At the Laydown Yard on Camp Arifjan where I had been assigned, it was extremely hot and almost unbearable. The rainy season in Kuwait was from January until March and then during the rest of the year, there were only a few sprinkles of rain drops once in a very long while. In this desert place where it is intensely hot and dry, all the trees and shrubs need to be watered every single day or they will dry up and surely die. There isn’t much grass or plant life on the desert. I often wondered what the sheep and goats ate out there. They definitely were lean animals after eating dried up twigs and brush.

The camels on the other hand, covered a lot of territory so they found their food somewhere in their long travels. When our work day on the military base finally came to an end, the ride back to our residence would take about forty five minutes or more. It was heavy congested traffic on their modern highway system before our arrival at the hotel. There were a few places to go in Kuwait after work but most of the guys would just go to their rooms after eating the evening meal and then watch TV or reading. We were all in need of sleep being drained of all of our energy.

On several occasions, there would be a restrictive ban on going into town anyway. Our work week was approximately 84hours over a seven day period. Usually every 3 or 4 months, we got to go somewhere on a short R & R. During my time off, I most always went back to visit my wife and son in Massachusetts.

The second year that I was in that part of the world, I went back to visit my sister and her family in England again. While I was visiting in EnglandLondon subway blasts went off. Her house is just three hours north of London when this terror happened on July 7th that year. This reminded me of our own 911 in the US though not quite as dramatic. One thing that I thought of at the time was that it was on 77. No one in Britain seemed to see the similarity of emergency numbers. Since I work in the Mideast, I could certainly make the comparison. In Kuwait and some other countries here, just like 911, if you type in 777, you’ll get emergency service. The following weekend, we did go in to London and rode the transit system. at my sister’s home in Loughborough, the

My sister Jean and niece Debra reluctantly went with me on the Tube (London Subway). After we visited Madam Tussands and I treated them to Fish and Chips at a London Pub, they were fine. I had brought a Panasonic video camera with me that year. I took videos of London at King’s Cross and other sites in the downtown area. I also shot videos at Stonehenge and at Weymouth on the English Channel as well as at West Bay. Here, the Fish and Chips are even better but you have to share them with the seagulls there.

We stayed at a B and B in Winterbourne Steepleton and visited in Upwey Dorsetshire and Fordington Dorchester where some of my ancestors resided in years gone by. I had a wonderful time with that camera and visiting over there. Most of the videos are on Google Video as well as there are links on my website. After I returned to Kuwait, I re-sold the camera on EBay and got all my money back.

John Sprague is a resident of Bellingham, MA and presently working as a contractor in Iraq. His website features pictures of the Mideast and video links of his visit in England. http://johnsprague.ws