(Q) Dubai 1987-1990 Second and Third year

The Second Year

Pakistan 1988

This was an amazing interlude!

A friend of mine from Pakistan–Muzaffer K. who had been a student in Belfast while I was teaching at Methodist College invited us to go to Islamabad.

Actually, to be more accurate, we invited ourselves.

Muzaffer had been a good friend while doing his PhD in Belfast and had visited our house many times. I had also taken him on a trip to Dublin.

I was excited at the prospect of going to Pakistan.

We arrived in Islamabad and were taken to his house to meet his wife. It became clear there was some sort of political crisis going on concerning Kashmir and Afghanistan which were not far away and and there was also a security problem.

One afternoon, early in the visit, I was awakened from my siesta by a loud noise... it sounded like a shell exploding - there was the sound of metal on stone. I thought for a moment that the Russians were coming! (this was still in the days of the cold war!) In fact,it turned out to be the explosion of an ammunition dump which was two kilometers away. The shells continued to explode for about 30 minutes. We were at the University campus. I looked out of the window and I could see fires everywhere - caused by the grass catching fire from contact with hot exploding shells. It was quite scary, and at one point as the shells rained down on us we had to hide under the kitchen table and even under of the stairs. We have a photograph of Maria and Roger under the stairs with cotton wool in his ears.

Muzaffer, who had been tense from the time of our arrival was made even more nervous by this explosion . In retospect I realise now that Muzaffer was wirried about our visit and he probably felt that we might be in danger. We had no idea of course. I am also sure his association with us could easily have been misinterpreted by certain Pakistani elements as being too friendly with westerners. I think he felt obliged to receive us. He was clearly tense after this incident and we were somewhat relieved to go back to Dubai after ten days. We lost touch with Muzaffer after our return. I am sad about this.




But socially, the second year was very good again and of course Sergie was born..
at the end of the second year we went home with a gain to Belfast up to this time we rented a House close to Mom and Dad and it was much more satisfactory. Everyone got on well with each other . I borrowed a red card from Archie one of Dad's friends.

Third Year

This was a good year again socially and Mom and Dad came to visit us again. There were plenty of barbecues in the desert and sunny days on the beach.

Weewee was looking for an opportunity to get rid of me. I had a hopeless lower sixth A level biology class of 4 biology students. They were useless-mostly thick and idle and there was no way they were going to pass their 'A' levels and I knew it. I knew I would be blamed in the end for the results so I was almost relieved when Weewee one day to said that that he had noticed that one of my students had injured himself in a practical experiment calculating the heat of combustion of peanuts. What safety procedures and precautions had I followed etc? I knew what was coming next: Can I see you're teaching notes and schemes of work and all that crap which nobody ever did in those days. I thought about it and decided to negotiate with Weewee my exit. There was no future in the scholl for me with Weewee at the helm. I knew he had money to give away so I was going to get some of that in return for my resignation. It was a major shock for the family again. So in June 1998, 24 hours before Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait we all headed home to Belfast to an uncertain future . With us we took Ken H from Kuwait-who who happened to be on holiday with us for the last few days and we and went home with us to Ireland. Ken was head of a school in Kuwait a school which eventually was destroyed by Saddam's soldiers. Ken never went back to that school. So abruptly ended our relatively luxurious life in the Dubai Hilton Apartments!

Mum and Dad had visited us twice and my frind David C once but I had been unable to interest my brothers in a visit.

A few weeks later we had packed up and left Dubai for good leaving our good friends Len, Harry and Margaret behind. The day after our departure Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq. It was June 1990