During the Iran-Iraq war, I worked for two and a half years in a big French construction company for the project of 4,000 units military housing construction in Mosul, Iraq. Our employment main terms were free foods, accommodations, plane tickets, regular monthly salaries with overtime pay, one month yearly vacation, workers' camps medical clinics with doctors, nurses and medicines.
During the war, the Iraqi military officers and soldiers had the priorities on food supplies. During our first two-month days, there were shortages of foods in our workers' residential camps which were made of portable two-room separated housing, each with airconditioning unit, toilet and bath room. Sometimes we ate rice soups with eggs. The workers, who were not used to family hardship lives, were having tears from their eyes while eating and they decided to resign and go back to their origin country. I was not affected by that kind of hardship because I grown up in a poor family. After two months, the company was able to solve the food problem by importing from other countries.
