Well, you could say I’ve been a lazy blogger or really boring for the last two months. I guess both are true. Since I went to Dubai at the end of August, I have been working everyday and my trips out of Kuwait have been to Abu Dhabi for a day to our other job site and then back to Kuwait. The only good thing about those trips was the bacon at breakfast and the beer at dinner. But I have to leave the country in another week and I have a 3 day trip to Egypt all but finalized. I hope to have some good pyramid pictures up in December.

Since I have no pictures to post (outside of work photos which aren’t that exciting) I put up some pictures from my trip to Kenya two years ago. Follow the link.

The most interesting thing that happened in the last two months was the holy month of Ramadan. It is the most important month for Muslims where they “renew their commitment to the Creator.” Ramadan started in Kuwait on September 13 and it officially starts when you can see the first glimpse of the new moon. So in the southern hemisphere in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, Ramadan started a day earlier because they could see a new moon earlier. And in Kuwait, they don’t use astronomy, they have a moon sighting committee to determine the beginning of Ramadan.

It seems the main aspect of Ramadan, outside of praying five times a day, is fasting. Fasting is called sawn in the Qur’an and the literal meaning is “to abstain.” For Muslims, it means no eating, drinking, smoking, sex, or anything else that is “self-polluting” from the break of dawn until sunset. The no drinking or eating made it difficult for the laborers at the shop. They were allowed to stop working at 2pm but almost none of them did. Most of the laborers make less than $2/hr so every bit helps. But at sunset everyday, there is a prayer and everyone breaks the fast. I read that a lot of Kuwaitis become nocturnal to make the fasting less difficult.

The big change for me was that there were absolutely no restaurants open during the day so I’d have to buy my food the night before. And no one could eat or drink in public. The government imposed a find of 100KD (~$350) or 2 months in prison. To eat lunch, have a cup of coffee, or just rehydrate at work, I would have to keep my office door closed. But along with a few minor inconveniences came the one benefit for me. The Ramadan sweets and baked goods were fantastic. I had to set a daily limit or I wouldn’t have fit through the door.

The last day of Ramadan was on October 12 and the next two days are called Eid al Fitr. This is the biggest holiday in Kuwait. Families and friends get together and there is a two day work holiday. I made the mistake of trying to drive and it took me an hour to make what was usually a five minute drive.

I think the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) must be a Big Ten fan because every Saturday night there is at least one Big Ten game on. Usually I’m able to watch either the Illini or Bucky. I’ve seen at least 4 Illinois games but I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t stay awake to watch them finish off THE Ohio State University. I made it halftime which was at 1:30am and the eyes just wouldn’t stay open. But I did watch the entire game last weekend against Northwestern. Keep your fingers crossed for a BCS bowl!

I can’t find real brown sugar anywhere in Kuwait. So I had some shipped to me in a care package. Except it is incredibly difficult to import things to Kuwait. I needed to get an Arabic translation to the shipping list and the guy that did the translation told me in India, brown sugar is slang for drugs. He just made the translation say sugar but when I received the package, I was sitting with a different Indian guy. When he saw the brown sugar bag, his eyes got really big, he grabbed the bag and smelled it because he really thought I had drugs shipped to me.

Well, I hope to have a few more things to write about in the next few weeks. I will miss my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, but plan on spending it here with 3 Indians, 2 Koreans, and an Iranian. And a partridge in a pear tree. Have a great turkey day!