Decisions, Decisions.....It's Time to Make a Big One.......

Alright. I sit here looking at my renewal contract ready to be signed and am attempting to make sure my choice is well-thought out and of course, the right one. I have spent a total of 118 days in this petite Middle Eastern country. I have driven on its roads, dodged vehicles while attempting to walk down the streets, fled from the wild street cats, learned to communicate in basic Arabic, and adapted to the HUGE culture shift. As I weigh the choice, many things rush into my thoughts - people back home and people here, my previously laid plans for my life and where I am sitting right now with regards to those plans, my love for Canada and my newly discovered love for the Middle East. My decision is becoming clear.

I feel strongly that God has placed me here and given me this incredible opportunity to enrich my life by living in this culture and developing relationships with the various people whom He places in my path. I have become surprisingly close with my girls at school, some of the people I work with and the kids I tutor. When I envision my next year, I see myself here, doing the same thing. I find it rather strange that I do not see myself back home in Canada. Perhaps because right now, for the most part, this is where my heart is? Funny how you never expect how different life can become in such a short amount of time.

The pluses to staying here far outweigh the negatives at this point. A big one is the traveling aspect. Until I flew into Kuwait four short months ago, I had never done any real traveling besides the standard trip to Mexico and a Caribbean cruise. This year will have drastically changed that! The remainder of this school year holds for me trips to China, Turkey, London, Rome and Greece. Sometimes I lay in bed and question if this is really my life, because it has changed so significantly in a matter of 4 months. Yet each time, the answer back is a resounding YES!

So, I guess that's it - I am officially staying for another year. I am coming home for 2 months in the summer and then I will return to the desert once more. :) Just wanted to let everyone know! :) Now where is that pen.......

Merry Christmas from Kuwait!!

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve! It is a very cool, yet very pleasant 21 degrees outside and from peering out the window, it appears most of Kuwait is tucked into bed. It feels so bizarre to be spending my first Christmas away from my family. The good thing is that because it's not a celebrated holiday over here, there's no big build up and hence no great bouts of homesickness - just little ones. Like today. I am definitely homesick today and I will most definitely be homesick tomorrow. However, because we don't get any extra days off for Christmas, I will be back at school teaching on "Boxing Day" and all will feel normal once again. The homesickness will pass and the reality of lesson plans, marking and progress report due dates will set in. LOL.

Tonight I spent my time with good friends and adopted family. As I sit here, I am thankful once again for how God provides. Instead of being alone on Christmas Eve, Liz and Gary had me sleep over and spend it with them. I love being their adopted 'kid'! A bunch of us gathered at their place tonight and ate, talked, laughed and just enjoyed the fact that we may all be missing friends and family, but we all understand and managed to come together to make our own Christmas cheer. :) Liz, Gary and I worked hard earlier this week to design the construction of our gingerbread masterpiece - The Gingerbread Mosque! That's right, Gary designed the pattern pieces, Liz and I made the dough and baked them and then Bill and I "glued" them all together with icing. And tonight we all decorated it! One of our Arabic friends, Alia, even made an Arabic chocolate snowman complete with a gutra and egal (the tradition male head covering)! Pretty sweet, eh?

Well I better head to bed as it is now past midnight, so technically Christmas Day - MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! :)

T'was the night before Christmas and all through Kuwait,

All the streets cats were fighting outside of my 'bayt'. ('house' in Arabic)

The air was a-buzz with the chance of a storm,

Bringing fresh-blown sand to dust up my dorm.

My tree was alight in my small living room,

Bringing Christmasy cheer to push out any gloom!

How I miss all my family, my friends, and my dog,

You better make sure that you all read my blog! (nice, subtle hint, eh?Lol!)

Merry Christmas to everyone, here and back home,

Wishing you love and joy - shalom. :)

Merry Christmas from Kuwait! :)

Refreshing Rain!! :)

الحمد لله انها تمطر

This morning during Parent/Teacher interviews, we had a surprise in the form of precipitation - a very heavy downpour that lasted a good 20 minutes. It was incredible! The weather in Kuwait has been a bit odd this year. For a country that gets very little rain, we have seen a lot of super light sprinkling sessions this year! However, no actual downpours. These are very rare and are somewhat important events when they occur, as was the one today. The interviews were stopped mid-interview and we all went out into the open-air courtyard (under cover of course!) and just watched and listened to the rain for some time. The sound was deafening as the rain struck the tin eaves and canvas covers. For once, the rain cleansed as it fell. Because of all the dust in the air, the rain droplets normally collect it all as they fall and it literally rains mud.

Many of the Arabic staff stood with outstretched hands and eyes closed. One of the Islamic teachers came over and told me what they were doing and why. Apparently in Islam, when it rains like this in a country such as this one, it is a very special moment and there is a rain prayer that is to be said thanking God for the rain and asking for whatever they need. They believe that because it is a special time with the rain, that God will hear their special prayers and will grant them their request, big or small. Hence all the women lined up with palms outstretched towards the heavens.

One thing about downpours here, on the odd chance that they occur, one usually finds out quickly how good the seals are on the window panes - it turns out mine are pretty much non-existent!! I came home to wet floors, wet rugs, and wet, muddy streaks that lead down the wall from the window to the floor! Gotta love the enormous amounts of sand dust that seep into even the cracks in the window panes! At least the rain cleaned that out??? LOL Ah well, it's a good thing all the floors over here are ceramic tile and all one has to do is dig out the mop!

So I managed to capture a short snippet of the rainfall on my little digital camera. Seeing as I can't figure out how to edit a movie in Quicktime format, it's raw - so I apologize for that, but it gives you an idea of how loud it was and what it looked like! :) Again, pretty standard downpour for back home, but for here, amazing! :)

My Own Personal, Heaven-Sent Ray of Sunshine...

Life over here can be a little crazy and intense with school, tutoring and everything else combined with the societal, cultural and language differences! Most days are really good and filled with lots of happiness and neat experiences. I can honestly say I love being here! But sometimes I get stuck feeling a bit frustrated with the different way of life/culture or just plain old homesick, longing for the things and the people I left back home. This time of year has been especially hard during the quiet times of the day when the mind wanders to all things sentimental. Back home the Christmas preparations are in full swing, the snow storms are raging and family and friends are gathering. It is so bizarre because I know it's the middle of December, but it could be very easy over here for Christmas to come and go and not even realize it. There's just no decorations, no lights, no music, no Christmasy feeling in the air! So with that said, this time of year is hard for a lot of Western people over here. However, God always provides just what one needs and He's done that for me too. He's sent me my own personal "ray of sunshine" in the form of a little boy - Khalid. :)

Today I was having one of those 'down' days. I don't normally tutor on the weekends, but Khalid wanted me to come help ease the anxiety of his upcoming Math test tomorrow by reviewing some key concepts, so I did. Once again, while being driven home afterwards, it struck me as it has a few times these past couple of months - I can arrive to tutor not feeling super great, but I always leave feeling happy and ready to face the realities of life again. It's kinda funny, but this little guy always manages to truly brighten my day no matter how dark it's been. That is why I have decided to write about him today. :)

Khalid is in grade 6 and I have the privilege of tutoring him 4 days a week. His driver, Moorgeesh, comes and picks me up every day and then drives me home when we're done. His family is a very kind and very welcoming Kuwaiti family! :)

Here we are, just hanging outside on the front stoop while Moorgeesh brings the car around.........it's so nice that it's cool enough to do this now! When I first started tutoring here, it was WAY too hot to wait outside for the car. Apparently brightly colored Crocs are all the rage over here with the kids........I have never seen so many different colors of Crocs!!!

Everyday we work on his homework/study and then always end by playing some kind of game INSIDE the house.......Kuwaiti houses don't have yards and because most of them are HUGE, the kids play inside and in Khalid's case even ride their bikes inside! So lately the sport of choice for the day has been volleyball. We have played soccer, basketball and attempted ball tag once, but I missed the step-down in the lobby, sprained my ankle and fell flat on the marble floor. So, we decided that maybe ball tag wasn't a good choice afterall......LOL. My ankle was fine, but I laughed for days after because all I could think of at the time was "Here I am, 30 years old, laying on this cold marble floor, I have fallen and can't get up all because I am playing ball tag in the house." At least we got a really good laugh out of that one though! :)

His older sister has a small business project going with flower arrangements, so she let him arrange a few one day. He made this one for me for Eid and was very proud of it! :) So cute!! :)

I am so thankful for everything I've been blessed with in life and all that comes with the amazing opportunity of living and working in this tiny, Middle Eastern country. As you are all getting ready for Christmas back home, I hope you take the time to stop and enjoy all the little moments of love and happiness that come your way. Sometimes God sends joy and encouragement in such unexpected ways- we just have to take the time to notice. :) Merry Christmas! :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.......

.....انها بداية لنظرة الكثير مثل عيد الميلاد

Well, maybe not here in Kuwait, but it sure does back home in Canada!! I may not enjoy driving in snow or on icy roads, but I sure do miss the snowy weather this time of the year as Christmas descends. This is a pic of my parents' house back home in Prince George, and the snow that fell in one day about 2 weeks ago. My car is definitely buried! :)

Seeing as this country is a fairly closed Islamic State evident in their ban of alcohol, pork and the ministry demanding the blacking out of most things relating to Israel, I was quite surprised to find a little Christmas tree and some lights and decorations for sale in one of the big import grocery stores over here! Good old "Sultan Center" came through for us Christian Westerners! LOL Although, being imported means things are a lot more expensive and I paid the equivilant of $14 Canadian for the strand of lights for the tree, but hey it was worth it! :)

For those of you who know me well, you know I usually go all out for Christmas in the way of lights and decorations. This year was no different! I was determined to make my apartment look Christmasy no matter what and with whatever I could find! So here are some pics of my attempt. I have to say that when the air conditoner is turned off and it's dark outside, it really, truly does feel Christmasy! :) Especially if I put on my fireplace..........yup, that's right, I have a fireplace DVD and I'm proud of it! Go ahead and laugh, but it really makes the place feel cozy!!!



Here's my Christmas tree........with Tariq the Christmas camel as my tree topper........LOL. ;)


I managed to find a few 'Christmasy' things at IKEA, like the ornament holder and some paper ornaments to hang on it........:)


I was desperate for some extra light in the kitchen, so I taped these under my cabinets......yes, it's a little neon, but hey it works!


The wreath I made for my door..........


And my advent calendar that I found when I was in Bahrain! :) It would probably be more exciting if I actually filled it, eh? LOL

Now if only I could find a nativity..........hmmmm, I'm on the hunt!

Back From Bahrain....

It's funny how previously laid plans go awry and you think that nothing could have been better than what you had planned out before......and then you find out you were wrong! I was so sad that my big trip to Jordan had to be cancelled and figured that my first 6 day break would be spent hanging out in Kuwait doing absolutely nothing exciting. It turned out that I ended up flying to Bahrain with some dear friends and had three of the most fun days since I first left Canada! :) Liz and Gary have definitely become my adopted parents in Kuwait and it truly felt like I had a family over here this past week. :) Sidenote - I had gone to school and then also worked with their kids close to 15 years ago....funny how God has paths cross years later, eh?

Anyways, as we were leaving Kuwait, it was raining for yet another day. It had lightly rained the previous 2 days and everything was wet and kinda chilly, considering we're used to hot, dry temps up to +50 and it was a cold, wet +16. It's very unusual weather for here. You can see the water flooding the street just outside my apartment building. Remember, this place doesn't get rain on a regular basis, so things such as proper storm drains don't really exist and the small drainage systems we do have in place, are often completely clogged with random mounds of garbage! So the odd time it rains in any quantity, the streets become lakes!


Just the thought of leaving the country for the first time was exhilarating, as I have been here for almost three months now! The airport was cram-packed with Eid travelers, but alas, we boarded our flight, and left rainy Kuwait behind! When we landed in Bahrain, the climate difference was striking! Gone was the normally very dry, desert air, and in its place was beautifully warm, humid air! Roseanne (a previous teacher from ACA) met us at the airport and after a 30 minute search for her car, we finally found it, piled in and went to the hotel - the Best Western. :) It was super nice for such a reasonable price! :) It even had a nice rooftop pool! :)



During our stay, we went to the National Museum of Bahrain and saw some really neat things. Bahrain has many archeological sites on its islands and one of them is a mass burial mound site. They have excavated more than 85,000 graves from this little island!! I snapped some pics of the exhibits in the museum..........it was so well laid out and super interesting! :) They do call this area of the world the "Cradle of Civilization" and I can see why with all the ancient sites, artifacts and cultures. Makes me even more excited to travel to Egypt and see the archeological sites there! Here are the guards who let us in...






Bahrain is a teeny, tiny island country between Kuwait and the UAE, and just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. (Map taken from Wikipedia)

It consists of 3 main islands connected by causeways and bridges. You can see in the distance one of the HUGE bridges connecting two of the islands.


Over the past 5-6 years, the population has grown from 600,000 to over 1 million. With the population growing so quickly, there has been a boom in construction and reclamation of land along the coast - they are building massive highrises on man-made land. You can see the enormous piles of sand and rock they are currently dumping into the sea to fill in and create more land area. Beautiful buildings, but I wonder what would happen if there was ever a decent-sized earthquake.....there are some big fault lines in Iran which isn't so far away....


Bahrain has a beautiful Grande Mosque, but visitors are not allowed in. :( It was beautiful not only during the day, but also at night when the lights lit it up. I wish my camera could take night pics! Here are a few pics from different angles...







We went to the Old Souq which had even more character than Kuwait's Old Souq! It was amazing how tiny and narrow the cobblestone streets were and they were packed with cars, trucks and vans delivering goods to be sold! The smell was an interesting mix of dust, car exhaust and the odd waft of spice. It's neat to see all the sun covers and the way the covers have been layered. The whole time we were there, it didn't matter which little street in the Souq we were on, there was a nice breeze blowing. Apparently, the souqs are constructed over here to catch wind currents and funnel air down through the various layers of canopies in order to keep a breeze blowing through, bringing fresh air to the streets and shops below! Ingenious, considering the intense heat of the summer here!

I did manage to find some cool treasures though..... amongst all the junk! A small brass hooka, a wooden camel, a lapis bracelet made out of bits of antique silver and my favorite - an old fashioned brass camel padlock.......a unique find in a crowded and very dusty little brass shop! :)

The spices there were fresh, fragrant and found in large quantities..........as was the tobacco ready to be weighed! LOL




Some more modern architecture.....pics of the cool Bahrain World Trade Centre with its GIGANTIC wind turbines......a new mall complex.......and a cool clock in a mosque minaret!







The last day we spent over 2 hours trying to find "The Tree of Life". We drove around the desert roads looking for this special tree, and of course there wasn't any real signage. We ended up stopping and asking another car on the side of the road who happened to be a Western couple working in Saudi Arabia who were also attempting to find this famous tree. Turns out they were as lost as we were, so we found a Bahraini guy, Hassan, who was camping and he was very kind and drove us all the way there and led us all the way back to the main highway when we were done! Here's Gary, Liz, Roseanne, Hassan and me! :)


So the local legend is that this tree is supposedly the original "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" from the Garden of Eden. They say so, because it's "ancient", although no one seems to know how old it actually is and its been able to 'magically' live out here in the middle of the desert all these years without a water supply! LOL They now think its deep roots must have tapped into an underground freshwater spring......but it does make for a rather fun tourist attraction, especially since some scholars say that they believe the Garden of Eden to have been somewhere in this area of Bahrain. Who knows, but the adventure of trying to locate this tree was fun! :)





Ok, so every great trip has to have a weird story, right? Well, here's a weird experience to tell about - we were at the airport, ready to fly back to Kuwait. The boarding call was 20 mins late (which over here is not a surprise....) and then when we all lined up at the gate, there was no one there to take our tickets. We waited patiently, making small talk with the various passengers in line as the second, third and then the final boarding calls were made. Still no one at the gate. Finally, at 5:10pm when the flight was supposed to take off, someone comes and takes our tickets, changes our seats around and we get onto the plane. As the plane is preparing for take-off, there is no steward to perform the ritual of showing the emergency instructions.

I kid you not, as the plane was taxi'ing down the runway, the overhead bins were still open, people were walking around and kids were running down the aisle!!! Thankfully, a few concerned passengers got up and closed the bins and everyone got into their seats just as the plane left the tarmack. After a few minutes, a steward came down the aisle to check the bins - a little late don't you think? As we sat back, started to relax and began our ascent into the skies, the pilot clearly either braked or completely let his foot off the gas because we drastically slowed down.........as in it slowed down quickly enough that your body was moved forward in your seat......we were flying VERY slowly for maybe 5 minutes before he suddenly puts the "pedal to the metal" and we accelerate again. Thankfully, we arrived back onto Kuwaiti soil without further incident. Of course, no reason was given so we have no idea what went on or happened! It was a very bizarre experience.

Anyways, Liz and I were excited to buy our Bahraini camels and take them home on the plane with us. :) It was definitely a great little holiday and I hope to go back and visit sometime again soon! :)

My First Real Desert Excursion

Last Friday, Bill, Joe and I decided to take a trip out to see the desert. Joe and I are new to Kuwait and Bill wanted to take us out to see the real "sandbox". We of course being newbies, jumped at the chance! LOL So we piled into Bill's Jeep and off we went.

Leaving the city we were reminded that it is indeed a flat environment! However, we drove about 30 minutes northwest of Kuwait City to Mutlaa Ridge which apparently used to be part of an ancient river bank. It may not seem like much of a hill/ridge in comparison to the Rocky Mountains back home, but when you haven't seen any actual earth taller than a pile of rubble for the last two months, this was an exciting site to behold! :) It overlooks part of the "Highway of Death" that the Iraqi Military came in on during the Invasion in 1990, and over the past few years, Bill has found numerous ammunition shells and shrapnel up there left behind from the days of the war.

When we came across this seemingly random sign, we nervously laughed at the possibilities of what it could be stating as no one was quite sure what it actually said until after we returned home and had it translated.......it actually says "No Camping or Setting Up Tents". In the winter months, many Kuwaiti families bring these huge tents, rugs, cushions, etc. and have their maids/servants "set up house" out here during the weekends as they enjoy relaxing and eating out in the desert!

Some avid 4x4'ers made many attempts to DRIVE up the soft sandy side of the ridge and in the end did make it up. There were a few times it appeared that they were about to roll their vehicle, but thankfully ("hamdulillah" - thx be to God) they did not. We decided to play it safe and climb up the ridge in our flip flops and made it to the top to see..............miles and miles of desert. LOL

Bill and I found some recently used shotgun shells,........apparently a GREAT place to shoot a gun?

Below you can see an average Kuwaiti family enjoying a nice afternoon meal in the desert. The weather is significantly cooler this time of the year, so there were a fair amount of people out and about the ridge letting their kids burn off some energy by climbing up and down.



Speaking of climbing up and down.......here's Bill and Joe! :)

And the most memorable moment of the afternoon came when we saw some moving bumps on the horizon and discovered it was a herd of camel wandering about! I tried to get a picture, but couldn't get my digital camera to zoom properly. I did get a good, yet slightly shaky video clip of them though. Another one of those surreal moments of "Oh my word!! I am really in the Middle East!!!" I apologize for my squeaky voice during that footage. My voice apparently gets like that when I am really excited about something! LOL Also included on this clip is my first experience of driving on the highway! :) Sorry that the quality is not that great, I am definitely an amateur videographer. Hope you enjoy my first attempt at "live footage'!! :)

My Girls and My School! :)

Ok, I finally have some pictures of my girls and my school for you to see! Yes, the Girls Campus is a little sketchy looking (the Boy's Campus definitely looks nicer...), but hey, it's 'home' and I like it! It has character. :) I am very blessed to have a classroom on the third floor down the new wing. My classroom looks pretty decent structurally, compared to others on the lower levels, as theirs have been around for a lot longer so are definitely worse for wear.

On with the tour!! This is the front of the school.........the "lovely" sliding glass doors that have a mind of their own. They like to suddenly and VERY quickly close WHILE you're walking through them. My hips have a few bruises to prove it!

These are our two amazing and super sweet security guards. They will quite literally do anything for you including standing out in the middle of traffic to hail a taxi, order food to be delivered for you, and try to convince you that walking to the Boys' Campus is ridiculous. Side Story - I needed to go the Boys' Campus one day and refused to take a taxi seeing as it is maybe a 15 minute walk from the Girls' Campus. They had a point, it was 42 degrees, loads of traffic, I wasn't exactly sure which street it was on and they couldn't understand my requests for a map due to my limited Arabic AND this is a country of no sidewalks.....however, I was dying for some exercise and was determined to simply walk there. They were appalled by my determination (remember this is within a society of people having personal drivers), thought I was crazy and desperately tried to convince me otherwise. I did go and find it without any major incidents, and they never cease to tease me about it daily! Anyways, we are sooooo fortunate to have such great guys on guard! :) They were tickled to have their picture taken and had to make sure they looked tough for the picture! LOL It's funny, because this is one of the only times I have ever seen them without huge grins on their faces! :)

Here are some of our maids taking a well deserved break - they are very shy and turned away just as I was snapping the photo! They do an awesome job and are super sweet as well! :)

The building is designed with open-air architecture due to the lack of rain here! We're talking maybe it will rain 2-3 times a year, if we're lucky! Which it did today for like 2 minutes.....it was exciting! It's funny how much you start to miss everyday things like rain when it simply doesn't happen!

Anyways, the school building is designed so that the first two floors' hallways are open on the side that faces the inner courtyard. The tarp-like covers are sun screens so the elementary girls can play on the playground and in the courtyard during recess without succumbing to heat stroke! LOL This grade 3 class earned some free time so were playing while I was taking pics.

This is Miss Kerry, my next door classroom neighbour.......it's just us two and the mosque room down the new wing. Good thing we've got each other to chat to! LOL

Speaking of mosque.........in this pic you can see the green sun screens which shade the back courts and one of the three neighbourhood mosques. If you look closely you can see on the top of the parapet there are loud speakers. Know what comes out of those 5 times a day? You guessed it - the call to prayer!!!

You can imagine how loud the call to prayer is when it goes off. On the other side of the school is another mosque which also has someone singing the call to prayer, and another block away there is yet a third mosque with yes, another singer! It literally comes at you from all sides in this city as there are mosques on almost every corner. What is really funny, is at around 11:40am when the mid-day call to prayer starts, you can hear all three mosque singers belting it out and it literally sounds like they're trying to outdo each other both in loudness and niceness. Proper etiquette requires the teacher to stop talking, the girls to sit quietly and wait until the call is over. So everyday, when we hear the call start, we jokingly call it "the dueling mosques time" and try not to giggle as the three singers battle it out and we quietly listen. LOL One of these days when I figure out how to post a video on here, I will put up a good one of the mid-day call to prayer so you can hear it.

Alright, back to the pictures.......Looking across the courtyard out one of the third floor hallway windows, you can see the line of air conditioning units for ONE hall of classrooms......there are 19!! One could only imagine how much power those things draw!

Here are some pics of my amazing ACA Grade 9 girls!! We have A LOT of fun - I love them! :)

I hope these pictures give you a good idea of what it's like where I teach here in Kuwait........I am definitely thankful to be here and excited to see what God has in store this year! Take care for now!! :)