Countdown

By this time tomorrow I will be with my sister and her friend excitedly exploring our hotel room that will overlook the pyramids. I can't wait! My dream trip to Egypt is finally happening. When I was in fourth grade and studying Egypt I asked dad if he would pleeeaaase one day take me to see the Pyramids, and guess what? He's taking me! I've spent the past couple months helping to research and plan the trip. We will spend a couple days in Cairo, then 4 days on a Nile Cruise, a day trip to Abu Simbel, and one night in Luxor. I have been watching PBS and National Geographic dvds on Egypt, reading historical fiction from the time, and doing my own research to try and understand the crazy and confusing lineage of the Pharaohs. My bags are packed, my camera is charged, and I am ready to see those mummies!

For the past couple weeks I've been staring at the letter printed across my mirror to blog, but have been very busy, and also too sick to attempt the daunting task. So much to write about, yet there never seems to be the time! I am finally recovering from being sick from some bronchitis and another bug that really wore me down. We spent the past week rushing around seeing doctors to try and cure me before my dream trip. One of my Egyptian doctors claims that I am sick often because of allergies due to some ions in the air. I have no idea what he is talking about, but hopefully the French and German drugs he gave me will cure me regardless of the fact that they are not FDA approved

During the time we spent in the hospital I had lots of time to people watch. The thing that made me sadly shake my head is that NONE of the mothers with newborn children bothered to put them in a car seat. They just sat on the unbuckled mothers lap in the front seat. So sad! For some odd reason they don't make appointments to see doctors here, instead everything is "Inshallah" (by the will of Allah.) We had a referral to see a doctor and went down to his office to inquire about an appointment. "I'm sorry, but he's not here now, however, inshallah he will be back by 4." "Can we please book an appointment?" "Why? You come back at 4, and inshallah you will be seen." I am so sick of the word inshallah!!

The hospital here is arranged in an odd way. When I was getting my blood drawn I swear I was being led to some odd looking igloo in the center of the room. It was a tiny circular room whose walls were made of glass bricks and had a domed roof. There was no traditional nasty hospital food cafeteria, instead there was Starbucks, an ice cream shop, a sandwich shop, and several other restaurants that were closed. The gift shop had very ornate balloons, and instead of teddy bears there were Ipods and PSPs.

I'm not the only one whose been the doctor lately; we took our cat Pebuh up to Camp Arafjan to see the vet and get his shots. We were amazed that the service was free. Next time we will have to get him microchipped, and we only have to pay the $20 for chip. Pebuh was not very happy with his shots, and very clingy afterwards so I decided to tuck him in my purse while we went shopping. All of the soldiers thought he was the cutest thing and were smiling, petting him, and some even asked if they could hold him. It was great having people along because he seemed to really brighten people's day and everyone wanted to stop and chat. I felt so sorry for the young ladies there that were on their 2nd tour to Kuwait and 8 month into it and missing their families during the holidays.

In all of my spare time I have been babysitting like crazy. On Sunday I had fun with two boys, we spent about 5 hours making salt dough ornaments and then painting them. I had Christmas music playing and we were all dancing and singing along while making adorable little ornaments. Amazingly babysitting pays pretty well and its actually quite fun. I can't wait though till I turn 18 and can finally apply for jobs on the economy. We'll wait and see what opportunities arise.

Operation Hope has also kept me very busy. As their Student Ambassador I have been occupied with coordinating with schools who are doing drives during the Christmas season. I also have a group of students who meet each Friday to work in the Operation Hope tent. Some weeks we prepare for distributions, one week we had to dig around to find women's clothes to send to the Deportation center, and most weeks we spend time trying to bring some organization to the utter chaos of the tent.

As it is the holiday season I have also been busy preparing for Christmas. I got creative and made a ton of beautiful handmade cards, and was so very mad at my cat when he decided to eat some of them. Yesterday I spent the entire day baking for my brother's English class, and also goodies for my dad to take to work, and plenty to freeze and enjoy on Christmas day when we return. With the holiday music blazing I danced and sang around the kitchen and made: brownies, blueberry muffins, chocolate fudge, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and no bake fudge cookies. Consequently the kitchen was a mess, but I had fun. It's rather hard to bake here with the lack of traditional ingredients. I have to ration my vanilla, because it's not sold in Kuwait because it contains alcohol. Brown sugar is also quite a pain, I have yet to find a way for it to not become rock solid. Even microwaving it doesn't seem to help much. I also miss corn syrup, and found that their odd sticky syrup does not work the same. I had to ask my aunt to send me some pudding mix, because I always use this for filling in my cakes. There's none to be found here and when I tried to make my own with random bits of what they claimed was pudding mix and various custards and creams I was very disappointed. Cooking here may be a challenge, and everything may turn out totally different, but I still have fun doing it

Well, we leave for the airport in less than 12 hours. I suppose I should probably double check my bags and stock up on some sleep, because with the 3 and 4 am mornings planned I doubt I'll be getting much on the trip!

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas Creativity

I love being creative and making cards. Just thought I'd share my favorite Christmas card this year. I painted the watercolor penguins and had fun scrapbooking the rest of the card. I scanned the original in and then had fun printing copies and making cards for friends.

Busy Bee

I have been sooo busy lately! My little windows of free space are used up napping because I’ve been babysitting endlessly and consequently staying up late. Last week I believe I worked somewhere around 40 hours as a babysitter for several different families. We made ornaments, did photo shoots, played TONS of games, read endless amounts of stories, chased little boys around the house, and even managed to work on the ABCs in the shower by covering the wall with shaving cream! All of this has been fun, but very crazy.


On top of all of the babysitting I have been doing lately I have spent a lot of time volunteering. Mom and I have been working on a “Trash to Treasure” project with the runaway maids at the Philippine Embassy. She and I spent many hours playing with colorful pages from magazines trying to create Christmas ornaments. After we had created hearts, stars, pomegranates, palm trees, flowers, and snowflakes, we took them to the Philippine Embassy and started teaching the girls. They have been thrilled by this activity and really caught on. I think it is therapeutic for the ladies to be able to be creative, and they were so incredibly thrilled after we sold the first batch. We asked them what they thought we should spend the money on, and they all immediately agreed that they needed more sanitary supplies and cough medicine.


Working with these ladies is very humbling. Each lady has a different story. Some have degrees, some have family living in Kuwait, but most all are supporting their family back in the Philippines and are at the shelter because they were mistreated by their employers. It is so heartbreaking to see these sweet, brilliant ladies, crammed 200+ to a tiny villa just because someone refused to pay them, or still has their passport and documents which prevents them from returning home. What is wrong with this crazy society??


After the trip mom and I were planning to take to an orphanage in Goa was cancelled mom and I started talking, and she took me to meet Sheryll, the director of Operation Hope to see if I could help in any way. Mom is on the council for Operation Hope, and her focus is on the Philippine Embassy. Operation Hope’s mission is in serving the poorest of the poor. Sheryll was delighted at my willingness to volunteer in any way, and I soon found myself the new Student Ambassador. Immediately I was put in charge of organizing events with the local schools, helping to fundraise, be the photographer, and create a new DVD. Two days after accepting the position I found myself spending the afternoon in Operation Hope’s tent sorting through endless boxes of supplies to fill bags of men’s and women’s clothing that will be delivered to the Deportation Center. Two students, a mom, a Tea Boy, and the Houseboy helped me first bag the clothes for the Deportation Center, and then begin the daunting task of organizing the tent. We moved everything outside of the tent, and then started hauling boxes back in, transferring things into plastic containers, marking and sorting bins, and trying not to inhale too much of the dust. It was a long afternoon, but with a lot of teamwork we managed to get a lot done. So guess what I’m doing this Friday? The other half of the tent!


Saturday morning was another early one for me as I accompanied mom to the Operation Hope committee meeting. Sheryll served us a lovely pancake breakfast and then began the loooong meeting. There were so many points to be covered and discussed, and with so many talkative ladies nothing moved fast. The meeting ended up lasting 5 hours! Now that I’ve been introduced to the committee I think I will just write a little report or something to be presented at the meetings in my place.


Yesterday mom and I joined Operation Hope for a distribution. We first packed a truck full of “winter warmth bags,” (long underwear, a hat and gloves.” Everyone piled into their SUVs, and we drove to a hospital on the far side of Kuwait to distribute these to the janitors and workers. During the drive we heard stories of how the supervisors frequently take a portion of the workers pay so that the workers can stay in the better areas of the hospital where they can earn more tips. The workers are bused to their lodgings which are camps out in the desert. And believe it or not, but it actually gets cold here in the winter!


We distributed about 350 bags to both workers and supervisors. They were so appreciative of the gift. Many ran off ripping the bags open with their teeth, their smiles conveyed their thanks. I spent a short time actually distributing the bags, but found I preferred to be behind my camera documenting the event. I wasn’t hiding behind the camera, instead it seemed that people were much more open, expressive, and talkative. I think it helped that I stepped back from the hustle and bustle of the distribution. Men gave me lots of thumbs up, I had several I love you’s, many thank you’s and lots of smiles and waves. We may not have given them much, but the few items to keep warm in the winter made them so appreciative. Lots of them also seemed surprised and shocked when we would reach out and touch them, because here in Kuwait no one would ever touch someone of their “status.”


I really enjoyed the distribution experience and look forward to many more! So what’s on my plate for this week? Babysitting from 7:45 AM till late afternoon for a couple days, then cranking up the Christmas music and cooking for Thanksgiving. Friday will be working with teens in the Operation Hope tent, and Saturday I leave for Dubai. Busy busy busy!


Oh, and how could I forget? We adopted a little kitten. He is my precious baby! His name is Pebha, because whenever anyone says Allah it must be followed by “Peace Be Upon Him.”Pebha has so much energy and is a delight to play with and cuddle. His tail is almost healed now, but when we first scooped him up off the streets he had a chunk missing from his tail. That meant lots of baths, betadine, Neosporin, and bandages, but he endured it all and purred the whole way through.

Surprise!

Mom and I just got back from a little surprise birthday party we quickly through together for our new Filipino maid. We share our neighbor's maid, Cheryl, who lives just around the corner. Today was her first time to come, but she will soon be working three mornings a week for us. Already she has been such a blessing. She cleaned the entire downstairs of our big house which allowed mom to work on her nursing program, and plan for upcoming events with Operation Hope. This morning when I came downstairs for breakfast I felt so akward walking around Cheryl who was busy humming along to Mama Mia and cleaning my kitchen. She was cleaning up our mess! That was just so strange for me. I think it will take a while for me to get over the mentality of "it's my mess, I should have to clean it up!" When mom asked if I wanted Cheryl to clean my room I said "no way!" It's not that I don't trust Cheryl, I trust her completely. It's just that well, it's my space, my mess, and I should be the one who cleans it up. Emily on the other hand rejoiced when she learned Cheryl might clean her room on Wednesday.

This afternoon when Juliette was talking to Cheryl she inquired as to when her birthday was. Cheryl replied that today was her birthday! Juliette called mom and we organized a mini surprise party. Dad happened to randomly walk in with a cake, and Juliette had ice cream in her freezer. Both of us put together a little gift bag, and hurried to have a party. We walked around the corner to their house and Juliette scurried to finish getting the food together. Cheryl was totally unsuspecting and tried to help Juliette in the kitchen, so Juliette made her follow into the dining room where we were. Everyone started singing, and hugging her, and after a round of hugs Cheryl ran off crying. She was so touched by this little act of kindness it took both Juliette and mom to coax her into coming back for cake. She kept saying "I am shy. I am so shy," but she stayed and made a wish on her candles. Cheryl is 27, but she looked like a little 16 year old girl sitting there so touched by her party with tears in her eyes. We talked and laughed for a while, but when it came to presents she just couldn't manage to open them there with us and hugged us, gave us several kisses, and walked off into her room still teary eyed.

I couldn't believe the impact this short, little, quickly thrown together celebration had on her. Cheryl's story is just one of so many women who are working here in a foreign country in order to send money back home. I thought about it and wondered if I could ever move to a strange land where I didn't speak the language and toil endless hours in a random family's house, not knowing how they might treat me, just to send money back to send my siblings to college? I don't think I am that strong. I would like to think I am that selfless, but that is not something I can say. So here's to Filipino housemaids who may be ignored and mistreated, I could never endure half of what many of them have seen.

Love

Love is a topic that everyone here seems to want to discuss. We’ve had lunch with different neighbors on several occasions, and each time love, marriage, or dating comes up in the conversation.

We have learned that here it is unacceptable to marry for love. Love is something that exists between only a very few lucky people, and even then it is hidden. I asked my Kuwait friend if she would marry for love, and she said yes, but it would be complicated. She and her mother explained that if she was in love they would have to ensure he was a suitable match, and then conceal the fact that they were in love from everyone, even the fathers! They would have to pretend to have met in college or something and that the match was arranged by the fathers. The culture here follows tradition so strongly that few rarely go against it because they are so concerned about their image.

Another one of my friends is 24. She complains that her circle is too small to meet Mr Right. She has been looking for him, but it is difficult to pursue a man when she is limited to meeting men in her work or college. Her mother believes that Lulu will soon be too old for a man to want to marry her! They said Kuwait men want young women, around 21, to marry because they are more beautiful, and will give them healthier children. If Lulu waits much longer the men will think something is wrong with her since she has not found a match yet. Few believe in waiting until the right man comes around. Miriam explained that the reason so many women marry young here is because if there is a suitable match, and the man is wealthy, educated, and pleasing to her father, they will make the daughter marry so that he won’t slip away, because he won’t wait for the right timing.

Mom jokingly said that perhaps Miriam, Lulu’s 19 year old sister might marry before her. They explained that rarely would a younger sister marry before the eldest. The younger may marry first only if she has permission from her older sister. If the youngest marries first then the eldest will be shamed and men will question what could be wrong with her. All of this just sounds so insane to me! Mom and I told them to ignore tradition, and society, and what other people think and just wait for God’s timing. Apparently they wish they could, but their image is so important here that they must respect tradition.

I asked Miriam how her mother and father met and if they were in love. She replied that no, they weren’t in love, but they knew each other because he was her mother’s girlfriends brother. They hadn’t talked much, but had made eye contact and he was pleased by her beauty.
Here it is also the norm to marry cousins. I thought okay sure, maybe 3rd cousins or something. But no! It is not unusual for first cousins to be married! Someone asked me if I would marry my first cousin. I sat there and tried hard not to laugh out loud. I love my cousins. But they are my cousins! I could never see myself married to one of them.

Once on the topic of marriage and love it was hard to deter, but all of us found it so interesting to hear about the other’s perspectives and traditions. They talked about the marriage contract that is written and signed before the wedding. The groom gives the bride a dowry, but she can refuse to sign it until she is pleased with the amounts. Besides the dowry, in the contract there is also a sum that the groom pledges to give his wife if they ever divorce. Once this contract is signed, they are as good as married though the wedding may be weeks off. After this they are allowed to go on dates alone together because they are officially married. If after several dinners and getting to know each other they realize this is not the person they want to spend the rest of their life with they can get a divorce. I was shocked by this. It’s not socially acceptable for men and women to go on dates prior to being married, but if they have merely signed a contract and then gotten to know each other before the wedding they have to get a divorce if it’s not right. I am so happy I am only a visitor in this country!

We are not the only ones asking questions in these discussions, they love hearing how it’s done in our cultures. The girls love asking me questions about marriage, love, dating… Today Lulu said “I hope this is not too personal, but when will you get married?” Mom and I explained that rather than specific ages or milestones when I could date or get married we had values. I told them mom was 30 when she was married, and if I married at 30 then no one in my culture would think anything of it. The girls were shocked by this, because is someone waited till 30 here then they would never, ever find a match. In response to the question on when I would marry I said that I would probably finish college first because I value education and my husband will have the same values and if he loves me he will wait for me. Miriam said I would be very lucky to find someone who loves me enough to wait for me because Kuwaiti men are too impatient.

Last week when our other neighbors were here they complained about the Kuwait men and how no one in this generation had good values. They said they only cared about themselves and their personal pleasure. Mom replied that then maybe they needed to look elsewhere for a husband because good men do exist. I think that many women here would love to live the Western way and date, fall in love, and marry whenever they want without pressure. But tradition and cultural values are so important here that though I’ve spoken with women who would long to break from it, they refuse to go against the values of society.

I’ve really enjoyed having lunches with our neighbors because they don’t seem to mind asking or being asked personal questions. We each give the other the inside scoop to our culture and just love learning about the other. Today I was asked questions about Halloween, and we asked about what would happen in the upcoming Eid. We were told to be ready, because just like we bring cookies to neighbors, people would be bringing us fresh hunks of slaughtered lamb. Mom and I looked at each other like “what?” Miriam explained the significance behind it dating back to Abraham and Issac and the sacrificial lamb. So I guess we should be prepared to not only see people slaughtering lambs soon, but giving us the raw meat. No way will I be cooking that stuff! Dad likes lamb, he can cook it! Since we’re girls and must talk about clothes and shopping we talked about the malls here. They think the prices are amazing, but I think they’re horrific! They asked what I did in malls then if not shop, so I told them about window shopping, and doing crazy scavenger hunts with friends. They had never seen anyone do a scavenger hunt in a mall except on TV. So I told them about doing it with my youth group and the fun that we had. Lulu said that people here are shy and wouldn’t do that because people would think them crazy and they might have a bad image. I laughed and explained people did laugh at us in the store, they certainly thought we were crazy, but we just smiled and had fun!

I am learning so much here and loving every bit of it. Not only are my eyes being opened to other cultures, but I am beginning to appreciate mine more.

Saturday at Villa 13 = 2 friends, 4 ERs, & 13 stitches

Happy Columbus Day! Currently this is my favorite holiday because the Embassy is closed for the day and I get a much needed rest day. That means only 4 days of preschool this week! One last craft to brainstorm for. So I was hoping that today would be a nice day of relaxing, studying, doing college applications, and just enjoying the quietness of being home alone. Guess not. I woke up to Stargate Atlantis being played in the next room. Seriously, if he’s going to play it, why not watch it downstairs where I’ll never know? Wait, I forgot he prefers the flatscreen TV and surround sound that came with the house. But yes, Ethan is home with me today. He had a rather traumatic and dramatic day yesterday and today he gets to skip school and nurse his big fat lip.

Yesterday my friend and I were just waking up and refusing to move from my bed when we heard this bloodcurdling scream. Julie immediately wanted to know “who’s dying?” Ethan had a friend over and I tried to ignore the wails, not sure if it was because someone was injured, or if it was just another battle cry. Soon I heard Emily pounding on Ethan’s door and screaming at him to open it. Then she ran and found mom, who soon came in to thrust rags into my hand and said “Molly, go scrub up all the blood on Ethan’s carpet, Julie, run get me lots of ice! Now!”

Turns out the boys had been sword fighting (with the wooden swords that had been nailed to the wall. Maybe they were there for a reason?) They got into the heat of the battle and Aaron accidentally smacked Ethan right above his lip. He started wailing, and Aaron tried to tend to him when Emily started pounding on the door. For some reason the boys had locked it and it took Aaron a while to figure out how to unlock the door. Emily tended to Ethan whose wound looked so nasty. It was deep, disgusting and still bleeding. Julie and I scrubbed the blood off his carpet which somehow managed to spread all over the room. Ethan walked in and saw us scrubbing one corner and freaked out because he was injured on the opposite side of the room and wanted to know how on earth the blood got there and was Aaron okay? Julie found Aaron and patted him down. He was fine, just still in shock. Mom was soon on the phone with Tricare and dad with someone else trying to figure out what to do and where to send him. Once we managed to get Ethan downstairs to the computer he was distracted for a while, but when mom tried to clean it with Betadine he flipped out.

After lots of phone calls mom and dad ran out the door with Ethan to the hospital and left all of us in a dazed state. Julie kept saying “this never happens in my house! We never have this much drama!” Aaron agreed, the extent of injuries in his house were “bruises and asthma attacks.” Emily and I simply said it meant that those two were now part of the family, one for accidentally sending him to the ER, the other for helping to scrub his blood off the floor.

While Aaron settled down to a movie we started studying for the ACT and waited for news of Ethan. They were gone for a long time, and had some crazy stories to share. The first hospital they went to ended up not having a surgeon on call since it was Saturday, so they were sent across the street. Mom and Ethan used the bathroom before seeing anyone, but mom was so shocked by their lack of hygiene that she refused to let Ethan be admitted there. After more phone calls they finally took him to another hospital. This one was slightly better, and he was admitted quickly. The surgeon cleaned around the edge of the wound and then gave him a shot to numb the wound prior to the stitches. Mom questioned him about not cleaning the inside of the wound and apparently he was shocked that she, a woman, would dare to question him. Though he was irritated by her and told her to “let me down my job,” mom finally convinced him to clean it since she was a nurse. Overall mom was not very impressed with his job, but paid the 15KD and brought Ethan home. He had 4 stitches, and a fat lip.

Dad deemed him well enough to go to Oliver practice, so drove Ethan off to school shortly after they arrived home. Towards the end of practice Ethan was jostled a bit too much in a scene and his wound started to bleed again. When he came home it was still bleeding and just didn’t look quite right. Throughout the evening mom took photos, made lots of phone calls and eventually ended up taking him back to a different hospital. They spent over an hour trying to find the place and were eventually directed by the plastic surgeon himself. The surgeon said that if they had left the previous stitches in, Ethan would have healed with a dip in his face. The man took out the old stitches, repaired the muscle, did a much better job of stitching up the wound and Ethan arrived home late and exhausted. Dad texted his friend, Aaron’s father, about the rest of their hospital experience and the fact that this time they paid 300KD. Aaron’s dad replied, “Should we send Aaron over to do dishes for a couple years?”

Well so much for a quiet Saturday; but 4 ERs and 13 stitches later Ethan is finally repaired and on the mend.

Arab World Festival

Last night we helped the girls frantically finish their history project, jumped in the car, picked up my friend Julie and raced off to the Arab World Festival. We didn’t know exactly what to expect, all we knew was that our church was hosting a huge event that we were told would be fantastic and involve dinner, music, dancing, and glimpses into cultural traditions.

When we arrived with our party of 7, (my family plus 2 friends, 5/7 of us were blondes) we felt very out of place. We looked at the enormous sea of people and the only other blondes I saw was the family of one of the girls we brought. There were few Westerners, and we immediately realized that this was an event for Asians. There were many Filipinos and other Asians that are the workforce here in Kuwait, and this was an enormous event for them that they had been looking forward to.

We were ushered in and though there were bags and purses on our seats we were told to put them under the chairs and just sit down. I immediately regretted wearing jeans and began to slowly die in the extreme heat. It was a huge hall, packed with people, no working AC, and only 4 fans at the very front. Emily and I found our hands were soon stinging, our feet swelling… it was uncomfortable. We walked in during the middle of a sermon and squirmed in our seats, unable to focus on anything but our discomfort due to the heat. We stayed and looked around for a program, but of course there was none. Eventually there was a 30 minute break and we rushed outside to enjoy the fresh air. I met a friend, one of the pastor’s kids who gave me the rundown of the evening. There were to be 18 presentations from different cultures lasting for about 2 hours, and then a dinner of sandwiches was to be served around 9:00. This started to sound like a very long evening, but we kept smiling and chatted with a group of teens who had been there with their parents since 10:30am. I couldn’t imagine being there for so long and enduring the heat and the crowds. But these kids seemed to be enjoying what they were doing and the help they were being to the overall running of the program. Some of them were filming it, others working the sound system; they were serving and organizing things while their parents were preaching. I think these teens appreciated that we were there because I saw few people from our church, certainly hardly any other teens showed up. I think we were good support not only to the teens who ran over when they saw us and gave us warm hugs, but also to one of the new pastors, and even the other pastors who saw us, greeted us, and appreciated us coming out.

The second half was better than the first. We got separated from my family as we tried to find the bathroom which was backstage past throngs of people, and ended up giving up on getting our cokes from Ethan and just found some seats. In the process of finding seats an Asian man came up to us and requested a picture. So, Julie and Emily jumped in for some ridiculous pose and we laughed and moved on. Once we were seated though there was a group of about 8 young Asian men in front of us who wanted endless photos with us. Even after we stopped doing goofy smiles for them the kept taking pictures of themselves and trying to get us in the background. Apparently a group of blondes is pretty popular.

Mom and I both noticed the lack of fire exits, or well any exits for that matter. The only entrance was through a door on the far left, and even that led to another room and flight of stairs you had to meander through to exit. I took notice of a door that looked like it led outside that was backstage and through the stall in the ladies handicap bathroom. But those were the only visible ways of exiting. It was scary to think of what on earth might happen if there was a fire in that place. There is no way that building would pass so many safety regulations in the states. Only one exit for an insane amount of people, bathrooms located way backstage that were flooded, no air conditioning or windows, and no aisles between the chairs. The only way to get to another side involved walking around front or at the very back. It made maneuvering around very difficult.

At one point we were sitting in a dazed state waiting for something interesting to happen when the microphone blew. Emily had previously been creating stories about what an opportunity this was for terrorists, and the loud boom made all 3 girls jump and panic. I sat there laughing at them as they appeared to have a heart attack at what they thought was a bomb. It was pretty entertaining.

The culture events started with the soccer teams coming up on stage for prayer before the upcoming games. I was somewhat confused by this, but oh well. After that was of Asians performing various dances. One group appeared in traditional outfits and did a fan dance, and then another group was a bunch of toddlers and kids jumping around on stage and dancing. Another group sang in their language, and then came a group in traditional clothes dancing with tambourines. The most entertaining was an Asian rapper. It was hilarious to listen to him with his accent. One group took the TLC Vision and adapted it to a song and flashed the lyrics up on screen. This music was upbeat so we started clapping, swaying and trying to sing along. The more ridiculous we acted in joining the others in singing and swaying the easier it was to forget about our discomfort and just have fun.

We left far before the other cultural presentations were over and enjoyed leftover Lebanese food at home. The entire event was an eye opener. I had no idea what to expect, and it was really interesting. It was definitely an event for Asians, mainly run by a bunch of Asians with Western pastors, but it appeared to really minister to the Asians there, which was well almost everyone. This is a big event for them and they flock from all over apparently to come to the events. Not only was there the event last night, but there were also sessions today by guest speakers. I’m really glad that so many could benefit from it in a way that was similar to them and thought it was a very different experience and though I did not appreciate it the same, I’m glad I went for the experience.

A Day in the Life of a Preschool Teacher

My preschool is crazy! Some days I wonder why on earth I’m doing this insane job. One mom recently told me that I had to be none other than a saint to even contemplate running the preschool. Today was so bad that the other mom assisting me was doing a countdown to when it would finally end! I am clueless as to what set it off, but something about today just made everyone go nuts and nearly drove me mental!

I’m struggling to teach the kids how to share. We’ve done the Rainbow Fish and other similar stories on sharing, talked about it, and tried to implement it. Some of the kids get it and will walk over and share their toys, others flip out and refuse to share. I had one girl who cried for 3 days in a row anytime she didn’t get something she wanted. And it wasn’t little bouts of crying either, it was full on inconsolable crying for 30 minutes if she saw something she wanted and couldn’t have. Yikes! I’m also trying to work with the nannies; some of them are more helpful now and will assist the other kids. But I still can’t get one nanny to stop bringing this little insane little toddler who gets in the way of everything. And I don’t have the time to prevent him from eating the marbles or beads we’re using. This same nanny lets her little two year old throw temper tantrums that disrupt the entire class. I’ve had girls come up to me and complain that “my ears hurt teacher! Her crying hurts my ears!” So what do I do? I talk to the nanny, request she please take her girl outside, but of course she doesn’t do anything. One day it got so bad that a mom who was helping me ended up kicking them out and making them go home. It’s hard for me because though I may be in charge of the preschool, I’m only 17 and I don’t like to have to stand up against adults and tell them to please get rid of their bratty child.

But again, today was a nightmare. I had 13 kids, 1 baby, 2 toddlers, one parent, and a couple nannies. The nannies were no help today; they were the ones disrupting story time so badly we had to tell them to please stop talking so the children could focus. During music I was dancing around and leading about 6 kids in the hokey pokey while 2 were fighting and tackling each other, one was trying to escape, 4 were trying to use the toilet at the same time, and another just kept running around in endless circles. What am I supposed to do? If I had stopped dancing with the 6 kids they would have turned around and gone crazy too. My parent helper stayed in the bathroom with the 4 kids, and I had to shout to the nannies to please break up the fight. Right as I thought I was going to lose one child to the patio my friend came in and swooped up the child. Thank goodness! I forced my friends Julie and Kate who had originally just came by to say hi to sit on the floor, grab a child, and paddle together to row row row your boat. My friends had to leave shortly after music time sadly, so I started the craft. We were using popsicle sticks to construct treasure boxes, stars, and whatever they could create that would hold their attention. Everything was sopping in glue, and I had my hands in about 4 construction sites at once. It was chaotic, but it kept them entertained for a while, though I had to pronounce them done before the glue spread to anything else.

Story time was difficult with the nannies chatting, kids running to the bathroom, and of course me pausing for minor interruptions like stopping kids from killing each other and inquiring about Josh’s potty dance. “Josh, do you have to go to the bathroom?” “No teacher.” “Are you sure Josh?” “Yes!” “Then Josh, why are you doing the potty dance?” “ ‘Cuz it’s fun!” “Can you please stop and sit down?” “No.” “Why?” “Because I have to go potty now!!

Before they painted we put each child in an enormous men’s t-shirt and used clothespins to keep it from falling off. They stayed amused until their boxes were done, and out of desperation I grabbed my friend who returned to help me and we began assembling star ornaments as fast as possible so they could have something else to paint and stay busy.

Of course that didn’t last for too long, and after cleaning everything from shoes, to hands, to eyelids they were ready to go outside and play. I started chucking balls, Frisbees, chalk, anything I could find outside to keep them entertained. It took 2 adults, 4 nannies, me and my friend to keep the children on the patio. I chased after several kids on numerous occasions who tried to run home. By 12:05 when the nannies were still sitting on the patio relaxing and watching their kids run wild we started handing out the craft projects and trying to nudge them to leave. I guess they eventually got the hint and finally took everyone home. My parent helper agreed it was the craziest she has ever seen it get. Thank goodness it’s finally the weekend!

Kate and her mom stayed to help me clean up and I went out to lunch with her family. It was nice to pause and relax with friends after a stressful morning. As they were getting ready to take me home her mom mentioned maybe taking us by the Co-op and a purse store upstairs. Of course we couldn’t resist some shopping therapy and we headed off with high hopes. Kate’s mom had recently purchased a knock off Coach purse from this place. In fact, I had been admiring it earlier and had no clue it was fake! It was really beautiful and well made. Who cares if the knock offs don’t last a lifetime? I figure if they are a good price, look nice, are good quality, then why not buy one even if it only lasts a couple years. I’d rather buy lots of fun knock offs than one expensive one that lasts forever.

As we walked through the grocery to go up the escalator to his little shop the vendor saw us and followed us upstairs to open up for us. I was amazed at the vast expanse of purses he had. He had the most unique styles of purses, wallets, baggage, and jewelry. It was fun to look around, and very therapeutic too. I found a Chanel purse that I absolutely loved. It’s black and silver and looks fabulous! The man kept coming and saying “you like? You buy now. No think, just buy.” I inquired to the price and he replied “no think price. No price. We find price.” He finally told me the original price and that “I make special for you!” Luckily I had Kate’s mom there who reminded him of the price she had paid last week and he let me have it for that. It was about equivalent 2 hours of working at the preschool, and I figured after all the stress and chaos it caused me, the least I could do was use some of that money (I save just about all of it)to buy a therapeutic purse. And I love it!

Kuwait Funnies

"City Center"

Just got back from an evening shopping with my parents. We had heard rumors of a bunch of 100 fils stores, the equivalent to a dollar store. After calling around we finally got directions and took off to find the City Center shopping complex that was definitely not located in the city center.

Dad somehow managed to understand the layout of the complex, he claims it's similar to the streets here, in block formation. I was totally confused though. To me it was a labyrinth of shops. There were lots of little boutiques, and many were color coded. There were stores only selling yellow dresses, or purple, or black and grey, or blue... Some of the styles were just laughable. A lot of the stack was simply tacky and dirt cheap, but there was some cute stuff in interesting designs that of course was about 20 KD, 60+ dollars.

I saw so many knock offs tonight. There was Armani and Lacoste ugly underwear, and Burburry sweat pants. I was impressed to find perfume at cheap prices. I recognized lots of the nice name brands, and tried some of it. Dad immediately thought it was some knock off, and sure enough the perfume wore off in less than two minutes. Another store owner later explained to us they keep the knock offs in the front on display, and the shelves are filled with the real stuff that was of course outrageous prices.

Mom was running around in circles and Dad and I occasionally got left in the dust, so we enjoyed perusing the shops together. We were tempted by the Kuwaiti version of Cinnabon, but instead choose mango ice cream that was topped in pomegranate seeds. The pomegranates themselves were amazingly sweet, and the combination oft that and the delicious and refreshing mango ice cream was superb. Not only did it taste better, but I am sure it was much cheaper and healthier than the Cinnabon.

While we were shopping I made sure to check and look for any other Westerner. Nope. We were the only Westerners, and of course the only blondes. I'm still not quite totally used to being singled out. I was thankful that i wore my favorite ankle length skirt that is appropriate for almost everything here. Several times this evening we would be looking at something in a shop, and I would just get uncomfortable because all the nearby shopkeepers would be staring at me that dad and I would just keep walking. If I can keep walking I notice the staring less. It's just something I'm trying to get used to, but it's still pretty hard. We joke here that if any girl wants a self esteem boost she should just go out to a mall or something because of all the stares and smiles she'll get. But it's still uncomfortable.

The 100 fils shops were great. There were lots of them scattered about. Sure, there was tons of cheap toys and ridiculous little things but there was also lots of cute scrapbooking stuff, magnet strips, marbles, and lots of little things I picked up for my preschool. We also manged to find some really nice lipstick and eyeshadow for gifts.

It was a nice evening out and about. Much more fun than planning for preschool tomorrow, but I suppose I should get on to that soon. I love my kiddos, but they can be so much work!

Taxis

I HATE TAXIS!

I really miss the London tubes. They were so incredibly easy to use and I could get almost anywhere. But Kuwait does not have a public transport system, we have taxis. Mom asked around and found a company that is reasonable and normally pretty reliable. But of course when our preferred driver is busy he sends other people who are at a rather different standard.

I rely on taxis to get to and from work each morning. It's only about a 5 minute drive, so not too bad. But I have had many different experiences with taxis.

Yesterday I called the taxi company to order my afternoon cab, and was told that he was already outside waiting for me, and someone would pick me up at the same time everyday. So, I hurried outside and found my taxi. It was the only taxi and had the company's logo on it. This afternoon I went and waited for my promised taxi, but after waiting for 15 minutes in the heat called the company. They said they had not sent one, but would send a taxi that would be there shortly. So, I continued to wait in the heat. About 5 minutes later a taxi pulled up with the company's logo. It was the same one that was sent for me yesterday. It took me home, and all was good. Well, about 15 minutes after arriving home I got a call from the taxi company saying my cab was waiting for me outside the Embassy. I explained I already took the cab they sent and was home. But then they yelled at me saying that yesterday he worked for their company, and today he was from another! I really cannot understand how things work here! Everything is so frustrating.

A couple of the taxis know who mom and I are and will chat with us and take us directly home, they don't even need our address anymore because they know us. Other times we're not so lucky. The other day mom was going to share my cab and she would go to the Filipino Embassy while I went to the US Embassy. Her appointment was cancelled, so we went out and told the taxi company we no longer needed to go to the Filipino Embassy, just the US one. He looked like he understood and said "Ok, US Embassy." Well after we passed the Visitor Entrance to the Embassy I assumed we were going to another entrance. Nope. He passed that one too. So I said "are we going to the US Embassy?" And my driver responded that "Yes, I take you to US Embassy." We continued and I said "Wait, isn't the Embassy back there?" The driver responded "Yeeees?" After he kept driving and went under a bridge I knew we were definitely not going to the US Embassy. So I asked him "Where are we going?" He replied "The Filipino Embassy!" Nooooooo! I had to reexplain to him and then he pulled out his phone with the text of where to take me.Eventually I suppose I looked flustered and mad enough that he stopped arguing and turned around. Again, I HATE TAXIS!

I had another experience with a driver who really didn't speak any English and apparently was clueless with directions too. I hopped in and told him where to go. He started driving and then pointed and said "West Mishref over there." I said "Nooo, we're in West Mishref." He seemed confused, but kept driving. I told him to please "turn right at the big blue sign." Well, we neared the blue sign again and I said "turn right here!" We came to the sign and he goes "there big blue sign." I started screaming for him to quickly turn, but he kept driving. So, I sat back down (this taxi had no seatbelts) and waited to see what he would do. He kept driving and said "where you live?" I tried to be polite as I relayed it again. He kept driving on and I gave up and watched to see where he would go. Eventually he turned right which was a bit of an imporvement, and kept weaving around between the villas. I was totally lost, but let him drive. He said "what is house near?" I jokingly said "a big mosque" (mosques here are more plentiful than Waffle Houses in Georgia.) Well, soon we were in front of a big mosque and he said "here mosque, which house?" I tried to silently laugh and pointed out that this mosque was on street 113, but I lived on street 103. We kept driving in circles until he eventually found my street. He slowed down and I told him where my house was and to please stop. But he just drove faster when I said stop, and I had to keep saying "stop, stop, my house, you passed my house!" He finally stopped at the end of the street and I had to walk back to my house. It was yet another crazy taxi experience. Need I say yet again, I HATE TAXIS!

Teacher Molly

Well, how many 17 year olds can say that they started their own preschool? Somehow I think it’s a small number. However, I have my own preschool! Yes, it is stressful and crazy, but also very rewarding and fun.

My job in shipping finished on the 15^th of September, and I started preschool 2 days later. There had been requests and rumors over the past 2 weeks, and the Embassy finally decided to do something. Because of swine flu all of the preschools here have been delayed until the end of November, so there are lots of children that are just sitting at home desperately waiting till it starts up. So, I was the solution to the problem. The day before I started I was shown the room and they basically said just have fun and go for it. I asked around and finally got the key to an office that had some craft supplies and sports equipment. I raided our limited supply of children’s books at home and started a plan.

The first 2 weeks were stressful because I did not have any support. There was a pay proposal, but it wasn’t definite. They wanted to pay me for just the time I spent with the children. Apparently they couldn’t understand how I couldn’t just walk in and have everything magically ready. Every morning I arrived at 9, and had the kids from 10-12, and cleaned up for at least half an hour afterwards. It takes time to precut crafts, imagine games, set up… but it has been difficult communicating this. I was sent in circles talking to people and asking for a budget, better pay; no one wanted to take responsibility for me.

This week things have finally started to settle down with the new AEWA Recreation Director. She has been fighting for me, but they still can’t give me a budget. Also, only starting this Monday was I paid from set up till clean up. That means about half the time I worked earlier I wasn’t paid for.

But oh well! It may be stressful, but I know this will make a good college essay. The kids love it. I have 13 2-5 year olds, 2 toddlers, and 2 babies. The nannies come, but not all of them speak English, and when they bring the babies chaos normally ensues. Every day about 3-4 nannies come with the 2 year olds, and they provide minimal help. I’ve had a parent help me a couple times this week, but other than that it’s just me.

I’m actually amazed at all that we’ve been able to successfully do. Over the weeks we’ve done play dough, story time, music and dance, parachute games, duck duck goose, musical chairs, made tie dye fish, crowns, necklaces, moose masks, drawn and colored outlines of their bodies, colored, painted, done sidewalk chalk, free time with balls and jump ropes outside, tattoos, monster cars, airplanes…

The kids are so cute, I love how much they are able to enjoy it and the parents keep coming up to me with praise. One mom said her kids talk endlessly about me and daily look forward to it. She said they love the fact that I’m young and energetic and can relate somewhat more than an adult. I’m sure the fact that I run around dancing and singing like a fool helps a bit :) But I love my kiddos, and am slowly getting used to being called Teacher or Miss Molly.

Failaka Island

Before I tell you about my amazing weekend I just wanted to say I updated my blog so that anyone can comment on a post, so if you enjoy this just leave a note to let me know someone is reading and laughing at my adventures!

Last weekend was probably the craziest and most fun one I’d had in a while. My friend Nathan and his sister Laura invited us to join them and their church youth group on a retreat to an island not far from Kuwait. We jumped at the opportunity, booked ourselves a place, and soon found ourselves in the middle of a crowd of 60 kids, teens and leaders on the dock at the marina. I only knew about 3 people, but that didn’t matter to me, the point was to go and make friends, and by the end of the weekend I had plenty.

We left on Thursday evening after school and started the  1 ½ hour boat ride over to the island. The boat was crazy, people running around going insane, playing cards, looking like monkeys… all I remember is that I was seasick. I really hate boat rides and this one involved choppy waters. Not cool! Laura tried to introduce me to some people, but each time I picked my head up off the table the room began to spin more, so I gave up and just rested on the ride there.

By the time we arrived at the island it was dark and there was little you could see in the dim light. I do remember the buses quite well though because they appeared ancient. No seatbelts, no comfy seats, just 2 big buses with metal benches that looked like they were from at least the 60’s. On the ride there we came across no other traffic or people. When we arrived at the village and found there was only about 5 other guests we realized how deserted the island really was. The hotel that we stayed in is a heritage village. It has a cafeteria, reception, a couple tents, and one big conference room, but each of these is a separate building. You walk around outside in the heat and sand to get anywhere. We roomed in little houses that surround the pool. When you enter each house you are immediately in the courtyard. Off the courtyard are several small bedrooms, a bathroom, a little kitchen, and a diwania/living room. At the side of the courtyard is a steep flight of stairs, but once on the roof you can walk around and jump roofs to get into almost anyone’s room. The houses were cute and very interesting. Whenever you took a shower it flooded the entire room and went down the drain in the center, but the water also drenched the toilet, sink, trashcan, everything basically. So maybe we weren’t living in the lap of luxury, but I can’t think of a better set up for fun.

Friday night we settled into our houses and met our roommates. I roomed with Donna, one of the pastor’s kids who is also 17. We also had a 9^th and 10^th grader in our house who were fun. After settling in we met at the cafeteria for dinner. All week long we enjoyed lots of traditional food. The food was fantastic, lots of rice, chicken, fish, tabuli, rice pudding, Arabic bread, fried bread, mango juice…it was a huge array every night and tasted delicious.

After dinner we wandered around a bit and met up for our sessions. The sessions were all about love and I was amazed at how well Pastor Kyle managed to incorporate something that targeted everyone from 11-20. The main points were that: Love is not an emotion, it is a choice, Love is not an emotion, it is a challenge, Love is not an emotion, it is a commitment.  Pastor Kyle illustrated God’s love for us one night by kneeling and washing every single one of our feet. That is about 60 feet that are stinky, smelly, dusty and dirty. After walking around in the desert sands in heat and humidity, the extremes of what Jesus did just hit you. We enjoyed our worship time too thanks to a group of high school guys and a Filipino lady who led us. We didn’t necessarily know all the songs, but it was wonderful to praise the Lord in the shadow of several old crumbling mosques.

The entire island is so peaceful. There are a couple crumbling mosques, but none of them sound the call to prayer. It was wonderful to spend a couple days not having to hear that. There were few cars or people, so it was just a natural stillness and quiet that was so relaxing. Unlike at some of the resorts here where you can still hear all of the city noises on the beach, while we were there you could lie out on the dock and hear nothing but the sound of your own voice and the waves. 

The second day started with a good breakfast at 8:30, and then a bit of free time. We wandered around out towards the beach and walked out on the long dock. The sea was beautiful, but looking back at the island was so sad. Beyond our little village compound was rows and rows of houses that were just crumbling to pieces. Most of them had missing walls and were so dilapidated; the best ones were marred with numerous bullet holes. All this is a reminder of the Iraqi Invasion.

In the afternoon we cooled off in the swimming pool and played games. I haven’t been burned or even tanned since I’ve been here and stupidly thought I’d be fine. Well, I burned on my back and am still rubbing lotions on it, but I have a tan! Yay! I finally have my tan. You have no idea how proud of myself I am.

The day continued with lots of crazy activities; boys positioned on rooftops with water, throwing leaders into the pool, building towers out of soda cans, running around like crazy on an itty bitty playground, and generally just acting like fools because there was no one around to care. After our afternoon session a group of girls decided that we wanted to go exploring. We asked permission to go see the horses, because well, the crumbling buildings were just a wee bit beyond that. 


We went  to the petting zoo first, though there’s actually no one out there and no way to pet the animals. But it was cool to see the peacocks, ostrich, deer, goats, horses and monkeys. I felt so sorry for the poor animals because there was little shade and this little zoo looked so incredibly old. The monkeys had a little chain link fence area, and their indoor portion was an old train car. It was a very strange place.

Just a little beyond  the petting zoo sprawled the town of crumbling houses that loomed on forever. We walked cautiously along the ruins, because in places it was several feet deep of rubble. It was so incredibly sad to see these homes that weren’t set up like they might be had the place been turned into a museum. Everything was left the same. There were no ropes, no boundaries. We walked inside to see old couches, shoes, cracked dishes, shattered windows, dolls, books, newspapers, soda bottles, bones… most everything was broken in some way.

The girls wanted to be adventurous and tried to do stupid things on several occasions. Like climbing up onto the roof of a crumbling building, or walking into a room with bullet shells everywhere. Laura even decided to pick up the skull of some beast that had died in one of the homes. At one point there was a building that looked like the top half would collapse in any minute. Emily and Laura stood under it and politely requested a photo. Those two are insane! Whenever one of them would do something stupid the other would look on and laugh, but then soon join in. Those two more than any are the crazy dumb blondes. We walked around in the desert for quite a while, 3 hours actually, and since it was Ramadan we weren’t carrying any water. Every once in a while we’d poke our heads inside a building we passed and see something interesting, though I think the entire time the girls were staring through the rubble for any type of old explosive. And they found one, they found a rocket that was several feet tall lodged in the ruins of a building that a second rocket had struck. This rocket was perfectly intact and hadn’t exploded. Sound dangerous? YES!

The four of us had fun exploring and laughing at each other. Emily and Laura did so many stupid things. Climbing on ruins, touching nasty likely disease ridden stuff, and claiming that a hole for a fence pole was likely a “German fox hole with barbed wire coming out of it.” Donna kindly pointed out that the Germans never had anything to do with a tiny island off Kuwait. The most interesting thing we saw was the old mosque. It was huge and though crumbling, still grand. The girls claimed they wouldn’t actually go inside of it out of respect. But they kept inching closer and closer. One of them spotted a trap door in the corner. The tiles had been removed and there was indeed a door and tunnel underneath.

We  were totally amazed at all of the findings we made and the experience that we had. I think due to health and safety reasons this is one of very few places we could ever have that much freedom! Eventually it was time to go back and we had to practically drag the girls away from the ruins and back to the cafeteria for dinner.

That evening we had fun chilling and playing basketball and soccer. I didn’t actually play, I just talked to people and made more friends. At about half way through the first basketball game someone came running and told me ethan was sick. Oh great… Poor kid was in Emily’s room with a high fever, cough, sore throat, dizzy, light headed. Emily and I first looked at each other thinking swine flu! Somehow I wouldn’t have been surprised if he did have it, but in the end it was just strep throat.  We had an interesting evening taking turns at his bedside and running around looking for cell phone service and talking to the leaders. Basically the conclusion was that if his fever was the same the next morning he would have to be taken by is leader to the Military Hospital on the opposite side of the island and then taken back to Kuwait City by the Coast Guard because there was no other way off the island except for our boat the next evening.

Ethan spent the night in Emily’s room and his leader climbed up onto his roof and over into their courtyard to peek through the window and make sure he took his meds. With all of the care he was feeling better by morning and once he was drugged up his leader caught him running around with the other boys and had to command him to go back to bed and rest. Ethan spent the day taking it easy and chilling and went to the hospital after he got home to find out he had strep throat.

Emily and I had a fantastic Saturday. After breakfast and the morning session we were given 2 hours of free time. Emily had discovered a horrific smell from her freezer earlier that morning and found about 10 crabs in her fridge. She was totally grossed out and blamed the boys for it, so she and Laura came running to me with the crabs in their backpack claiming we needed to devise a plan of revenge. After a bit of conniving we climbed up onto Emily’s roof and ran around, ducking behind the water tanks and creeping along the roof. By the time we came close to our target we discovered a tin roof lay between us. Laura wanted to test it and climb across, but I refused to let her and we had to sadly back down. Trust me, we did not give up and decided to try and pick the lock to their room. Emily came close to getting it when the leader and Nathan caught us. They were so convinced that we couldn’t actually do anything to them so they let us into their room. Turned out they had cleverly locked the individual doors, but we easily picked that lock and got inside. They were amazed and tried to initially lock us in the kitchen, but then hauled us kicking and screaming out the door, and double locked and bolted everything.

We ran around for a while trying to find more roof access, and ended up trying to pick the lock next door to them. It actually worked! We got into the courtyard, climbed up onto the roof and jumped down into the courtyard of our target. Emily managed to pick the lock once again to the individual rooms and Laura and I kicked and pushed until the bolts came loose. We were in! Laura pulled out the crabs and scattered them in the boys luggage while I grabbed every pair of boxers I could find. We then soaked the boxers, wrapped a crab inside of them and tossed them into their freezer. Emily locked all the doors behind us and we disappeared.

Because we still had some free time left and didn’t want to look too suspicious we went to the pool. It was soo hot so we sat around soaking our feet in the pool. The leaders came along and threw us in! I didn’t think they’d actually do it, but after ethan assured them we had spare clothes we found ourselves in the pool. It was definitely refreshing, but swimming in jeans is not my idea of fun. We made the best of it though and had a good time.

At lunch we walked in and started receiving high fives from the boys. We were laughing and asking what on earth was going on? Turned out that they weren’t mad at us, they thought we were geniuses. They wanted to learn how to pick a lock, how to catch crabs that huge, and hoped we would share in our tactical brilliance. The leaders even came up to us congratulating us because they never knew girls could be so evil and were happy we joined in and weren’t afraid to touch guys boxers and get dirty. After numerous praises and congratulations the entire cafeteria gave us a standing ovation. We were laughing the whole time, but noticed 2 guys were missing and assumed there would be pay back after lunch. Well, I was the lucky room. We walked into our room smelling the nasty stench and found crabs everywhere. They weren’t just scattered in our stuff though, no, they were hidden cleverly. I opened my make up bag to find my brush and found a crab lodged in there. By now the crabs were oozing and dying after being in the heat for so long. My make up sponges and brush had soaked up this ooze. It was nasty! Other girls got surprised when they put on clothes to find crabs crawl out. The guys were so mean!

As we found the crabs Emily and Laura ran off with them and started throwing them at the guys on the roof. The guys retaliated with buckets of water, so we made mud and threw it back at them. Soon we were pelting each other with crab claws and guts, mud, and water. Everyone was drenched, the girls had crab guts in their hair and the boys were smeared in mud. But it was so much fun!

I ran away after being drenched and changed into yet another outfit. We were supposed to be packing so I was surprised when I heard the door ring and found a group of guys at the door. I tried to yell at the girls to stay inside their rooms cuz something was up, but it was too late. Hannah walked into the trap and was drenched by one of the boys who had climbed up our window onto the roof. I figured they couldn’t possibly have another trash can full of water so went to go find revenge, and was drenched yet again. I  saw the guys on the roof and ended up running after them and chasing them across the rooftops. At one point I thought I would surely die and fall off the roof. I chased Nathan back down towards my room but slipped right before the stairs and fell down the entire flight. Ouch! I still have bruises down my spine. It was painful, but it meant the guys took pity on us and sent Micah to clean up the mess they had made in our courtyard.

After this we called for a truce, and it held through the boat ride back to the island and through the unloading. But we had planned a little surprise for the guys, so after the group photo Lydia yelled “get ‘em” and every single girl, leader and child alike pulled out a water bottle and drenched the boys. I’m sure we attracted attention from the Kuwaitis along the Marina, but we had fun going crazy.

The whole weekend was a wonderful experience. I formed new friendships, explored war ruins, and learned so much about love from Pastor Kyle. I can’t wait till we have another youth event!

Volunteering at the Hospital

Today Mom and I signed up to volunteer at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital with a group of people from the Embassy. The public hospital appeared to be very old and it was rather drab. There were some stickers to brighten up the children’s areas, but the Mickey and Minnie were ancient, definitely not the newer version that I grew up with. Our group definitely stood out from everyone else just by us being Westerners, but our bright blue Embassy bags definitely didn’t help us to blend in. I don’t recall seeing anyone in scrubs; the staff was wearing jeans and nice blouses underneath their lab coats with head coverings.

We were greeted by the Director of the hospital who welcomed us into his office. He was so appreciative that we would take the time to come and visit. It was obvious that he cared for every aspect of his hospital and was touched that we would visit his Children’s Ward. The director painted a very detailed and sad image of some of the children that were staying at the hospital. He explained that Kuwait does not have any child protection laws like in the states, and so child abuse is a big problem. Currently there are 3 children under the age of one who are living in the children’s ward. There is no Foster care, and he is currently fighting a legal battle for the poor little ones. He told the story of a one year old whose father refused to take his wife to the hospital to give birth to her second child because he was afraid of being caught by the police for some past crime. So he abandoned the family and let the mother give birth at home alone. Both she and the newborn died and the police found the little girl a couple days later and took her to the hospital where she’s stayed since. The other children were found in the car park of a grocery store. This just broke my heart and I longed to be able to go cuddle these poor children and do exactly what the director desired to do if there weren’t too many legal problems; take them home and love on them.

We were finally taken upstairs to the Social Worker’s office that had a small play room attached. It is only open in the mornings till 12 because there is not enough staff. There weren’t many toys in the playroom, and a volunteer mentioned she had seen boxes of new ones in another room. Apparently they don’t like to bring out the new toys because they worry that they will become used and broken. Isn’t that the point of toys? To be enjoyed?

The initial point of us going was to read to the children, but I became a bit skeptical when I saw the ages and realized very few children spoke any English at all. Everyone was still appreciative that we had come though. Some of the volunteers from the Embassy looked out of their comfort zone when they realized they couldn’t just sit down and read the stories to the children. So mom and I crawled on the floor with the children looking like maniacs but getting lots of giggles from the children while other volunteers watched. The kids were very sweet and interactive. I managed to sing some songs with a couple children who knew the tunes to Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When I saw a copy of Angelina Ballerina in a bag I found a little girl who spoke some English and simplified the story for her. I think she managed to understand the gist of it, but enjoyed the attention for sure.

One mother whose girls had only been brought to the hospital for a blood test saw us, and brought her 2 daughters in. One was maybe 9 and the other 11 or so. The mother had them come sit down with me as I simplified the Velveteen Rabbit, and she translated parts of it to her girls. They were very polite and thanked me for the story once I was done.
The nurses brought in the little orphans, and all the volunteers took turns cuddling the sweet angels. The one year old appeared to be a staff favorite. She was a little princess in an adorable outfit. The gorgeous little girl should not be there though. I just pray that laws will form to protect such sweet innocent children.

It didn’t seem like we stayed very long, but before I knew it we were leaving and going back to work. I believe groups will be returning every Saturday, and if it is better organized next time then I will definitely return.