Sri Lanka

For Spring break, we decided to spend the week on the island nation of Sri Lanka. We were treated to warm weather, clear water, and this view for 5 days.

We ate well and spent a lot of time enjoying beer on the beach.

We also toured a small family run cinnamon farm,where 

this man demonstrated how the bark is removed by hand to dry and sell. 

 Sri Lanka was once ruled by many different cultures and nations before their final independence from Britain in 1948.  There are some leftovers from the colonial period, especially in the southern city of Galle.

Home to many different religions, Sri Lanka was a welcome retreat from the Middle East for the variety it offers.  We saw many Buddhist and Hindu temples, as well as dozens of mosques and churches.

Failaka Island, Kuwait

Failaka Island lies about 20 km off the coast of Kuwait. It was settled as early as the 3rd century BC and has been a part of several civilizations including Dilmun, Sumer, the Kassites of Mesopotamia, the Babylonians, and the Greeks prior to the 
spread of Islam. 




At the time of the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1991, about 2,000 people lived on the island. The Iraq army expelled all the residents to the mainland and took over the island.  The army used the island for military training and target practice.  The sewer and water systems were destroyed, making the island virtually uninhabitable. The residents have never returned, but there is a small tourist center that takes people around the island to view ruins from the ancient and modern world. 

  Wandering around the town ruins is interesting and a bit creepy. This school in particular was especially haunting.

The tour we joined obtained permission to visit these partially excavated ruins. 

House of Mirrors Tour with Lidia Qattan

We recently had the opportunity to visit a unique Kuwait landmark, the House of Mirrors.  The House of Mirrors is a museum and art gallery owned and operated by artist Lidia al-Qattan, the widow of Khalifa al-Qattan, a renowned Kuwaiti artist who was the first Kuwaiti to hold exhibitions of his work abroad. She started decorating one small wall with mirrors after her daughter (who helps run the museum) broke one, and then became inspired until the whole house inside and out was covered with mirrors.  

These are the front doors.  At night, they have spotlights on them, which make the mosaic twinkle beautifully. 

This is the outer courtyard, where the images are focused on nature. 












We went to the tour anticipating a short time in her house that is covered in mosaic.  What we got was something much more surreal and entertaining; something totally unexpected in Kuwait.

This is Lidia.  She came to Kuwait with from Italy in 1966 with her Kuwaiti husband.  She's about 4 and 1/2 feet tall, but with a much larger personality.  She is a painter, a sculptor, cosmologist, and a firecracker.  She wears a skirt and pants; she says the skirt was for her husband and the pantaloons for her. 

 Each piece of her art has its own message; about unions in society, women’s rights, human DNA, even some on quantum physics. This room had paintings representing the Big Bang and the creation of the universe.  She has a room dedicated to her ideas about the universe, where the walls are made of painted black carpets, interspersed with flashing lights.  She plays some very space-y music and turns off the lights. The only true word to describe the experience was trippy.



Lidia spoke about the changes in Kuwait since she arrived and how that has impacted her art.  The house is full of her husband's paintings, which are not part of any national collection, although he is perhaps Kuwait's most famous painter. Khalifa's style and his paintings come from a time when Kuwait was a much more open society.  She told us a story of writing an article about one of her husband's most famous paintings, but the newspaper would not print a photo of the painting with the article citing, "sexuality," to which she said, "Absurd!"

These are a couple of Khalifa's paintings. Lidia has almost 70 of them in the house on display.  The one below was my favorite of his, which she said represents the Old Kuwait (inside the circle) and the New Kuwait. 

The house is open by appointment only.  Tickets are 3kd each.  Here is their website for more details on timings and contact information: http://www.mirrorhouseq8.com/

A weekend in Bahrain

Bahrain is a small island kingdom, with just over 1 million people.  It's a short and inexpensive flight from Kuwait, so we decided to spend our recent 3 day weekend there.  We rented a car and explored the main island thoroughly.

Bahrain's economy is entirely based on oil production, which is evident as soon as you enter the desert outside of the city.

We also visited the Tree of Life, a 400 year old Mesquite tree famed for its ability to survive in a desert with no obvious source of water. (Bahrain receives less than 2 inches of rain a year.)  Some people believe it is the site of the Garden of Eden and that is why the tree has survived.  The tree receives up to 50,000 tourists a year.

                                                                                                                                                                  

We spent much of our time wandering around Manama, the capital city.  The picture on the left is of dried whole lemons, a popular seasoning in Arabic food. 










We also visited Qalat al Bahrain, a fort that is an Unesco World Heritage site.  Some of the artifacts found here date back more than 9,000 years.  Bahrain was once ruled by the Babylonians,  the Persians, the Greeks, and the Portuguese, so there is an odd and interesting mix of artifacts and structures in the fort and attached museum.

Aerial View of our city

Check out this video of Kuwait City made by our friend Kevin with his drone!  You can follow him on Instagram for more pics and videos @bestfootfilms.
Kuwait City Skyline

Winter Holidays in Oman

On our first long vacation since we moved to Kuwait, we decided to visit the Sultanate of Oman. We rented a car and spent 2 weeks driving around the country.   Despite being surrounded by countries in turmoil, Oman has had many years of stability and peace, though they did experience some unrest during the Arab Spring in 2011.  They are ruled by an absolute monarch who is admired for bringing Oman into the modern world.  Until the 1970's when he took the throne, Oman had only 1 public school and hardly any paved roads.  Although it has more traditional feeling than the other Arab countries we have visited, the cities are now definitely modern.  We loved the mix of old world Arab living and modern feeling cities.  Oman has oil revenue, but because it is small compared to that of their neighbors, many Omani people still live traditional lifestyles like goat herding in the desert or sustenance fishing.  Omanis work in tourist services and hospitality and are happy to have foreign visitors. This is a welcome change for us and made our travels in Oman feel much more authentic.  Omanis were very friendly and we had many people approach us, curious about our camping set up.  We had several "conversations" where the Omani spoke no English and since we clearly do not speak Arabic, the conversations involved a lot of smiling and gesturing.  Maybe one of our best adventures was when we got our car stuck on the beach one day and within 3 minutes had a rescue, complete with an invitation to breakfast at our rescuer's home. 

Oman has many miles of beautiful coastline with clear and clean water. This is a khor (rocky headland) near Muscat.

We spent many hours walking the beaches. The tide pools were a highlight.

We were treated to gorgeous sunsets every day.  This is on Masirah Island, a large island about 5 hours south of Muscat, the capital. 

Camels are an important part of life in the desert.

Trigger fish caught on Masirah Island

Our home for most of the 2 weeks

Daily Life in Kuwait

We have been in 4 months now and time seems to be flying.  We are headed to Oman this week for our Winter Break and I can't seem to remember how we go to December.   As is to be expected, we have settled into our daily lives in Kuwait and things that once seemed so strange like the calls to prayer, or that smell in our neighborhood, or watching ladies with a veil eat, now just seem normal.  It's amazing to me how different our life is here, but so similar at the same time.  I think that from afar, our life may seem glamorous in some way because our families and friends don't see into our routines, but our life here is actually pretty typical. We go to work every day, but instead of driving, we take a bus.  We teach, then we go home to eat and relax.  Instead of a house, we live in a high rise apartment building filled with other teachers. Typically, we both fall asleep (sometimes on the couch) around 8 pm if we are lucky to make it that long.  The next day (so early!!) we get up and do it again.  We've made our home comfortable (thanks to Ikea) and we even got a cat.

This is Gus, who is the sweetest animal to have ever lived.  The only thing he wants in life is to have a soft lap and to be petted.  He was a street cat and had an infection in his throat, so he can't make any noise.  My favorite part about him is that he loves to follow me around the house like a puppy.  He sleeps on our bed every night.










There are some things about our new home that we are loving!  After living in a food wasteland for the last 3 years, we are overjoyed to be living somewhere with food from all over the world.  There are at least 5 Indian restaurants on our block-all of them delicious. We live within walking distance of good Thai food and we've been out to breakfast to at least 4 different legitimate breakfast joints. (My friends in PY can appreciate how amazing this is!).

Homemade Ramen with crispy duck skin from AlMakan

Kuwait can be a little boring, so we are realizing we have to learn how to make our own fun and that has to include other kinds of fun besides eating or we'll be in trouble.  One thing that is exciting is that there is a running community here.  I ran my first race with some other teachers in November and made my best 10k time ever!

A HUGE benefit to our lives here has been purchasing a car.  The adventures began very quickly after we bought it and we got stuck in the wet sand at the beach.  We've driven to the border with Saudi Arabia just because. We then took it camping over night in the desert, which was definitely one of the most fun things we have done here so far.   It was freezing at night, but we were able to build a fire.  It was nice to see the stars after not seeing them for several months living in the light polluted city. 

 

There are many herds of tame camels out in the desert. These ones were very curious about us!

Of course, one of the best things that we have going for us here is the people.  We work and live with people from all over the world, who make us laugh, challenge us, and commiserate with us on the bad days.  Our colleagues are hard-working, sincere, adventurous, and fun people.

 Dressed up for Halloween

    

Shopping at the fabric market

 

There are many challenges that come along with moving to a new country, a new home, new friends, and a new job all at the same time.  We miss "home" which means a lot of things, depending on the day.  We miss the comforts and ease of living in the US at times, but love living away from the political disaster that is happening as well.  We miss our families and we miss our friends in the US and those who are now scattered around the world-literally.  Some days, I just wish for things to be "easy" (like how on Earth does it take 6 months to get a driver's license!?!?) while other days I'm grateful for different ways of doing things.  I miss the mountains and green things, but I also appreciate how amazing it will be to see those things again while traveling and I'm looking forward to the sense of gratitude I know I'll feel in those moments. Now, four months in to our 2nd international teaching post, I can also truthfully say that it is much easier this time around and that I'm looking forward to the challenges and adventures of the next few years living in Kuwait.