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and demolishing the buildings. While a house may have construction
defects, how do you convince its owner to move his family out of it
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and touchy role and it was handed to me to supervise.

Though I was not an engineer or a construction man, I was made
responsible for the entire project in Rahaima. The American inspector
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(I have no doubt he had been bribed by Arab contractors to allow this
rot). To assure honest construction under capable direction, I was able
to secure a transfer of Jim St. Clair, who was foreman of the Aramco
carpenter shop. I knew Jim to be a capable construction craftsman who
was completely honest. He proved to be a winner. Slowly we were able
to persuade the Arab employees to destroy the homes. The area lacked
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away to raise the level. The water well to serve the area had been drilled
into a semi-salty aquifer. We had another well drilled into a better aqui-
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tying into Aramco power lines (Arabs would have expected virtually
free and unlimited power) we brought in a Caterpillar diesel generator
to supply electricity. In our new community, the sewers drained, the
water was acceptable quality and they had electricity. For most families
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the program moving ahead successfully, I was relieved of responsibility
of it, but I shall always be proud of what we accomplished. We got a ball
rolling which was unstoppable thereafter. Had we failed, the economic
results could have been catastrophic.

One last note on this subject. I thought Arab employees would
be delighted to have electricity in their homes in order to have light at
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their eyes. Arab employees reported that the most important advantage
to having electricity was that it operated a refrigerator in their homes –
which provided cool water! All the above are for your understanding
of the situation in which we lived in Saudi Arabia. It was a fascinating
experience, but it was not a “walk in the park.”
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