in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, which is not far from Kuwait, so during the first Gulf War we had SCUD and Patriot missiles landing a few hundred yards from our home.

Although there was little to no social interaction with the Saudis, we found them to be hospitable, friendly and, in general, great people to work with. At the time, Skip was able to read and speak Arabic, most of which he’s forgotten in the 15 years since we left.

Dona taught at a pre-school for Saudi and foreign children. It was amazing how fast the kids learned to speak English. But there is definitely great separation between the native Saudi’s life and our expatriate lives. Dona was able to go shopping in the nearby community of Al-Khobar without wearing a veil, or abayia, and could drive our car inside the Aramco facility, even though women were not allowed to drive in the country. She particularly liked to shop for jewelry at the gold souk, or market, which is pictured below. 

Gold is highly prized in Saudi Arabia. A gold souk, or market, in Al-Khobar.

The second biggest adjustment, after the heat, is that officially there is no alcohol in the kingdom, a minor disadvantage to be overcome.

When we arrived we were given a booklet from foreign oil companies, called "The Blue Flame."  This booklet had diagrams on how to build a still, recipes for the mash and instructions on how to safely operate the still.  All of the housing had a “still room” in the garage with explosion-proof electrical wiring and an exhaust system for getting rid of the fumes. On more than one occasion the roof was blown off the garage when a car was started in the garage and the exhaust system was not working. It was not uncommon to see a roof blown off the garage.

The moonshine that was made was called sideeki, or "sid," which in Arabic means my friend. It was 180-proof grain alcohol.

Dona became quite good at making wine.  However on one of her first tries to bottle it from the five-gallon container, she did not realize that the bottles must be lower than the container in order to siphon the wine to the bottles, something most boys learn the first time they siphon gas from a car. But she kept on trying, swallowing a little wine with each attempt. Needless to say, she ended up a little tipsy. She quickly became much better at making and decanting, but our wine usually was labeled by week rather than by the year!

After a causeway to Bahrain was constructed, we were able to drive there on weekends for adult refreshments.

One time a group of us went for the weekend and bought much more than we could consume over the weekend. We were staying at a resort that had little bungalows with nice yards so we decided to bury the leftover beer, wine and gin for the next visit.  We returned a couple of weeks later to find that our buried treasure was gone. We recalled that there were some Indian or Pakistani workers nearby who might have seen us burying the treasure.

Before the Gulf War, the only television was broadcast by Aramco. TV programs were taped in Houston and sent over, so everything was at least two weeks old. It was on only from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. during the week (Saturday through Wednesday) and on from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday (our weekend). Of course everything was censored. For example on "The Waltons," when Ma and Pa Walton kissed, that would be cut out. During the Muslim calls to prayer during the day, “prayer intermission” screens appeared on the television and programming stopped temporarily.

Of course there is no pork allowed in Saudi Arabia, but Aramco had a "pork store" where we could buy some. The amount you could buy was determined by your pay grade, so each purchase was written down on a sheet with your name and reported to management if you overbought. After Aramco was nationalized in 1986 the pork stores were quickly closed. Luckily for those of us who eat pork, you could buy "white meat" in Bahrain and they would label it “veal” for Saudi customs inspection. Christmas trees were not allowed either. My Cuban boss and his wife were returning from a weekend in Bahrain with some "veal" and a real Christmas tree. When the customs agent found the contraband during the inspection, he asked them which one they wanted to keep. They replied, "the tree," so the veal was thrown over the side of the causeway bridge into the Arabian Gulf! 

When we left Saudi Arabia in 2001, just before 9/11, we moved to Longmont, Colorado, to be near our three children, all of whom lived near there. But we found that we had culture shock moving back to the U.S. after 20 years abroad, and we missed the expat life, so we moved to Lake Chapala, Mexico. We love it here. The weather is just about perfect and the cost of living is much lower than it was in Colorado.

The Guadalajara airport is only 30 minutes away, so we can visit our children and grandkids whenever we want.