Flash for Sparkle: Atlanta 1
My sister, Sparkle Plenty has a blog on which she writes about only GOOD things, the tiny light that defies the darkness. As I was enduring my trip back this time, I thought of her when I got to Atlanta.
In fact, I was so impressed with this flash of light that I stopped, unloaded my camera from the carryon, and juggling my carry-on, my venti and my camera, walked the kilometer or so that this exhibit was staged between the A concourse and B concourse in Atlanta.
I am so glad I did. It totally lifted my mood, and it felt like a gift from the city of Atlanta. These are all statues by Zimbabwean artists – yes, plonked down as a public art project in the middle of the Atlanta airport. They must have paid a fortune to ship these statues, to create the huge posters on the walls showing crafts and scenes from Zimbabwe, poor Zimbabwe, in it’s steady downward spiral, these artists pull miracles out of the hat.
This was one of the wall posters, featuring Zimbabwean hand woven baskets:
Bravo to all cities that spend a little so that we can be lifted out of our everyday doings and taken to another world of texture, ideas and line. Bravo, Atlanta!
Loaves and Fishes
Just before I left Kuwait, I read an editorial on the front page of the Arab Times; the Reverend Andrew Thompson suggesting we organize something in Kuwait which will make use of almost-spoiled food from the groceries, unused food from restaurants, newly expired foods, etc. to be gathered by volunteers and distributed into communities of the hungry and needy in Kuwait.
Especially with Ramadan coming, the season of feasting with family and generousity towards others, this is a wonderful time to be organizing this kind of effort.
In the U.S., many groups do this, usually associated with churches. In Seattle, we have something called Second Harvest. This morning, very early, as I was leaving the grocery store, I saw this truck collecting food at the back door.
Probably the Reverend Thompson will begin with people doing this out of their own cars, but if you have any pull . . . oops, that dreaded word, wasta . . . with a local van dealer, maybe Kuwait could have it’s own food distribution program.
Loaves and Fishes refers to a miracle where Jesus blessed a basket with just a small amount of bread and fish, but when passed, the bread and fish fed over 5,000 people. It evokes the generousity of the human spirit, and celebrates the incredible goodness of sharing.
News from Florida
In Kuwait, the free press is still very cautious. They might hint at a story, they might give a few details, but they are still cautious about crimes which in other countries would be a matter of public record.
Here is a very sad story from the Florida news scene today:
State Representative Arrested for Prostitution Charge
State Representative Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday after offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer, authorities said.
Veteran’s Memorial Park was under surveillance when Allen, Republican – Merritt Island, was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times. . . Allen, 48, then approached an undercover officer and was arrested.
He has been charged with solicition for prostitution, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail. Brevard County officials said Allen posted a $500 bond.
For my Kuwait readers, a state representative is an elected official who helps make the laws. The Republican party is considers itself the guardian of public morals. So there is some irony in this story, as well as infinite sadness.
John from Cincinnati
One of the things we love the most about time with our son and his wife is that they open our horizons. I am waking up these mornings around 3:30, can’t get back to sleep. But my son helps me towards the end of the day, to stay up one more hour, by hooking me on John from Cincinnati, a new series on HBO.
The series is bizarre. I have only seen four episodes; and now I am going to have to wait until Sunday nights for the next one to view.
It centers around a California surfing family, the Yosts. The eldest was a surf champion until his knee gave out, his son wowed the surfing world until he got lost in a haze of dope and booze, and the youngest Yost, Shawn, is just beginning to show his supurb stuff.
But that isn’t all. There is the main character, John, who seems to be a transpositon of John the Baptist into modern times and lacking all kinds of clues as to how we humans behave. He doesn’t excrete, he doesn’t sleep, and he doesn’t understand sex. One of the funniest scenes is a surf-savvy supporting character named Kai explaining how sex is accomplished. It sounds pretty absurd as she explains it.
It’s about the surfing culture. It’s about family interactions. It’s about a small town and how they deal with conflict. And about how they support one another in tough times. It’s HBO, so it can be crude, it can be violent, and it can be very adult. It’s also thought provoking and intriguing.
Very strange things have begun to happen in this small town. Grandpa Yost ended up levitating as he washed off after surfing. Shawn had a fatal surfing accident, from which he recovers. John from Cincinnati can pull whatever money he needs out of his pocket. Butchie has been without drugs the two days John has been staying with him, and is amazed that he isn’t going through withdrawal.
Five segments in, we still don’t really know what we are seeing. We are beginning to understand how the community works, the interfamily struggles. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
New Mansions in Mangaf (3)
Last – the Grand Finale:
How many people live in a house like this? Is it divided into apartments? When we were looking for a villa, we were shown many houses like this, houses so BIG for two people and a cat that I was afraid we would rattle around in them like marbles. Some houses had four or five living rooms. More than one had a swimming pool on the main floor as you walked into the house. Most had kitchens outside the house, connected by a walkway, and only a tiny microwave/small fridge/coffee maker kind of kitchen inside the house. I am guessing these houses are similar.
This has to be an apartment, or several branches of the same family will all have separate suites, with some rooms in common. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
New Mansions in Mangaf (1)
A whole new neighborhood is going up in Mangaf, where once there was nothing but empty land. The streets are strewn with building materials, and sand, and cluttered with construction, but it won’t be long before this neighborhood is up and running.
I love that the designers put an old fashioned wind tower on the top of this house:
Squint your eyes, and you can see the potential here:
This is one of the smaller new houses going up – and even so, it could probably hold ten people without crowding:
Another nicely sized single family home:
7 Million Muslims
In today’s Kuwait Times is an Independance Day message from the American Ambassador, Richard LeBaron, in which he states:
Numbering some seven million, there are more Muslims in America than in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE combined. In our more than 1,200 mosques that stand peacefully alongside churches and synagogues, you will find congregations as diverse as America itself. . .
I had no idea. I know in the Seattle area there are many mosques, many Moslems; Seattle is a city built on the energy and hope of new immigrants. But I had no idea we had seven million Moslems in the USA.
If you want to read the full text of the message you will have to buy the paper – it’s not on the website.
Saturday Off Again
I thought it was a done deal. I am still learning how things are done in Kuwait! this is a tiny article in today’s Kuwait Times:
Saturday off decision deferred
KUWAIT: Official sources disclosed that the Cabinet decided to postpone implementing a decision officiating Saturday as the day off instead of Thursday because the final decision needed further studies, reported Al-Qabas.
They said that the previous decision which stipulated Saturday being a day off starting from the beginning of September was postponed due to parliamentary pressure on the Cabinet in dropping the decision.
Several organizations have reorganized their schedules to accomodate the “new” workweek and will be re-scheduling. I bet the schools are going wild. This postponement sounds indefinite – meaning like it’s off again permanently.
Katherine Phillips In Her Own Words
Here is the International Schools Review page where Katherine Phillips tells of her being notified by SMS that the travel ban was lifted and how she left immediately, not knowing how long the lifted ban would last:
Skunk also says it was front page on the Arab Times today.
Kuwait Minarets
I love mosques. I love the very simple old old ones, made with clay, that look like they are slowly melting back into the ground, and I love the new modern ones that look like spaceships about to lift off, and I love all those in-between. I have so many photos of mosques, mosques minarets and mosques at sunset, in moonlight . . .
So here is my question for you: Do any Kuwait mosques use LIVE muezzin to call out the Call to Prayer?
Here are some Kuwaiti mosques I have photographed recently.
This one is near the Sadu House, in an area being renovated:
And here is what it looked like before renovation:
I LOVE this one – it’s old, but it has STARS on the side of the minaret, going toward the top, cut out, probably to allow light to filter in where there are, I assume, steps or maybe a ladder.
This mosque is between fourth and fifth ring, where you used to turn to get to the old IKEA:
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