Hot as . . .
Night before last, for the first time, I saw my husband’s temperature gizmo in the car register 50°C – and that was at 8 PM.
In Kuwait, if the temperature registers 50°C, work is supposed to cease. The official temperature gauges on buildings downtown never go above 49°C. But if the temperature outside is still 50°C at 8 at night, wouldn’t you think it would be higher during mid-day?
He had visitors in town the other day, visitors who were so fascinated with the heat that they took photos of his dashboard temperature gauge.
It is unbelievably hot.
Electricity Bills Certificate?
Back in May, we saw the following in the Kuwait Times:
“the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has decided to ask all expatriates before exiting the country – whether on holiday or permanently – to obtain a certificate of clearance from the ministry. The certificate is only valid for one month. If the expat doesn’t have it, he will be returning from the airport the same day . . . “
School is out, people have fled the heat in droves, even with the atrocious airline prices. Has anyone heard of this policy being implemented? I haven’t heard of anyone being halted from travelling because of an unpaid bill, nor did anyone look us up when we were departing on holiday.
Masumbe’s Wisdom By the Campfire
Every night before dinner in these camps is a time for gathering around the campfire, sharing stories, getting to know the fellow guests. At Tena Tena our third night, we are sitting with Msumbe, the assistant camp manager, and listening to him talk about Zambia.
Zambia is a peaceful nation, and it is a miracle. More than seventy different tribes, and that many different languages and dialects. Rich in natural resources, full of children hungry to learn, Zambia has placed a high priority in educating everyone in getting along with one another.
“So like when you come across another person, not from where you are from, you don’t start in with a lot of questions. First you ask ‘How is it where you are from?’ and then you listen. When you know where he is coming from, and how are things there, then you can ask better questions, and not offend someone.”
Hmmmm, I thought, good advice. Sometimes I feel a little shy, especially when there are large groups of “others” like South Africans, or British, and they have their own values, their own ways of communicating, different from ours.
Soon, I was sitting next to a British woman, and desperately trying to think of a way to get HER talking, so I could be listening, and that is exactly what I asked “Tell me what life is like where you are from?”
She looked at me like I was a little crazy and asked what I meant. I said that I knew her life was very different from mine, and I was interested to know what her daily life was like. So she started telling me she wasn’t very interesting really, but gave me some details, and actually, it WAS interesting. Once she got going, knowing I really was interested, I learned a whole lot!
One detail I will never forget is that she rides to the foxes every weekend in the fox hunting season, this very respectable woman, and that they all do, even if it is against the law. No matter what the weather, they ride, hour upon hour. She laughed and said they ride so long and so hard that her clothes become discolored from the saddle leather, and she comes home stained and filthy from her rides.
Now how would I ever have known all that without Masumbe’s good question? It’s like being given a key that opens many locks. You never know what treasures you will come upon, but you have this wonderful key. Thank you, Masumbe!
Tena Tena, RPS, Zambia 2008
We travel to Africa almost every year, but the Robin Pope Safari camps are the only ones we have ever visited more than once. After our first visit, I think in 2003, we went back for a Hiking with Robin Pope safari in 2005 and enjoyed every minute of it. When we first dreamed of taking our son and his wife to Africa with us, we thought we would do the Hemingway Safari with CCAfrica (it’s twelve parts but this link takes you to the first entry) but that takes 14 days, and LawAndOrder Man doesn’t get that much time off.
No problem, we know that the Robin Pope Safari Camps do it right. We know they will be totally WOWED. We set up some dates, and then when the Cupertino wedding comes up, we revise the dates, which means that we do the same trip we did the other two times, only backwards. This is fun! When you are booking a Robin Pope Safari, you need to book early, they fill up fast.
We love Tena Tena, the first camp we stayed at. Each couple has a very large tent, with furniture and books and oriental carpets. The bedcovers are kilim, the whole flavor is very fusion, like Zanzibar – African, Indian and Middle Eastern. There are only five tents, maximum of ten guests. We feel so at home.
During the day, each tent is totally open in the front to a large patio from which you can watch passing game. Our very first day in Tena Tena, just after lunch the elephants came through, and we watched, enchanted, from the porch. First AdventureMan went to our son’s tent to watch as they passed, and then all three came to our tent. My heart was so full of joy that I didn’t know whether to watch the elephants or to thank God for the sheer happiness I felt, all of us together and the miracle of elephants walking right past our door as we watched in wonder. I found a way to do both.
So here are some more photos of our time at Tena Tena:
The airplane we flew in on, and Mfuwe International Airport. Once a week or so, a flight comes in from Malawi, and so it is genuinely an International airport:
The South Luangua needs these small planes to get the visitors to their camps, so Robin and Jo Pope invested in their own airline, ProFlight.
The guides at the Robin Pope Camps are so patient. I am absolutely ga-ga about the sky, seeing blue sky and clouds and a sunset. I get gorgeous sunrises in Kuwait, but I never see the sun set. The guide is patient when I ask him to stop to take a photo. While we are stopped – a hyena comes slinking along, totally ignoring us, crossing behind our vehicle.
The next morning, it is up at 0530, out of the camp by six (not a vacation for people who want to sleep in!) LawAndOrder Man and EnviroGirl have been awake since three a.m. – jet lagging – and are bright and shiny!
As we are watching the baboons wake up and take care of daily business, we see the most amazing fight – a set of four birds fighting over a tree top territory. One hops up on his partner’s back to scold and intimidate the other two into leaving:
Back in Tena Tena, a delicious lunch – every meal is delicious – and just as we are finishing, there are elephants crossing the river to our side. What is cuter than a baby elephant?
The elephants crossed the river, then came foraging down past our tents:
I know you are all dying to see LawAndOrder Man and Enviro Girl – that’s them, watching the elephants on our tent front porch.
Our guide, Bertram, was amazing. He would ask us “what do you want to see?” and we would tell him, and he knew just where to find them. The first night drive, I said “We love seeing everything, but it would be a real thrill to see a leopard.”
We drove around, looking at all kinds of things, and then he said “over on your left is a hammerkopf – and a leopard.” And there she was, relaxed, soaking up a little sun before she hunted up something for the night’s dinner. She posed, she stretched, she changed positions and gave us plenty of time before she sauntered off. Wooo HOOOOOO! We had been to Africa three times before we ever saw a leopard, and here was one on their very first night of their very first safari. God is Good!
One of the best parts about Tena Tena is hearing hippos. There are hippos everywhere:
Thank you for being so patient with all my vacation stories and photos. I know, I know, I am turning into that boring old aunt who always shows up with photos! 😉
Disturbing Change
Late yesterday, I was online on AOL checking my e-mails. I often do, Law and Order Man comes online around that time in Pensacola and we can grab a quick chat.
Only Instant Messaging didn’t show up on my screen. I took care of business, and went on to other things. We don’t chat every day, just when we can.
Today, I noticed again – I don’t have AIM. I have a couple other ways to check in online, so I tried them. No AIM. Finally, I tried iChat, which also logs into AIM. It showed me logged in, it also showed no contacts.
My other AOL entry route didn’t show the Buddy Screen, even when I asked it to repeatedly.
I am hoping this is a little AOL glitch, temporary.
You don’t think Instant Messaging is being blocked in Kuwait, do you?
Grin for the Day
Thanks to some great long-time friends for this visual:
The American way of life!
Michelangelo’s famous statue, David, returns to Italy this week after a successful 12 week, 20 city tour in the United States of America.
The David statue after a visit to the USA
Sacred Spaces in Kuwait
As I was on my way home from picking up milk and vegetables, I passed another local mosque undergoing renovation. Or at least, that is my best guess; it has been gutted and partially destroyed. I am guessing it is about to be reconstructed, but I don’t know for sure. I am only guessing because I have seen it happen to other mosques since we arrived.
And it got me thinking, and I am going to ask a question, but I will tell you before I ask it, that if you asked me the same question about Christian spaces, I would have to ask an expert; it is not a question I can answer about my own culture.
Do Moslems have sacred spaces? How are they made sacred? Is there a ceremony? If you are going to destroy parts of a building on a sacred space, does it have to be de-consecrated (made no-longer-sacred) while it is undergoing renovation? If a mosque is destroyed/no longer used is there a ceremony that makes it no longer a holy spot?
I know that in my religion, churches are consecrated, made officially holy, and that there is a ceremony. I know that in some places, churches that are no longer needed are deconsecrated, not made UNholy, but made not a sacred place of worship any more, and they become restaurants, housing, etc.
In my specific branch of Christianity, which is Episcopalian, there is a service for blessing a new house, which I love, and it is called a House Blessing. The priest comes, usually at dusk, you can have friends there, you carry candles and he blesses every room in the house. When we buy and move into a new house, we always have it blessed. The priest tells me that it is really a mis-nomer, it is not the house being blessed, but those who live within in. To me, that is a distinction that hardly matters, all I know is that I feel more secure in a house that has been blessed.
And no, there is no un-blessing ceremony when we leave a house. The blessing does not create a holy space, a place of worship, a sacred place, but only blesses a humble dwelling.
No, I don’t understand exactly how this all works.
I remember travelling in Syria with an archaeology group one time, and we went to see the site of St. Simeon the Stylite. In my cynical heart, I was not wild about the visit – a saint who sat atop a huge rock for several years to show his devotion to God? When I got there, however, my heart changed – it felt like a holy place. It felt like Saint Simeon had done a holy act, demonstrating his faith so . . . faithfully. If you know Syria, you know how bitterly cold it can be in winter, and how bone-breakingly hot it can be in summer. The pure grit and devotion it took to stay atop the pillar of stone was an amazingly faithful act. It felt like a sacred place, a holy place, to me.
So my question is not just for the Moslem readers, but also for Christian readers – what makes a space holy? Does it need a ceremony to be holy? Does it need a ceremony if it will no longer be used for sacred purposes?
Jackknife
The Kuwait Times crime editor has come across a new term, and now he is using it every chance he gets. It is driving me crazy.
See if you can pick it out:
Policeman Injured
A policeman was injured after his patrol vehicle jackknifed when he lost control of the steering with the car coming to a rest upside down in the road. The officer managed to use the car’s radio to call for assistance and emergency services were quickly rushed to the scene, rushing the injured policeman to hospital.
Unless the police officer was driving a sectioned vehical; a car towing a trailer, a truck carrying a connected load – something that can be BENT, FOLDED, like a jackknife –
– then it is NOT a jackknifed vehicle. Most police vehicles are sedans. A sedan cannot jackknife.
This is the explanation from Wikipedia:
Jackknifing means the accidental folding of an articulated vehicle (i.e. one towing a trailer) such that it resembles the acute angle of a folding pocket knife. If a vehicle towing a trailer skids, the trailer can push it from behind until it spins round and faces backwards. This may be caused by equipment failure, improper braking, or adverse road conditions such as an icy road surface.
Jackknifing is not very common and usually only happens to an empty vehicle. Most truck drivers are skillful enough to correct a skid before it becomes a jackknife. It would be an exaggeration to claim that jackknifing accounts for a large number of tractor-semitrailer accidents since in many cases it is the collision that would have caused the vehicle to jackknife and not vice versa. Radio stations often report jackknifed trucks because people phone to tell them, but more often than not, the truck has not technically jackknifed; it may be stuck in the snow or damaged in a crash.
The Qatteri Cat’s Five Under Five
As told to me by the Qatteri Cat:
1. The sound of Dad’s key in the door when he comes home.
2. Tuna water
3. Sleeping on my back in the last remaining spot of sunshine
4. Cat mint! Cat grass! Catnip!
5. Snuggling up to Mom on a cold winter day.
Five Under Five Tag – You’re It!
It’s a slow summer day, not a lot going on, so let’s play.
I was making the Pasta Melanzane and added some sun-dried tomatoes when the smell suddenly reached my nose and I was caught by the sweet intensity of the smell. I thought to myself “so much flavor! and at so little cost!” and it started a whole train of thought.
What gives your life pleasure and doesn’t cost much? Here are the rules – the cost of your pleasure must be under 5KD (under $20 for my USA players). See if you can think of five. If you find more than five, you can list those too, if you want – the rules here are pretty vague. so – give me five!
Here are mine:
1. The sound of my husband whistling – it means he is feeling peaceful, even happy.
2. Moments with my family when I suddenly realize how special they are, and truly treasure our time together.
3. The intense flavor of sun-dried tomatoes.
4. The sound of waves crashing onto the shore.
5. The smell of the sea, cloves, lavender, baked apples, roasting meat, a fresh pine Christmas tree,
the first rain in a dry, dusty country.
Bonus: The smell of Comfort fabric softener on laundered underwear. 🙂
The sound of my friend’s voice when I don’t expect a call from her.
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