First Week In Kuwait

I have yet to see a Camel! However what I have seen and experienced has left me in complete and utter Culture Shock!

I arrived on Tuesday night and felt like the most naive person on the planet but it was fine, it was all straight forward and just like arriving in any other country. However there were so many different nationalities that I was unsure at first as to where I had arrived.

Howard, who is to become my driver, picked me up and drove me to my temporary apartment, (they are still trying to find the perfect place for me to move into). The first things I noticed was of course the warm weather but it's not as hot as I expected it to be, next was the Arabic symbols every where, thankfully English is written underneath every sign, the next was the god awful smell of sewage! Ok I have since learnt that this is only in the areas where there is road works but still makes me dry reach every time we pass by! However generally the city has this strange stale smell which I am yet to get used to. There are a lot of things I am yet to get used to!

The next day I went straight to The Little Gym to start work and meet my work mates. And pretty much that is all I have done since is work!!! The gym is great and I will write more about that another time but first let me concentrate on the strangeness that is Kuwait!

One of the things I will have to get used to is the lack of freedom, at the moment I am picked up and driven to and from work. And that's It, although I did convince Howard to let me come to an internet cafe today!! Bascially if you don't have a car you don't go any where Women just do not walk around on their own! A few times I have ventured out because I need to buy food. On the way to the shopping centre I was honked at by several cars then when I brought some lunch and sat down to eat 3 Arab men stood close by and watched me eat as if I was some sort of freak! Then on the way home one man asked me if he could walk me to my car, but I just ignored him and kept walking then another, while I was waiting to cross the road pulled over and asked me how I was I just turned and walked away! It's just really uncomfortable! I have been told that in a few months I will get a car and that will give me a lot more freedom but at the moment I feel very trapped.

Howard did drive me around the city a little so I could have a look. There is very very little grass instead lost of sand and dust. The city is very spread out and is rather strange in that you have huge beautiful houses between slums and poorly kept apartments. Kuwait is half modern, half traditional and a lot of it is half hearted with many places run down, half built and not looked after at all. The main shopping area has all the shops that you would find at home but I am yet to go and see what they sell. The shopping area runs along an esplanade, however the beach side mostly deserted. In any other country you would find people laying on the beach and swimming but here it just looks out of place with no one enjoying it! It's hard to describe really what this place is like but I hope to get some photos up here for you soon.

Most men dress in a white Kaftan with a white head dress or in western clothes, the women are a mixed bunch with half of them in western clothes with a head scarf the others in the black robes with a head scarf and the others are completely covered up with only a slit for their eyes. They kind of looked creepy at first, like black shadows moving about but I am getting used to it. I am getting used to lots of things!

I am trying to keep an open mind but every morning I wake up and go "Where am I again?" "What the feck am I doing here?". I have felt lonely, over welmed, scared, and in awe of what's going on around me but not yet excited and I hope that changes as I make friends and get settled in. I really miss home though and appreciate the way we live. But I was looking for a challenge and a new experience and that is exactly what I am getting!

There is so much to tell but I am running out of time so I will write some more as soon as I can, please let me know how you all are I miss every one so much!!!

Till next time......