Shalom and Sheiks: 79 - Four Wives
...The intense heat caused problems with the construction. The steel pipes were so hot that the welders were unable to handle them, even though wearing their thick welding gloves. The barrels of tar used for anti-corrosive protection, when split open, poured their contents of tar like water into the desert before there was time, or even any need, to put them into the fire-pots. Operations were switched to night work under floodlights...
John Powell tells of hot times in the Iraqi desert.
To read earlier chapters of John's brilliant autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/shalom_and_sheiks/
We arrived in the Iraqi desert in the middle of summer and I have never known such heat. Most of us came out in heat rashes, much to Mike's amusement, until our revenge came one day, when Mike came in for breakfast and somebody yelled, "Hey! Look at the Doc." We all looked and gave loud cheers and jeers to see Mike sporting a beautiful crimson heat rash.
The intense heat caused problems with the construction. The steel pipes were so hot that the welders were unable to handle them, even though wearing their thick welding gloves. The barrels of tar used for anti-corrosive protection, when split open, poured their contents of tar like water into the desert before there was time, or even any need, to put them into the fire-pots. Operations were switched to night work under floodlights.
Our camp was situated 101 miles from Kirkuk, between the pumping stations of K2 and K3, and was known as 'Mile 101'. It was aptly named; 101 miles of flat desert to nowhere. Mile 101 was composed of buildings instead of tents. At night it was impossible to lie on the scorching mattress. I, like the others, would try to sleep on the baking hot cement floor with an electric fan at my feet and another at my head blowing on me continuously — and to hell with the scorpions. A cold shower was also impossible, as the water tanks, boiled by the sun, only produced scalding water and not until three o'clock in the morning was a shower just possible, and then it was scorching from the cold tap.
The Personnel Officer at K3 had carried out the necessary employment of staff, so on my arrival all was ready to commence the final leg of the construction to Kirkuk. Compared with Syria, the personnel work in Iraq was simple. There was freedom, with no interference from the Government or the Army, both being fully cooperative; in addition, the power and the authority of the Sheiks was considerably greater and being resident in the camp, they were readily available if any problems occurred. We also dealt with one tribe at a time, which dispensed with the perpetual bickering endured in Syria.
Mile 101 was in the area of the Al Bu Nimr tribe and Sheik Muneef and his cousin, Sheik Roka'an, were likeable characters. Sheik Muneef was a wit, and once I said to him,
"I was thinking, oh Sheik Muneef, that it must be good to be like you and to have four wives, all spoiling you, doing as you wish and giving you pleasure waiting on you, is it not so?"
"Well," he replied, 'Yes, Allah is generous, but..."
"But what?"
"Ah! There are four terrible things against it."
"Four terrible things? What are they?"
"How would you like to have to deal with four mothers-in-law?" came his reply in a flash, with a rueful grin.
