18 Months To Go

Today is one of those days when I can't wait to move back to America....

* to not be constantly stared at by men

* for my kids to blend in - mainly Jordyn

* to feel comfortable in public

* to drive where people obey the traffic rules (generally speaking)

* to not come home to a house where there is a foreign woman living with me (as sweet as she is)

* to pet my dog (who is so old now, we will never live with her again)

* to get a new puppy! ha!

* to go to the grocery store where I can get products I am used to

* to be able to drive to see family and talk on the phone without such a time difference

* to be comfortable in a doctor/dentist office

I will be so appreciative of all the little things if we ever get back to America. 18 months feels like an eternity to me right now. I'm trying hard to stay busy, busy, busy. It probably doesn't help that I'm a little sick and have a throbbing headache. I'll get it over it - just felt like whining to make me feel all better!

The Grand Mosque

I have found yet another reason to be thankful I am a Christian woman born in America. I am pretty confident I prefer this look (yes, I know I needed to change my purse):

Over this look:

Any votes?

Landen and I got to tour the Grand Mosque in Kuwait today. We both found it very interesting and were glad we went. Matt was at work, so he didn't get to go. I chose to leave the two smaller kids at home with Kumari to spare them boredom and allow me to be able to listen. We began the tour with tea/water, went on the tour, then ended with crackers and juice. The tour guides were extremely nice. They joked, allowed any questions, encouraged us to take pictures, and spoke English really well. I learned quite a bit of information about the Muslim faith which I found to be fascinating. The Mosque was beautiful inside. I got a million pictures, but am going to try and load a short video clip I took so that you get the idea. Norma, when you come back to visit we have it all figured out now. It's really simple and something you will want to see. Plus you'll get to dress up and look as lovely as I did!

If you are interested:

* The Mosque holds approx 11,400 people with as many as 970 women allowed in the balcony.

* Men and women do not pray together or attend church together.

* Women must be covered and all must remove their shoes before entering the Mosque.

* The lines are on the floor so that everyone is seen equal in the sight of God (no one better than the other).

* The semi circle at the front of the Mosque is where the prayers are spoken and is caused to echo off the dome of the ceiling so that all can hear. However, when they are not praying the man stands at the podium with a microphone.

* The Mosque was completed in 1986.

* The Amir (Ruler) enters through a separate entrance and comes to the Mosque about twice a year to pray.

* Muslims believe Jesus was a great man, a prophet, but is not the son of God as we Christians believe.

* Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross as Christians do, he was taken to heaven by God in the same form he came.

* The Quoran is the sacred book of Islam. They believe it was revealed by God to the prophet Mohammad.

I learned many more interesting things, but those are the few that came to my mind. Most of you reading I know are Christians and knew most of that anyway.

Christmas at the Camel Races!

I never thought I would be blogging about spending Christmas in the middle east at the camel races, but after the last 4 years you would think I wouldn't be surprised. I could blog about our Christmas morning, but that seems a little boring compared to our afternoon.

Yes. Camel races is where we spent our afternoon. We took about a 30 minute drive from our house into the desert to find the camel race track. Talk about seeing A LOT of camels. Now, we know where they all are if we have anymore company come to visit us. We saw white camels, brown and black. I posted several pictures on Facebook so these may be duplicate to some of you.

There was no betting or anything like that to speak of where we were. I'm sure it was going on in some form or fashion or there wouldn't be so much interest in having their own camel win. It was all men and only a handful of us western women watching the event. There were stands at the finish line, but we didn't go in. Instead, we headed to the starting line and watched the races begin. As soon as we arrived, the main man who begins the races came over and kissed Jordyn and tried to pick her up to take her to the camels. Matt grabbed her and followed, but she would have NOTHING to do with them and cried. :-) We could have had a great picture and the men were so friendly, but it didn't happen this time. I think if she had time to warm up a little bit, she might of agreed but those camels were big and intimidating when we first arrived!

Back to the races. The race begins and the men run for their life in order to not get trampled by the camels. Some camels begin quite quickly in the right direction and others, well... don't want to cooperate. The camels all have mechanical robots on their backs that their owner has a remote control to whip the camel during the race. Think PETA would approve? I'm guessing not. The final camel carries a human who rounds up the camels along the track who lag behind. After the start, the men and spectators run and jump in the car to race along with the camels during the 5K and 6K. I was glad Matt was driving and not me! They began about 30 mph and slowed to 20 mph as they got tired and their necks began to droop.

We watched several take offs and drove alongside 2 races. It was really a lot of fun and something we will never forget!

Christmas Eve in the Middle East

I'm going to try and catch up with a few post this week since I am off work all next week as well. We have had a great week and I feel like I've actually had some good quality time with my kids. I've learned two things this week. #1 - I have confirmed that I need to remain working while we are living here to occupy my mind all day. #2 - Jordyn needs to attend some sort of school next year. This isn't what my post is going to be about, I just thought I would share that with you.

Let's see. We made Christmas cookies yesterday, as we do each and every year. They turned out a little crunchy this year, but of course they will still be eaten. Pops, I always think of you when we make them because I know how much you love to help us eat them!

I let the kids open up one present from Grammy and Pawpaw this morning and they were super excited to play with their new gifts. We try to spread them out over Christmas Eve morning/evening and Christmas Day since we don't have any houses to jump around to.

Our Muslim neighbors who live upstairs from us just brought over this sweet home made cake. I had planned on buying one at Mr. Baker today and sending up to them as a thank you for letting their driver take Landen to and from baseball practice a lot of days with their own son. It helps me tremendously! Now, of course, it will just look like we decided to get them one because they gave us something so I guess I'm going to have to come up with a new plan and wait on that. Why didn't I go this morning! Oh well. Of course, I still would have looked bad because theirs is home made, lol! I wish I would have thought to take their picture with it and us, but I wasn't expecting them to be at the door. The mother is VERY friendly, and from Jordan. She wears a head scarf with western clothes most days and occasionally you will see her covered up in black. The dad is from Boston and also Muslim. He grew up in Kuwait. It such an interesting world out there. The youngest daughter just loves Jordyn and she is extremely sweet. They also have two boys, each a little older than my boys, who love baseball so that seems to work out well for them.

We were gonna Skype with Derek and Shannon yesterday, but we learned that Skype is out world wide. What a bummer! Had to cancel our plans with mom and dad to Skype as well. We did download an Aim account that allowed us to do the same thing though. It wasn't quite as clear and we had a hard time hearing, but we at least got to visit a little. Jill, when Skype is fixed, we need to get it set up on your computer so that the kids can talk to each other. They would love that! After they talked, Nicholas and Hayden plotted to play Club Penguin together online. They decided which chat room to join so that they could play together. Technology is amazing and these are 7 year olds!

Tonight, I am cooking that huge 21lb turkey that has been sitting in my freezer. I hope it turns out ok. The dressing smells great and we are having all the usual holiday sides since I didn't cook at Thanksgiving. I'm guessing we will have some left overs. Afterwards, we are going to go to the Light House church tonight for a candle light service at 9:00 pm. The kids have their sleeping bags out and ready to all sleep in the same room tonight. It brings back lots of memories of me sleeping with my sister on Christmas Eve. Oh, to be a kid again!

One last picture. It still seriously stinks in certain parts of the city. Yesterday, it was BAD!

We are headed to the camel races on Christmas day. Yep. The camel races. Should make for a fun Christmas! Merry Christmas Eve!

Ketchup!

It's been a while, but I wanted you to know I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am here, alive, well, and kicking. I've really not had much to blog about lately. We have been busy working, being at the baseball fields, and Norma (Matt's mom) came for a nice 2 week visit.

I can't believe Christmas is in just a few days. How is THAT possible? We put our tree up earlier than ever, but it just still doesn't feel like Christmas here. Luckily, we at least have a tree. We stored our new, pre-lit tree before we moved to Germany due to the voltage issue. In Germany, it was easy to buy real Christmas trees and Matt and the boys enjoyed picking it out each year. When we found out we were moving to Kuwait, we panicked because we didn't know if one would be available here. I bought a $40 tree off of a website (total rip off!) and the tree is just tiny, but we figured it was better than nothing. Matt went to True Value one day here in Kuwait and called me because he had found a 7 foot tree. We bought it and now have 2 so our home is more festive than I had imagined. I brought a lot of our Christmas decorations as well, even though we were only limited to 4000 lbs when we moved here.

I am off work for the next 2 weeks and get to spend some time with the kids. I am really wishing we were on a plane on the way back to spend some time with our family. However, we just really didn't even entertain the thought with 3 kids and the jet lag.... maybe next year we will venture back. I can't believe I've spent 4 years away from my family on Christmas. I've really let it bother me this year...

Let's see. I'm going to post some random pictures. We found our first camels while Norma was here. That was fun! We drove and searched and saw many in the distance... then on our way home, we found several right beside the highway. They are big and we were a little nervous to get out of the car, but we braved it and got some fun pictures of us.

I'm also posting a picture of the girls I work with at the school. They are really a nice, fun group of girls. It's amazing at my comfort level between now and the first day of work. Some of them speak English extremely well, and others - not so much. We do spend a lot of time translating between staff members and parents of the children. These ladies are from America, England, Canada, South Africa, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Iran to name a few. Just a tidbit that I learned yesterday in case you ever need it.... if you are from Lebanon, you kiss on the cheek 3 times and from Egypt, then 2.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I'm a little behind in wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but I sure hope everyone had a fabulous day. I was a little bummed about having to work all day. However, after it was all said and done I decided that's the way to go. I worked all day, then we all went over to a friends house for dinner. There was tons of delicious food and I wasn't in the kitchen all day! Nice!

I complain so much about the stresses of overseas life, but I truly have so much to be thankful for. My family is all together and I know that is the most important thing for our children. My children are healthy. I am thankful God gave me a job to keep my mind occupied. I am thankful my children are loving it here. I am thankful my husband has a stable job and is so supportive of me in everything I do. I am thankful my mother in law came to visit us for 2 weeks. That's truly brave of her to hop on a plane by herself and I have much admiration! I am thankful I have money and more than I need. We are not rich in American standards, but compared to the rest of the world and what I am seeing first hand, you would think we are millionaires. I am thankful there is a swimming pool right outside my door. I am thankful there are restaurants that I can go into and feel a little more "at home." I am thankful for the internet so that I can stay connected with my family. It's a little difficult to talk on the phone because of the 9 hour time difference between here and AR, but I can email anytime of the day and wake up to a reply on most days. I am thankful for the people I have met here in Kuwait. So many families can relate to how we feel because they are experiencing the same feelings. We can laugh together about it and that seems to help us all get through this. Living overseas has taught me to be thankful for things like Target, deodorant, freedom of religion/speech, rules and laws, and countless other things...

We had International Day at the school I work at on Thanksgiving day and I took a little video clip. Each class represented a different country. At the end of the assembly, they played the song "We Are The World." It was really a neat experience for me as I looked around at the people I work with from so many different countries (USA, England, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, and many more) and all the different children. It was a beautiful moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6tu9JhFVzU

Baa....Baa....

I will forever have a new image in my head when I see or hear a lamb. Thankfully, I was given a heads up by some neighbors that today is the day the Arabic community sacrifice sheep in honor of their loved ones who have passed away. I was informed that it happens early in the morning and I might want to keep the children indoors.

Well. Apparently it happens throughout the day! My mother in law is here visiting and wanted to go over to the gym this morning. I walked her across the courtyard with my oldest son and on the way we saw a little more than we bargained for. Blood, heads, and other body parts were scattered in one area of the courtyard. We could tell the men were very uncomfortable with our being there so we quickly got inside the gym. I left Norma and Landen and went back to my house thinking that would be the end of that. Later, I went back to check on them and found them trying to get out of the gym via a different exit. While exercising, they had witnessed a new, live sheep about to meet his demise. This was about 11:30pm. I quickly gathered the kids inside as I really didn't want them to witness it. There were several other children running around and I made a few quick phone calls to parents.

I really thought we had fooled them until a little girl who is 6 came and knocked on our door. Jordyn answered and I heard her tell Jordyn, "there's a dead sheep outside!" Yikes. My stomach has been turned the rest of the day and so has Norma's. I don't have any pictures of it, but I really don't think it's something you would want to see.

Norma did, however capture this one yesterday. Little did they know what was going to happen to them today. Chalk this one up to more "memories."

Privileged

Hayden's class picture at the "American" School of Kuwait. :-)

Just to give you an example of names of some of the children: Abdulaziz, Mohammed, Rakan, Nasser, Faiza, Dalia, Hamood, Shaika, Dhari, Walaa, Hala. These are not necessarily the kids names in the picture. I'm just pulling the names out of a hat from the children I am around at the school I work at.

One of these days, I'll take my camera and get some pictures of the girls I work with. They are all very nice, for the most part. The school I work at is staffed with 1/2 Arabic and 1/2 Westerners, though I think it's really more like 3/4 and 1/4. The majority are Muslim and wear head scarfs every day. Some are dark and muted in their dress, but many are bright and colorful. They are friendly and kind and love the kids. I work with people from South Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, England, America, India, Sri Lanka, and many other countries. It's really amazing if you think about it.

Most of the women are very friendly. You very rarely see a woman out without her maid (or maids) following close behind her. They send their "drivers" to the school and the "nanny" hops out of the car to take the child in. When the bell rings, it's a rush of women (mostly from the Phillipines) in maid uniforms coming to collect the children from their class and take them home. Kuwaiti women are very "privileged" and flaunt that when they are in public. As a westerner, here in Kuwait, we are treated as one of the "privileged." I don't like feeling that way. I am called "madame" and treated like a queen with open doors and servants. It's like we are better than the others, and let's face it... In God's eyes, we are all equal. We are SO very privileged to be born in America where things may not be perfect, but it's a million times better than what the majority of the world is living.

Halloween 2010

It's not quite Halloween, I realize, but for our family it has come and gone. For the 4th straight year we have trick or treated overseas. I must admit this year was better than the last three. Most countries don't celebrate Halloween and trick or treating in the tradition that we do in America. The kids are forced to only trick or treat on base which for the last 3 years has equaled mass chaos! They try, but with the amount of kids and everyone living off base and on base trying to trick or treat at a very minimal number of houses, the candy is gone very quickly and it's extremely crowded.

This year, we had a new experience of trick or treating at the Embassy. I anticipated the same scenario but was happily surprised. There aren't near the number of children here. We met at the Embassy, trick or treated at about 15 houses and a few "trunks", then went to the ambassadors house for one final trick or treat. The night ended with a movie on the Embassy lawn for everyone. It was really nice, not crowded, and the kids had fun. We were happily surprised.... as an added bonus, we weren't concerned with having to wear 10 layers under the costumes and freezing in the cold. In fact, the kids were hot in their costumes and we trick or treated in the mid/upper 80's.

This year, we had Goldilocks:

A Skeleton Zombie:

And A Nerd:

Hope you have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN too!!!!!!!

Dhow Cruise and Kuwait Towers

I had hoped to find some camels this weekend, but it was just too hot to even try. We are still having temps in the low 100's and this weekend it felt very hot. Most days the temperature feels cooler than that - more like the 80's. I'm not complaining though, I keep reading my friends posts in Germany and they are 27 degrees and on the soccer field. No thank you! I don't miss that a bit.

Last weekend we went on a dhow cruise with several other military families. The whole boat was full of Americans and it was a very pleasant evening. We boarded the boat and they served finger sandwiches and fresh squeezed juices, then followed with grilled meats, hummus, vegetables, and dessert. It lasted about 3 hours and the kids really had a great time.

This weekend we found ourselves near the Kuwait Towers so we stopped and snapped a few pictures. There is actually a restaurant and observation deck at the top, but we haven't had time to experience that yet. I'm thinking we may just take the boys to do that one day. We'll see. We have plenty of time. :-)

Work is going well and Jordyn is very happy staying home. The more I am at the school, I have no doubt that we made the right decision by pulling her out. Things are just very different here and I'll just leave it at that. Three more weeks and I get a whole week off for Eid! I'm trying to look at it as little chunks of time.

One more little tidbit. These two women walked by us while we were having lunch. They were holding hands with their husband before he departed. We know this because they are not allowed to display affection in public unless they are married. It's very common to see one man walking with 3 or 4 women. Ahhh.... this is a different world we are living in over here.

10 Random Thoughts

10. We hear music from the Mosques 5 times a day. It breaks into ALL the radio stations in the middle of listening to Nickelback or Britney Spears.

9. I just had the doorbell ring and opened it to a man who only spoke Arabic. Our maid speaks Arabic, so she translated for us. He wanted to check the water, so we let him in only to find out he was selling water and wanting to do one of those demonstrations for us. Our maid told him to "go away." :-) He patted Jordyn's cheeks as he left.

8. It's illegal to drive through a yellow light here. My friend went on a website and found out she had 5 tickets and her husband had one. They owed 190 KD which equates to $700.

7. I miss my family.

6. I had to pay money to work here. 100 KD. No joke. The turn over rate is extremely high at the school I am working for so I guess that's one way they recoup some money.

5. Parking lines and lane markers are simply a "suggestion." If you try really hard (THEY DO) you can fit 5 lanes of traffic into 2, as well as make a left hand turn from the far right lane.

4. We do not spend US Dollars here and only have one ATM that dispenses them.

3. We now have appreciation for air than you cannot smell or see.

2. I never dreamed I would listen to SpongeBob SquarePants in German and Arabic.

1. If you want to lose 10 lbs without trying, move overseas.

Meet Kumari

I have made reference to our maid a few times, but haven't introduced you to her. I honestly wanted to make sure it was going to work out with her. She is the second one we have hired. I won't get into the issues we had with the first maid.

A maid? Yep. A maid. Not a part time maid. A full time, live in maid. I'm not kidding. She lives with us. It's strange to think about. It was hard for me to even comprehend the thought of it. At first, I said no way. I don't want somebody living with us. However, after I arrived and found out everybody I met (for the most part) had them living with them, I entertained the thought. Then, the job fell in my lap. We had to have something for the kids when they arrive home from school. The thought of having my laundry done was nice. She cleans. She is good with the kids. I'm not going to lie, it's been an adjustment having someone at my house 24 hours a day, but it is not as stressful as I had originally dreamed. Things are not perfect and exactly the way I want them, but it is better than doing it all myself. Stressful, you ask? Just think about it. A stranger, from another country, in your house. Yes, it was stressful to me.

I know. I look like an absolute GIANT next to her.

Kumari is her name and she is from Sri Lanka. She is 39 years old. She is good hearted, kind, and very respectful of our privacy. When she finishes her work, she goes into her room which is off of the kitchen. It is tiny... like about the size of a very small office. She is happy and beaming most of the time with a big smile. She allows me to be able to work and spend my weekends and evenings with the kids. They work for very little money. We pay her on the upper side and it is about $400/month. That's cheap when you think about everything she does. We buy her groceries and toiletries and provide a place for her to stay.

Why would a Sri Lankan woman come to Kuwait, you ask? She has 2 daughters who are ages 14 and 16. They are very beautiful from the pictures I have seen. Kumari's husband died of cancer when her youngest was 3 years old. He was a business man and she had money. When he died, she had nothing. The only way she knows to provide for her girls and get them an education is to leave them with her sister in Sri Lanka, and come here to work. She misses them terribly. It's really just sad to me. I can't imagine having to leave my children. She will stay here for 2 years before she gets to see them again. It breaks my heart.

I have written the girls both a letter and I hope to send them things through out the year. It must be hard on both sides. Keep Kumari, Iresha and Ishara in your prayers. Right now we are very thankful for her.