Two Eunice girls hanging out in Dubai

It sometimes is a small world, but the probability of two Eunice women winding up in the same Middle Eastern city is nonetheless quite low. But they did.
Carrying the improbability a step further -- the two have known each other since the days of Michael Jackson’s Bad World tour (1980’s for younger readers).
Still more improbable -- the father of one was best man at the wedding of one of them’s mother.
Sheila Guillory Ivory and Candace Joubert Khalifa live in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ second most popular city and emirate on the shore of the Persian Gulf.
Candace’s father, former mayor Curtis Joubert, was best man at the wedding of Sheila’s mother and step-father, the late Gerald and Patricia Guillory Duplechain.
Two of Sheila’s uncles and their wives -- John and Elaine Guillory and Joe and Debbie Guillory -- still live in Eunice.
Sheila graduated from Eunice High in 1990, attended LSU Eunice, where she was Miss LSUE 1991-92 and graduated from UL Lafayette.
Her husband John is from Maine and works for Transocean. They have lived internationally since 2002 -- including stops in St. John’s Newfoundland Candada, Doha Qaar, Cairo and Geneeva -- and spend summers in Maine. This season, they also plan to visit in Louisiana.
Candace has been in the Middle East since 2005, first in Egypt before locating in Dubai.
Her husband Taha has been with Intel Corp. for 19 years and is regional general manager of Intel-Middle East and Northern Africa, and has been cited by Forbes as one of the top 100 executives in the Middle East.
Both women have children at UL. Sheila’s son, Chase Cormier, is an uppepr classman and Candace’s daughter, Dahlia, will begin there this fall.
Candace’s son Mohamed was just selected as Headboy of of the secondary school for next academic school year. Headboy is the same as President in US schools. “I tell him he will be a politician like his grandpa, Curtis,” Candace says. Mo plays on two soccer teams and is a member of the Leadership Congress and the Math and Science Olympic team.
Sheila’s son Gabe and her daughter Vivian attend American School of Dubai.
Candace said her Dahlia had enrollment offers from several universities in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and decided to be a Ragin Cajun after visiting the campus last summer.
She will live not far from her Candice’s mother, Adles Mailhes Joubert.
Dahlia is fluent in French and Arabic as well as English. and will study environmental science on academic scholarship.