Sunrise: As Good As it Gets
I’ve been waiting and waiting. It’s been days since there has been a good sunrise, or even a visible sunrise. This morning, this is as good as it gets. Please forgive my rain streaked (woo hooo!) windows:
Weather Underground: Kuwait says it is going to get up to 78°F/27°C today. Sigh. I have the air conditioning still off. I don’t want to turn it on again, but with 77% humidity . . . it just makes me sad, turning on the a/c in February. 😦
Today, there really is a light haze; I can see maybe 500 meters off the coast. Maybe the sun will burn the haze off.
The Sultan Center is packing away all the Valentine’s Day supplies, and has brought out all the Kuwait Independence / Liberation Day supplies – have you stocked up?
Fehaheel: The Wild West
Well, really, the wild south. When we came to Kuwait, we were told Fehaheel and Jahra are “off limits” due to the high crime rate and high accident rate and non-law-abiding behaviors. We’re not very good at obeying the rules, especially when we want to visit Tanureen a time or two before it closes, so we make the long drive and brave the lawlessness.
As you get close to the Al Kout / Manshar Mall complexes, there is one last stoplight, and a very narrow – just two lanes – road. There is a very clear NO U TURN sign, indicating cars may turn left, but not make a U-Turn, there just isn’t enough room.
We were dying laughing. Not only are they continually making left turns – the sign might was well not even be there – but they make them from both lanes. In this photo, three cars are making the U-Turn, the white station wagon is having to back up and the black car slips into the inside lane narrowly missing the backing up white car – it is hilarious:
Here is what scares me. We have lived here three years. We kinda drive like this, too. Like if you drive differently, you become part of the problem. We are not speeders, and we don’t weave narrowly between cars with millimeters to spare – but I suspect we have picked up some habits we don’t even know we have, and will have to tone our driving down once we return to a world where laws are enforced. I hope we will be able to do it without the hurt of paying big fines en route. 😦
Camel Racing Championship – Who Knew?
From today’s Al Watan:
Camel racing championship kicks off
Camels ridden by robot jockeys take off at the beginning of a race that was held on the martyr Fahad AlـAhmad AlـSabah track in Kabad on Sunday. The competition marked the start of the Kuwait Ninth Camel Racing Championship which is being held from Feb. 15ـ19. (Al Watan)
Last updated on Monday 16/2/2009
My whine: This is the kind of event that thrills our little western souls. We love your cultural events, and camel racing – like how exotic does it get? Robot riders? oh WOW. We would have gone in a heartbeat, but you all kept it a SECRET! (whining whining whining) We only find out the day AFTER it happens!
NonStomped Roses
Thanks be to God for a sweet husband. He knows I love white roses, and that’s what he got me, with one mischievous red red rose stuck right in the middle. 😉
There is a shop in Kuwait we love, Au Nom de la Rose, where the flowers are always fresh, and beautiful, and put together naturally. AdventureMan says on Valentine’s Day, they were SO busy, but that the man in front of him, holding a bouquet, was trying to get a discount.
(whine! whine! whine!) said the man in front of him.
“Sir! This is not Mubarakiyya! This is fixed price! And you have already paid, why are you asking now for a discount?” said the polite but very very busy and professional manager. LOL!
We asked the manager how she liked working in Kuwait. (I am telling you this because her response was so totally unexpected, and delightful.)
“I LOVE working here!” she said. “The woman I work for, who owns the store, is wonderful to work for. I love my job, and she trusts me.”
She also gets paid a decent wage, and she gets paid on time. This is one of the happiest women I have met in Kuwait.
Au Nom de la Rose has more than one location, but the one we go to is next to Chocolat, next to Tumbleweeds, in that stretch of stores and restaurants near Bida’a circle. Expensive. Worth every fils. 🙂
No sunrise today. I can’t even see the sea. Whatever this is socking us in today – fog? sand? it is not orange, but it is THICK.
3baid, Today’s Sweetheart
Have you seen the Friday Kuwait Times? If not, run right out and buy it now, or go to the blue link where it says Kuwait Times. There is a FULL PAGE story in the Friday Times on PaperDump, the eco-friendly blog where all kinds of menus, schedules, telephone numbers, etc. are stored, saving paper.
You can go to PaperDump by clicking on PaperDump, although most of you already have it stored on your blog favorites. I learned, reading the article, that they get 10,000 hits a DAY. Now that is public service.
Wooo HOOO, 3baid, you are getting just a small portion of the recognition you deserve for the great public service you are making, donating your time and energies to this valuable service. Woo HOOO!
Question from Willy Q
“Does anyone know where I could go to get a camel ride in Kuwait?”
I have no idea, Willy Q, but maybe one of my readers out there in virtual Kuwait-land knows . . anyone? anyone? anyone?
Law and Order Disappears at Al Watan
When I was studying for my masters degree, one of the things we looked for were things that weren’t there. I’ts like watching for denials – a denial may point to a scandal that is about to erupt. Sometimes negative space is as significant as filled space – you have to learn to look for what is not there, as well as for what is there. I know, I know, it sounds sort of zen, but it makes sense when you think about it.
Here is an example. After months of having a Law and Order section on Al Watan, it has disappeared. I have no idea what it means. Maybe there was only one person every day who checked it (me!) and they dropped it because it wasn’t needed. Maybe there are fewer crimes happening in Kuwait? To me, it is possibly significant that it is NOT there.
Islamic Solution to Kuwait Unemployment: Women Stay Home
From today’s Kuwait Times:
Islamic system way to resolve unemployment
KUWAIT; Dr. Ahmad Aziz al Muzaini, the Secretary of the Shura and Salam group, said that following Islamic doctrine concerning work would be one solution to the problem of unemployment and the excessive numbers of expatriate workers.
Calling on women to take care of their own homes and families, rather than employing domestic staff, Dr. Al Muzaini said that by doing so millions of Kuwaiti Dinars transferred outside the country annually would be saved and invested in the local economy. If domestic workers proved to be essential, he said, local and other Arab people could do these jobs, rather than bringing in expatriates from thousands of miles away.
Dr. Al-Muzaini said that his group has also recommended a temporary suspension of the import of cars to Kuwait, saying that each household in the country currently owns several cars which is causing numerous accidents and traffic congestion.
He also recommended that more women be employed as taxi drivers catering to all-female clientele, which would be in female passengers interests and insure their safety.
There’s more. You can read it yourself in the Kuwait Times.
(Sigh) Where to start?
Did you know there is a law on the books in Kuwait that to have a driver’s license, a woman must have a college degree and/or be employed full time? When I asked our sponsor/fixer, he told me that “of course, madam, that doesn’t apply to you.”
But if Dr. Ahmad Aziz al Muzaini wants us to stay home, do you think he also prefers that the men hold responsible jobs rather than women? How do you think he feels about female Ministers? Does he think women should be restricted from driving as a solution to traffic congestion?
I have female Muslim friends who say that there is nothing un-Islamic about women going out to work, that on the contrary, women were encouraged to have their own businesses and were encouraged to seek education and knowledge in true Islam.
Why is it when things start going south, the ultra-religious start throwing restrictions on women?
Better, Still Sandy
Once again, we have “light haze.” This is better than yesterday – we can see the shore – but this is not what I would call a light haze. Taken around 7:30 a.m.
There is a 20% chance of rain on Monday. We surely need rain to damp down all this new orange sand.
My sister, Sparkle, asked if people don’t wear gauze masks when the sand blows in like this. Yes, Sparkle, you see them everywhere, but most people who can, stay home, stay inside. Even inside, last night when it was time to go to sleep, it felt like breathing underwater, the air feels thick and heavy. It gives you a little headache after a while, trying to breathe.
This morning is a little better; maybe there has been some shift in atmospheric pressure. Even though the sun is up, you don’t see a lot of orange like yesterday, but the thick haze in front of my house is more a tangerine-tinged cream color.
Weirder still, there are two new layers of sand on the beach in front of our house, orange and oranger:
Light Haze at Noon
That light haze just keeps getting thicker and thicker and oranger and oranger. It is surprisingly cool and damp; I am used to most of the dust storms being HOT. A cool and damp dust storm means the orange dust is sticking to everything, to windows, to car windshields, to pavement. AdventureMan says it is piling up in drifts on some of the major roads. Be careful out there, my friends.
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