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These are recent stories - the rest are in my latest book,"Walking Through Adversity."

Stories about Middle East Trips (2)

Rob bryant
2006-01-09 11:39:38

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francanscents, murr, and a Persian Carpet. I got an extremely good deal on the carpet as I bought a Turkish carpet from an Iranian market sold by a Shrilankan (Congo, Africa) in Abu Dhabi, UAE (talk about the International Market in which we live in). One day I saw wild camels walking along through the desert in herds and sometimes, just pairs (it made me miss my friends and family - yes some of them look like camels).

Gift from the Colonel - While walking through one of the hangers where we maintain the UAE Air Force, the Program Manger received a phone call that our presence was requested in the Production Office. When I entered the four highest ranking local UAE officers were waiting for me. They smiled at me and presented me with a plaque on behalf of DynCorp that expresses appreciation and how hard our folks are working here. These are not given out lightly, however we could not take a picture for security reasons. I accepted it and thanked them on behalf of DynCorp. What wonderful gracious people. I noticed there were no women on base since women are looked down upon here, and no women were allowed on the base. It is their loss because my good friend Sandra Shoemaker could out-perform me or any man I know and make much more intelligent decisions than me any day of the week. During the night a Gulf Air aircraft crashed near Bahrain (my next stop) and I got up and sent e-mails home and friends to tell them I was OK. In the morning, I was taken to the airport only to find my visa was not in order, so I was driven two hours to the Dubai Airport to catch a plane there, but it was overbooked, so I waited another four hours for the next flight. I made the best of the down-time by shopping at the duty-free stores and bought more gifts for folks back home. I also bought a very large suitcase to put all the gifts in. They informed me there was only one seat left, but I only had ten minutes to make the flight. I grabbed my bags and ...