"One Mans' Dream", soothing music this week. Trip No.2 kept us in Kuwait for 118 days! Sadly our time in Kuwait has come to an end and we have returned to the states. Our circumnavigation of the globe took us along the following route:
Dallas
Atlanta
London, England
Kuwait
Bangkok, Thailand
Osaka, Japan
Los Angeles
Bakersfield California (our new home)
We flew Kuwait Airways 6.75 hours from Kuwait to Bangkok and spent 5 wonderful nites in Bangkok itself visiting the famous "Bridge on the River Kwai" and the Death railway in which over 7000 allied POW's and 70,000 asian workers died during its construction under the tyranny of the Japanese Empire. We also visited the famous reclining Buddha and the Golden Buddha in beautiful temples. It was the King's 72 birthday while we were there and the whole town was lit up in celebration. We even lit our candles at Planet Hollywood in Bangkok on the nite of 5-Dec. along with everyone else to honor the king. In fact when we saw Toy Story 2 at a Bangkok cinema we were required to rise with everyone to honor the king prior to the showing of the film. The King is honored by the Thai people and foreign visitors are expected to show respect as well. We also visited the worlds tallest hotel which just opened in downtown Bangkok. One week after our return we saw "Anna and the King" which is about the great grandfather of Thailands current king. That movie is currently banned in Thailand as the Thais do not agree with Anna's side of things. After 5 nites, we flew Thai Airways 747 service 5 hours to Osaka's famous Kansai airport which is built on an artificial island out into the bay. After an hour on the ground we flew 9 more hours to Los Angeles. Osaka looked quite beautiful from the air and I wished we had time to visit. I do recommend Thailand for a lovely family vacation. They have good beaches, elephants, an interesting history and the prices were excellent! In addition the Thai people treated us with the utmost respect even addressing Laurie as "sir" which we noticed they do in the movie "Anna and the King". I also recommend Thai Airways
to get you there.
Informative Kuwait pics can be seen at Kuwaitpictures.com! I currently work as a Field Engineer for Halliburton Energy Services, a major oil-field services company that has field locations throughout the globe. Our biggest client in Kuwait is The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). 9 years after the invasion, KOC is still in the process of repairing Gathering Centers and oil wells that were severely damaged by the retreating Iraqi's.
Geographic info of Kuwait at: Mina Al Shuwaikh (Port Shuwaikh, a large port in Kuwait)
Kuwait has a strong American community of over 2000 people who are constantly transferring in and out so we're always meeting new folks!
Thanksgiving Dinner Party at Dale & Katie Brown's house.
A typical Kuwaiti house.
Is this a car or what? Melissa and her friend Rebecca.
Queen Amidala and Obe-One at the Halloween Party. At the beach, watch out for landmines!!!
Sandstone outcropping on the beach. Matt in front of a Bakala (convenience store).
We take Arabic lessons here at the Grand Mosque. Laurie and the children attend the womens' class twice a week during the day with the gals wearing the traditional black abayas.
Matt attends wearing his traditional dishdasha. I attend at night with the men.
Read this for a first hand account of the invasion and occupation written by an Irish fellow who was himself caught in the midst of it all.
The Long Trek to Kuwait
We flew 8 hours on British Airways "777" Service from DFW to London's Gatwick. Then we took the Speedlink bus to London's Heathrow airport. Five hours later we hopped on the British Airways "777" service to Kuwait City for another 7 hour flight.
You can also fly here from New York or Chicago on Kuwait Airways.
The Kuwaiti Weekend
The Muslim Holy day is Friday. Hence, the weekend falls on Thursday and Friday. We attend worship services on Friday morning atCamp Doha with our fine soldiers. Also in attendance are American schoolteachers, American Embassy families and a number of Oil company families like ours.
Kuwaiti Housing
Being one of the riches countries in the world with only 700,000 Kuwaitis leaves the Govt. of Kuwait with much revenue to pass along to its citizens. Kuwaiti families can obtain a loan from the govt. of 70,000 Kuwaiti Dinar (almost 250,000 USD) to build a home on a lot that the govt. also provides free of charge. The loan is paid back at the rate of 100 KD a month (330 USD) and is interest free. Hence a typical Kuwaiti home is around 10,000 square feet and larger and often has an elevator installed. Yards, or garden areas, tend to be quite small and the homes are almost slammed together. There are virtually no garages but usually car ports are built. Necessary as the sun will toast the contents of your car all too easily here. Since many Kuwaiti families like to live together in one home they will often rent the other family homes out to ex-pats at the rate of 700 KD a month and higher bringing them a tidy profit!
Oil and the United States
Daily World production is abut 76 Million Barrels per day. The US consumes 18 million barrels of crude and refined products each day or almost 25% of world output. The US has over 800,000 wells producing less than 6 Million barrels per day. In contrast with Saudi Arabia which has 800 wells producing over 8 Million barrels per day. Or Kuwait which has less than 1000 wells producing over 2 Million barrels per day. Hence 2/3 of US crude consumption comes from imports at a cost of 300 million dollars per day at current prices. The number one US import. Increasingly the US has been consuming more Natural Gas each year which also comes from oil wells. The US can easily supply all its' own natural gas needs and could even do so if all vehicles switched over to burning natural gas which is a cheaper and cleaner burning fuel! Still the US does import gas from both Mexico and Canada and 25% of US supply comes from the Gulf of Mexico. 80% of the produced natural gas is methane, most of which is burned as a fuel. Roughly 8% is ethane which when heated becomes ethylene. Ethylene can be heated to make polyethylene and polystyrene. It can be combined with water to make the solvent ethanol. Combining it with chlorine makes PVC. Other useful gas products from the wells include propane, butane, and on occasion nitrogen and helium. Over 80% of US drilling today is for natural gas while the rest of the plays are for oil. Here in Kuwait there is very little natural gas.
Pics of Camp Doha folks! (Working on this still)
Additional American Family Webpages from Kuwait
Byron Haynes and Family Website [a BP Family]
Dining and Groceries in Kuwait
Kuwait has 21 McDonalds, a number of Pizza Huts that deliver, Burger King, KFC, Hardees, DQ, TGI Friday's, Applebees, Chilis, Johnny Rockets. There are scores of Indian and Arabic joints and a fun one to eat at is the The Palm Palace. We purchase most of our groceries at "The Sultan Center" in Salmiya. They stock a variety of American foods in addition to the local food. Though the American stuff that we are used to arrives and is sold on an intermittent basis so if you get a craving for something you may have to wait for the next boat so to speak. It was 6 months before we saw Kraft Macaroni and Cheese so we bought a 6 month supply once it arrived. Other quick items we can purchase at a small government run cooperative behind the villa which is similar to a small grocery store or 7-11.
Religion and Kuwait
Of course Kuwait is an Islamic nation though it is not as strict as the "sharia" law of Saudi Arabia yet not as liberal as the UAE. To be quite frank Kuwait has a nice conservative environment that bans alcohol, pork products and pornography. Most people are courteous and it's great to be treated like royalty in every shop! The muezzin sends out his calls to prayer 5 times a day via the loudspeakers of the minaret. You can almost set your watch to it! A continual reminder that we are not in Kansas anymore Toto. But then again it can be a good reminder for Christians to pray as well! As for churches there are at least 3 in Kuwait including a Catholic Church (many Indians attend here), NECC (ex-pats and Arabs), and the Camp Doha chapel. There are a few Kuwaiti families that are Christian.
American Education in Kuwait
While Kuwait has quite a number of schools with an American Curriculum and American teachers, nearly 90% of the students will be Kuwaiti and other foreign nationals seeking an American education as they hope to gain admission to an American University after once their secondary education is complete. One such school in Kuwait is The American School of Kuwait (ASK). We ourselves instead opted to homeschool Melissa (12) and Matthew (11) for a variety of reasons. Laurie is a degreed teacher and a stay at home mother for one. In addition should things really head south and we have to make a dash for the Saudi border, this is much easier accomplished if the children are with us instead of at a school downtown in the crowded city. Of course there are numerous other advantages to homeschooling as well and we are currently involved with at least a dozen American homeschooling families in Kuwait.
Other activities in Kuwait include Girls and Boys Scouts, Little League Baseball, Rugby, Art Lessons with a very talented Indian lady named Anita Lal. Melissa takes ballet at "Diana, Princess of Wales, School of Dance" located at the British School.
Wildlife in Kuwait
One sees many camels and you can ride them for a small fee just about anywhere. There are numerous flocks of sheep and goats with their respective shephard nearby. In the desert I've already encountered numerous odd-looking beetles, black scorpions, assorted snakes, and the ever ferocious flesh eating Calem Spider whom I thank God that they cannot fly! These things are the size of your hand and incredibly fast. They just sprint across the wellsite locations looking for a quick snack and they are quite aggresive. They will confront a curious onlooker.
While camping out in the desert, which most Kuwaitis will do during the winter months and just hang out in large tents with their Mercedes and Satellite dish, some even have airconditioned tents, one must be vigilant concerning munitions, landmines, clusterbombs, etc. Landmines and clusterbombs are still being found nearly every day and every week there is a landmine fatality in Kuwait. The driving rule is to stay on pavement or well traveled desert paths. All in all, it's nice to head out into the desert and just explore. Along the beach, when the tide is out, one can walk along the reef and find numerous sea urchins and interesting sea shells that would be a killer find back in the states!
Dating and Marriage in Kuwait
Dating is not really practiced. Males and Females are segregated at a young age and Kuwaiti men find it difficult when they attend University in the states and have classes with girls their own age. Even at the Bedoun weddings which are outdoor events, all the men are outside the tent, under the festive lights, wearing their white dishdashas and sitting on couches celbrating the event. All of the women are inside the tent. It is "haram" (forbidden) for any man to enter the tent. In the tent the women will generally shed their black abayas, revealing their very pretty outfits they recently purchased and basically look like any nice American women out for a night on the town. Laurie tells me it's something else when this occurs because one would never know this when all you see is a women completely covered in a black abaya. Often Kuwaiti women spot Laurie in town and come up to her and speaking but she does not recognize them as all she can see is their eyes. Then if she's lucky she may recognize the voice.
There are no discos and few cinemas. No alcohol, pork or pornography. All are "haram". At the nice restaurants young men and women may gather and listen to loud music but they only eyeball each other from a distance and generally do not sit or chat together. In fact when this has occurs it can cause riots. Recently the police fired their guns in the air at Aqua Park to quell a riot that began when one young Kuwaiti man spotted his sister talking with another man! In the Arab world their is a thing known as "honor killings". Not so much an issue here as it may be in Jordan and Iran. In such places a young man may slay his sister if she sleeps with a man prior to marriage. Quite often the murderer is not pursued when it becomes clear that it was an honor killing. So dating here can be a touchy subject. Most of the Bedoun marriages are arranged and the bride and groom may not even know each other until the night of the wedding. These events often have machine guns fired into the air with red tracer bullets. I saw this one night alongside Ring Road 6 while heading north. An amazing sight but those bullets have to come back down. The act is illegal but it occurs every day. Numerous machine guns were left by the Iraqis and taken home by the locals.
Events of the past week!!
Nov. 25: (Trip2 Day 108): Thanksgiving at Dale & Katie Brown's House (One of the Chevron families). Very nice and patriotic of them to also invite 8 of our fine American soldiers from Camp Doha who are making a great sacrifice to serve their country being here for months and up to a year without their families! God bless America!!!
Nov. 18: (Trip2 Day 101): The Leonid Meteor shower storms in and we counted over 200 meteors between 5:00 and 5:45 a.m. before the sky became too blue.
Nov. 17: (Trip2 Day 100): Star Wars: Phantom Menace makes it to the cinema in Kuwait. We all catch the 6:30 flick at the Salmiya cinema.
Nov. 6: (Trip2 Day 89): 8th anniversary of capping of the last oil well blaze.
Nov. 4: (Trip2 Day 87): Laurie plays harp at the Radisson SAS.
Oct. 31: Halloween party at the Messila Beach Club and Hotel. Melissa won best costume for the girls as Queen Amidala and dinner for two in the restaurant. Matt came in a close second as Obe-Won. They both made their costumes by hand and spent weeks on them. Very nice I think!
The Messila Hotel is one of the places that Iraq kept Human Shield Hostages early in the Occupation. All the villas along the coast here, including our own, were occupied by Iraqi troops as they built fortifications and laid mines all up and down the coast. Any ex-pats that were discovered were rounded up and taken to the Messila Beach Club prior to driving them to Baghdad weeks later.
Oct. 26: (Trip2 Day 78): Laurie plays harp for the British Ladies Society Tea at the British Embassy near the famous water towers.
Oct. 25: (Trip2 Day 77): Cohen announces a 173 million dollar expansions for US military facilities in Kuwait to better prepare for any contingencies. Looks like US forces are here to stay!
Oct. 18: (Trip2 Day 70): Defense Secretary William Cohen was in town for a brief visit but I did not have time to discuss a few things with him!
Oct. 14: (Trp2 Day 66): Another cluster bomb, from the Gulf War, is found and detonated this week behind the Souk Sharq.
Oct. 5: (Trip2 Day 57): Laurie performing the harp for the "British Ladies Society".
Sep. 27: (Trip2 Day 49): Spent the morning at the traffic department getting the LandCruiser registration and license renewed for another year. My American "wasta" or influence saves me time as they waive the safety inspection. Abdullah, my Kuwaiti coworker, came along to assist as my Arabic is still very primitive. That night the kids and I saw "Wing Commander" at the Sharqia cinema. Thankfully they edit out the nudity here but when will they edit out the "colorful metaphors" as Mr. Spock would say?
Sep. 11: (Trip2 Day 33): In her first International engagement, Laurie performs her harp and guitar for an International ladies luncheon!
Aug. 25: (Trip2 Day 16): Laurie and Melissa played flute and harp at the "Womens Equality Day" banquet at Camp Doha with hundreds of soldiers in attendance and mucho free food. The film "Wild Wild West" just came to town. The nice thing here is that they censor the films taking out the parts we don't care to see anyway.
Aug. 19: (Trip2 Day 9): The Kuwait Coast Guard intercepts a "Dhow" leaving Iraq bound for India. The smugglers were carrying over 250 tonnes of baby formula and other basic food necessities proving that Saddam Hussein has been selling the UN goods from the oil-for-food program whilst his people starve and he blames the West for that!
July 10 - Aug. 11th: Annual leave: 28 lovely days in Georgia, Florida, Missouri and Texas.
July 4 (Day 192): About 40 people, mostly Americans, celebrate Independence Day with a festive 4th of July picnic after work at our villa including fireworks by the pool.
July 3 (Day 191): Election Day in Kuwait. Women still cannot vote but may be given the privilege after 2003.
July 2 (Day 190): We encounter a flaming collision shortly after it occured on 6th ring road while returning from church. The vehicle had been rear ended, was swung around backwards, the front doors blown open and the vehicle was a blazing inferno. The firetrucks had not arrived yet and we had to negotiate through all the traffic that always stops to gawk.
July 1 (Day 189): "Messila Water Village" opens up just 4 clicks away. A nice looking though smaller water park. We're hoping they go with annual memberships like season passes as it's 3.5 KD each time you go.
June 26 (Day 184): Holiday: Mohammed's Birthday.
June 25 (Day 183): A 19 year old female American soldier collapsed and died today in the Kuwait desert (May God be with her family members!). Today marks the end of our first 6 months in Kuwait. Most of the ex-pat wives and children have left the country for the summer as have many of the Kuwaitis. There is much less traffic on the roads and my Internet service dials up on the first try unlike the rest of the year.
June 14 (Day 172): Are we having fun yet? Elections are next month and millions of election billboards and signs litter the roads competing for space with all of the wrecked vehicles!
June 11 (Day 169): Thanks to George Lucas we were able to see "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" with our fine men and women in uniform at Camp Doha for free. First time I ever stood for the "Star Spangled Banner" prior to a flick. Maybe the movie theatres in the states should adopt this practice!
March 26 (Day 92): Prayer requests for loved ones back home brings the Sunday School class to tears. Everyone here easily identifies with missed loved ones back in the states and are easily overcome by emotion when discussing this sensitive subject. It's a great blessing for those of us who are able to bring our families to Kuwait!!
March 24 (Day 90): Three days of duststorms blow away and the skies clear. The 9 day Eid holiday begins. Laurie and Melissa perform Harp and Flute music for a National Prayer Breakfast with the US soldiers at Camp Doha who are making a great sacrifice to be away from their loved ones while protecting Americans and our interests in the Middle East.
March 21 (Day 87): Laurie and the kids did their medical for their residence visas.
In the afternoon, the first duststorm of the year blew into town.
Over 200 books on Kuwait at the following link
The Thiede Family
In the Desert Sands of Kuwait
Kuwait, one of the wealthiest countries on earth! There are 700,000 Kuwaitis and over 1.5 million foreign ex-pats working here. 95% of the ex-pats are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Iran. There are about 10,000 Western ex-pats including 2000 Americans. That figure does not include the American Forces in Kuwait. Kuwait has over 250,000 maids most of whom are from India. We ourselves have a part time maid from Goa, India, named Maria and she's very adept at keeping our vila in order. Most of the other maids live in-house with their sponsor. Imagine that, no more running around the house in your undees as the maid may be around!
The famous water towers of Al Kuwait
Our BA jet!
Somewhere over the Atlantic!
"Messila Water Village"
"Aladdin", the crazy Kuwaiti cat!
"Internationally known "Laurie the harpster"!
The Sun and Moon are prominent features in the desert
Coming Soon:
Dining in Kuwait ***** Shopping in Kuwait ***** Living in Kuwait
Kuwait time is GMT+3 or 8 hours ahead of Dallas. There is no Daylight Savings Time.
Melissa's favorite site!
Our villa by the sea!
At the camel races!
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