Year Number Three in Kuwait 2015-16

I'm Baaaack!

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I posted my last blog.  It takes a lot of time to compose this blog and I really have to be in the mood.  School has been in session for about seven weeks.  Everything is humming right along, so no more excuses!  We have a few days off for the Islamic New Year, so I have vowed to remain in complete seclusion until I get this posted and sent off hither and yon.  

So year number three is now in full swing.  Each year gets a bit easier as routines are now in place.  I have a pretty good idea of what is expected of me and a much better handle on my young Kuwaiti pupils many whom are of a highly privileged class.  But rich or poor, all kids need to be coaxed and prodded at times and can be persuaded to learn quite a lot if they are having fun doing it.  And, I have to admit, the little three year-olds are beginning to grow on me.  They can actually be pretty cute and endearing (after the first month or so!).  

The Friday Market

I love this picture.  Here you see this traditionally dressed Arab man in his Dishdasha and Keffiyah. The style has remained the same throughout the centuries.  But time doesn't stand completely still in the Middle East. You can see him on his cell phone and notice the tennis shoes!

Here is where you can find an antique brass coffeepot in every shape and size.

If you are drawn to flea markets, you will adore the Friday Market here in Kuwait.  I have been to one or two large flea markets and craft shows in the states, but nothing compares to the Friday Market.  If it's your first time there, it's best to walk around the outside so you can get a sense of the size and layout or you can easily get lost, or worse, find that perfect gift, but when you go back to get it, you can't remember how to get there!

Many people will buy these lovely pieces and have them framed.

At the Friday Market you find both the old and the new.  You can find antique rugs, jewelry, brass, cameras, and telephones and seemingly acres of used clothing and shoes. If you're into tools, generators, and general "guy stuff" you will not be disappointed.  I just moved to a new apartment, so I found the perfect rug for my living room.  There are other areas devoted to curtains, fabric, furniture and appliances.  I'm sure I'm leaving out quite a lot, but I think you get the picture!

The gentleman is busy sorting out his bits and pieces.  I see him every time I go.

Selling curtains in the curtain souk.  

This was a pretty interesting piece of jewelry.

Someone must like collecting old rotary phones!

This picture gives you an idea of the vastness of the Friday Market.  This is just a couple of the maybe 40 or 50 open-air buildings.

Such beautiful pieces of brass to buy, but I'm not sure I want my home to look like a museum!

Two women in their abayas stopping for a bit of lunch before they resume their shopping.

Cetainly not the most flattering picture of me!  I found this interesting gown in the used clothing area.  It's a little like shopping in the biggest Goodwill store you can imagine.  No dressing rooms, of course, so I just pulled it over my clothes.  I was going to wear it to school when we celebrated National Day.  After I took it home, I wasn't too sure I wanted to wear it in public, so instead I cut it up and made a wall hanging out of it.

I always wanted to make a teacup quilt.  I embroidered around the border.

This is a beautiful shot of a fishing boat in the gulf taken at sunset.  This picture and most of the pictures of the Friday Market were taken by my dear New Zealand friend, Linda Young.  She is a very gifted amateur photographer and very graciously allows me to use her photographs.

So Long For Now

I still miss my beautiful little corner of Iowa, especially now that the leaves are changing and winter is around the corner.  If I could take my job here in Kuwait and somehow transport it to little Union, Iowa, I would do it in a heartbeat.  But since that is out of the question I will try to bloom where I am planted.  Once in a while you will see flowers blooming in the desert.  "For with God, nothing shall be impossible."  Luke 1:37

My hostas in glorious summer bloom.

Blessings,

Charlotte

Hot Town

Kuwait is One Hot Town!

"Hot town.  Summer in the city.  Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty."  That is the first line of the Lovin Spoonful 1966 hit, Summer in the City.  And boy is it hot in this city!  I know, I know...it was my choice to live and work here.  But in defense of myself, I really had not a clue that there were places on this earth inhabited by humans that could get as hot as it gets here.  And lately the wind has been blowing, too.  As I write this, it is currently 117 degrees outside.  By Sunday it will reach 120 degrees. I heard it will reach 140 this summer, but before it gets that hot I plan to be cool in the shade under the massive oak tree in my front yard.  I can see green grass only in my dreams right now, but in exactly two weeks I will be stepping off the plane at Des Moines International Airport luxuriating in the cool summer breezes of my beloved Iowa.  Am I homesick?  Well, maybe a little...

The Citadel

Our last stop on our Jordan trip was the Amman Citadel located in the center of downtown Amman.  The Citadel sits on the highest hill in Amman.  It can be seen from any part of the city.  Archeologists have been working here since 1921, but much of the citadel remains unexcavated. 

Amman is one of the oldest cities in the world.  The Ammonites settled here sometime after 1200 BC.  The BibIe records that King David captured the city early in the 10th century.  It was here that King David fell in love with Bathsheba then ordered the murder of Uriah the Hittite by having his soldiers retreat from him in battle.  The city has been occupied by the many superpowers of the Middle East throughout  the centuries.  Neglected and abandoned, the city fortunes did not revive until late 19th century under the Ottoman Empire.  Amman became the capitol in 1921 of the Emirate of Transjordan, then in 1949 it became the newly created Kingdom of Jordan.  

Temple of Hercules built by Marcus Aurelius during the Roman occupation in 162-166 AD.  The columns are thirty-three feet high.  They were re-erected in 1990. 

Pretty impressive spot for a picture.

Ruins of The Byzantine Church built by early Eastern Orthodox Christians in the 5th and 6th centuries.  

Governor's Palace and Mosque built by Umayyed Arabs in 720 AD and destroyed by an earthquake in 749 AD.  It was never rebuilt.  

Nazarene

One of our last days in Jordan I went down for breakfast and met a very nice older couple from the states.  They were curious about why I was living in Kuwait so I told them I was a music teacher at a private school in Kuwait - just normal small talk expats engage in when we meet fellow citizens from our home country.  I noticed that they were both wearing a lapel pin with an Arabic letter inscribed on it.  They told me it was the letter "nun" in Arabic.  This lovely couple I was speaking to were relief workers bringing aide to Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq.  According to the UN website, there are 1.6 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Iraqis who have fled from their homes because of ISIS.  CNN reports that there are 645,000 refugees in Amman.  As of December 2015, over 7000 Iraqi Christians were granted temporary shelter in churches and homes throughout Jordan.  

Getting back to the lapel pin.  Why the letter "N"?  This couple told me that the "N" stands for the first letter of the Muslim word for Christians- Nazarene.  Nazarene is the word used for Christians in the Quran.  The pin is worn as an act of solidarity with Christian brothers and sisters displaced by ISIS.  The symbol was painted on the walls of the homes of Christians who were targeted for pillage and destruction.  These people had one day to decide to renounce their faith or die.  Most of them chose to flee with just the shirts on their backs.  They lost everything but their faith in Christ.  Like the early apostles, they gave up all they had to follow Jesus.  Many people would call that foolish, but most would be humbled by their courage.  I was. 

The man gave me his card.  It turns out that they are a little more than relief workers.    Dr. J.L. Williams and his wife, Patt, have an outreach ministry focused on brothers and sisters in Christ who have lost everything due to religious persecution or natural disasters such as the earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 and most recently in Nepal. If you are interested in learning more about their ministry, I would encourage you to visit their website:  www.jlwilliams.org

Marking Time

If you have been following my blog, you know how very anxious I am to get home.  When I returned to Kuwait back in late August, I was more than a little anxious regarding threats of ISIS here in the Middle East.  The embassy issued a terror alert and many of us were wondering what kind of world we had returned to.  Ten months have passed.  Soon it will soon be time to pack our suitcases and call the taxis to take us to the airport. God has indeed sheltered us all in the shadow of his wings.  Soon we will be home.  

"...and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy."  Psalm 63: 5-7

An Unexpected Encounter on Mount Nebo

The Promised Land

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.  And He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor;  But no one knows the place of his burial to this day."  Duet. 34:5

We visited Mt. Nebo on Day 4 of our trip.  We were blessed by another day of perfect weather.  Mt. Nebo rises nearly 2600 feet above sea level.  It is indeed no wonder that this is the place where God chose to take Moses to view the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before He took His servant to heaven.  It is hard to put into words what it felt like to stand on perhaps the very spot where Moses stood as he gazed across what is now known as the Jordan Valley.  From here you can see the rooftops of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and a panoramic view of the Holy Land.  It is a sight I will never forget.

One of the many mosaics on display.  Looks like Greek to me!  (Sorry,I couldn't help myself)

Another stunning view of the Jordan Valley

Brazen Serpent Monument by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni.  This is a symbol of the bronze serpent taken by Moses into the desert and the cross our Saviour was crucified on.  "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up." John 3:14

In the second half of the 4th century a large monastery and basilica was built on the top of Mount Nebo.  This sanctuary was constructed by the ancient Christians of the region of Madaba as a memorial church to honor Moses, the great Prophet and Lawgiver.  It suffered earthquake damage a couple of times during the next centuries, but it underwent many expansions and continued to thrive into the sixth and perhaps  the seventh century. It was finally abandoned in 1564 and remained mostly neglected until the Franciscan Fathers bought the site in the 1930's and began excavations.  They uncovered a treasury of stunning Byzantine mosaics.  Unfortunately, the building that houses the mosaics and the remaining structure of the basilica was under construction, so we were unable to see that part of the site.

An Unexpected Encounter

What a day!

When you are traveling, you never know what you may encounter right around the next corner which may be just as memorable as the historic site you just visited.  That was what happened to us that day on Mount Nebo.  We happened to be visiting Mount Nebo the very day a bus load of teenage girls arrived from the nearby coastal city of Aqaba.  They didn't speak our language, but our guide, Maysoon, indicated to us that they wanted to talk to us.  They had never met Western women before and were extremely curious about us.  We both had our iPads on hand, so we shared with them pictures of home and family and of our school.  They also wanted me to explain to them why this site was so important to Christians.  I did my best to explain.  I'm not sure how much was understood, but I told them what I knew and they were a very good audience.  These girls surrounded us like we were celebrities.  It was quite the experience.  Then, of course, they all wanted to be in selfies and each wanted individual pictures of us with them.  They were all beautiful young teenagers full of life and curiosity.  If I were to draw a comparison of these girls with the girls from the West, I think the main difference would be their innocence.  Most of these girls were what we call "covered."  That means they were Muslim and wearing a hijab which is a scarf worn to cover their head and neck.  Any female who chooses to wear a hijab, has chosen to be very modest and conservative in the way they live their lives as well as the way they dress.  Some families allow their daughters to choose for themselves and others have the choice made for them.  That being said, I'm assuming that these girls have yet to be greatly influenced by western culture through movies, youtube, music, and reality TV.  Jordan is a poor country and so I doubt if they have much internet access other than at school.  It was a delightful experience which I will tuck away in my memories for many years to come.

Who can resist a selfie!  Beautiful smiles.

One last glimpse.

Counting the Days

As of May 22, 2015, I have exactly 28 days until I get home.  I know, I know...counting the days will only serve to make them pass more slowly.  This is a long held habit that I'm not quite ready to relinquish.  I love the rush I get when I pull out my sharpie and slash a large "X" across the date on the calendar, each "X" bringing me one day closer to friends and family and the greatest country on earth.  God bless America!

Moving Right Aong

Fourth quarter 2015

As I compose this blog, I glance over at my calendar and I can see that I have exactly 46 days until I board United Airlines for the first leg of my trip back to Iowa.  I have been ticking off the days since January.  I know I shouldn't do this because everybody says it just makes the weeks go even slower and they're probably right, but I do it anyway.  We are down to the last seven weeks and yes, we can see that light at the end of a long, long tunnel.  Before I came to Kuwait, I spent my entire career teaching in the Midwest.  The last six weeks were filled with small group music contest, at least four concerts plus graduation and sometimes a Memorial Day performance.  We were usually done a week after Mothers's Day.  Here at UAS in Kuwait, school doesn't dismiss for summer vacation until about the third week in June. The weather is starting to get pretty warm and the dust has been flying. We are already in the triple digits.  Now is the time that I have to self-motivate or the days will drag on and on.  We teachers have long perfected the fine art of whining about getting through those last excruciatingly long days on the calendar.  Time to get creative and pull out the "fun stuff" we've been holding back for when our students are restless and our tanks are running on empty.  The last six weeks of the fourth quarter are not for the faint of heart!  Time to dig in and take our students as far as they will let us before the lure of summer vacation snags us all in it's trap!  June 18 will come and when it does I will still be standing!

Zulfikar, our very talented custodian from Pakistan

Something Got Lost in the Translation....

Living in Kuwait, there is always a problem of a language barrier.  For most of my students, English is a second language and it is sometimes a bit of a struggle for them to express themselves.  This is an even bigger problem for our large custodial staff who come mostly from India, Pakistan, and Egypt.  Communicating with them is best done in very short declarative sentences and lots of hand gestures.  If you read one of my earliest posts, you may remember that one of the challenges I faced when I came to UAS was trying to figure out what to do with a lot of accumulated junk in my classroom.  I had an ancient electronic keyboard gathering dust in a corner.  I had this great idea that if I could just remove the legs, I could prop it up neatly against the wall and then it would take up a lot less space.  So the next day I brought my phillips screwdriver to work.  I was determined to remove those legs myself!  Well, try as I might, I only managed to loosen them, but I couldn't get them completely off.  So I went down to the room where I can usually find one or two of the guys tinkering on some odd piece of equipment and asked Zulfikar if he could please remove the legs so I could store it easier.  Zulfikar dug out his own screwdriver and came down to help me out.  He wasn't having much luck either, so he took it down to the shop.  Later that day, he brought it back, so proud that the legs were now reattached. It was a bit wobbly, but almost as good as new.  I tried to explain that I had wanted them OFF because the piano no longer worked and I wanted to store it because the head custodian (who had previously declared the piano dead as the proverbial doornail) said that it could NOT be thrown out.  So I filled out the proper paperwork to get it out of my room once and for all, set it outside my door and hoped for a miracle.  It sat there as a curiosity for all the people who came past my door during the course following days.  A week went by.  Finally, one day I came to school and it had disappeared.  A couple days later there was a knock on my door.  I found Zulikar standing proudly next to this electronic relic from the sixties.  It seems that when I told him that his boss had declared the keyboard beyond repair, he took it as a challenge to see if he could fix it. Now the "Little Keyboard That Could" has found new life in the band room as a part of their piano lab.  Cue happy ending!

                              Wadi Rum

This is Part II of my Jordan vacation experience.  The second leg of our journey took us to Wadi Rum.  Wadi is an Arabic term traditionally referring to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain.  Wadi Rum is about as far as a person can get from the black dirt and cornfields of Iowa.  It is a magical place, a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock once inhabited by the ancient Nabataeans who left their mark on this desert landscape in the form of petroglyphs left on sandstone walls. We spent a night under the stars in a tent in Wadi Rum.  We gazed at the starry night and could make out various constellations and possibly a planet or two.  The sunrise was spectacular.  

Sunrise at Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum was once the land of Bedouins living in goat hair tents eking out a living herding goats.  In 1916 under King Faisal, they played a major part in the Arab Revolt defeating the Turks and the German army.  T.E. Lawrence was a British officer who helped train this rag tag group of goat herders into a a fierce group of soldiers who used their knowledge of the landscape to defeat an army much larger and more sophisticated than their own.  This British officer later came to be known as "Lawrence of Arabia."  The epic film of the same name was shot here on location in the 1960s.  Red Planet and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were also filmed here at Wadi Rum.

The goat hair tents are stil found in this desert, but most of the Bedouins who live in and around Wadi Rum make their living as guides and drivers for tourists as well as serious hikers and trekkers who are eager to experience this desert wilderness.

This is either Sharif Hussein of Mecca or his son Faisal who fought along side of Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab Revolt.  This figure is carved into the sandstone at the camp where they made their headquarters.

Petroglyphs possibly used as an ancient roadmap by the Nabataeans, one of the first inhabitants of this region.

A beautiful desertscape.

Entance to the desert camp.

 Tents nestled against a desert landscape

A feast fit for a Bedouin prince!  This is chicken and seasoned long-grain rice.  It was buried in the ground and cooked over hot coals.

Making tea in the Bedouin camp

The sand was soft as powder.  One last glimpse.

A blanket flower photographed in a rocky field.  

Next blog....The Promised Land.

Petra!

The Traveler

By now, many of you who are my Facebook friends have seen the pictures I have posted of my trip to Jordan. I've read many comments regarding me as a brave, adventuresome traveler and I have to laugh a little to myself. Nothing is farther from the truth!  I will use this forum to educate my "land locked" friends regarding the two types of travelers.  There's probably more than that, but this is what I have learned so far.

Traveler #1

Traveler #1 is the confident, well organized traveler.  She keeps all pertinent information in a special pocket folder.  Always well prepared.  She breezes through the maze of passport control lines, ticket counters, and security checks; ready to whip out her passport at a moment's notice as if she was ordering a fast food at at McDonald's.  No typical traveler's dilemma could ever cause her to break into a cold sweat.

Traveler #2

Then there is Traveler # 2.  Me.  The "deer in the headlights" traveler; always fumbling around for her passport, while dropping her MasterCard.  (Thank you, anonymous kind person who picked it up off the floor and handed it to me). She is drawn like a magnet to the wrong line after waiting for about twenty minutes trying to figure out who to ask for help.  She is always about five minutes away from an anxiety attack.  

It takes a lot of patience for Traveler #1 to coexist with Traveler #2.  This situation is not unlike your typical twelve year old trying to show his grandpa how to find the on button on his new iPad.  Suffice it to say that in this case, Traveler #2 was very grateful to Traveler #1 who showed extreme patience towards Traveler #2.  Thank you, Penny.

Petra

The Siq. This is a mile long gorge that leads into the city of Petra.

Nothing could prepare me for the experience of setting my eyes on Petra.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before except perhaps Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.  Everywhere I looked was jaw dropping splendor; mountains, sky, and, of course, the caves and carved facades.  Were they once temples, tombs, or cave dwellings of our ancient ancestors?  So much mystery and sheer majesty.  Scholars began studying Petra in the early part of the 18th century.  They have learned a great deal, but much of the history of the ancient civilizations that once inhabited this "Rose Red City" is lost to time itself.

What we do know is that Petra was a Nabataean caravan city.  It is located between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea at the center of the caravan trade.  Petra is said to be the spot where Moses struck a rock and water "came forth."  As another point of interest, the site was included in the Steven Spielberg movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

The Obelisk Tomb, the first of several tombs I saw around Petra National Park.

First glimpse of The Treasury

The Treasury.  Not a treasury at all.  The Bedouins believed that it was the storehouse of Pharoah's great wealth.  They thought it was most likely hidden in the urn at the top.  You can see bullet holes where the Bedouins tried to shoot holes through it, hoping that gold and jewlels would come pouring out.  Other scholars believe it to be a royal tomb.  Most likely it was a temple to Al-Uzza, the great goddes of Petra.

The Street of Facades.  The street is lined with tall, impressive tombs, with large facades on their fronts.

A royal tomb.

The Triumphal Arch located at the entrance to Collonnade Street

One of the many unexcavated sites on the side of Collonade Street

Temple of the Winged Lion built around 27 AD, thought to be another temple to the main Nabataean Goddess Al-Uzza, destroyed in the earthquake of 363 AD.

The Monastery

We had some extra time before we needed to leave for the next leg of our Jordan trip, so I decided to continue on to the monastery.  Now if I had done my homework (but remember I am Traveler #2) I would have already known that the hike to the monastery usually takes about an hour, and oh by the way, that includes about 800 steps, and somebody neglected to tell the ancient Nabataeans that handrails would be appreciated by the next generation.  So I plodded bravely on, hoping that the monastery would be right around the next turn.  Every time I met up with someone on their way down, they kept telling me it was about ten minutes away.  The local Bedouins that sold trinkets along the way kept trying to convince me to hire a donkey to take me the rest of the way to the top.  There was no way on God's green earth that I would have EVER ridden a donkey up all those steps, much less down the mountain.  I had no desire to find myself on the local news: "American school teacher scraped off the side of the mountain. Not a pretty sight." So I plodded on....

The scenery took my breath away.

Almost there.

The Monastery.  So glad I didn't turn around!  It is called the monastery because it was thought to be used by Christians in the Byzantine period.

It was most definitely worth the trip.  I'm sure glad I grabbed a bottle of water before I left that morning!

This was only Day #1 of our Jordan trip and there would be many delightful surprises before we headed back to Kuwait.  I will wrtie more later.  The next leg of our journey: Wadi Rum Camp!