Friday, February 03, 2006

Bits and Pieces

Just thought I might throw out there a few bits and pieces of information I have picked up in the last 4 and a half month stay in Kuwait.....

Single White Female:

Kuwait as most of you know is or at least should know is a Muslim country. That is why alcohole is illegal and pork is unavailable. But also makes the dating scean in Kuwait close to impossible. Muslim Woman and Men are segregated in a lot of places and is taboo for a single muslim girl to be seen socialising with a man with out family members present. It can sometimes result in death. Even at the movie theater there is segreated seating. One time when buying a ticket the guy behind the counter asked me to choose my seat from a seating plan infront of me I said to him how about here and pointed to a seat on the right hand side of the theater. "Ah no thats the bachelors section." said the guy. Oh ok how about over here i said pointing to the other side! Also as I said for single muslim girls dating is a dangerous past time. This is how it works over here.

  • Guy sees a girl thinks I might want to marry her.
  • Goes to her family says i want to marry your daughter.
  • If the family is an open minded family they will ask the daughter what she thinks and she can decide if she wants to be engaged to him or not but sometimes the family will go OK no problem. Especially if the family the guy is from is a well known respectable one.
  • Then the lovely couple become engaged, they are normalyl engaged for 3 months but can be longer if she girl chooses.
  • Over the engagement period the couple get to know each other through supervised visits. Normally a family member would be present during all their meetings.
  • The girl then will decide if she wants to marry him. She does sometimes have the choice too cut it off if she doesn't like him.
  • They get married! In some families its also ok for the man to take 2 to 3 wives although I have been told this can be expensive and sometimes more of a problem than just having one wife!

As I said sometimes if a single girl is found socialising with men with out of family members being present it is decided that she is a disgrace to the family and the family then has the right to kill her if they wish, this is called honour killings. It doesn't happen a lot in Kuwait but it does happen. Thankfully the family i work for does not believe in this or multi wife taking although their daughters won't be able to date like we might date they do get to have a say in who they marry. I asked 15 year old Sharoq how she felt about the process here and she said, "well I don't know anything different its the way its always been here. " And the thought of having a few boyfriends or one night stands or just having lots of male friends were strange and she asked me how it all worked and doesn't it feel weird. Hmmm strange. You know what though it seems that the divorce rates seem to be pretty much the same in both systems!

What Class Do You Belong to?:

Kuwait is huge and i mean huge on racial profiling and there is a definate class system in operation here. Generally the Indians and Pilipinos are at the bottom of the rank and are treated like shit. Its really horrible. I was driving along the other day when I cam to a check point, which is were the traffic police actually do some work and check every ones licence. Now I only had my Qld licence on me. I handed it over to the police guy he asked me if I had a Kuwait Licence, I smiled battered my eye lids and said no I am still waiting to get my papers sorted out. He just looked me over and said, Ok have a good day. And I drove off. If I was an Indian or philipino I would of been escorted out of there. It was surprising that they even stopped me they normally just wave you through.

The Mysteries of Arabic:

Working where I am I get to interact with a lot of nationalities and am surrounded by lots of different languages. Sometimes I will be sitting at the counter with a few different conversations going on, one in Arabic one in french and one in Hindi. I just sit there not understanding a word going I hope their not all talking about me? Ha! It amazes me how some people can just swap from arabic to english and back again sometimes they will have a conversation that is just a mix of the two. Like English, arabic is a little different depending on the country. In kuwait they have some words that you wouldln't hear in Saudi and some in Saudi you wouldn't hear in Yeman. I have been able to pick up a few words but am laughed at most of the time because I can never get the pronouciation right. You kind of have to speak the words like you have a huge golly in your throat. Its pretty funny! Trying to read arabic is another story. I can recognise numbers 1-10 now but letters well just forget that. Its just way to hard. They write from right to left and all the letters just join up and to be honest I know a few Kuwaitis that can't write it them selves hehehehe! Here are just a few words I have picked up though which I have started to use:

Halass: This is my favourite, it means finsih. And i often go Halass when ever I finsih entering things into the computer or telling the kids we have finished a game. Or if a drama that has been going on is finally resolved. And when ever I use it people just laught at me....i still don't know why.

Yella: Come here! I use this one a lot telling the kids to line up! Yella Yella hahahaha also a good one!

Shonada: Pronounced Shoe Na Da! Bassically means what all swear words mean. Or you can say it at someone and your basically calling them and idiot!

Inshala: This is can be used in many different ways but generally it means its in gods hands. If something goes wrong its inshala but I have also heard my boss use it on the phone like the way we would go yeah uhuh yeah, she goes inshala, inshala!

So thats just a few points of interest I though you all might want to know about. Life here is actually proving to be a challenge in keeping my mind open and I have learnt not to have any expectations about anything because as everything is Inshala things change from hour to hour. It can be frustrating sometimes but is a huge learning curve for me. I know this expereince would not be for every one but I am taking it as it comes and often can't believe I am here! Any ways Halass I need to go :)

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