Flora and Fauna of Western Saudi Arabia

It's of the week, and I thought I'd throw up a quick post about some of the plants and animals in the Rabigh area. I apologize, but I don't know the names of any of the plants, except for the date palm. Sorry also to those who visit this blog for the rich narrative; I fear this one may be a bit picture-heavy.

Despite being only a few kilometers from the Red Sea, it's very dry in Rabigh. I've been here for a month, and it has not rained yet. Sometimes the air gets thick and cool, and I am certain that it will start to pour, but every time, I'm disappointed. I'm told it doesn't rain much. Yet somehow, plants inexplicably find root in even the most inhospitable environments.  Sometimes even when there aren't any others for kilometers around.

 

The ground within twenty kilometers of the coast isn't exactly what I would describe as fertile soil, but despite being dry, rocky, and often barren, it's fairly tightly packed. Once you get closer to the mountains, however, there are larger and larger expanses of sand. This doesn't prevent vegetation from growing...in fact, some species tend to thrive in the sandy ground. Like the weird grasses shown below. Their roots go deep underneath the sand and they are very difficult to pull up!

As you might expect, there aren't a huge amount of animals running around. But there are a lot of animal corpses lying about. I guess no one cares to get rid of them, because often all that's left are piles of fur and bone bleached white from the sun. Sometimes they are recognizable as cats, dogs or various birds. Other times, I've got no clue what I'm looking at.

 

There is a stray dog that I see every day at near the entrance to my school.  I feel sorry for the little guy. It can't be easy being a stray in such a dry, hot place--especially for a pooch. Which is probably why you don't see very many of them around. There is, however, a stray cat in every garbage bin. Especially common is the orange tabby. Some people are kind and feed them food scraps, but others are crass and throw rocks. Sometimes they are visibly disfigured.  So, some of them might hesitantly approach you if your offer them food, but for the most part, they are understandably skittish.

In Vancouver, birds are everywhere. Yet here, I don't realize their absence until I come into an area of moderate vegetation, where, unfailingly, there will be a cadre of small finch-like birds--especially if there are human food-scraps to pick at, as in the parks.

Although it doesn't rain much, KSA needs to provide potable water somehow, and here on the coast, they do it through water desalinization. So, although water is still relatively precious, their are a few parks here and there, which are watered by sprinklers. Plant life here has adapted to the scarcity of water. It sucks the ground around it dry, and retains a lot of moisture. The grass has a particularly interesting survival technique. It seems to spread by creeping across the surface, and putting down roots as it goes, instead of spreading like the kind that I'm used to.

The Palm tree is ubiquitous. It grow wilds, but it's probably also the most common intentionally planted plant in urban areas. Palms line the highways on both sides, and sometimes the meridian as well. Sometime they even dominated the sidewalk, which makes driving more enjoyable (but walking inconvenient).

Although the greenery here isn't as common as I would like it to be, it's still here. It's an encouraging reminder of life's tenacious ability to adapt to harsh and inhospitable environments. I often wonder what the landscape must have looked like two or three thousand years ago. I wonder how and when the Arbian ecosystem transitioned from the verdant savannah it must have been at one time to the mostly dry and barren place it is today. I wonder how the process could be reversed.

One idea I have is to set up large fields of solar cells on the fringes of the desert, creating a canopy to prevent water from evaporating, and then using the collected energy to pump in desalinized water to saturate the ground, and allow things to grow underneath. If this were done on a large enough scale, it would effect the water cycle, encouraging rainfall and a self-sustaining ecosystem...food for thought.

Sand Bogging

Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity to experience some genuine Saudi culture with some genuine Saudis.

Earlier in the week, I was looking around, trying to find a bank that would exchange some Canadian cash into riyals. Not yet having acquired my residency card (iqama), I wasn't able to open a bank account and exchange my money. I did, however meet a friendly Saudi who worked at one of the banks, and who had spent some time in Canada. After chatting for a while, he offered to take me into the Jebel mountains on the weekend, which I accepted, with only a little hesitation.

So, when the weekend came, I gave my friend a call, and half an hour later he pulled up in a Lexus SUV. I got in and we zoomed out of town towards a small town in the direction of Yanbu. It took about half an hour to get there--but keep in mind that this is half an hour of Saudi driving, so it might have taken me forty-five minutes. This was the first time I had been outside of Rabigh since arriving three weeks ago, so I was very happy to get out.

My Saudi friend's home was a small village, of modest looking, single-story houses. My friend told be that its inhabitants were mostly Bedouins. There, we dropped the Lexus and got into my friend's pick-up truck, and headed farther north. After some time, we slowed down, and turned east off the road, at a place which seemed to me totally lacking in distinction from any other place a kilometer up or down  the road. By my Saudi compatriot, told me he came out this way every weekend, and in fact, only a few generations ago, his family had lived out in the mountains, where we were headed. After a few hundred meters, we stopped the truck to let air out of the tires because with the tires full, the truck would get stuck in the sand.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but I did have some small worry that I wasbeing lulled out into the desert on false pretenses only to be chopped up with scimitars for the crime of being a white devil and infidel. Then again, I was going quite far out into the wilderness with someone I had had only just met. Perhaps it's only natural to be a little bit on edge in those circumstances, regardless of what country you are in!

As we got closer the mountains, I got to enjoy a range of ecological features. The ground changed from earthy to rock to sandy and back again. Here there were grasses and shrubs, there there were trees, and in another place there was no vegetation to speak of. As we got higher up, the sand eroded and gave way to pile of huge rocks. There was one gigantic granite boulder that that had been cleanly split in half. According to my friend, it had been struck by lighting, a few years before. We drove around and took pictures for a while, and eventually came back to the main camping grounds.

At the main area, I met some of my host's friends and relatives.  Instead of chopping me into pieces, they offered me coffee. A few of them spoke English nearly as well as me. We had polite conversation, while their children ran around playing. Not far off, you could see vehicles climbing a giant sand-dude and after I while we decided to go to the top. I got a ride on a ATV, and some other when in an SUV.

From the top, there was a landing area and on either side, there were two huge bowls, in which several people were driving their pickups, SUVs and ATVs, racing up the sides and drifting along the lips. It was impressive. It made me think of my home town of Grand Forks, and people riding their snowmobiles in the winter time.

After a while we went down, and had tea and more conversation. After that I got another ATV, ride and before I knew it, the sun was setting and it was time to go. It had an excellent time thank to my excellent hosts. Perhaps saying so sounds a bit contrite, but this was an experience that reminded me that the differences between people from different cultures are for the most part superficial, and that where it counts, human beings are the same, wherever you go.
 

First Impressions

Saudi Arabia is a big, hot, sandy country. You don't quite appreciate how large it is, until you're driving on the highway between urban areas. There is very little humidity, either, so there isn't much blocking your view. You can stare out at the desert that stretches out hundreds of kilometers out to the horizon. Sometimes the desert is broken in the far off distance be mountain ranges. Sometimes it is not. I was lucky enough to arrive here in the cool season. In the day time, I would not like to be wondering around without shade. Luckily, Saudis seem to feel the same way, and at our campus there are canapes over most of the walkways. There is a perpetual breeze coming off the ocean, which makes the daytime hours tolerable and the evening pleasantly cool. Indoors, it's always cool because there is air conditioning pretty much everywhere.

On the car ride from the airport, I was titillated to see camels grazing near the side of the road. The roads here, as you might imagine are long and straight. Surprisingly, for some reason the turns are not always gradual. In the big cities, there are cameras that will register your license plate number and automatically issue you a ticket if you are driving more than twenty kilometers over the speed limit, but in between metropolitan areas and in smaller cities, like Rabigh, that's not always the case. From the airport to Rabigh my driver was going about 140 km/h most of the the way, and occasionally a vehicle would fly past at mach 10.

There are no women at the school where I teach, but even elsewhere there are far fewer women out and about than men. And yes woman everywhere must wear black robes that cover them from head to toe (abayas), but around these parts, you occasionally see women without a veil. It's a part of the culture that really bothers me. It seems to me that women are treated more like commodities than individuals. Before coming here, I knew that drinking, and drugs were illegal. I knew that there were no cinemas. I knew women had to wear the abaya, and weren't allowed to drive vehicles, but I didn't know that dating wasn't allowed. Marriage must be sanctioned by the woman's family here. I realize that the abaya and arranged marriages are no big problem for many of the women here, but it's a big challenge for my western sensibilities.

Drug trafficking here is a big no-no. On my entry card, it was written in bold, red ink, "Death for Drug Trafficker". Although I obviously didn't have any drugs with me, it was scary to read that. It's nearly incomprehensible to me that someone can be sentenced to death for selling pot, coming from a place where it's nominally legal. Still, I've heard rumors that some of the students like to partake. I could not justify taking that kind of risk. It's just not worth it! There is a long list of capital offenses in Saudi, and foreigners are not exempt. While I have no intention of engaging in any of those illicit activities, the mere knowledge that there are so many thing for which a person could be sentenced to death here is going to take some getting used to.

As for my school, the facility is nice enough. The campus is quite small, and the buildings seem a little old, but well constructed. The staff is pretty good. My colleagues all seem friendly enough, if not a little quirky. Surprisingly to me, perhaps half (maybe more) of the English teachers at my school, though not Saudis nationals, are Muslim. Which is totally fine. They are good people, and they don't treat me with any disrespect for being a non-Muslim. Many of the students have poor study skills, and it is common for them to be playing with their phones in class, or sleeping. These challenges are counterbalanced by the good nature and friendliness exhibited by the majority. Saudi students like to have fun. It's going to be a challenge teaching English here, but I expect I'll be having a good laugh for every moment I want to tear my hair out.