In mid-March, I traveled to Kuwait, a tiny country in the Gulf bordered by Saudi Arabia in the South, Iraq in the North, and the Persian Gulf in the East. According to wikipedia (my main source of random information these days), Kuwait has the world's 5th largest oil reserves, and 80% of the government's revenue comes from the export of petroleum or petroleum products. Petroleum in Kuwait is understandably super cheap - my friend Ayesha, who hosted me during my 3-day visit, filled up her gas tank for about 8 USD. That was pretty cool.
Originally a poor pearl farming community, Kuwait has the highest "human development index" in the Arab world, as determined by the UN. [In 2009, Norway was ranked 1st, the US was ranked 13th, Kuwait was ranked 31st, and Tunisia was ranked 98th.] The estimated population of Kuwait is 3-3.5 million, while 2 million of these inhabitants are non-nationals.
Who are the "foreigners"? Some of them, as you would expect, work in the oil business. Some are Europeans or North Americans. Many of them, as I would later see also in Dubai, were from South Asia - Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.
That was probably the most interesting part of my experience in Kuwait. The permeation of South Asian culture and language. My friend Ayesha is American, but her parents were born in India and are Muslim. They thus speak Urdu. Despite the fact that Kuwait is an Arab country with Arabic as the official language, Urdu was more useful than Arabic or English. Many of the individuals staffing Kuwait's infrastructure, in restaurants, grocery stores, and in the downtown souq, were from South Asia and spoke or could understand Urdu (Ayesha explained that Urdu and Hindi, the official language of India, are mutually intelligible). Many people working as household help are also, as in Dubai, of South Asian nationality.
Ayesha's excellent Arabic (modern standard and Jordanian) along with my ok Tunisian Arabic also helped us a little bit, when we did encounter some of the many Egyptians, Jordanians, etc. who have moved to Kuwait often for economic reasons, or because they are married to another resident there.
What did Ayesha and I do? We went to the mall a lot. I saw some stores that I had last seen in some of the nicest malls in Cincinnati and Washington, DC. We only bought stuff on sale from H&M. The prices, even discounted, were still a bit expensive.
Here is a picture of Ayesha in front of Cinnabon at a mall. That's right.
And here is a picture of a delicious avocado smoothie drink we had at the mall, along with Ayesha's berry drink (we also spent a lot of time eating. i had a wrap and several smoothies during my stay for the first time in months!!)
We also spent a day in the souq, where, with Ayesha's expert help, I bought a beautiful black abaya embroidered on the sleeves with gold-colored thread. Ayesha helped me figure out what was the most recent style for abayas, and dissuaded me from picking anything that was too last season. :)
After abaya shopping, we got a sandwich from a stand run by an Egyptian man.
Ayesha and I also spent an afternoon at the great mosque downtown, which was one of the more beautiful mosques that I saw in Kuwait. While I've almost always been awed by the beauty of mosques in Tunisia, Egypt, and later in Dubai, I didn't find the exterior of the Kuwaiti mosques very beautiful. However, the inside was lovely. Here is a picture of the women's room. [Because prayer for Muslims involves prostrating on the ground, most mosques have a separate room for men and for women.]
And here is a picture of me in the women's prayer room, in front of some stained glass windows.
Here is a picture of the wash room, where Muslims perform the ritual wash (hands and arms up to elbows, feet/ankles, and part of the face).
In the malls, there are also prayer rooms. Here is a picture (albeit of rather poor quality) of a prayer room at one of the malls in Kuwait City. The sign reads, "Women's prayer room," in English and in Arabic. The shoes outside are of the women who have gone in the room the pray. I sat on the carpeted floor at the back of the room and waited for Ayesha to finish.
Ayesha is living in student housing, and it is super nice. Here is a view from her balcony.
My last day there, Ayesha and I went to a "Kuwaiti" restaurant, though Ayesha identified most of the dishes we ate as Indian food. It was tasty. :)
We also, true to form, had a final mall trip.
Ayesha, an overly accommodating host, also drove me to the airport early the next morning. I then took off to Dubai, which means a new post and more pictures.
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