My first project is located in Riyadh. While most projects are kept confidential for business confidentiality purposes, my current one has been released publicly. Monitor is helping the Government of Saudi Arabia (namely the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, though including other relevant bodies) implement their National Industrial Strategy to try to diversify away from petrochemicals.
What this means is that we work in Saudi Sunday through Wednesday. In a given week I fly out of Dubai Saturday night (weekends here are Friday and Saturday, although in Saudi weekends are Thursday and Friday. Don't underestimate their abhorrence of potentially sharing a weekend day with Jews...), work in Monitor's Riyadh offices and meet with clients and stakeholders Sunday through Tuesday, fly back to Dubai Wednesday and spend Thursday working in the Dubai office. Weekends just mean I work less...and play more mini-golf.
You won't find any photos of Saudi on this post just yet - I've been there twice and only now have the courage to bring my camera there. Passport Control is known to "examine" - read: confiscate and destroy - memory sticks and the like. In reality though, the Kingdom is boring. There are no movie theaters, a similar mall culture to Dubai, and during Ramadan there is literally nothing to do. We spend a lot of time hanging out in our apartments.
I will say though that the Saudis I've met so far are the most open and hospitable people I know. Stakeholders much senior to me in the project invite me out (not sure what that entails) and partake in long conversations over tea (after Iftar of course).
On the other hand, there are real dangers in the country. Some of the Monitor consultants live in compounds on the outskirts of Riyadh. I went to one briefly and the security measures are intimidating. We had to drive through concrete-lined narrow barricades around the circumference of the compound, passing through 4 checkpoints and under the potential fire of no less than 6 machine guns. Inside the compound exists and apartment complex like any other, but knowing that these compounds are ready targets for terrorist organizations (really what is better to attack than a walled community of Americans?) kept me on edge.
If my camera doesn't get confiscated, I'll bring back some photos of Riyadh. I'm in Dubai through the 26th of September and will return from Riyadh October 1st.
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