From Huts to Hotel

In Rafa, you lived in, first of all we started off in tents and then old metal Quonset huts. Myself and my colleague, Gil, we were in movement control and at the end of our main building, there was the offices, warehouse and at the end was a small room; it would be about maybe 6 foot wide by about 12 foot long, room for two beds and two guys and we slept in that room. That was our quarters. The other guys were in Quonset huts which were hotter than hell because of the steel in the heat during the day, sand floors, which was the desert itself. You don’t seen any grass. Any grass that’s growing, it’s grown for vegetation, to eat; they cultivate it that way, they grow it that way so they can have a salad and it’s not bad. But living in Lebanon, it was completely different. I lived in the Omar Khayyam Hotel. I’d get out of bed in the morning, just leave it the way it was and the maid would come in and tidy everything up and they’d take my laundry out and do it for me without being asked. We’d go down to a beautiful restaurant in the hotel for our meals so living in Lebanon and living in Rafa were two different things.