Teambuilding Session while Cruising the Nile

Nile River, regarded as the longest river in the world, shared by 10 countries; Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Sudan, and Egypt. It has two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, later being the source of the Nile’s water. The two rivers meet at Khartoum and splits into two branches or distributaries that empties into the Mediterranean Sea: The Rosetta branch (or Rasheed) on the west and Damietta to the east.
Last Wednesday, 13.1.2010, Mr. Operations Director invited us for lunch (in Egypt lunch is taken at around 15:00 hours until 17:00 hours) on a boat, cruising along Nile River at Rasheed. The main dish was the popular local traditional salted mullet fish called ‘Feseekh’. Feseekh is normally eaten during Sham El Neseem ("Smelling the Breeze"), which is a spring celebration from ancient times in Egypt.
It has a rotten odor that only its true lovers would appreciate. The process of preparing feseekh is quite elaborate, passing from father to son in certain families. The occupation has a special name in Egypt, fasakhan
It was rather a ‘teambuilding’ session for the Management Team with Shareholders Representatives and all the Managers. Besides the Feseekh, the organizer served us the arabic rice, grilled beef, aish, salad, etc.Rasheed town is about 15 minutes from our Plant in Idku. We started cruising around 16:15 hours and adjourned at around 18:05 hours. It was an interesting experiences for all of us especially Adnan, Kamarul and me – the Malaysian. Tom, an American representing BG enjoyed the trip but did not appreciate the feseekh despite his significant years experience in Indonesia. In this release, I would like to introduce some of the prominent figures of our team.
Let me start with; Ahmed Shehata, Operations Director from EGAS and Karem Mahmoud, Deputy Chief Officer from EGAS.
On your left; Abdel Aziz El Khodeir, Manager Asset Integrity. Sitting next to him was Abdel Moneim Shehab our Manager, Support Services.

On the right of the photo: Ahmed Abdallah, Manager Logistic; Kamarul Amar Tajul Arifin, Manager QHSE a PETRONAS Representative; Ahmed Ezz, Manager Production and Captain Sherif, Manager Port Operation a little far on the left.

The lunch time. Like it or not, working in overseas environment, one must have high sense of adaptability, sensible, adventurous, and mental endurance. As the famous saying goes, 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. In this volatile economics condition with many uncertainties, networking is very important and essential. Thus, building it is more critical.

Allow me to continue; on our right is Tom Jeter, Operations Director Advisor, an American from BG who can speak Indonesian language fluently. On his right is Omar Hilal, Chief Financial Officer, BG's Representative. He is an Egyptian but all this while working in the UK and other European countaries.

Captain Sherif Keshk, Manager Port Operation; Sherif Shaaban, Manager ICT; Ashraf Hamdy, Manager Site Port Security.

Adnan Zainal Abidin, Chief Executive Officer, a PETRONAS's Representative who had been with the Company since early 2006; Mohamed Fikry, Manager HSE.

We had a chance trying our fishing skills. Honestly, I do not have either passion or patient with fishing. It is not in my vocabulary.

It was indeed a great experience. Kudos to the organizer, Mohamed El Assy, our Operation Finance Manager. Not to forget, many thanks to Sherif Shabaan for providing me these photos.