Thanksgiving

Friday 11/24/05
2030

Well, Thanksgiving in Kuwait was interesting for me. Several things made it interesting and different.

First of all, I did not spend the day on post. My NCOIC had another dental appointment downtown, and this time I took him there. We went through the process to get an off-post pass, and I drove him to Fahaheel to a civilian clinic. After that we went to Kuwait City and met with a contracting firm that has done work for us in the past. It was an interesting trip.

Just off post, before getting to the built-up areas, there were quite a few tents scattered around the countryside (it seems weird to call it that – it’s really just a desert). It turns out that these are Bedouins (pronounced “Bed-oons’ “ . They are like gypsies – they have no fixed abode, and wander around the desert with their herds of goats and whatever else they have. We saw some goats and a donkey (but no camels). In the cultural awareness class I took, they said that Bedouins are not Kuwaiti citizens. They have a right to stay here and a right to wander around and live wherever, but they do not have passports and cannot leave the country. Apparently this dates back to when the country was established, and they refused to be counted in the census. So they live outside the system – in a sense it’s almost like they don’t exist as far as the government is concerned.

We got to Fahaheel a bit early, so we walked around town. Like most of the urban development in Kuwait, it is along the shore of the Persian Gulf (although my map of Kuwait calls it the Arabian Gulf). I guess what it’s called depends on where you are. Like many cities, the town was a mix of modern buildings and run-down older buildings. We walked through a couple of indoor malls which were filled with stalls and small stores selling a variety of goods, from clothing and rugs to cookware, toiletries, food, toys, electronics – you name it. I took some photos inside one of them:


Inside a mall
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Inside the Mall #2
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

The sky outside was a strange brown color at times - I think dust must blow up high into the sky and obscure the sun:

Fahaheel, Kuwait
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Naturally there is a McDonalds:


McDonald's
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

And a Starbucks (although I forgot to take a photo). It’s very picturesque – right on the water by a marina.

The people wear a variety of clothes. There are quite a few in western or western-looking clothes, but also very many in traditional Arab attire. Conservatively-dressed women wore black dresses, veils, and even black gloves covering their hands. You could only see their eyes. It’s considered rude to look at them too closely or pay undue attention to them. Most men wear ankle-length garments that are like a robe, except they are cut like a dress shirt with a closed collar, and are full-length. They even have a pocket in the front and buttons. Most of them are white but there are some earth-tones as well. Most of the men wear something on their heads – either a close-fitting knit cap made of a sort of lace, or else the traditional Arab headgear (burnoose?) which is like a small sheet with a black band holding it on. Most of these were either white or else a red-and-white checked pattern, which indicates that the wearer has made his pilgrimage to Mecca. They wear it either down on both sides like you see in the movies, or else flipped up on one or both sides. Open-toed sandals are the universal footwear.
A lot of the merchants seemed to be from someplace besides Kuwait – India, perhaps, even some Asians (Korean or Chinese, I’d guess). Since I don’t speak any of their languages, I really don’t know.

I had my Arabic phrasebook, but it was fairly useless. The phrasebook doesn’t do any good reading signs, since I can’t distinguish the letters. Most of the people speak enough English that you can get by. A lot of the signs, at least on the larger places near the main roads, are written in both Arabic and English. Once we got to the smaller streets it was purely Arabic. It kind of reminded me of walking in downtown Dearborn, or down Six Mile or Seven Mile east of Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

At one point I had to laugh, and really wished I’d been quicker on the draw with my camera. A car drove by with the windows down and the stereo blasting. He got stopped in traffic right across from us, so we got a good look (and listen). It was nothing you wouldn’t see in any big city in the USA, except that the driver was wearing a strange combination of traditional Arabic attire and the “urban gangsta” look (knit cap pulled over his ears, big sunglasses, gaudy gold jewelry). The music he was blasting was Middle Eastern music, which is a sort of off-key singsong chant with a jerky rhythm, accompanied by strings and woodwinds playing vaguely discordant melodies with musical phrases that wander along for awhile, then climb up the scale and suddenly stop, starting again on a lower note. My musical vocabulary is pretty limited, so that’s about the best I can do to describe it. But the image of this guy in his car, imitating something you’d see on Eight Mile in Detroit, except with local music, was really a stitch.

We had a small bite to eat and went to the dental appointment. I took this photograph out the window, of a traditional Kuwaiti boat (ship?) headed out to sea from the marina across the street. The shape of this boat is very characteristic – they even have it on their coins. I don’t know a lot about the history of this region, but I do know that for centuries they have been big traders and merchants, and the Indian Ocean was their highway to the East.


Ship heading out to sea
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

After the dental appointment was over we went to Kuwait City. The entire trip north was one big strip of urban development. There is an incredible amount of construction. Some of it looks like refurbishing of older buildings but a lot of it is brand new development – mostly high rises.

We didn’t see a lot of Kuwait City because we went straight to the company’s offices. We didn’t have a lot of time, and wanted to meet each other and talk about what they do. But I did get a bit of a look around. There are some impressive glass-and-steel high rise buildings, and a lot of smaller less impressive ones. Everything seems to be in the process of either demolition, renovation, or construction. There were torn up sidewalks and piles of paving stones everywhere. I know the country has a lot of money, and I guess you can see it in the construction, but overall it was more rundown than I expected. A lot like any other city – islands of new development in a sea of older buildings and trash. Perhaps it looks even more stark because there isn’t much green anywhere. Parts of it reminded me of East Berlin – wide expanses of grey concrete.

The owner of the company said that sometime when we have more time he’d show us around some of the landmarks – I know there are beautiful, impressive places in Kuwait City and that we just didn’t see them because we were there on business and weren’t looking for them.

It may seem odd to be meeting with a Kuwaiti company, but a lot of the work we need done is performed by contractors, and certain things we need must be purchased on the local economy. There is a prescribed process for competitive bidding on larger contracts, but for smaller things we need, we have the authority to look for it ourselves and pay directly. So it's good to know who to call when you need things like that.

By the time we were done, it was getting dark. The trip back was pretty exciting. Kuwait has the highest rate of traffic accidents and deaths in the world. Drivers here are just crazy, and driving on the highway is by far the most dangerous thing I’ve done here. I thought the Autobahns in Germany were wild but these people have no inhibitions. They weave in and out, drive at top speed, cut you off, stop without warning, turn without signaling, even drive without headlights – it’s insane. There are a lot of traffic circles, which can be a bit unnerving if you don’t understand how they work. Traffic coming from the left has the right of way, as does traffic on the inside of the circle. So you really have to keep your eyes open and watch all around, all the time. But we made it back OK.

Once we got through security getting back on post, we went back to our AO and I went to dinner at the mess hall. The big meal had already been served at mid-day, but they still had lots of traditional Thanksgiving fare for the evening meal. I had turkey and stuffing with gravy, a couple of nice slices of prime rib, and a slice of pecan pie for dessert. There was lots of other food, but that was about all I could handle.

They had gone all-out to decorate the place for Thanksgiving. It was kind of funny because the employees are mostly TCN’s, and I guess they have some interesting ideas about what “home” looks like for an American. They had lots of fall colors, and turkeys, etc, around the walls. There was a big diorama that they built in one corner of the mess hall. It looked like an island, with two volcanoes, a lake with fish and a crocodile in it, a house on stilts, and a couple of turkeys. I don’t know where it was supposed to be, but it was quite a scene! In addition to that, they had a really well-done cornucopia. The horn of plenty was baked out of bread, with a huge pile of real fruit spilling out.

I didn’t think I’d really care too much about anything except not being with my family, but it was nice to see the place decorated and it felt good to have turkey and stuffing.

After dinner I went to the office to try to call home. I was only partly successful, as the lines were very busy and it was hard to get a line out. I managed to chat with Conor and my dad for a few minutes, but had to leave messages for the girls.

Despite missing my family, all in all it was a memorable day. Before bed I ate one more slice of pecan pie that I had brought from dinner. So I went to bed totally stuffed, just like you’re supposed to on Thanksgiving. :-)