Kuwait Days 6,7,8: Arrivals, and more!

As you can tell, I've been neglecting the blog! We've been having way too much fun to sit around writing it all down. This will be a less detailed and compact version of the last few days.
Its not every morning your Dad wakes you up by saying, “Get outside, there are new sea turtle nests on the beach!” Of course, I ran down to see them and took some pictures. Some other eggs have already been laid a few houses down and we’re hoping that they hatch while we are here. It would be amazing to see little turtles waddling their way down the sand to the surf. (Too bad that usually happens in the middle of the night. We’re jokingly considering a Steve Irwin-type night vision camera.) Later, Mom and Dad took me into the city for Church. It is held at the same old apartment building where we used to meet. More memories, of course. Then it was an airport day. After some exploring at another brand new shiny mall and watching a 3-D movie, we picked up Jonathan and Natalie and Josh, all fresh from travels and ready to have fun in Kuwait! It felt so good to be reunited with them.
We liked people-watching at the airport, seeing the Kuwaiti families and friends greet one another. Military men with big duffle bags and wealthy women coming home from holidays in Europe. After the long drive home, we stopped in 'the village' close to the camp and got some savory hot cheese bread from the fire brick-oven...and ran across the dirt road to the electronics store to visit our old family friend, Amjed. He used to be a photographer, and his broken-English phrase is famous in our family: "Mr Gale, I want to come to your house and expose your family!" Before bed, we took a long walk on the beach and stayed up late talking.
Saturday was full of sand.
Jonny and I woke up to the sound of the mosque (right across from our villa) and headed out to the beach right after sunrise to take a walk and a kayak ride! The water was like glass and we glided along around to the point, where the current changes and the waves get a little choppy. It was already warm at 6:00 am. We had a beautiful breakfast on the patio of fruit and dates and toast and juice, thanks to Mom. Then I took the newcomers on a golf-cart ride of camp, with a (I’m sure by now, somewhat annoying) running commentary about my childhood adventures here.
We all got dressed and climbed into Dad's work sedan, sweaty and squished together, and headed out to the desert in search of CAMELS! (We made a quick stop at the Khiran center right outside of camp, for some water and bread and of course, ice cream! They also sell beach gear and fish traps as well as hubbly bubblies/sheeshas/hookas upstairs.)
We cranked up the Arabic music and drove only 10-15 minutes west towards Wafra, the place where my Dad works about an hour away from our camp. Although my Dad says the camel herds frequently cross the freeway he takes to work, we only saw some out in the distance, so we ended up taking some dirt paths out to a bunch of camels and their herder. He was very friendly and allowed us to drink milk straight from the camel! He also let us take plenty of pictures and sit and ride on one of them. She was angry and growling the whole time!
After the camel encounter, we headed back home, sweaty and dusty, to jump in the sea! We kayaked out to a sunken barge to snorkel, and saw lots of pretty fish! We took turns with Dad on the sailboat. It was a beautiful perfect day, with blue sky and turquoise water to spray up in our faces. We got dressed and went to Fahaheel for dinner at an amazing Lebanese restaurant (here in the Middle East, the Lebanese are known for being the best chefs. think the French in Europe). We told the waiter to order whatever he wanted for us, and we got a huge selection of mouthwatering traditional food. We strolled around the new and old of the town, and appreciated the beauty of both.
This morning, I woke up with one eye swollen shut. Dang mosquito only bit me once. On the eyelid! I definitely cherish my sight. The swelling went down little by little until I could still see and no longer looked quite like Rocky and/or a Cyclopes. We took a bus ride with a group from camp to the Grand Mosque of Kuwait. It was so beautiful and intricate. The women were required to cover, so we all wore hijab (head scarf) and abaya (black dress). We had an excellent tour guide who told us not only about the building itself but about Islam. I really enjoyed it, even though I’m sure everyone else was distracted from the marble and mosaics by my ugly wonky eye. I am continually amazed at the similarities between our religions and the charitable, faithful Muslim people.
Today's horizon blended perfectly into the pale sky. We spent the afternoon talking and napping and looking for shells on the beach. Josh even found a round sanddollar! After our gardener, Anifa, swept the leaves and sand from the patio, we had a delicious bbq in the backyard, played at the park for a while, then finished off another perfect day playing games and eating s’mores-roasting mallows around a little firepit and listening to the lapping of the waves.

Enjoy this obviously small sampling of our hundreds of pictures. Look for a picasa album at the end of the trip! :)