April, May, June 2018 Kuwait

Time to recap on the last months while blog has also been awol. Be sure to check out final photo's of last post.

Greetings, from our home



 Jeroen is back to work and keeping me up to date with Kuwait happenings.
1. The temperature is nice
2. The construction next door is moving rapidly.
3. Kuwait has passed a law that no-one is to hang their washing outside in an attempt to beautify the city.

Mini-tiger- do you want me?

  A friend thought we may like this kitty to adopt. Little miss was found abandoned on the side of the road and rescued by a young schoolgirl. Who took it home and now it's looking for a new family. Sadly, not us.

Another friend saw this and thought of us, looking for a cat. With the reward of $10,000 NZD, I'm looking!

Missing in Kuwait

 April 14, time for me to head back to Kuwait. As the flight was full my ticket was booked to fly via Brisbane instead of the usual direct flight to Dubai.

And as the Commonwealth Games were finishing up, I had an unexpected 24 hours lay-over in Brisbane. I stayed with Jen!




All I saw of the Games

 Dubai now to process the first part of my Kuwait visa. 4 nights staying at the Jumeirah Hotel. After one hour of being to-ed and fro-ed for medical and to hand over my passport, the rest of time was spent resting and my body moving onto Eastern time again.

Downtown Dubai

Jeroen is waiting patiently for me to come home. Here's how the neighbour's new home is going.

Going up pretty quickly

Out for coffee near the Kuwait Cultural Centre

 Back to Kuwait and it's dust everywhere. I discover I react to the dust with constant sore throat, sticky eyes and a night cough. Time to invest in air purifiers which thankfully alleviate the symptoms. Perhaps I need to find a dust mask in order to go out.
May 10, out on a few visits.

Visit to Zeri's Craft shop

Home-made soaps

Alex, Jo and Janis

Restaurant Dar Hamad

Kuwait sweets

Ready to box the goodies

Sticky date pudding with caramel sauce and sesame crisp

Ladies who lunch

Window art

We scooted along the road from Zeri's and found this unique building. It's a restaurant so we thought we'd pop in for a coffee. Which turned into brunch! Beautiful surroundings. Looking forward to heading here with BP in the next weeks to celebrate the Iftar dinner. More on that later in Ramadan section.

Loved the bakery here also with the most delicious Kuwait/ Middle East food treats. Dates, pistachios, halva....all beautifully crafted into bite size cake and biscuit pieces.


May 12, Jeroen and I took a visit to the local fish market. Full of all kinds of seafood. We took home a kilo of fresh prawns.

Fish Market Kuwait



Measuring out our prawns

For an extra 1/2 KD the seafood is prepared

Another visit together was to The Grand Mosque in Kuwait City.
Completed in 1986, The Grand Mosque is an excellent example of the conventional Islamic architectural style and also borrowed heavily from Persian structural design especially things like a central large dome, pointed arches and arcades of pillars forming into windy open-air passageways.

After the women were suitably covered we took a tour of the grounds and inside the Mosque.

Me with Kate, Leanne and Alex

 The most frequent question I receive is whether we women need to cover up in Kuwait. Yes, We do.

But only shoulders and knees and that rule is for men also. In the mosque however we were required to wear full Abaya. On a warm day, this light flowing fabric was really not as hot as I expected.



Shoes off first

Tile work in the visitors room



Tea in the visitors room

Lighted alcoves in main hall

Detail in alcove

Detail in the detail

German crystal

Stained glass in the ceiling



Intricate hand-carved gypsum

Geometrics everywhere

Floral tributes

Blue and gold

Adornments

Entranceway

The Holy Koran

As a Christian, it was a delight to register many similarities between the Faiths. It was a calm and peaceful experience to be there.

Ornate ceiling

Grandeur in The Mosque

There is another room specifically for when the Emir visits the Mosque. He worships in the main hall with the people and then entertains in this exquisite side room.

Chandelier

A moment to reflect

 

Couple in Kuwait

Majestic windows

 Always nice to receive pics from home, NZ and Holland.

 

Engelbert having completed half marathon and Tinka and Jelle waiting to congratulate him

And the beautiful Hulk and Widow, enjoying time at the beach.

 

Hulk ready to play

Widow

 May 17, the new moon has been spotted and the period of Ramadan begins.

''The month of Ramadan (is that) in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for the people and the clear proof for guidance and criterion. So whoever sights (the new moon of) the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey - then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and doesn't intend for you hardship and wants for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that (to) which He has guided you: and perhaps you will be grateful.''
                                                                 Surah Al-Baqarah 2:185

Lasting 29-30 days, adult Muslims are required to fast from sunrise to sunset.

Before dawn breakfast is taken and regular prayers are submitted throughout the day.

After sun sets around 6.30pm the mosques (there are more than 1500 in Kuwait) announce that it is time to break fast with an evening meal, or Iftar.

While seen by Westerners as a time of denial here it is more seen as a time of celebration; coming together as community to worship, praise and do good deeds.

As expats we are not required to participate however we are expected to keep Kuwait law of Ramadan. So during daylight hours, there is:

No eating, drinking, swearing, dressing inappropriately

No music or dancing

No public displays of affection (or sexual relations)

 

It is highly encouraged to accept gifts or invitations as declining is seen as rude.

 

Already we have received a tray of food from our hospitable landlord and family.

Ramadan Kareem - Happy Ramadan, is the basic Ramadan greeting.

 

Ramadan Kareem, 2018

May 22, Jeroen in action! 

 

Jeroen giving a presentation at work

May 28, dust is making my eyes stick together, and cough at night. Second air purifier helps. One guy at Jeroen's work left a window open a fraction and spent over an hour cleaning the dust off and in everything.

 

Kuwait air quality

Today we're in the unhealthy for sensitive groups range on the pollution scale with 147. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning the forecast is for the purple part of the scale.

It's sure getting warmer also. Yesterday our car thermometer registered 50 degrees and it settled to 40 within 20 minutes. Soon 40-50 and beyond will be a standard accurate temperature.

Remember when I said we wouldn't get a cat? Well, I lied.

I saw an advert on OLX Kuwait (on-line classifieds) and saw this lovely chap. So we decided to go and just MEET him.

The owner Gail who's lived here for 30 years found him in a bird cage in the heat and with no water (he did have food) at the market. After berating the man for keeping the cat in these conditions she took him home however their existing home cat didn't take to this fella. So, he was kept in a bedroom for a few weeks while he was chipped and neutered and all manor of treatments.

 

Cat in a Bird Cage

Well, he is such a cute, smooch boy, how could we resist? After a mad dash to buy a few supplies we returned to pick up our new family member. His name is Charlie.

Charlie has taken no time at all in settling in. He has a huge meow, likes hiding and has no preference in scratching fake or real leather. Oh oh. But he seems easy to train.

 

Charlie

Such a smoocher

Charlie and The Lasagne Dish

Look real close and you'll see he's squished into a glass lasagne dish on the drying rack. It'll be washed before you come for dinner!

A pup rescue

Not sure of this little chap's history however if you know of anyone who can foster, sing out!

May 31, home day and young Charlie is happy. He's stolen the new nail clippers, discovered drinking water out of the tap and loves standing at the toilet watching the water swirl around.

 

Charlie and The Strawberry

 Jo and Lottie called in to meet Charles...with gift of cute strawberry hidey-hole for him. It'll do, he says.

Lottie and Charlie, smitten kitten

Days are filling with Bible study, church, outings with BP ladies and tonight we will enjoy Iftar (evening meal that breaks the fast) with BP at Dar Hamad, the restaurant we discovered a couple of weeks ago.

Rebecca before heading back to Angola for 3 months - boa viagem!

Stay safe Rebecca; ebola has made a come-back in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Angola is high risk in northern parts.

Bible study ladies in Kuwait: Angola (above) and Kuwait (below).

Some of my Kuwait friends

Our Bible study group consists of women from around the world...in this photo above; NZ, UK, India, Columbia, USA and Germany. And we've been here in Kuwait from 2 months to almost 40 Years.


Part of friends Lego collection

Headed over to enjoy a little time with another Angola expat before she headed back to UK. She spent time dismantling her husband's lego collection so he can make it up again in the UK while he is undergoing chemo.
Air quality today is 170 so in the unhealthy range. Check out the revised quality table I replaced above.
But, wait! How accurate is this system? I thought I would check out levels in NZ -whatever is happening in Masterton to grade the air quality in current time at 182? NZ with poor air quality - surely that's not right??!

The US Army camps stationed here have an outbreak of norovirus with 77 infected.
June 3, a nice weekend with Iftar at Dar Hamad and most of the Kuwait BP employees...a good gathering. Next night, out with friends to Mexican restaurant, Azteca. Nice fresh guacamole, nachos, refried beans and churros!

Me with Lottie, Janis, Alice and Jo at Azteca

Azteca food (internet pic)

Iftar dinner from our landlord

NZ milk and translated to Arabic

 Out and about with Jeroen to Lulu's supermarket where I found more NZ products.

Jeroen often spotting the nice cars

Looking on OLX and found some more funnies for sale. 



Dimples aka dumbells



New Wife for sale

And there were more products with unsure meaning...a men's regular skin cream advertised 'for enlargement' this one below:

Almost electric high pressure pot

Here's our boy, settling in quite nicely. He tries to get to MY chair before I do so sometimes we share. Often we share.

Having a chat

 A pic from recent home visit...Liam off for a drive with Uncle.

Mind your head!

June 5, and I hosted Bible study and will lead it for the next couple of months.

Harley and The TV

Another cool pic from home....Liam and Shani's cat loves wildlife tv programmes.

and not to be outdone, here's Charlie and The Clothes Drying Rack.

June 10, temperature's rising. And the landlord has just turned the hot water off as it's hotter water coming from the cold tap!

So hot in the car, you burn your fingers on the coin change!

Out shopping with Jeroen and spotted these inventions, especially for you, Pap.

Testing the pooper-scooper

and another one!

Ramadan continues.

Ramadan at the gym

 We were told we would be able to have a drink of water at the gym however discover that the water dispensers are indisposed so we need to drink up large before and after.
Last week we attended a Cultural Awareness training at the Four Seasons hotel.
What a beautiful place and food was stunning.

Four Seasons display

A green wall in the hotel

Another lighting display

Beautiful piece

The presentation was made by Brigadier General, Edward Brown formerly of the British Army. He has extensive Gulf experience and lived 6 years in Kuwait. And born in NZ, no trace of kiwi accent anymore!



BP employees and spouse

I work for BP!

We covered a brief history of Kuwait. Aside from the well documented oil industry which was discovered in 1937 Kuwait had also been an international provider of freshwater pearls. That industry collapsed in the 20's following the invention of cultured pearls by Japan.
The discovery of oil is said to have led to the Age of Spoiling in Kuwait.

What's young Charlie been up to this week?

Charlie and The Stone Cat

Charlie and The Dishwasher

Charlie and The Toilet

This crazy cat loves nothing more than watching the swirling water go down the recently flushed toilet. And then he falls in. Oh dear.
Jo and Lottie and I decided to check out the Grand Avenues for night shopping. Here, during Ramadan, it seems the locals fast and pray all day after sunrise, eat and pray at dusk and then shop and eat and socialise up until 02;30 when it's time to pray again. Then, everyone eats breakfast and heads back to bed until after lunch.
It was very busy at the Mall - a bit of Brit nostalgia, shopping at M&S and Boots.

Jo, Lottie and me at Grand Avenues