Early Ho Ho

You never outgrow care-packages...

We got a good one yesterday. It was an early Christmas package, sent by the Blaines, with some goodies and photos and such.

Customs had had their way with it, of course. We're used to having our packages opened, but they gave this one a real once-over, and sliced through spice and sauce-mix packages with razor knives. This accomplished little more than to leave everything with a lovely scent-medley of alfredo sauce and sloppy-joe mix. Yummy! Those over-zealous customs officers even helped themselves to three pieces of gum. Good times, good times.

But the best part was receiving the pictures and notes enclosed in the package, intact and slice-free. Family is such a blessing, you know. Looks as though our nieces are chips off the ol' Blaine-creative-block... our fridge has some new decorations in store!

Also, the Blaines sent us a miniature artificial Christmas tree, which was a really thoughtful touch. We set it up last night and now our apartment has some pre-Christmas colour. Our first Christmas tree as a married couple. Aww.

We've posted some pictures below--enjoy.

(And a huge thank-you to the Blaines and our families for being so durned great. We love you all!)

B&R

L&R's first Christmas tree together--thanks, Blaines! 

 

 

Harnesses? No sir!

Yipes.

Check out the workers near the top. No helmets, no harnesses, no wind-screening...

Nice blue sky, though--that's something.

B&R 

EMAC and the lady...

EMAC is the athletic organization that covers schools in the middle east. The name does kind of make me hungry, tho'...

Anyhow, Rosalee has just completed her season with her varsity soccer team, the Lady Lions. The finals tournament was hosted by our school this past weekend and, despite some really tough competition, Rosalee and her girls managed to stay positive and finish their season on a high note, if not a high score.

So, I just wanted to congratulate my wonderful wife on a successful season--she is truly grace in action in all areas of her life, ad the girls are fortunate to have her as coach. Good job, my love! Now call in sick so you can get some much-needed rest.

(Rosalee doesn't know I'm writing this... does a well-meant kudo violate the honesty-in-marriage thing? Hope not, because I often--and I mean numerous times every day--gush about her without her knowing!)

B(&R)

Ol' Murphy...

...working overtime, as it were.

Woke up yesterday and today to nice weather. Could have gone fishin' after all.

Oy vey.

B&R

...and rain, and rain, and rain!

Holy Cow, can it ever rain in Kuwait!

Woke up yesterday again to rainy weather. Although it was the third day in a row for gloomy skies, the intensity of the rain was something new: we woke to normal cloudy skies and emerged from our showers to clouds as dark as midnight. This is particularly impressive, given that the sun reaches apogee at about 10am 'round these parts, and we walk over to school in bright, bright sunshine!

And we must be acclimatizing--27 degrees on arainy day and we were all wearing sweaters against the chill.

The stormy weather forced the Kuwait Coast Guard to cancel pleasure boating on the Gulf, so our planned trip to Failaka Island and deep-sea fishing for today was put on hold. Brent will just have to wait a bit to experience ocean fishing for the first time (of course, with his luck, he'll just pull up sunfish and rock bass, eh Wayne?).

So the order-du-jour is now puttering, cleaning, and marking. Onward!

B&R

Rain in the 'hood. Looking out our window on Sunday, November 13. 

Rain!

We've only seen a few clouds since we arrived, so waking up to rain this morning was a surprise.

Hangin' with the Bishop...

We went to a new church yesterday. So far, we'd been worshipping at the National Evangelical Church of Kuwait but recently found out that St. Paul's Anglican holds a weekly service on the same compound as NEC. So we put on our adventure shoes and tried something new.

As it turns out, the bishop in charge of the Diocese of Cyprus and The Gulf, His Grace Clive Handford, was to lead yesterday's service. Kind of a neat thing, that was, for our first exposure to the church.

Well, the service was good, with lots of good hearty singing and a message from the bishop. After the service, the church put on a luncheon for the bishop and his wife at the home of one of the parishoners. Well, we're somewhat transportationally-challenged when it comes to new areas of the city--i.e. we have no car--so Father Chris arranged a ride for us. Little did we know that we were riding with him and Bishop Handford! So there we were, first time into the church and getting to ride to the luncheon with the bishop. Talk about your unlikely occurrences.

Being not of Anglican background, Brent sidelined Father Chris for a quick lesson on appropriate etiquette around the bishop. "Well," he said, "you can call him 'Bishop' or 'Your Grace.'" Of course Bishop Handford walked around the corner right at that moment looking all curious, and Bent had to explain his lack of prior knowledge. His Grace just laughed, clapped Brent on the shoulder, and said, "Ach, we're all just human, you know. Don't worry about it." The car ride was quite pleasant indeed and we got to make our grand entrance with a bishop.

There's a song or a poem in there somewhere, we think...

If you're curious, here's a link to Bishop Handford's page

B&R

Mohammed's Hair Saloon

...and no, it's not a typo. The sign outside says "Men's Hair Saloon."

Brent had his hair cut yesterday. His wonderful wife has thus far stepped up for haircutting duty, but Brent had heard some good things about the "saloon" experience and figured he'd check the whole phenomenon out. And when he walked by the shop and there was no one in line, he figured the time was right.

The proprietor, Mohammed, is an Egyptian ex-pat with a penchant for cigarettes, lots of cologne, and old Arabic movies. He managed to smoke four--yes, four--cigarettes over the course of Brent's 20-minute haircut. It was quite the experience: Mohammed speaks almost no English, but has picked up a few words to help him communicate with his Western clients, "Good, yes?" "Short?" "Big?" "Tea?" "No problem, my friend, no problem." Needless to say there wasn't much conversation, but who needs it with an Arabic version of "Dr. No" playing on the TV... not a dubbed version, either, but a full-on James Bond flick with cheesy music, temptresses, and a suave, distinctly-darker James Bond sporting a tuxedo in blazing desert heat. Of course, the seductive women were tastefully dressed in non-revealing abeyas...

The verdict? Well, Brent declined the offered cigarette, but enjoyed the sweet Middle-Eastern tea Mohammed served and the artistry of a good old-fashioned barber-cut, with neck-hair trim and stinging aftershave to boot.

Good times, as they say. Good times.

B&R

Harres 'n' Me

Rosalee and I went for a run the other night. We enjoy our runs, which are nice opportunities to chat and enjoy the now-cooler weather. Most often, we run to the Persian/Arabian Gulf--how cool is it to be able to say that?--and along the boardwalk the Kuwait government has set up there.

The other night, as Rosalee and I were running by one of the buildings on our route, we heard an enthusiastic Arab voice say "Hello!" The voice belonged to the building's harres, or manager; most buildings here have a harres, whose job is to provide general security, clean up the premises, and wash cars. This particular gentleman uased to be a near-certain sight on every run, though I hadn't seen him recently. Rosalee and I smiled, waved, and carried on.

But seeing the harres brought back a memory from our first days in Kuwait. The building where he works had a concrete block that was very convenient for stretching. I'd stop there whenever I'd run and complete my stretching-cycle. More often than not, the harres would be puttering around, watering, sweeping, or just wandering, and would always greet me with a smile and a wave. One day, though, he happened to be watering the plants next to my stretch-block and, as soon as I stopped, engaged me in conversation. We had a great chat, back and forth, about this and that... of course, he doesn't speak a word of English aside from "Hello!" so our conversation wasn't a paradigm of communication-effeciency. But it didn't stop him from prattling on about whatever was on his mind, while I tried to chat back in English as I stretched. The fact that we couldn't understand each other was irrelevant; he didn't stop smiling or talking the whole time. It was a very neat moment.

Perhaps we were communicating, eh?

B(&R)

Eid Al-Fitr

Hello.

Ramadan ended last week. Eid Al-Fitr followed. Eid, or the breaking of the fast, was a four-day family/food fest that saw Kuwait--and Muslims everywhere--partying hard for four straight days. We had some time off, too. Rosalee and I spent the break doing as little as possible...

...just what the Imam ordered, as it were (*ahem*).

B&R