Mike's Saudi (39) Masour and Fateeha visit Milnthorpe church.

 

 

At our home in the Lakes Fateeha was much happier and conversed with Syb in their own Arabic/English language, she was most interested in the way Mum ran the house. She was so naive about the west that she had even packed an iron to press their things because she wasn’t sure if we had them in the UK. I can’t remember much of our day to day holiday together but one or two high lights will do. Mansour wanted to see a Christian church and there was a nice old one in the village that we went to. In those days churches were left open for people to use.

At the door I had to stop the two of them taking their shoes off as they would at the mosque. Once inside the girls stayed by the door at the back of the building while Mansour and I went for a walk round as I explained how the service was conducted and the church used. Suddenly a middle aged lady appeared from nowhere and took Mansour on a guided tour pointing out all the features and dates of the church and its history. She really was knowledgeable and also made some kind remarks about the influence of the Arabs on the world. However she was one of those people who naturally have a loud commanding voice, poor Fateeha who understood little English stood at the back convinced that Mansour was getting the riot act read to him for entering a Christian church. When we left it took her husband a few minutes to convince her otherwise, in fact he had enjoyed the tour and learned a little about our history.

 

 

Mike's Saudi (38) Mansour and Fateeha in England.

Our next leave in the UK was due in a few weeks time when we visited Mansour and Fateeha. “We are going to have a holiday in England and France” he said, as it happened we would be in England at the same time and we hoped to meet. I gave him my parent’s phone number and asked him to call me while we were there. “Will £10,000 be enough to cover our stay in England?” he asked. I assured him it would be more than adequate, remember this was 1980 and he could have probably bought a small hotel for that much. Of course his plan was to stay in London for the whole time, as he had never been out of Saudi Arabia before it was probably the only place in the UK he knew.

Leave came and we were at home with my parents in the Lake District when the call came through from are rather inebriated Mansour, he sounded really unhappy and we could hear Fateeha crying in the background. “I’ll be down to see you tomorrow”. I would like to have made it the same day but it was a six hour trip and it was already three in the afternoon. Next day Syb and I set out for London and to find the hotel where they were staying and determined to look after them for the rest of their stay in England. Mansour in his ignorance had climbed into a taxi at Heathrow and asked the driver to find them a hotel. He certainly had; it was one of the grottiest hotels in central London and was charging him through the nose for his accommodation.

  At the time our car was a 2CV Citron a 600cc French utility car and not very big so we had to leave some of their luggage at the hotel to be called for the following day for which they charged full room rate. The hotel had depressed Mansour so much that as many Saudis do when visiting non Muslim countries he hit the bottle and not being used to it, its effects soon began to tell. This of course alarmed Fateeha as she had no control over the situation, no family to call on in England only us. In fact when we picked him up he was still the worse for wear, I removed his half empty bottle of whiskey to Fateeha’s relief. Throughout their holiday they wore western clothes and looked remarkably smart. Six or so hours later when we arrived at my parent’s house he wasn’t too bad though I did support him as he met them. My father a man of many hidden talents greeted him in Arabic much to my amazement and to Mansour’s surprise and delight.

Fateeha was much happier now and conversed with Syb in their own Arabic/English language, she was most interested in the way Mum ran the house. She was so naive about the west that she had even packed an iron to press their things because she wasn’t sure if we had them in the UK. I can’t remember much of our day to day holiday together but one or two high lights will do.

 

 

Mike's Saudi (37) Events that changed my working life

The report on the American contract that had done Mansour and myself so much good had been widely talked about. So when Abu and I visited the supply squadron their training control asked us if we could do a similar report for them, we checked with our captain who was enthusiastic and gave us the go ahead. Abu had only just started with me so it rested mainly on my shoulders but he was with me most of the time hopefully learning his trade.

We acted as Mansour and I had done previously, Abu talked to the Saudi trainees and I to the American contractors. There was no one missing from the contract this time but the discipline was appalling most of the work was being done by the contractors as the trainees were absent. The personnel in the training control were so frustrated that they had to let training slide or fabricate results, from the training point of view it was a very unhappy ship. Naturally when we eventually wrote our report we highlighted this failing which was from the top officer to the lowest recruit. In our office Khan our redoubtable Pakistani read the report which I felt was measured and fair. “Mr. Mike this will get you into big trouble. You may be right but it is criticizing the Saudis they will cause you trouble”. I felt it was right if we were ever going to get the stores personnel trained to work properly someone needed to do something about it. (How young and foolish was I and how old and wise was Khan)

Abu and I showed the report to the new boss and went through it with him in detail explaining my reasons for each criticism he was delighted and immediately circulated it to the contractors and his Head Quarters. He phoned for an appointment with the top officer in Supply, later on he, Abu and I went on to the meeting in the officer’s office. We watched as our new boss went through the report (giving credit to me) with the Prince who was the top officer in supply. The Prince gravely nodded at each point without comment, when the boss had finished, he thanked us for coming and we were dismissed.

Naturally the report was actually fair as seen from the American contractor’s point of view and they embraced it. At least it would allow them to do some training. Our next event in the chain that was to develop was we had a visit from members of the RSAF Riyadh Head Quarters together with their advisors and the report was white washed and the Supply Squadron continued as before. Next our new boss was replaced with a Major who was thought to be safe, Abu Garda was moved to another office where he was totally bored, the American contractors training manager was fired and I became in effect the new Majors secretary. I think I was lucky to have been saved if somewhat emasculated. As it turned out it was a job I grew to love.

 

Mike's Saudi (36) A new workmate

Shortly after our report had gone in Mansour was moved to the office of the Base Commander which broke up our team at work though we continued our socializing particularly as Fateeha and Syb had become close friends. At the same time our boss was transferred to Riyadh, so we had a new one. A young dynamic captain who drove a BMC Mini and was by Saudi standards very progressive, he had just returned from the States and was fired up with what he had seen over there. He encouraged me to help him in the impossible task of improving the training of the Saudi trainees with my new colleague and workmate, Abu Garda.

Abu Garda was also an Imam and had committed the whole of the Koran to memory a prodigious feat and could recite sections of it in a delightful half sung style of the Islamic clerics. (I wonder how many Christians have learnt the Bible from cover to cover.) Not only was he working with me but he was also studying English Literature at the University, from this you might gather he was exceptionally intelligent, and he was. His spoken English was excellent and his written English even better. As an Imam he would pray five times a day and during his prayer time he would give me a passage from an English translation of the Koran to read so we could discuss it on his return. Despite all his accomplishments he was a typical Saudi in that much that what could be done today was left to tomorrow, when I accused him of procrastination he would smile and say “Mike it is our way we will do it later Inshallah”.

He was a very serious guy entirely the opposite of Mansour but we got along just fine. Not unnaturally he was held in awe by his contemporizes and was referred to on all religious matters and lead the prayers whenever there was a requirement to do so.