Kuwait Day 9: The City

Another great day in this tiny country. Mom did a fantastic job being our tour guide. We studied maps and read history and talked about religion and politics. We took long car rides to and from the city. We went to a museum of Bedouin weaving in an old restored Kuwaiti house…we visited the Kuwait towers and marveled at the modern skyline of Kuwait City- the once mud-hut fishing/pearldiving village. The national museum offered an old wooden Dhow ship, artifacts and pictures, famous Kuwaiti doors, and a mock traditional marketplace. Everything was well organized and relatively clean, and uncrowded. Then we headed out to the real marketplace, which looks surprisingly unchanged after decades. (it is such a sharp contrast to the high class malls which now grace this land…in the style of Dubai.) We walked through the dirt streets, with crumbling walls and wood-beamed ceilings. Men squatting on rugs drinking tea or smoking the sheesha pipe, women sitting on piles of fabrics for sale, meat markets with whole animals hanging bloody on hooks, produce lined in colorful groups, pickled vegetables and sweets behind glass windows and spices in baskets. Shops with toys and kitchen supplies, shops with hand carved wood and brass engravings, shops for shoes and tailors to make your own clothes, shops that sell strings of prayer beads…waiting for you to slip them in your pocket and count them 99 times. We ate outside on plastic tablecloths, with tarps and misters overhead, trying in vain to combat the sweltering heat and the sun that beat down on us all day. But the food was worth the sweat. Hot Iranian bread and the best hummus I’ve ever had, grilled chicken and lamb kabobs, and fatoush salad…and fruit cocktail drink for some late afternoon refreshment. Mmm. Jonny loves mangos now. We’ve had them fresh for the past few days.
We napped this afternoon while Nat and Josh went snorkeling again and Mom and Dad took a turn on the Kayak. We had a delicious dinner of Mexican food! The boys ran to the Khiran center and brought home icecream bars for dessert. We played games and laughed till it hurt. Can’t wait for more tomorrow!

Still can't believe I'm here.