Mark Lowey, known by his Saudi friends as Abu Jack, offers rare images of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province during the 1970s

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Mark Lowey took what he calls an “early selfie” in the mirror of his room in the Abqaiq contractors camp, with his Olympus OM-2.
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Mark Lowey with his American friends Jim Sides and John Grimm, on a weekend desert excursion in 1979, near Shedgum. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
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A watermelon vendor in Hofuf in 1978. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
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A man carrying his purchases from Hofuf’s Qaisariah Souq. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
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An abandoned 1950 Ford truck in the desert in 1979. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
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Hofuf in 1978. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
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Alkhobar’s Kentucky Fried Chicken and Sizzler in 1978. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)
Updated 23 September 2019
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Mark Lowey, known by his Saudi friends as Abu Jack, offers rare images of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province during the 1970s

  • A US oil engineer’s treasured photographs reveal a love affair with the Kingdom stretching back four decades
  • After working for two years in Saudi Arabia, Lowey took 12 months off to travel, including a trek in Nepal and India, and visits to Australia and New Zealand, before returning to California in 1981

DHAHRAN: From San Francisco, the hippie heartland of 1970s American counterculture, to Abqaiq, Aramco’s gated community and the largest oil facility in Saudi Arabia — Mark Lowey’s love of adventure took him on a journey that later defined his life. 

After graduating with a science degree specializing in construction engineering in 1977, Lowey was offered a job in San Francisco. But when the 21-year-old engineer heard that a friend had received an offer from another company that planned to send him to Saudi Arabia, he decided to take the leap.

“I was looking for adventure and ready to travel the world,” Lowey told Arab News. “It was pure luck that a company wanted to hire a graduate and send me to Saudi Arabia.”

For three months, he worked for Santa Fe International, a subcontractor, before being assigned to a remote job site in Abqaiq.  “We were building gas and oil-separation plants in Ain Dar and Shedgum,” he said. “The plants we built at that time still had flare shacks to burn the separated natural gas. Aramco’s gas-gathering program would begin 15 years later.”

As a project control engineer, Lowey was responsible for monitoring the progress of construction and scheduling work to be completed to a strict timetable.




The camel souq in Al-Ahsa in 1978. (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)

With no direct flights at the time, Lowey’s journey to Saudi Arabia took more than 24 hours, with connections in Atlanta, New York and London before arriving at today’s King Abdul Aziz air base, formerly known as Dhahran International Airport.

Fresh off the plane, Lowey was uncertain where to go as crowds of passengers crowded the airport. He walked into the arrivals hall where he spotted a man holding a sign bearing the company’s orange-colored Santa Fe International logo.

As the two men waited for other employees to arrive, Lowey observed different nationalities from the Arab world passing by. While some women were covered in black, others wore trendy, colorful clothing. 

“At Dhahran airport for the first time, I saw women wearing all kinds of clothes — modern and traditional. Many had niqabs (a piece of cloth that covered half of the face, revealing only the eyes). I think it was a time before wearing the niqab and hijab became a common trend,” he said.

Days before his trip, Lowey took time to study and learn about Saudi culture, history and its people. He found it fascinating that some Saudis lived in tents out in the desert. “It was the romantic version of the Arab culture I was expecting,” he said.

Lowey lived in the Abqaiq contractors camp, in a single room in a prefabricated modular building across the road from the Aramco community, where thousands of men from different countries worked for contracting companies supporting Aramco were housed.




Mark Liwey with with Abdulhadi Alsyari and his sons in their desert encampment in Fazran.  (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)

“There were Americans, Canadians, British. Other workers were from Thailand and the Philippines. There were Somalis and Egyptians. There were very few Saudi workers,” he said.

Living in the eastern deserts, Lowey wasn’t oblivious to events occurring in the region, but he recalled one memory that still stands out for him. “I was in Abqaiq when the shah of Iran fell in 1979. One American friend had fallen in love with a young woman from Tehran and was in Iran at that time. He had to leave his fiance and run away, over rooftops, to escape the ayatollah’s guards. He escaped back to Saudi, somehow. Much later, the woman was able to join him in the US and they were married.” 

Since 1979, the trend has been toward more traditional and conservative dress for women in the Middle East, he said.

“The Arab Spring in 2010-11 further accelerated the trend toward conservatism. Only now are we moving toward a more progressive Middle East.”

Growing up in California during the 1970s, life was easy and there were fewer rules. Arriving in Saudi Arabia, Lowey knew that there would be restrictions. He was worried that local people might dislike him and question why he was here — that feeling of discomfort familiar to those living in a foreign country. 




The Mystery Man in Blue: Bathan Mohammed Al-Ulayan Al-Marri, one of the Eastern Province's most famous water-well driller, responsible for finding more than 50 wells in the EP and Rub’ Al-Khali. 

Lowey had a friend, Rob Hardesty, who was in Alkhobar working for an irrigation company. Lowey looked him up, and found that he, too, was interested in exploring and meeting local people. “He introduced me to some of his Saudi friends and helped me get acquainted with the Kingdom.”

On one of their days off, the two men decided to venture into the desert in Hardesty’s pickup truck to test a new camera, an Olympus OM-2, which Lowey had bought in Alkhobar’s electronics souq.

“Both Rob and I were keen to become good photographers. We wanted to go out on weekends and experiment and take lots of photos,” he said.

Photographing people was not a simple matter, since some Saudis were not open to being photographed. The duo were discreet, however. With the Olympus hidden in a large bag, Lowey would take a picture and then quickly hide the camera from sight. “One time, my friends and I were in the women’s 

market in Hufof looking at some of the objects on display. I would say, ‘Hey, Rob, smile,’ and pretend to take a picture, but would photograph the woman behind him.

“We were probably a bit reckless, and if we had been seen by police or the Mutawa (religious police), they would object,” he said. “But I hardly saw any religious police in the Eastern Province during the 1970s. They were more common during the early 2000s.”

MYSTERYMAN

  • In 1978, while on a desert stroll with his friend Rob Harvesty, Mark Lowey encountered this Bedouin man walking alone near the Fazran Gas Oil Separation Plant. They stopped, exchanged a few words in their limited Arabic, and after he agreed to let Lowey photograph him, they went in opposite directions.
  • Throughout the years, Lowey wondered about this mysterious man in the navy-blue jacket, his story and and his tribe. When he returned to Saudi Arabia decades later, he asked his friend, Quriyan Al-Hajri, to help him solve the mystery. Al-Hajri was able to track down the man’s family, who told his story.
  • His name was Bathan Mohammed Al-Ulayan Al-Marri, and he was a famous water-well driller, responsible for creating more than 50 wells in the Eastern Province and Rub’ Al-Khali. “He would make water walls all around the desert,” Lowey explained. “Because the Bedouins had to have water, and before Aramco, there was no drilling of wells, they had to dig them by hand.”
  • Sadly, Lowey wasn’t able to meet Al-Marri, because he passed away in 2005.

Lowey wouldn’t have his photos developed in the Kingdom. Instead, he sent rolls of film out with friends going on vacation to the UK, US or Far East, and they would bring back prints. “Imagine the difference between seeing your photos on a digital camera or iPhone instantly. In 1978, I had to wait weeks to see my prints.”

After working for two years in Saudi Arabia, Lowey took 12 months off to travel, including a trek in Nepal and India, and visits to Australia and New Zealand, before returning to California in 1981.

“After living in Saudi and my Asia walkabout, I was changed. I had incredible experiences. I had met and become friends with people from so many different cultures.

“I thought of Saudi Arabia a lot. I loved my photos of the places I had visited and, especially, the pictures of the Bedouin.”

Lowey stayed in the US for five years, got married and then, as a newlywed, moved to Kuwait for a new job. He spent three years working in Kuwait, and his first son, Jack, was born there. In 1988, Lowey and his family left Kuwait and returned to the US.

Lowey never thought that one day he might return to Saudi Arabia. But his final project before retirement brought him back to the place where he first started working. In 2013, three decades after leaving the Kingdom, Lowey landed in Dhahran.

“My last project was representing the Projects Department as OE (Operational Excellence) representative and implementer. Starting in 2015, Aramco began using OE principles and methods to improve quality and reliability in the company,” he said.




Faleh Al-Hamra, renowned in Abqaiq as a “camel whisperer,” with his first-born son Bdah, swaddled according to Bedouin tradition. Bdah, now 41, is a shift supervisor at Aramco’s Shedgum gas plant.  (Courtesy of Mark "Abu Jack" Lowey)

During his time in Aramco, there were Bedouin families who lived near his job site. Lowey enjoyed watching them and was keen on getting to know them. “I frequently met Bedouin, either passers-by traveling on the migration routes, or families who camped for extended periods near the site, attracted by Aramco’s permanent water supply,” he said.

His brief encounters often involved nothing more than a simple wave, a smile and the traditional Arabic greeting.

“It wouldn’t be long before my minimal abilities in Arabic would be put to the test. I would soon embark on a lasting friendship with two Bedouin tribes — a friendship lost and rediscovered more than three decades later.”

Lowey returned in 2013 and again in 2016, and was reunited with the some of the same families that he befriended in the late 1970s.

“They were just overwhelmed with joy that I remembered them. I took the effort to become friends with them again, and they welcomed me as a brother and as a son. I am part of their family. They honored me with the title Abu Jack (father of Jack). I love the name.” 

After returning to the Kingdom, Lowey saw how much the Bedouin culture had changed. “The big difference has been the nomadic lifestyle. It has disappeared now, pretty much.”

Lowey said that living and working in the Kingdom during the 1970s would have been similar to the Old West in America during the 1800s. “A young guy like me, as a graduate, I could easily go and find work and make business as there were fewer regulations. I could succeed, learn a lot, and contribute to the economy and society,” he said. 

When Lowey and his wife visited Saudi in March this year for an Aramco expats reunion, he was able to witness the changes first-hand, including women driving, greater public freedoms, and the return of music and theater.

“We had been following the progress initiated by the late King Abdullah and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It is refreshing, and we hope good and positive progress continues,” Lowey said.


Saudi defense minister meets Swedish counterpart

Updated 22 November 2024
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Saudi defense minister meets Swedish counterpart

  • Discussions focused on bolstering cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Sweden

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s minister of defense, Prince Khalid bin Salman, met Johan Stuart, minister of state at the Swedish Prime Minister’s office, in Riyadh on Thursday.

They discussed ways in which relations and cooperation between their countries might be enhanced, along with other issues of mutual interest, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Other Saudi officials present during the discussions included Lt. Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, chief of the general staff of the Kingdom’s armed forces, and Hisham bin Abdulaziz bin Saif, director general of the defense minister’s office.

The Swedish minister was accompanied by a delegation that included Bjorn Kalvakov, charge d’affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Riyadh, and Sophie Becker, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa department at Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.


Italian food festival highlights nation’s rich taste and culinary flavors

Updated 22 November 2024
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Italian food festival highlights nation’s rich taste and culinary flavors

JEDDAH: The Italian Consulate General in Jeddah hosted on Wednesday night a unique event celebrating the richness and uniqueness of Italian products and flavors on the occasion of the ninth edition of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World. 

The event is being celebrated all over the globe from Nov. 16-22 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture as part of their drive to promote the beauty and quality of Italian gastronomy.

Leonardo Costa, the Italian consul general in Jeddah, said: “We are glad to hold this Italian food street festival in the framework of the 9th Week of Italian Cuisine in the World celebrating Italian food culture. The theme for this year’s events is ‘Mediterranean Diet: Traditional Cuisine and Healthy Food,’ which is not a list of healthy food but a lifestyle.”

He added: “All the communities of the Mediterranean Sea share the same idea of hospitality and friendship. All concepts that fully applied to the great generosity and hospitality to the Saudi people and their way of conceiving food.”

Held at Al-Basateen Compound, the Italian Consulate General in Jeddah set up an elaborate street food scene around the pool area, ranging from big local Italian brands from shops, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, and hotels in Jeddah with the attendance of guests drawn from the diplomatic corps, journalists, Italian expatriates, Saudi guests, the business community, and other selected food enthusiasts.

The festival contained multiple food stalls displayed by the sponsors and participants such as Danub, Lallo restaurant, Assila hotel, Margherita KSA, Montana water by Sharbatly, Ferrero, Loacker, and other brands, where everyone showcased different distinctive Italian delicacies.

Music was also played for the guests by DJ Ahmed Can.

Saudi businessman Mohammed Al-Zahrani — who became fascinated by Italian coffee during his visits to Catanzaro, the capital of the Calabria region in Italy, is the founder of Dell’Oro Store. He told Arab News how he turned his passion into a business.

“I am glad to be part of the ninth Week of Italian Cuisine in the World for the first time, and I am here to promote our coffee,” he added.


Spanish aerobatic pilot Castor Fantoba puts on a spectacular air display in Riyadh

Updated 21 November 2024
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Spanish aerobatic pilot Castor Fantoba puts on a spectacular air display in Riyadh

  • World-class pilot soars high at Sand & Fun event

RIYADH: A Spanish world-class powered aerobatic pilot on Tuesday put on a thrilling aerobatic display filled with loops, rolls, spins, dives and climbs at the Sand & Fun event at Al-Thumamah airport, Riyadh. 

Organized by the Saudi General Aviation, the event runs from Nov. 19-23. 

Castor Fantoba’s performance was one of 10 SkyVentures at Sand & Fun’s series of airshows.

In a sitdown interview with Arab News, Fantoba described how his passion for aviation began and what it takes to become a world-class aerobatic pilot. 

As a child, Fantoba lived in the Spanish region of Navarra, where he watched small planes flying in the sky.

“Every child is looking into the blue ... Near my village there was an older field and eventually there were small planes doing tours and I was always stuck to the glass of the car, looking into the window trying to see if there was something around. I think it was that simple thing that marked my life.”

After secondary school, Fantoba developed a deeper admiration for aviation, which led to him pursuing a career as an engineer. 

Fantoba graduated as an aeronautical engineer and gained his extensive flying experience in areas such as aerial advertising, skywriting, crop-dusting and water-bombing.

He then decided to take a different route and become a pilot, after working for several years in aircraft maintenance. 

Today, Fantoba is an airline captain qualified to fly Boeing 737, 757 and 767s, powered aerobatics in the world-renowned Sukhoi Su-26M and is also a certified flight instructor for ultralight motorized gliders, private pilot licence training, and powered aerobatics.

To prepare for his airshows, Fantoba has a precise regimen of physical training and technical training coached by retired pilot and former member of the Soviet and Russian national aerobatic team, Nikolai Nikituk, who is widely recognized as one of the best pilots in the history of aerobatics. 

“He (Nikituk) is the one who is pushing us and modeling us to arrive at that point in which we will compete and try to win.”

During airshows, pilots take turns performing and on some days the wind could work against them. In moments like those, endurance is key, a practice taught by Nikituk.

“If you control your stress, you get focused and you don’t get nervous and lose energy.” 

Aerobatic pilots draw geometrical figures in the sky using a unique composition of sequences. When performing advanced aerial maneuvers, pilots can experience a range of gravitational forces.

Aerobatic pilots are trained to handle these forces by tensing their muscles to maintain blood flow to the brain and avoid blacking out.

Fantoba said dealing with negative Gz force, when pushing a plane over into a dive, took him 10 years of practice to perfect it. 

“After 10 years of training, (previously) I was not able to get the good rotation or transition, but this year I got it so this for me is the most satisfying.”

To avoid problems in equilibrium, prevent dizziness and fade-out, Fantoba said a lot mental focus, physical conditioning, and training are required. 

“You need to do exactly what you are told to do in a sequence. A sequence is composed of about 14 figures that are very complex with rotations in all directions.” 

Fantoba spoke of an experience when he blacked out during a positive Gz flight. “I remember I was beginning a training camp and I was really relaxed during the beginning of the season ... I was not pushing my body … I remember I was going up and then a voice was calling me ‘Castor, do you hear me?’ (on the radio) and I saw all blue and suddenly realized I was flying.”

Pilots begin with 10 points and lose 1 point per 5 degrees of deviation, so precision is vital to a successful airshow. Pilots usually score an average five points, but Fantoba’s attention to detail allowed him to score 8.3 points in the previous World Championship. 

Fantoba encourages individuals to try flying. “With normal health, you can fly ... you have fantastic aircraft here in Saudi Arabia … call them (organizations) and ask them ‘how can I become a pilot?’ It’s easy and you will discover an absolute new world.”

“Aerobatics and generally all air sports, it does not matter if you are a man or woman, it’s based on skill … in aerobatics we do not have separation.”

Fantoba has numerous achievements to his credit. 

He was a runner-up in the 2022 World Team Championship, runner-up in freestyle at the 2019 World Championship; three bronze medals at the 2017 World Cup; double bronze medal in the 2015 World Cup, bronze medal in Classic and Freestyle in the 2016 European Championship, Absolute European Champion 2014, and nine times Absolute Spanish Champion.

He has been officially recognized as a high level athlete by the Higher Sports Council since 2005. He has bagged more than 50 medals in his sporting career, six medals in a single top-category competition (European Aerobatic Championships 2014). He has won 30 FAI (world governing body for air sports) medals, including six golds.


Man arrested for transporting nine border security violators in Jazan

Updated 21 November 2024
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Man arrested for transporting nine border security violators in Jazan

JAZAN: Authorities in Jazan arrested a citizen for transporting nine border security violators of Yemeni and Ethiopian nationalities. Legal procedures were carried out, and the violators were handed over to the authorities before being transferred to the Public Prosecution.

Authorities have warned that anyone who facilitates the entry of border security violators into the Kingdom, transports them, provides them with shelter, or offers any form of assistance or service, will face severe penalties. These include imprisonment of up to 15 years, fines of up to SR1 million ($266,318), confiscation of any vehicles or properties used in the offense, and public defamation.

Meanwhile, while enforcing environmental regulations in the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve, field patrols of the Special Forces for Environmental Security arrested a man for illegal hunting in a prohibited area. He was found with an air rifle and three trapped wild animals. Legal measures were taken, and he was referred to the authorities for further action.


Ehsan charity empowers non-profit organizations

Updated 21 November 2024
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Ehsan charity empowers non-profit organizations

RIYADH: Workshops arranged by Ehsan, the national platform for charitable work, are helping empower non-profit organizations.

The initiative will ensure leaders keep pace with the governance of charitable work, with sessions aimed at developing methods to plan and implement projects.

The events are part of Ehsan’s efforts to increase the knowledge and develop the work of its non-governmental partner organizations. They align with its vision of maximizing the impact of projects, developing technical solutions, strengthening partnerships and empowering the non-profit sector.

The first workshops were launched in the Hail, Al-Jouf, Central and Asir regions, and Jeddah Governorate. More than 500 non-governmental organizations took part.