Good-Bye Emirates

Hello,

Well, I guess I fulfilled my duties and I get to go home. SNC is fast-tracking the completion of the project, and they will be using my tail-end designs to complete the plant. I am kind of glad it was only a 3-month project, as quite frankly it is very hard to be away from AM and the kids for so long (6-week rotations).

I will miss this land, and all of the people I have met. I feel very privileged to have been able to do work that I love, and also to be an Ambassador for Canada. I worked with people coming from vastly different belief systems, and I feel like we
connected on many levels. I can say that I gained some lifelong friendships with several people.

With the exception of a few challenging issues (different foods, language barriers, etc.), it was a very positive experience, probably the best one yet for myself. The people from Montreal are very good to work with, and very accommodating to a man from Alberta who had forgotten most of the French I learned 20 years ago. I am looking at learning SNC's Engineering system in Montreal for my next short-term project.

I must say that updating this blog on the second rotation had it's technical challenges, but I think I described things well in the first rotation to give everyone an idea of what it is like in the Emirates. I would like to thank everyone
for reading and replying with nice comments, it made it a more pleasurable experience that way.

Thanks,

SS

Golfing at Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi has a fabulous golf course. It has 27 beautiful well manicured holes interspersed in the sand. The holes are well laid out and challenging. I had a very good day of golf, it seemed like all I had to do was think about my family, my happy place, and I would hit the ball well.

A Quaint Bus Ride from Abu Dhabi

I had an interesting bus journey from Abu Dhabi to my camp near Ruwais. After getting on at the Bus Stop and not knowing what to expect, I settled into a seat and was prompted to buy chips and a drink, of which I rejected the chips (they were too expensive). Keep in mind most things are negotiable, it is just that when a Westerner is spotted the Dirham signs start flashing.

The seats were fairly expansive, and I was able to stretch out. I was able to listen to my Ipod, plus open up the Laptop. I have an Audiobook on the mathematics of John Nash, that was interesting, and has many applications to abstract and real world problem solving, especially in game theory. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this, after almost having been forgotten about with 30 years of schizophrenia
turning him into a ghostly Princeton figure.

I went to take a picture of the bus, looked back to see if anyone would care, and the men behind me gave me a blank look so I proceeded. I will insert it soon, but Blogger is kind of finicky tonight.

The stop near our camp was a bit confusing. As it was my first time I was unsure if this was the correct stop. When I saw our plant to the south I was relieved. I called my friend Richard Hamamdjian, and he came and picked me up. It was a quaint little bus ride, much deserving of a little writing.

SS

Back to Abu Dhabi

Hello All,

Everything is going good here. My friends are all doing great. I will add more friends to the previous post soon. There are many more interesting characters I can mention. Many people are wanting to get this project done so we can move on to bigger and better things.

I had a nice break with my family in late January, we went to West Edmonton Mall early, and then we all got sick, lovely. We survived though and the family time was great. Ann-Marie and I are going on a nice Alaska cruise in July, that should be fabulous.

More to come soon, may go to Abu Dhabi this weekend for a break, the shopping is good. Our weekends here begin mid-Thursday.

Cheers,

Shane

A Few Friends

I have met quite a few interesting people here in the Emirates at work. The project secretary is Syed Asef Sohail, or Asef. He is a very sociable person, and his roots are from Pakistan, but stays close to here with his family. He does all of our organizational and communication stuff for us, and he is quite indispensable. We have had deep discussions about life, including religion and politics.

One of the Process Engineers here is Bernhard McNicoll, from Montreal. He is a very astute well rounded person, and is willing to discuss any matter. He is diligent and authoritative around the camp. He likes to go to Abu Dhabi on weekends and stay at Le Meridien, where we can enjoy the corporate rates. If there is anyone capable of navigating these roads with authority, it is him.

I have rode with Robins Raphael a couple of times back from Dubai. He is personable and has a bold look about him. He has family in Dubai, and has informed me of some good investments in India.

Vijay Kumar comes from the coastal province of Kerala in Southern India. He speaks Malayalam and please notice the palindrome. Malayalam has roots in the Tamil and Sanskrit, and is a very robust, poetic language, not to be taken lightly by the faint of ear. He is a very quick drafter, a great asset to the team.

Reni Thomas Oomen is strongly involved with construction on our project. He is very pleasant, and his manner is expedient for communication with the labour force. He also knows Malayalam, and speaks it very quickly.

Efren, a good friend of mine, finally took a one month vacation back to the Phillipines after a very extended work period. I am glad to see he went back to see his family. He is very friendly, and has a safety role at the camp.

Camels and Sand Dunes

I went for a tour recently with a friend of mine. Being New Years Day it was a fitting day to strike out into the country and catch some sights. We were not disappointed. We went through a local town called Gayathi, and it is actually where a couple of local workers stay instead of staying in my camp. The town is very green (irrigated to fight the local dryness), and it has many modern amenities.

The next big thing on our tour was the appearance of camels and camel herders. Camel herding is a strong industry in the UAE, as they are used to preserve local heritage, and also for Camel racing, which is popular among the Arabs. Here are a few nice pictures of camels that we got up close. It was amazing to see a herd of them much like we would see a herd of cattle at home.

The sand is very prevalent in the South of the country. Notice the height and the rich colour. They are fun to run on, and actually have a hard crust like the snow drifts at home (when we get snow).

Liwa Oasis is a very attractive stop in the South of the Country. There are many green areas which are combinations of plantations and housing. Surprisingly there are plenty of hay crops here, as much is needed to feed the camels. We turned into a side road to see a plantation and proceeded to get stuck in the sand. A local helped us get out and we paid him 20 Dirhams. Here are some pics of the Liwa hotel, a very beautiful, but affordable stop at a high point of the Oasis. A restored fortress is also shown, which appeared to be made of sand mixed with a fibrous grass material.

SS

Real Life Around the Camp

Camp Life here at the Beaat Project has many interesting features. The rooms we stay in, the cafeteria setting, the ADNOC gas stations, our work camp a few minutes away, and the local workers all have their idiosyncrasies. Everything around is slightly different then what we are used to in Canada.

Our rooms are a quite nice for the most part, we are part of the "Royal Catering Company" camp. The bed is quite big with a fairly hard mattress. With the lack of large blankets for the cool nights, some are forced to buy a room heater to help on the cool nights (even here the nights can get chilly). Laundry is taken care of for us, it just took some prompting to find out the system. Finally after talking to the management I was able to drop off my clothes, and they were returned nicely pressed in a much anticipated laundry bag. The showers are not very well designed, as they leak from not having a proper water containment system, apparently not a priority in these parts. The sand outside the room buildings has a clay-like quality to it, and is very sticky when wet. To point out the disparity around here, the camp next to ours just through the fence looks a bit rundown, with people hanging clothes all over the place, and more garbage laying around than in our camp.
All in all I have good living quarters.

The cafeteria we have in our living quarters is very unique. The appearance is a little drabby, but the food is usually very good, and professionally prepared. The food is a mixture of Western and Middle Eastern themes. The entrees consist of fish,
mutton, beef, and chicken, with the non-meat items consisting of potatoes, pasta, vegetable salona, fresh salads, rice dishes, and spicy Indian food. It is usually artistically prepared, which is very pleasing to the eye and the palate. Desserts are quite tasty with a variety of puddings, tarts, cookies, cakes, and fruit salads.
The cafeteria is probably the best part of the home camp life.

Gas stations around here are extremely clean. The locals go out of their way to shine the floors and keep the shelves looking appealing. The are well stocked and very busy, being little oases on long stretches of highway.

Our work camp a few minutes away is an ambitious, but long drawn-out project. There are many workers walking in each morning from the local camps, and some are bussed in. The plant is quite big, with many interconnected modules tied together with piping. It is quite a walk to get around where you need to go, with the flipside being we get a little exercise that way. People are in a funky Christmas work ethic right now, and there are multiple traditions being celebrated in one location. The plus to all this is we can actually make personal progress towards the ccompany when it is not quite so busy.

The locals are usually quite cheerful to talk to, but the language barriers are not small. It sometimes takes a few minutes just to get one point across, whether talking about life or about work. The ethnicity of middle eastern people is quite rich, of course complimented by North Americans, Philippinos, Australians, Germans, and a few other peoples. If it were not for the diversity of people here, I think it would be much less rewarding.

If anyone has any comments, please feel free.

SS