Chiller

The display on the Expedition’s dash says that it’s 24 degrees outside, but I don’t believe it. I wouldn’t go any higher then 17, although I do think it’s rising. Regardless, it’s even colder in the facility we’re working on and in, and I’d already spent a couple hours outside on the windy and overcast tarmac in my shirtsleeves, so I came out to the vehicle to run the heater for a bit. I didn’t exactly plan for sweater weather when I packed my kit for this trip, but there you are, or rather, here I am, freezing my proverbial nads off on a fine desert afternoon.

Well, not really fine. The thunder woke me up at 0300 or so, and rain was still falling when I first stuck my head out the door around 0600. Our planned very early start was delayed and the rain had stopped by 0700, so I left the raincoat on a chair, shrugged off the leather coat I was saving for my December arrival in the Middle West, and headed to work.

There was only one general at our inbrief, and only a brigadier at that. I was sorely disappointed, but only sort of. He had fabulous snacks – bowls of dates dipped in dhibs, small platters of pastries, assorted nuts, bottled water, and the tea boy brought small cups of some piping hot ginger-clove tea. Steve and I made sure to try each of the varieties of tiny pastries so that we could circle back on the best ones – scientific methodologists to the end.

At a later meeting with one of the contractors working here, I only got a cup of weak, sweet coffee, but no snacks. Most of the other scheduled meetings have had tea served, sometimes strong and black, sometime strong and a little sweet, but always really hot. The best beverage so far was some ginger and herb infusion that followed the first round of tea. I couldn’t tell you where or when at this point. There’s been a lot of meetings, and an awful lot of tea.

The best snacks, though, were at the date factory.

We had a relatively slack day on Saturday, manufactured by our decision to stay at Al Qassim for the weekend instead of driving back to Riyadh. Either way, we would have to head to our current site eventually, so sticking around meant less driving overall, and there’s still a lot of driving remaining. We really didn’t mind the two hours down to Al Koht, where we called Mr.Dilham, who sent his driver to escort us from the giant tea pot at the interchange to his facilities.

The area was unlike any part of Saudi I had seen up until then. We dropped through a steep cut in a high mesa to town, and then followed a fertile valley upstream, through palm farm after palm farm, until we arrived at a large collection of structures backed up against a shear wall of sedimentary rock. This was the signature facility of the Al Fakhra Date Company, although I had only known them through one of their retail outlets, this one in Abu Dhabi, called Bateel. It became evident that it was one in the same once we sat down in their well appointed conference room and I recognized the stuffed dates we were served as those I had found in their shop last year sometime.

We had dates stuffed with orange, dates stuffed with walnuts, date cookies, and some type of sparkling faux wine with some type of date based fortification. And tea, and coffee, and water. It was only after we had sat for most of an hour snacking, watching the corporate video, and chatting with our host did we finally start the plant tour. We walked through the receiving and sorting warehouses, to the huge refrigerated storage building, then to the factory floor, where the dates were sorted, cleaned, and sorted again prior to packaging and further processing. Some of the premium dates went to be stuffed. Many of the less than premium rejects went to the dhibs process, where something akin to honey was pressed out of them.

Then it was back to the conference room for more tea and more talk. Soon enough, we toured their offices and then headed to a rooftop for a small snack of fried chicken, eggrolls and hummus, then back to the conference room for one more round of talk, another round of tea, and presentation of a couple of kilos of dates to each of the eight of us as we made our extended goodbyes. Out hosts for the rest of this tour are going to have to step it up a notch.

Throughout the outing, the plant manager graciously answered all of our questions about productivity and processes, but what he really wanted to talk about was how well he was managing his staff. He painted himself as their benevolent father. Calm but firm. Kind and disciplined. Eager to teach them about how to behave in a modern business, and how to behave in a western restaurant – sitting in chairs, using forks – that sort of thing. Feed them cake, show the love, but never forget the iron fist of leadership. Be vague about assignments, yet micromanage.

Honestly, it made me a little dizzy. Still, it was a plant tour, so I’ll claim a couple of hours of continuing education credits for my next license renewal.

We could have stayed longer, and would have probably been invited to dinner, but dark was fast approaching and we wanted to get back to Al Qassim in daylight. It was raining lightly as we got in our vehicles and worked our way towards the highway. There are plenty of dangerous road conditions here. Driving after dark is definitely one of them, but light rain might be the worst. The roads here are mostly asphalt, and they’re built well, so they last a long while. The trouble with road longevity is that the pavement abrasiveness tends to decrease over time, so the roads get slick. Add a layer of motor oil and heavy dust and they get more slick. Now add a little rain and traction becomes seriously compromised.

As I pointed the Excursion down the on ramp, there was a jack-knifed semi on the mainline just before the merge, and cars sliding into the median and shoulders from both sides. We crept with the trucks down a long steep hill at about 40 kph, while the opposing traffic was jammed solid as they inched uphill. Of course, the wipers sucked and we ran out of fluid, but we did make it back at dusk, just in time to head out for more shwarma.