Culture Shock

Our plane trip from D.C. to Kuwait was a long one. Justin's company paid for us to fly business class. That is equal to first class on a domestic flight. I never want to go in coach again. Our seats were big and cushy, they reclined almost all the way back and for our dinner choice we were offered filet minion. They even gave us one of those hot towels like you see in the movies. Danny slept for about 4 hours so he was really tired when we got here. We got here at night time so he went right to sleep and woke up with no jet lag. He was up the first night from 12-2 with Justin and since then he hasn't had any time change problems. I am tired but I am able to use my CPAP and am slowly catching up on my beauty sleep. My wisdom tooth hole is healing but now my upper right molar is becoming sensitive to cold. The last thing I want to do is go to the dentist again.

People keep asking me if how I am dealing with the culture shock. It doesn't seem that differnt to me. It seems the older I get the less things surprise me. Going from Chicago to Utah was a little bit differnt just like going from Utah to California was differnt. Here it is the same way. The people are very gracious and thoughtful. There is a branch here which is wonderful. Today we had a pot luck after church. Last night Justin made some cookies. We had no baking soda so he substituted 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and he had no vanilla either. We don't have measuring cups or teaspoons so he eyeballed it. They turned out great. I think cookie making is in his genes.

There are about 100 members in the branch and I would guess that there were about 50 there today. Justin thinks there were more. One thing that is differnt is that the Sabbeth is on Friday not Sunday. Saturday is still Saturday and a day off work but Sunday starts the work week, kinda like Monday starts it in the US. Our first week here they asked us to speak in church and asked Justin to teach Gospel Doctrine. Our records aren't even here yet. Primary has 4 children including Danny. 3 girls ages 10,8,6 and Danny. There are 2 kids in the nursery too. He is having trouble sitting still so today I went up there to be with him and found out that their pianist is out with tendonitis and they were singing accapella. So I played for them. I only used the right hand and my playing was pretty pathetic. Hopefully this week our air shipment will come in and I will get my keyboard.

We have a host family that took care of us, picking us up at the airport and showing us around, having us over for a play day and just being wonderful. Their names are Julio and Karen and they have 2 boys, Caesar, 4, and Julian, 2. Dany has had so much fun playing with them. Caesar lent us some of his toys until Danny's come. We also met another family with a 4 year old, the Rankins who will be moving to Indonesia in September. At the SAC (Saudi Arabian Chevron) camp there is a yahoo group and I joined it so I know what is going on. Once I said, "hi" everyone started coming over and bringing us treats.

Some things are differnt here. Last week on our way home from town we saw a pick up truck with 4 camels in it. We found out today that they were probably the main course for a wedding celebration. We see camels every day when we go to the city. Usually they are far away from the road but we have seen them up pretty close.

Everything is expensive here. The conversion rate is $1 American dollar equals $3.5 KD (Kuwaiti Denar). 2/3 of the population here are not from Kuwait. Many are from the middle east trying to earn money to send back to their families. The middle east is very poor. Some people only make 1KD per hour and food is very expensive since it needs to be imported. They don't grow anything here. There is lots of American food here. There is a McDonalds 10 minutes from our house and a Hardees 9 minutes away. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays in a huge mall, bigger than Woodfield, and it has an IKEA attached to one end. There is also a Pizza Hut nearby that Justin has gone to in the resort town next to ours. We wanted to make Hamburger Caserole but Beef was $10 lb. so we got lamb. The Cream of Chicken here has herbs in it and we didn't get Kikomen soy sauce. However, all of the changes complimented each other and we had a great Lamberger Caserole. It still makes me smile just saying it.


Because Justin has a company car I cannot drive so if I need to go somewhere I can request a driver and car to come and get us. We get 2 trips to the city in a surburban a month. Once Justin gets his car we can go into the city as much as we want. The nice thing about having the Surburban is that it is good for picking up larger things and grocery shopping. One funny thing is that we were shopping in the Sultan Center, similar to Wallmart but 1/10th the size and a much smaller selection, and he found Blue Bell ice cream. That is his favorite and you can only get it in Texas and some parts of the South.

So far this has been a terrific adventure. We are keeping our UT phone number so you can call us and it will cost the same as making a call to UT. The time difference is inconvient. We are 8 hours ahead of Chicago and 10 hours ahead of CA. When I want to talk to someone during the day, everyone is sleeping.

We miss you all and look forward to hearing from you.