Struan Goss left Grahamstown for a place where alcohol is strictly regulated, the heat can spike to 50°C and his home was a prefabricated housing container.
Struan Goss left Grahamstown for a place where alcohol is strictly regulated, the heat can spike to 50°C and his home was a prefabricated housing container.
The former Rhodes student has recently come home from the Oman desert where he worked on a water treatment plant for the past six months. “The Middle East is a very interesting and different place,” said the 21-year-old Economics and Management graduate.
He has a golden brown tan and sports a mohawk hairstyle, which he had cut recently for Inter-Varsity, a university sporting event known for wacky behaviour and drinking.
As he lights his second cigarette he reminisces about Ramadan – the month of fasting for Muslims – which he adopted by refraining from drinking, smoking and eating during the day. “Even if you aren’t a Muslim you respect their traditions,” he said.
Drinking alcohol is a forbidden pleasure in Oman, which you need a permit for. Expats can drink at bars only between certain hours. “Some bars will be open from six onwards, but it is quite heavily regulated,” he told Grocott's Mail. Omani tradition also required him to dress respectfully. “They are a very conservative nation. It is rude if you don’t wear long pants,” he said.
“When I first got there I had this impression we would wear short shirts and kakhi pants,” but at work he wore bright orange overalls. He woke up at 5.30am to avoid the mid-day heat and lived in a small container which had a bed, air conditioning and furniture. “You can’t live without aircon in the desert!” he warned.
During his time there he conducted research on biomass alternatives for renewable energy, for the German-based Bauer Nimr water treatment plant in the Nimr oil field, in Oman's central desert.
When oil is brought up, only one tenth of the liquid that comes to the surface is actually crude oil, the rest is contaminated water. Bauer Nimr is the first plant to use reed-bed technology to purify that water. "I’m involved with mostly operating the reed beds – controlling the flow of the water through the reed beds, supervising a nursery," he said.
Goss said workers on the site felt like a community even though there were 17 different nationalities and the people there spoke a muddle of English, Arabic, Urdu and German. “It is such an isolated place.
Despite the cultural and language barriers you become very close with the people you work with,” he said. Looking back at his work and life experience Goss said: “The only way to grow as a person is to be taken out of your comfort zone.” He now plans on relaxing at his home in Kloof, Durban and getting his pilot's licence.
