Oman experience, Part 1

02 March 2012

The opportunity to make my first ever trip to the Middle East was brought about by a commitment to give a lecture titled “Challenging Traditional Approaches in Maintenance” to the staff of the Oman Wastewater Services Company (Haya Water), a corporation owned by the Sultanate of Oman.

I’m finishing this article while on my sixth day in Muscat, the capital of Oman, and, observing a two day break (Thursday and Friday), their equivalent of our weekend in the Philippines. Resumption of the lecture shall be on Saturday and completed the following day, Sunday.

This trip, as usual, has proven to be truly educational especially in terms of being able to further appreciate, and this time in close quarters, the talents of Filipinos, as well as the honor that this new generation of heroes (the OFWs) are giving our country. It has been an educational opportunity, as well, in terms of being exposed first hand to the culture of another country that has given economic opportunities to a lot of our countrymen.

The travel from my home didn’t seem to start very well, as despite the four and a half hour lead time that I purposely provided to give myself comfortable time in traversing the 30 kilometer distance to the airport, and in going through the checking-in process of what to me is an unfamiliar trip was eaten up by – guess what – clogged roads. I barely made it to meet the boarding time of the 11:55 PM flight. My complaint in particular was the bottlenecks, practically gridlocks, at two points of my route to the airport, and, at 9:30 in the evening. One bottleneck was before crossing the bridge traversing the SLEX from the Fort and the other one after crossing the same bridge towards the road going to Nichols where the terminals are. The ill-discipline of the drivers, as well as the possibility of traffic build-up at those points and at that particular time, are, to me, already a given, and I think that this factors should have enabled the authorities responsible for controlling traffic to develop and adopt pre-emptive measures. This particular traffic problem in this particular location at a particular time is definitely brought about by clearly identifiable recurring factors so it should not be difficult to implement steps like assigning more traffic control officers armed with a traffic control strategy designed to address this traffic problem. I can just imagine the tension that tourists, coming from the Fort on their way to the airport, are subjected to because of fear of missing their flight. Definitely not a good way of saying, thank you, or, goodbye please come again.

At any rate, I was able to successfully board my flight, after going through the process of cueing at our Terminal One, pay my travel tax, check in my luggage, have my visa to Oman read, then back to the check-in counter, pay the terminal fee, go through the single snake-like cue of what looked like 500 passengers to pass through immigration, and then, being advised that I left my visa at the check-in counter. One bright spot though was the courtesy and graciousness of the lady immigration officer who respectfully asked me to fill up a departure card (which I should have done beforehand and told her straight I did not have any) so that I can get through her gate.

The plane for the nine hour flight to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates was a Boeing 777 300, and the airline, Etihad Airways. In the plane I was seated beside Mr Gilbert Reonal, a Registerd Nurse on his way back to work. We had a wonderful conversation for a big portion of the flight, and he struck me as being one of the more privileged Filipino ex-pats in the UAE. He is currently working as a Nurse Manager for the UAE Health System, and aside from managerial duties, is involved in psychiatry as well as addiction and rehab work. According to him, he has been working for 22 years in the Middle East, 8 years of which he spent in Oman, 2 years with the Abu Dhabi Armed Forces and 12 years with his current job. He was part of the first group of Filipino medical personnel who worked in Oman and which, according to him, was responsible in encouraging the government to “Omanize” their medical system, i.e., develop their own nurses and doctors. Nowadays, their medical system is manned by Oman citizens.

 He also made me aware of the successes of various Filipino individuals as well as groups in the Middle East, among them a lady engineer who was one of the consultants in the building of the Burj Khalifa Building, the tallest building in the world as of 2011, as well as a Filipino who owns Oman Phil, a manpower company that brought in Filipino workers during the 1980s. Pilipino professionals like the nurses (of which there are about 50,000 in Abu Dhabi), educators (with PhDs teaching in colleges), engineers (working in the oil and gas, and construction industries), as well as non-professional successfully providing their skills abound in the Emirates.

The flight was generally smooth except for a little bumpy portion towards the end, which caused the flight crew to delay serving hot drinks for breakfast. This was however more than compensated for by the amiable and gracious crew headed by Ms Aurora “Au” Hechanova, the Cabin Crew Manager. Being a proponent of quality, I consciously observed how capably she managed her staff, and I would attribute the effectiveness of the cabin crew to the example that she herself showed. This performance must be typical of this airline and probably the reason why it gets so much passengers. I was actually surprised to see the large cordoned-off waiting area in front of our gate full of passengers, and practically in a SRO situation, when I checked in. Ms Hechanova, by the way, also informed me that about 50 percent of the Etihad Airways personnel are Filipinos; and there are pilots as well.

We landed at Abu Dhabi about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and as I took the long long walk towards the terminal for my connecting flight to Muscat, I was saying “wow” because of what I saw. I was telling myself, so, this is the example of a world class airport; clean and well lit walk ways, working walkalators, very clean toilets with working fixtures, courteous personnel and comfortable lounges for waiting passengers, like me, as I have to while away four hours before my connecting flight to Muscat, Oman takes off. More interesting stories on our compatriots and my Oman experience to follow.