Sunrise 29 May 2008
Holy Smokes – where did May go? 2008 is slipping through my fingers; I have so many plans and ideas and I don’t know how much will l really get done?
AdventureMan kept me busy and talking until I collapsed around nine last night, and did not sleep all that well. I finally gave up around 4:30 ayem and ended up getting some very Turneresque pre-dawn shots. Had to go out on the balcony to take them because my windows are all smogged with the humidity and smeared with the dust and rain from yesterday.
Going out to take a photo on the balcony requires feeding the Qatteri Cat back in his room, then running to the kitchen and shutting the door, then opening the balcony door. We know QC knows there is fresh air out that door, but we don’t want him to discover the balcony and all the dangers it represents to a logic-challenged cat.
Well, it’s not really dramatic enough for Turner but it has those dramatic elements of opalescent sky, translucent waters and hazy horizon that reminded me of Turner:
Moments later, we had sunrise:
And even some surf this morning:
We have a break in the weather today – only 109° instead of the 111’s and 112’s predicted for later on:
Warm Welcome Home
Everything went smoothly on my great trip back to Kuwait, as AdventureMan would say “the number of landings equalled the number of take-offs” and that is always a very good thing. My flights were more or less on time, I had space and time and endurance . . . the immigration line was short and my bags came off the flight quickly and . . . the best is yet to come.
We always love going to the airport. The airport in Kuwait is nothing like the airport in Seattle, all Nordic and Scandinavian cool, with restrained welcomes and hearty pats on the back . . . no, the Kuwait welcome is unrestrained, literally, although there are barriers, when someone important is coming home – a new bride, a returning university student, grandma and grandpa coming back from the Hajj, or maybe Daddy coming home from a business trip – the barriers, literally, fall.
Family members show up en masse and this is one time when voices are not lowered – everyone shouts and whoops with joy when the loved one appears on the arrival “runway.”
And today – today, it was my turn. As I exited the customs check, there were cheers! There was a huge crowd, waiting – for me! They threw rose petals! They ululated! It was the most wonderful arrival I have ever experienced. They even had TV lights, cameras!
oh! wait! who are those handsome uniformed young men being mobbed by their proud family members?
Ah well, I was welcomed by the sweet warm grin of AdventureMan, waiting for me patiently, and yes, yes, I did walk over some rose petals, and I was greeted with shouts and cheers and ululations, even if it wasn’t exactly for me . . . it was still, quite a thrill, and a wonderful way to come back to Kuwait.
When I arrived in Seattle, people told me I had brought Kuwait weather, as it was in the 90’s and low 100’s, very warm for Seattle in May. Returning the favor, the temperatures in Kuwait have dropped to about 38°C – close to 100°F, and there are scattered rain-plops. I don’t see any signs of showers, yet, but the night is yet young, and very very humid.
Correction
Stating that the incident never happened because it was not reported to them does not mean it did not happen. An eight year old girl does not make up a rape; she doesn’t have the vocabulary, she doesn’t have the experience to create a lie like that.
“No one brought it to our notice” does not mean it didn’t happen.
Indian School denies girl raped by the school bus driver
KUWAIT CITY : An official at an Indian School in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh on Monday rubbished claims that a girl student from the school was raped last week by the school bus driver.
Reliable sources had earlier told the Arab Times that an eight-year-old student from the school was raped by the school bus driver, who reportedly charmed the girl with sweet talk and took her to his apartment in Jleeb Al-Shyoukh where he raped her.
The girl, who hails from Kerala, reported the incident to her parents after they quizzed her as to why she was late in getting home from school.
Reacting to the reports the school official added: “I can confirm that no such incident happened in our school as no one brought it to our notice.”
The official further added: “We always encourage parents of students to use the school transportation. However, we cannot coerce them into using our transportation. We would have taken immediate action if any such incident was reported to us. The safety of our students is our foremost concern.”
“It is possible that the parents of the victim may not have reported the incident to the school authorities as the student may have been using a private transportation,” the source said.
The source added that the outraged father of the victim reportedly beat up the accused black and blue before turning him over to the police and that the family is in a state of shock trying to come to grips with the incident.
According to the source, a case has been registered at the Jleeb Al-Shyoukh police station and investigations are in progress.
In another incident, a school boy of an Indian school in Abbassiya reportedly impregnated a fellow student and that the two were involved in a long courtship, according to a source. No further details could immediately be obtained.
By Francis A. Clifford Cardozo
Arab Times Staff
One Last Barbecue
Yes, yes, we have barbecue in Kuwait, and it is fabulous. Fabulous barbecued Kuwaiti shrimp and hammour (grouper), fabulous lamb, fabulous chicken, fabulous kebab. . . . and it isn’t the same. From time to time, AdventureMan and I just yearn for some American Barbecue.
Today I stopped by Sharp’s and picked up a Kansas City Barbecue:
You put the cole slaw and the fried onions on top of the BBQ meat there – it already has a Kansas City mustardy sauce cooked right into it. . . oh YUMMMMM. And just look at those chips! Real potato! And SO crisp!
A Day When Kuwait Looks Really Good
This day started off really early, because Mom and Sparkle are leaving on a two day road trip to the BIG EVENT in Silicon Valley. Yep, I noticed my hotel is just down the street from the Apple Headquarters for the entire world. This is going to be fun!
I wanted to get the documentary shots and I also wanted to get some laundry done before I head for the same wedding, but I am flying, so I have an extra day here. Mom and Sparkle needed to drive, they have significant clothes, clothes for every event, important clothes, important shoes, important make up and accessories, and then more clothes for the road trip drifting along the Pacific Coast all the way back, so they needed to have a wagon to haul all their clothes.
Besides – a road trip . . . road trips are always fun! Sparkle loves to drive, and Mom always loves a trip, especially a trip with a wedding in it.
Bye, Mom! Bye, Sparkle!
I don’t have a lot of laundry, it takes me maybe a couple hours, and then I leave, deciding to fill the tank today as I will drive straight to the airport tomorrow. This Jeep uses more gas than my normal car, even though it seems to be about the same size. When I get to the tank, however, the pump keeps going and going and going and my eyes get bigger and bigger and bigger.
For those of you who do not live in Kuwait, an oil producing country with world class cars, we pay about 80 cents a gallon for our gas. My little SUV, which I fill every now and then, takes about ten gallons when I fill it. So I normally pay around $10.00 max to fill my car, and that is when I drift in on fumes.
This is what I paid today:
And you know how in movies when they open a bank vault, you can hear all kinds of whirrs and levers and things falling into place?
You would have heard that today, as my brain whirred and clicked and chunks of information fell into place:
° The big grin when the car rental guy said he was doing me a big favor and upgrading me to an SUV at no additional cost to me.
° The huge herd of SUV’s waiting in the auto rental pick-up place; not a normal rental car in sight.
° My mother and sister driving to San Jose, overnighting along the way, and God only knows how often they will have to fill the tank – although they ARE driving a hybrid, and that should help a little. Still, it makes my flight a real bargain, especially since I booked and paid back in January before the huge increases hit.
Buying gas in Kuwait is a THRILL! Buying gas in Seattle is heart-stopping!
The second thing I noticed that makes Kuwait look really really good is you know how we have been talking about the beautiful cool weather and the rain?
I took one outfit out of the dryer still very damp; I do it all the time in Kuwait, take them out, shake them, hang them up and they dry beautifully, and I don’t have to iron very much. In Kuwait, things dry really Really REALLY fast. Like a cotton dress, even fresh out of the washer, will be dry in one hour.
Hours later, this little cotton outfit taken from the dryer in Seattle, is still cold and damp around the seams. I’ve even ironed and the seams are still damp. Maybe if I hang the outfit overnight in the warm bathroom it will be dry enough to pack tomorrow. Maybe I should microwave it? Or maybe I can pack it damp and then pull it out of the suitcase as soon as I get to San Jose and hope it will dry before my flight back to Kuwait?
Upholstery Class
About ten years ago, I was in school and didn’t like what I was studying very much, so I took a class in upholstering furniture. I loved it.
First you take the old furniture and your have to undo all the nails and take all the worn and dirty upholstery off, until you get the furniture down to the bones. Trust me, it is very hard work, and it is dirty. You can work at it all day, and your muscles ache at the end of the day.
If there are exposed wood surfaces, you have to strip them and sand them down and refinish them. That is very painstaking work. Then you have to re-foam and re-pad the seating and back surfaces. Finally, at the very last – you get to put on the new fabric.
Why am I telling you all this? Because that new fabric makes all the difference. I saw some new fabric today, and I have nothing to re-upholster. I love this fabric! I could see it on dining room chairs, I could see it on a sleek couch in my bedroom! It is so bright, so cheerful, so upbeat!
I am not sure AdventureMan would like that fabric at all. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t buy that fabric!
10,000 Steps Continued
As you know, I began an exercise program a few weeks ago called 10,000 Steps – you can find out more about it here: 10,000 Steps. I don’t have very good luck with gyms . . . it’s just a waste of money for me; I sign up all enthusiastic, and by the second day at the gym I am already trying to find ways to get out of it. I get bored. Exercise is BORING!
But I love walking. Actually I love water aerobics, too, when there aren’t a bunch of googly-eyed guys watching, and when I have a gaggle of girlfriends to laugh and pass the time with while we exercise and I just don’t have that opportunity in Kuwait.
So I got sick and tired of myself NOT exercising and decided to work on 10,000 steps. I’ve been doing pretty well, too, worked up to running 6,000 steps before I left, and it only takes me about 35 minutes.
The other day I bought a pedometer. Today I put it on for the first time.
You have to understand, when I come back to Seattle, I have THE LIST with me. The list is all the things that are hard to get or impossible to get in Kuwait, or just annoying to have to track down. Occasionally, like this time, I also have things to get for friends. . . just a little thing here and there, but it all goes on THE LIST.
Around noon I called my Mom and said I would be by in about an hour with lunch. When I got there, I remembered I had my pedometer on, and I checked it – I was already at 9,081 steps! By the time I got back to my hotel, it had started over.
I love it. I am tired at the end of each day from running around, my legs even ache and my feet hurt and I love it. Even the hot days – there were two of them, and now it is cloudy and it is going to rain and they just don’t get it at all that I LOVE the rain – the hot days weren’t that bad.
I am going to be in PAIN when I get back to Kuwait and face days of 115°F again! It is 70°F / 21° C in Seattle today.
Trinity Sunday
This was Trinity Sunday, and I hesitate to even bring it up, because it always causes so much misunderstanding between us. No, we don’t believe in three Gods. We believe in one God, who is at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I am not a theologian, so what I am about to tell you is just my interpretation of a mystery which has been debated by minds much greater than my own. I tell my Muslim friends that it is like this:
I have a relationship with my husband, as his wife. We communicate in a certain way, we understand one another in a certain way, to my husband, I am his wife.
I am mother to my son, we communicate differently, and he thinks of me as mother.
I am daughter to my mother, and we communicate differently, and she thinks of me as her daughter.
My husband doesn’t think of me as daughter, and neither does my son. I am all three, and yet I am one person.
That is grossly simplified, and God is much more complicated than I can understand. I just wanted you to know, we believe, as Muslims do, that there is one God.
We do not believe God had sex with Mary. We believe Mary conceived by the wish of God, she conceived immaculately, without having had sex. The Angel Gabriel came to her and told her she had been selected, but she could say yes or no, and she said “yes.” Because she said yes, Jesus was born of Mary.
This was a sweet Sunday for me, because I was able to worship in my home church, here in Seattle. We sang all the oldest hymns. It was a lovely service. Afterwards, I asked the priests if I could take their photos for you, my friends in Kuwait.
If you want to argue with me, it won’t do any good. I am not that smart about religion, I just believe, I’m a pretty simple character. Find someone smarter than I am to argue with!
Not Your Kuwait Driver’s License
Earlier this year, I wrote about getting my Kuwait Driver’s License never thinking I would be going through the process again this year here in Seattle. I know it sounds crazy, but it just didn’t occur to me that the license might expire. It isn’t a good thing to find out when you are about to pick up a rental car and your license is declined because it expired.
So I needed to go get a new license first thing this morning. I know how crowded the driver’s license place is early in the morning, so I didn’t go first thing. When I got there, there were about 15 people in front of me.
They have this system. You go in and they have a big list of services and fees posted. Then you go to a machine and press a button for the service you need, and you get a number. I waited five minutes.
The woman asked how she could help and I told her I needed to renew my expired driver’s license. She asked why it had expired and I told her I live in Kuwait, and she said “oh! other country” and put in that code. She asked about you, she asked how I liked living in Kuwait, she was worried about my safety – I get that a lot. I tell them about Kuwait, about how nice it is, how I have lots of good friends, and that it is a nice place to live. I tell them I feel safe (I don’t tell them about the driving!) and that if anything were to happen, I believe I have friends who would protect me. I could see a lot of this was news to her, and she was happy to hear it.
She asked me if I was restricted in my dress, and I laughed and said “well, I dress modestly, so it isn’t really a problem.” She stopped and thought a little and said “I dress modestly, too.”
All of that conversation, plus my paying for a new license and taking an eye test, took five minutes. I had to take five steps over to where my photo was taken, and 30 seconds later my temporary license, photo and all, was in my hands. My permanent license will be sent to me within a week.
How sweet is that?
It was SO orderly. No one pushing in front of anyone, waving papers, insisting on going first. Everyone takes a number, everyone gets the same courteous service and it is FAST. I was in and out in less than fifteen minutes, and that includes the waiting time and the conversation. I love systems and processes!
Seattle Sunset
I smiled on my way home today, seeing the sun was setting and knowing you were getting up to VOTE today in Kuwait. Can’t send you a sunrise-over-the-Gulf photo, but I can send you a sunset-over-the-pine-trees photo, fresh just a couple hours ago:
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