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I wrote this post after the first week we got to
Kuwait. Now after 50 days I am
ready to share…
August 10th 2013
As I sat down ten other things come to mind I might possibly
be doing before I start. Just now my chair was uncomfortable. I needed a glass
of water. I wanted to make sure the lights were turned down upstairs so that
Anne could sleep, but turned on downstairs so that Tim would have plenty of
light when he came home. The
ultimate delay of course is the question of what to write. What to write? We are now living in Kuwait. We are
finally living the time in our lives that we have been dreaming of: the time to
live together indefinitely, the time that would give us the freedom to have
another baby. This is finally the time that is supposed to be "the new chapter".
15 years ago we cried over not knowing
when or if this would ever happen. Tracy Chapman’s The Promise was truly what we breathed day in and day out. His turn, my turn, his turn even when we would briefly be living together. Now, finally together without a death or a deployment or grad school or, or... So here
it is on the other side of the world. Life is so amazing.
Tim had spent a good amount of time in Kuwait before. He was
stationed here when I lived in New York City in 2000. That was a time of letter
writing, an occasional email, possibly once a week. Every so often a phone call
came with time delays and the stress of not knowing what to talk about. (in retrospect, I'll take a 5 month deployment in peace time any day!) But the letters kept us close made us
feel like we were a part of each other’s lives. And maybe it is the past letter
writing that draws me to write about this time now. Do not anticipate anything jaw dropping or provocative, it
is only week 1. But this is what
we did upon arrival.
Week 1
Friday Aug 2 2013
We arrive in Kuwait at 11:30pm. We had flown from Chicago to
Frankfurt into Kuwait. Our journey had started at 11:30am on the 1st.
We left the farm to drive into Highland (about 10 miles away) to mail a big box
as an experiment to see how long it takes to ship something to ourselves from
middle America. It took a week. We
also were going to try to cancel our phone plan. This was not possible and I
proceeded to do this over the phone with a very friendly Ashley from AT&T
who had never done a military cancellation due to orders. We went through this whole process
together line by line. It was
fortunate that we were driving from Highland to Chicago via 55 otherwise I
think I would have blown a gasket from her genuine interest yet lack of
knowledge. She has a very kind and patient manager, I assure you. Anyway, our phone was cancelled by
Springfield I think (a little over an hour later). We arrived at the airport in
Chicago easily aside from the horrible traffic starting in Kankakee. Left at 10:15pm, made it to Frankfurt
by lunch. Left again at 5pm and made it to Kuwait at 11:30.
When we arrived in Kuwait our bags were there but our visas
somehow were not correct. After 90
minutes and 4 different agents we made it through. I was totally calm about it. Maybe from exhaustion but I
think it was because Sgt. B. was there with us on the entry side assuring us it
would be ok. How incredibly wonderful to be met at the airport in a foreign
country before going through the passport check! MAJ O. was waiting for us as well with water bottles and a
Kit Kat. I never knew how much I
like Kit Kats or that they tasted so good after 27 hours of travel.
At the passport check was Anne’s first encounter with being goaded,
as she feels, or as the Kuwaiti’s see it--celebrated. This has been a daily event, and sometimes toward both of
us. She pulls away and tries not to talk but depending on the situation we tell
her to at least say hi. I think its good that she reacts this way. I can only imagine what I would have
done when I was her age. My
totally unafraid, precocious, performing self would have been a nightmare for my
parents.
We arrived after a detoured trip to our home at 1:30 and
didn’t sleep until after 4am. We
saw the sun rise every morning for about 4 days. Jet lag was terrible. I think
it would have been better if we had arrived in the morning so excitement and
nervous energy would have kept us awake at the right time of day. Alas, jet lag it was.
Saturday Aug 3rd
At 2pm the phone rang.
We were all totally asleep.
Sgt B. asked if he could pick us up to take us grocery shopping in our
neighborhood. We went to the Co-op which is a neighborhood specific grocery
store that the locals shop at. We
got a cart full of food. Little did I know what I really needed. After dropping off the
groceries we went to his house to meet his family. They are so nice and his
daughter let Anne borrow some toys to take home. We stayed for an hour and then
went driving around the city to get acquainted. We stopped at the Kuwait Towers and took our picture.
Welcome to Kuwait!
We thought we were exhausted around 6:30 so went home. But after a quick rest we walked over
to the Radisson Hotel where they have a beach club that American Embassy
employees can use. They have free wireless, a gym, a pool, and restaurant. All
things that have saved us from being cooped up all week. We ate dinner at a Moroccan restaurant
just a few minutes walk from our house. We were all up again until the sun came
up.
Sunday Aug 4th
The week here runs Sunday-Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend. We found out on Sunday that not only would the Embassy be
closed but it would be closed all week. I am sure you all know the background
on this. This put a whole new spin on things. We could not do anything with out our Embassy badges and orientation. Nothing could begin on
shipments or getting our health insurance, or getting Anne in school. We could
not get internet or cell phones until we went to the Embassy.
Monday Aug 5th
Since jet lag continued to haunt us, we went to the club and
swam around 4pm. Its too hot to do anything before 3pm. There we met the F family.
The F’s have 2 daughters Anne’s age. They played all afternoon into the
evening while the adults talked poolside.
I think this was my first full exhalation. I am a people person so meeting people makes me feel better. And by 6:30 it was only... 104!
Tuesday Aug 6
Anne went to the F’s house to play with the girls and their parents M and M took
me shopping at Lu Lus Hypermarket. Think the size of a Target with three
floors. Though big and full of
everything one needs it is expensive and about 30 minutes away. I bought actual groceries, meals in
mind groceries, this time regardless of the price. I have no idea what we were
thinking at the Co-op. Aside from
random snacks, fruit and vegetables we had basically nothing. M also introduced me to the Sultan
Center that is a perfect little grocery store close to our house that I go to
often. The prices there are no better than Lu Lu’s but its close. When I say expensive let me explain.
$7.00 for barbeque sauce. $15.00
for sunscreen. $6.00 for markers.
$4.00 for a quart of almond milk. Staples are more comparable to California prices, but
anything that is foreign is tripled in price. Driscoll’s berries are $7.00. When I think about how we used to live a few miles from
where these berries are grown and what I had to go through to get to Kuwait myself I
don’t mind spending $7.00 to eat fresh berries. Let me say that I am FULLY aware of how this is totally antithetical
to the Local Foods Movement. This
pregnant girl needs her berries.
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| 1.9KD ($7.00) for Stubb's BBQ straight from Austin TX |
Wednesday Aug 7th
Tim finally got to go to the Embassy for 45 minutes to in
meet Lt. COL F and to see the office. He was home so quickly I think A was
still eating breakfast. Tim walked next door to The Palm’s hotel and inquired
about renting a car over the weekend. We drove all over downtown seeing as much
as we could on the map we have.
The city is built on a grid with 5 North/South roads and then 6 ring
roads that intersect them. Think of a small section of a spider’s web. I think it is pretty easy to navigate
around the neighborhoods. . Afterwards Anne and I took Tim to the Sultan Center
to show him the close and nice grocery store. This was our most awkward
“celebration”. Tim did well to keep us moving. It is hard not to be totally respectful of a person wearing
a dish dash. We are so used to seeing someone in a robe as honorable and pious.
Not necessarily here. After this person kissed me I pulled away quickly. I felt
terrible afterwards. It is such a mix of wanting to understand and be a guest
in this culture and always needing to be cautious and have clear
boundaries. I think at the end of
the year A will have a very distinct sense of personal space and will never
wish unsolicited attention upon herself. Oh wait, she already does this.
Thursday Aug 8th
That night we ate dinner at MAJ O’s house with COL F. Very fun to meet everyone and A totally
loved the O’s kids. She cried as
we were leaving! COL F encouraged us to hit the road as soon a possible that is
why we went to Morocco so fast.
Friday Aug 9th
We went to Mass. This is an underground congregation. It is only known about
through word of mouth. There were about 30 people there. During the school year
about 100 people attend regularly. We have been actively involved in the
community since then and many of our friends attend.
We drove late in the afternoon to The Avenues, the huge Mall
of America style mall I referred to in my last post. We walked from end to end
and mostly people watched. There
is not a single store in any American mall that is not in The Avenues. We decided to only go into stores that
were particularly interesting or that we needed something. So we walked into
the biggest Dean and Deluca I have ever seen. Ok, we didn’t need anything….
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| At The Avenues Mall eating Pinkberry. |
Saturday Aug 10th
It was 1
week. We drove to the Plant Souk and
bought plants. Since the walls of our home are white and we have nothing to put
on them it is nice to have some green… it is nice to have some green because
there is so little here. Except, we do have a great little park in our compound
that has fruit trees and green green grass. This is a little oasis. Who knows who pays that water bill?
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| Exploring-- I am taking a picure of the full moon, I don't know what Tim is taking a pic of. Me I guess. |
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| Local Kuwaiti food. Tabouleh, garlic paste, Lamb and Chicken kebabs. Aqua Fina. |
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| 1st grader at work. Her school offers Saxon Math, just like we grew up with. See, its not so different.... |
There it is…
I guess at the end of the first week I was feeling a lot
less anxious but it still felt like we were visiting. Today as I revise this I feel excited. I
like living here. It may be home
number 6 in the last decade but it is home. For now.
A caveat: To some of you it may be boring to read this mundane stuff but I am posting this so that those of you who have known us our whole lives and still think of us a two eager kids from Greenville, IL, can read it and feel
that you are a part of why we are brave enough to live this way. I don’t
mean the kind of brave that screenwriters or song lyricists contemplate in
order to capture the nuances of a struggle worth pulling through. This kind of
brave is about being present in each moment so that the world can fall into our
laps. So that we will be willing to become fully ourselves even when we want to
crawl into bed or fly back home.
If I write it, if I tell you that this is what we are trying to do,
maybe it will be in our consciousness enough to be true. We wouldn't be here with out you. Since June Anne and I have been singing this song by Sara Bareilles.
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Congratulations! And here's to being brave indeed!
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