“Why doesn’t anybody discover oil in a civilized place?” It’s a lament heard daily in remote locations around the world, collectively called The Oil Patch, where adventuresome expatriates produce oil and gas. It’s tough but rewarding, and once they live in the Oil Patch, they are foreigners wherever they go, even back home. These stories are taken from everyday life of people living in The Oil Patch. People in the Middle East who know the heart-breaking sound of home brew exploding in a closet in the middle of the night, who have waded through a marketplace full of kids shouting the English phrase known all over the world: “Hallo, Meester. Geeve me mahney!”