Fernando Jaraiz.
Country Manager of FCC
Aqualia in Arabia
His work is as a project manager. He has
been in Saudi Arabia one year and two in
the Middle East and has been living in Ri-
yadh for one year.
What is your activity in Riyadh?
As a country manager, I manage and coor-
dinate the activities to be carried out by the
entire team as well as the relations with the
client.
What is the opinion of FCC’s activity in
Saudi Arabia?
With many opportunities for growth. The
country has one of the highest growth rates
in the world and is undergoing enormous
changes in terms of social service infras-
tructures in which the company can par-
ticipate. During these first years, we have
become a competitor, at the same level as
the Americans, French, Germans, Japane-
se, and Koreans.
What were your first impressions of the
country when you arrived?
The country is very different from what we
are used to and everything calls your atten-
tion, from driving in the city, to the buildings,
work, dealing with people, and the many di-
fferent cultures that you find here.
Living
in Saudi Arabia
What is it that makes it very different
from Spain?
The predominant and only religion is Islam
and it affects your daily life; stopping for
prayers (five times a day) when the entire
country comes to a stop, and also the way
that it affects how women dress.
¿What do you like the most and the least
about the city?
What I like the most is the ethnic diversity,
and what I like the least is the traffic.
What do you have to take into account in
order to live in Riyadh?
You have to take into account the fact that
women cannot drive, they must wear the
abaya, a black garment that covers their
entire body except the head that they
must wear whenever they go out, and also
that they cannot intermingle in public with
people who are not their relatives.
What is it like to live in compounds?
How does it work?
Living in compounds is living without ha-
ving the restrictions that I mentioned befo-
re. This means that women have a place
where they can walk or mingle the same
as they would do in Spain. The compound
is a closed and secure urban development
where others cannot enter unless invited
by someone who lives inside. They usually
have many services, such as gyms, tennis
courts, swimming pools, children’s day care
centres, basketball courts, schools, super-
markets, restaurants, etc. Living in a com-
pound enables you to like as you would in
a Western country, especially for the family.
Expatriates generally live in compounds, closed and protected housing developments
which offer all types of services, including: a social centre, sports facilities (swimming
pool, gymnasium, tennis courts, soccer fields, squash courts...), recreation facilities
(restaurants, halls...), basic facilities (supermarkets, laundries...), and provide the
community living at the compounds all types of facilities so that they do not have to
leave the compound.
People who do not live there are not allowed to go in except if invited by a resident.
The “mutawa” or religious police cannot enter and, therefore, the community can live
normally in terms of being able to mingle and women do not have to wear the abaya
when they go out.
The desert, shortage of water, extreme temperatures, the abayas as the only garment
that women are allowed to wear, the great differences between the past and the mo-
dern era, are just some of the great disparities of living in Saudi Arabia.
Many FCC Aqualia professionals have been settled in Riyadh for the past two years.
We have their testimonies and impressions, describing how they have become ac-
customed to this new way of life. This is the case of Fernando Jaraiz who has lived
in Riyadh for one year, and of Javier Villalobos, who has been there for almost three
years. Javier also has three children who have been living with him and his wife during
this period. His last son was born recently in Riyadh.
The compounds
