Page 123 - Adobe Photoshop PDF

of as the “Big Sky Country,” but it doesn’t compare to Arabia, where
the sky extends 180 degrees from one horizon to another, since there are
hardly any hills. Dust storms (the Arabic word for them is “shamal”)
occur about once every two weeks from February to July. Shamal in
Arabic also means “north” because these always come from the north,
basically southern Iraq. When you’re driving you can see a shamal com-
ing because it looks like a brown cloud stretching across the horizon,
SHUKDSV IHHW KLJK $ IRJ EDQN ORRNV GL൵HUHQW EHFDXVH WKH IRJ ORRNV
gray. Arabs claim that a dust storm always lasts for four days. The dust
LV ¿QH VDQG WKDW LV DERXW OLNH EURZQ ÀRXU ,W VRPHKRZ LQWUXGHV LQWR HY-
ery indoor space. After the wind stops blowing it takes almost 24 hours
IRU DOO RI WKLV ¿QH VDQG WR SUHFLSLWDWH RXW RI WKH VN\ )URP WKH ¿UVW RI
June until about mid-August there was never a cloud in the sky. One or
two clouds in the sky moving across the horizon in late August signaled
the fact that the weather was about to change. In September, the nights
ZHUH VXGGHQO\ KXPLG ZLWK ZDWHU GULSSLQJ R൵ WKH URRIV OLNH UDLQ ,Q HDUO\
October the weather became lovely. There were no more shamals after
July and the daily temperature in the fall was about 80 to 90 degrees and
the nights were pleasant.

$ERXW WKH ¿UVW RI 'HFHPEHU , UHFHLYHG D OHWWHU IURP %HOD %DUQHV
telling me he was going to conduct a wage exchange with the four own-
er companies. As a result, instead of him returning in mid-December,
whereupon I would go back to the States, he advised that he would not
EH EDFN XQWLO DIWHU WKH ¿UVW RI -DQXDU\ ,W LV GL൶FXOW WR GHVFULEH KRZ
deeply disappointed I was. I had assured Jean and the children that I
would be back in the States so we would celebrate Christmas together.
Now I felt so low that I could have walked under a closed door. I dared
QRW UHYHDO WR DQ\RQH RQ WKH VWD൵ KRZ GLVDSSRLQWHG , ZDV EHFDXVH , ZDV
in a leadership position. I felt it a breach of faith for me not to be able to
go pick up my family and move to New York.
)RU WKH ¿UVW FRXSOH RI PRQWKV LQ 'KDKUDQ , KDG OLYHG ZLWK ³2OLH´

DeVine, who was “house sitting” for a family that was on vacation.
With their return in pending, I had moved to one of the 10 man portables
and shared a room with John McLiverty, who was an agreeable room-

119