Goodbye Kuwait

Kuwait Sunset

So, now that I’ve almost been home for a month (this Friday, 18 Dec will be a month) I think it is about time I blog and say one last goodbye to Kuwait. There were no tears shed for Kuwait… but there are a few things I will miss:

- Being warm, even at work

- My friends I met there (to include my second cousins I met there)

- Not having to pay any bills

- Not having to pay for my gas (or get out of the car to pump it)

- Ordering any drink on the menu and not having to ask if there is alcohol in it

- Sitting outside and enjoying dinner right on the water’s edge

- The humidity which made my hands so soft

- The wood shop

- Seeing all the big trucks and Army vehicles

- The feeling of being in a foreign country is kind of neat sometimes. It was so different with how they dress, their mannerisms, and the language.

The list of things I will not miss about Kuwait is much longer:

- Driving there (have you read my blog???)

- Working long days and working 6 days a week

- Driving to Post 7 days a week (I attended Church on Post. While I am very grateful there was a group that met on Sundays, it would have been nice not to have to drive to “work” every day.)

- Only having a “Saturday” when it is a holiday

- Dust, sand, wind, humidity, and hot - not a good combination, you just feel dirty all the time

- Walking on rocks and ruining 4 or 5 pairs of shoes

- Walking outside and down the street 100 ft to use the restroom (at least it was running water!)

- Communication barrier (For the most part everyone spoke English, but some spoke very little and their heavy accent didn’t help. For work I started saying, “I’m sorry I don’t understand, will you please e-mail me?”)

- Having only 15-25 people at church and having to sing acapella or with a tape that skipped so you were never in synch with the music (you can imagine how frightening that sounded… the phrase “And Jesus listening can hear the songs I (we) cannot sing” (There is Sunshine in My Soul Today, Hymn 227) comes to mind. Good thing we are not judged on our vocal talent, I think our group would have failed miserably.

- Being the only Sister at church for a couple weeks. It’s a good thing all the Priesthood Brethren were nice and let me join them!

- Not having a social life. I would literally go to work and go home. Only on holidays or rare occasions did we do something and mostly it was attending a farewell dinner

- Having very few food choices: Dining Facility (DFAC), Charlie’s, KFC, Subway, Hardees, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robins, Taco Bell, Burger King, Nathans, and Panda. After a year of only these choices food simply did not sound good anymore. Oh, and their cheese was nasty, it tasted like fish oil!

- Not being able to run to the store whenever I wanted (like fresh fruit and veggies). Yes, I had the “freedom” to do that, but I did not feel safe enough to venture out on my own.

- Not being able to cook since my oven stunk every time I tried to use it.

- The time difference and not being able to call anyone anytime I wanted to

- The not so attractive landscape, I definitely would describe it as beautiful

Things I love about being home:

- Being amongst friends and family who make me feel so loved! It’s like I’ve never been gone!

- Having a social life again

- Going to church with a lot of people and not having to hear myself sing

- Feeling safe enough to go out and about on my own

- Being able to cook and not have to eat fast food everyday

- The laws that make our country great and the enforcement of those laws. For example, Jaywalking, speeding, regulations that keep us safe (Kuwait had some serious electrical issues and had a lot of fires because their standards are not as high as ours. Same goes for medical standards.)

- Wasta is not as prevalent here… in other words, abusing your status and position of influence

- Being able to understand what people are saying around me when I am out

- Being able to pick up my phone and call anyone at anytime

- Reliable internet service

- The snowcapped mountains and the beautiful view

It was a difficult year and rather trying at times, but I am so glad I went. I’m glad I got to experience the things I did, see the things I did, learn the things I did, work on the projects I did, and meet the people I met there. I am extremely glad to be home, but will be forever more appreciative of what I have here. We are definitely a blessed people and live in a blessed land. I’m grateful for the freedoms I enjoy, the opportunities that are available to me, and the safety and peace that being a US citizen provides. “I love this land, God bless the USA!”

Well, here are the last of my pictures from Kuwait. The first set of pictures are from my Veterans Day Holiday (Nov 11th) outing. I worked for 6 hours and then we played….we went to the aquarium which was awesome! They had some very different animals there which were fun to see.

Me at the Kuwait Aquarium

Nice Bat!

Desert Cat. There is a glass there, but you couldn't see it at first, so it looked like a random cat was wondering around inside. It was pretty funny.

Eel

Penguins in Kuwait!

Feeding the Penguins

Scorpian, Beetle Standoff Creepy Worm

Julie with gulf in background- after all it was a holiday so I had to get my water picture!

Next we went to the towers to enjoy a nice dinner and then see the sights. It is kind of cool to eat with the sun set and overlooking the city. We had some traditional Arabic food which I did taste all of these things:

Baba Ganoosh à Eggplant (has a consistency similar to humus which you eat with pita-like bread

Humusà Ground chickpeas which you eat with pita-like bread. I typically am not a fan of humus, but the humus here was mighty tasty!

Tabulaà Cilantro leaves and tomatoes (tasted like a mild salsa, and you eat it on pita-like bread)

Grilled Haluum à salty grilled cheese

Pickled Peppers

Grape leaves

I had pizza for dinner. Their cheese actually tasted fairly normal!

At the Towers overlooking Kuwait City

The Towers- I thought it was a cool picture

After that we made our way to city center where we met a Kuwaiti woman and her husband. It took me a year to meet an actual Kuwaiti woman. They actually looked like a happy married couple and were normal. That too was a first. People do not show emotion and appear extremely miserable, since you very rarely see people smiling. There is a law against merriment in Kuwait.… I think a few times when I was out with friends (co-workers) we broke the law! After shopping for a little while we called it a day.

We had Organizational Day which ended up being when they farewelled me. I think that is fitting, I was hailed on Organizational Day and a year later farewelled at Organizational Day. It was like they threw a party just for me! We played kickball, ate lunch, played games (checkers, poker, horseshoes, etc) and just visited and enjoyed the day. I started a new tradition… I found a coin which said “An Army Of One Less- I’m Outta Here!” and on the back it said “Official Short-timer” I thought it was pretty funny, so I gave it to Attila (my good friend and mentor for the past 5.5 years) with the hope he will get to pass it along soon! :^)

Co-workers after playing Kickball on Orginization Day

Hackett and I- I received the Civilian Accommodation Award Medal

For my last night in Kuwait I decided to do a bowling party instead of going out to eat. Karina & Charlie (and kids laila and Chaz) and Lee and Marty were able to join me and my co-workers (who can get off Post). It was good fun- I can’t believe we had not done that before, but because everyone works long days they are simply exhausted and don’t want to go out and I don’t go out on Sundays. In addition, the traffic is crazy and I refused to drive downtown, so I didn’t get to go out and do fun things very often.

Attila and I

Judy and I

Cousins

Yolanda and I

Co-Workers

Church Group

Random pictures....

Do you like that the fridge in my apartment had a key to lock it? Hmmm....

Didn't know how to work my oven... I don't know what those symbols mean!

I did have dinner with a few close friends before Attila dropped me off at the airport on November 17th. I then had a nice 24+ hour journey ahead of me. It wasn’t bad since I used my miles and upgraded to Business Class- the 14 hour flight from Kuwait to Washington D.C. was so nice! I sat in Seat 14D, I thought that was fitting since 14 is my favorite number and it was my “D-day” since I was heading home!!!

A random car after a 5 minute rain storm

So, again I say goodbye Kuwait! Goodbye Apartment #1 in Mangaf where I had to walk up 25 steps (it always cracked me up to see apartments numbered zero), goodbye warmth, goodbye desert!