Fardin, Navid, Adam, Yosef

Well, a full week in Kuwait is hardly as exciting as a single day in Korea. At least that’s what it seems like. My excitement for the week would have been meeting up with my friend, Captain Eric Raasch, a Marine helicopter pilot who was in Kuwait but has since left. I mentioned him in last week’s entry. He was stationed at an airfield about 2 hours northwest of me, living in an air conditioned tent, if the AC was working that day. He couldn’t leave the airfield and I could not get a hold of the right personnel quickly enough to get an access badge. It would have been great to meet up with a friend from home, 5000 miles from home.

Two of my Iranian friends are going back to Iran Thursday. Their one year work contract is up and they have decided not to renew it. So I tried to throw a going away party for them at my apartment. Unfortunately, the female guests showed up after 11pm, which I learned is the cutoff for women to enter the hotel property who are not wives, sisters, or mothers of the registered guests. I had a very heated discussion with a short man in a long white robe about this rule but finally gave in. We moved the party to another apartment but learned similar rules apply there. Every apartment building in Kuwait has a security guard. Besides keeping the building free from criminals, he holds the role of the religious police. He makes sure the residents aren’t bringing in women they aren’t married to, aren’t drinking alcohol, no parties, etc. Kind of like the high school atmosphere I have written about before. Luckily, Fardin, the guy that lives there, pays his security guard the equivalent of $20 a week to “wash his car.” Fardin didn’t go into detail about what would happen if we were caught, he just said it wouldn’t be good for him. But for me, because I’m American, it would be ok. Which is nice but I don’t think I’ll try to find out.

Hope you have a great week.