Kate, an American woman in my novel, Singing in Babylon, teaches English in Saudi Arabia. She helps a teenage maid escape an abusive employer and return to her native Ethiopia. For Kate, the maid puts a face on the desperate millions in undeveloped countries who seek a better life. Her view of the world is forever changed.

On my first assignment with the U.S. Foreign Service, stationed in the Middle East, I faced multitudes who presented themselves at my visa interviewing window. This was my first experience overseas. Multitudes of the desperate from poverty-stricken and often corrupt countries flocked into the oil-rich states of the Middle East for jobs. They sometimes waited for hours before U.S. embassy windows, hoping for a chance to go to the American promised land.

The years I spent in the Middle East changed me as it did Kate. I now understand the importance of world events which appear of only passing interest to many Americans. Ripples from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American guards in Abu Ghraib, for example, echo in the Muslim world long after we have forgotten about them in this country. I understand how our morality, or lack of it, follows every soldier and every diplomat who serves in a foreign country.

A mind set that focuses only on domestic issues now disturbs me.