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.