After 3 days in Al-Khobar I got direction to fly out to Jeddah and to expect to be there for at least 30 days.  I filled out all the paperwork necessary to arrange for travel, a “SPA” (Safe Plan of Action) and get a hotel reservation at the Red Sea Resort in Jeddah.  My flight was at 1pm Tuesday, August 5th.

This was my first domestic flight in Saudi.  Not bad.  Security is not as strict as in the States.  The flight was really nice.  The plane was mostly empty.  I find it very odd that airlines do this but there were about 30 of us in the Economy section that seats at least 150 and they assigned us seats in 4 rows!  We are sitting shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the plane empty!  I ended up with a nice bulkhead seat and room to stretch out….slept for most of the flight.

Arrived in Jeddah and was taken to the hospital by a very good driver, Aktar, in a Lexus.  He’s a very good driver, speaks English that I can understand!  I feel so inadequate since I’m the only one here that speaks just one language.

Not a lot to write about my time in Jeddah.  The Jacobs guys there are doing an amazing job with little to work with.  Jacobs has been asked to design, plan and lead construction on 104 isolation rooms for the containment and treatment of the MERS family of viruses all within approximately 90 days.  They got the “go ahead” on May 8th and are expected to be operational with phase 1 by September 1st!  That is an amazing accomplishment.  I still don’t understand how they have been able to do it but it’s getting done.

We are staying at a “resort” that’s only a couple of miles from the hospital.  It isn’t as nice as the hotel in Khobar but it did grow on me pretty quickly.  The beach is amazing and the water so beautiful.  I thought I was going to be there for at least 30 days so was thinking about taking the certification classes for scuba.  The course is 2000SAR which is about $533US.  Seems like a pretty good deal to me.  Everyone also says that diving in the Red Sea is some of the best in the world.  I would believe that having stood on the sea wall and watched the water teaming with brightly colored fish everywhere.  However, on my third day there, after I’d unpacked, I was informed that I was heading back to Khobar.  Time to fill out paperwork again to go back.