Kats of Kuwait

Welcome to the latest pictorial journey through the exciting district of Hawalli, Kuwait! This is in response to the constant requests from my mother to post some pics of the random and numerous wild cats wandering the urban jungle we call Hawalli.

We begin our journey, just outside the doors of the American Creativity Academy Teacher Housing Complex........

Now, here in Kuwait there is an overabundance of wild cats roaming the streets. Apparently, their original and sole purpose was a heroic one - to attack, eat and exterminate the ridiculous amounts of rats that had moved in during and after the Iraqi Invasion of 1991. Well those wonderful beasts imported from Egypt did their job well - one doesn't find rats here anymore! However, it appears the powers that be didn't consider what to do with these heroes once the rat population had been decimated. They continued to repopulate themselves while living off the over-flowing garbage bins and refuse lying around. See Exhibit A......

and Exhibit B..........

From a distance, they may look like cute and cuddly little creatures of delight, but beware - they are feral!!! They carry all types of disease that make them walking beasts of death! No, you cannot pet them or even get close to them because they will suddenly attack you. Here is a story to show you their lunacy.

One night, my friend Gillian and I were enjoying a nice meal sitting outside at a restaurant along the Arabian Gulf. We were deep in conversation when we heard a rustle in the nearby bushes and a low, deep throated growl accompanied by a vicious hiss. Our conversation halted as we looked towards the unearthly sound........there on the ledge, 2 feet away from us sat this angry, mangy cat! It had scruffy, black fur that was missing in places and had a gray patch on its hindquarters that looked as though it was possibly white at one time. Its eyes had this wild, glowing, crazed looked in them and they were unevenly set in its face. We quickly averted our eyes, but it stared directly at us as it continued to utter demonic howls. It stalked along the ledge, back and forth, viciously whipping its crooked tail while waiting for us to toss it some food. It finally passed from our table and went on to another poor, unsuspecting victim, attempting to intimidate them into surrendering their delectable meal. Now, the one rule regarding the wild cats here = DO NOT make eye contact with them!!! Whatever you do, do not look directly at their eyes, or these psychotic beasts will attack, sending you to the hospital for innumerable shots and possibly, even certain death.

One of my students went to pet one of these beasts that live by her house and it bit her. She quickly came down with a raging infection and was rushed to the hospital where she was kept for 5 days! When doing a "My Biggest Fear" writing assignment, over 20 students stated that their greatest fear was the wild cats that roam the streets!

So the moral of today's frightening tale......beware of the Kats of Kuwait as you never know what dangers lurk beneath their fuzzy exterior.......

Now, on to a rant.......we seem to have a problem with the cats in our specific block due to "some people" (I will avoid using names at the risk of sounding "catty" hahahahah........) feeding them everyday!!!!

Please!!!! For the sake of everyone's physical and emotional health - stop feeding the wild cats!

Because of the constant food supply, these beasts lurk around the building and stand watch for anyone who looks weak enough to give in to their deceivingly sympathetic looks. I have seen up to 6 cats outside the doors at one time! **shudder** The other day, we pulled up to the building and as I got out of the car I was confronted by 3 of these rufians giving me their devious look. My scream somewhat startled both the cat gang and my friend, but alas my fear of them was greater than their fear of me and they stood their ground. Finally, by dashing around 4 parked cars I was free of their glares and safe in the foyer of the building. A tragedy was narrowly averted that day. Tomorrow, I or some other unsuspecting victim may not be so lucky........

My New Toy!

Yay, for fun new toys!! :) My girls at school were extremely happy today as I unveiled my latest purchase and apparently the key to being "cool" in Kuwait youth society - owning a Blackberry. LOL I had expressed interest in buying one of these during the last couple of weeks and was met literally everyday with "Have you got one yet?" "Miss!! When are you getting your Blackberry?" and then when I brought it to school today, squeals of "Oh my goodness Miss, you finally got one! So nice and cool!" and "Oh Miss, you are so Kuwaiti now!" I just laughed, because even though I did indeed think it was a cool little mobile device, I really only wanted one to be able to instant message for free my friends and family who have Blackberries back home! The added "coolness" factor actually surprised me. When I took it out and showed the girls, they were very excited and had to check it out and was asked, "Miss, can I have your PIN!?" the entire day. Obviously, I had to say no, but it was super cute and meant a lot to see them so excited for my new purchase and to "add" me to their network. LOL :) I love these girls! :) They have made sure I know the locations of the best Blackberry accessory stores in Kuwait and some have even offered to take me there whenever I need to go. :)

Now, as you can see in the pic below, almost EVERY girl in my school has one of these little beauties. We thought it would be fun to take a pic of us and our Blackberries! :) Mind you, this is just ONE class of grade 9 girls. The other 3 classes of girls all have their own as well.

There are 19 girls plus me in this pic.....I should have bought stocks in

Blackberry, that's for sure!

I have discovered that it truly is a status symbol over here. I recently had them write a journal entry on what distinguishes a Kuwaiti girl from say a Saudi, Iraqi or Bahraini girl. Almost all 97 entries (I teach 4 grade 9 English classes) mentioned that the way to pick out a Kuwaiti girl in a crowd is by seeing their decked-out Blackberry attached to them, as well as their RayBan sunglasses and A&F shirts. It was shocking really! Then when I did a poll in class of who actually owned these new mobiles (they don't refer to them as cell phones over here), almost every hand in every class shot up. Apparently this is the biggest must-have item in a Kuwaiti girl's accessory bag. This of course just makes me laugh, because for those of you who know me, you know very well that I am not and have never been "cool", "trendy" or owned anything that was "hip" and "cool" at the right time. LOL :)

Alright, with all that said about the importance of these to Kuwaiti youth and the discovery of my instant new notch on the popularity pole, I absolutely LOVE my new Blackberry! I can see very easily why they have the nickname, "crackberry" - I literally can't put it down. The best feature about it is the Blackberry Messenger. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a sweet instant message feature that is specific to Blackberries and is also known as "pinging". It's free between Blackberry owners, no matter where in the world you are! Definitely a plus, as some of my friends and family back in Canada have them, therefore the text messaging costs will not require the sale of my arms or legs! :)

So really, the only question that now remains is...........why did I not get one of these things sooner!?!?

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!