A couple before I go . . .

Looks like IM coming back home. Later than initially planned but sooner than I thought after arriving here. So a couple last things I guess . . .

Driving here is absolute insanity. Kuwait must have one of the highest rates of automobile realted fatalities in the world. The speed limit here on the highways is 120KPH which is about 75MPH. But traffic police dont give tickets here, cameras do, and there are signs warning you where the cameras are. So generally people drive upwards of 160KPH (100 MPH) until they get to the cameras at which point they slow down to 120 (not far in advance I might add).

They also love to weave and love to ride right on your tail. If you're traveling slower than someone coming up behind you they will flash their lights and come right up on your tail. This is not something Im entirely unfamiliar with being from Massachusetts, but these people take it to an entirely different level. We drive SUVs and most times I can hardly see the heads of the guys who come up behind me if I dont get right out of the way. I just keep waiting for the bump. If you dont move they just head into the breakdown lane on your left and pass you kicking up every bit of debris and dust in the process.

Admittedly I love driving fast and the roads are straight and flat. I certainlt have done my share of speeding however theres this little bell in the car that rings incessantly when you exceed 120. Anyway the point of this is . . . there are no fender benders here. Every Saturday morning there is a new batch of wrecks along the highway.

Back From Tokyo

Well Im back in Kuwait from Tokyo. We didnt really do much more in Japan after my last blog so not much to show other than pics of the family and me leaving. So here they are . . .


This one is a night we all went to dinner. Yakiniku is a favorite of ours right up with sushi. Maki's brother drove up to see us and to introduce his fiance and so we all went for Yakiniku one night. The pic is Maki's Mom, Maki's sister Kasumi, Maki's brother Kenji, his fiance Naomi, Mia, Ryota (Kasumi's son), and of course the white guy.

So I left Japan to head back to Kuwait on the 9th.



The trip back was . . . well interesting is a good word. Despite flying on company dollars I am never inclined to pay alot for a flight so I got a good $1000 savings by flying Thai Airlines. the trick for this trip was that on the return trip I had to spend a night in Bangkok. My flight was delayed so we landed after 10pm. Bangkok isnt what Id call a user-friendly airport so after walking the airport end to end twice I finally found someone to explain to me how to use the hotel voucher I had. So around midnight I made it through immigration, got my bag and got a shuttle to the hotel. I've stayed in worse places is about all I can say about the hotel. The people were very nice. Despite the fact that it was now 1:30am (or maybe because of that fact) the bellhop asked me no less than 6 times if he should send up the Thai masseuse. Having heard plenty of Thai masseuse stories and not being into that sort of thing (not to mention being dead tired) I politely declined, curled up on the bed and passed out. I kinda wished I had more time in Bangkok though. I'm told you can get a taxi to drive you to see all the sights of Bangkok in a couple hours for about $15. At least then I would have seen something other than dirty city streets and sleazy hotels. Instead I woke up at 9, saw the same stretch of dirty road from hotel to airport in the morning and caught a 11:50am flight to Dubai/Kuwait.

And so now here I sit in Kuwait again. No longer at the hotel anymore though, we've moved to a villa. It's a 5 bedroom, 6000 sq ft house. And even after furnishing it, it still costs us less than the hotel for even 3 people. I'll write more about it once I download the pics of my bedroom but this is what it looks like form the front . . . .

Hello from Tokyo

First a quick Kuwait election update . . . John Belushi lost to a guy named "Ahmed Larry" (Im not kidding about that, I think its kinda like being Jackie Chan or Lucy Liu). More importantly, no women were elected to Parliament. Not a big surprise but sad anyway, at least in my opinion. Hopefully some will win next time. I'd like to think too that they've at least shaken the guys up a bit :)

Also for my cousin Derrick, I knew who it was before I even got to your initials :) The air quality sucks, its like living in a giant refinery 24/7 not to mention that the locals smell worse than the camels. The burgers are pretty good actually, Im told they raise the cattle in the northern countries of the Middle East where there are green grassy hills and stuff like that. Maybe like Wisconsin but with a larger fanatical militant Islamic population. Theres a Burger King every few blocks in Kuwait City and maybe you knew this maybe not but the US Military builds and operates more Burger Kings, Pizza Huts and Subways than anyone. Theres one of each at almost every base Ive been to, some have 2 or 3 of each. My company is actually building a BK right now at a base in Florida.

Kuwait out of the way, now I can say Im writing this from Tokyo. When the hell did I become such a world traveller? I think maybe I've now set foot in as many countries as I have US States. Of course Ive never left the airports of most of them but still . . .

So Im here on R&R which is different from vacation because the company pays for my plane fare and the time off doesnt come out of my vacation time. Its a "perk" of working in a foreign country. Somehow I dont exactly agree with the use of the term "perk" but if it makes the boss feel better about paying for the trip . . . so be it.

I met up with Maki and Mia on the 27th and we've been at my in-laws since the 28th. We havent really done much to talk about honestly which makes it a true vacation as far as Im concerned. As you can see from the picture below, mostly Ive done alot of Resting and Relaxing like Im supposed to be doing.

Some of you may have seen this pose before. Its a pretty common pose for the men of the Tess family but alas Im just an amateur. For the perfect example of this pose I suggest a picture of my dad at any given family gathering. Even Jamey has this down better than I could ever hope to. Jamey's even got the snoring perfected.

As for Tokyo, Im much happier hanging out at Starbucks in Shibuya watching people than rushing from landmark to landmark. Theres nothing more interesting than people watching in big cities. And Tokyo is about the biggest and busiest Ive been in.

Shibuya Starbucks

More of Shibuya at night

We did do some sight-seeing today though. Conveniently one of our friends from back home is here spending the summer with her family. She lives in a city called Kamakura which has alot of historical sights the most popular of which is the Daibutsu (a giant statue of Buddha). We went to visit with them and see some sights while we were there. So heres more photos . . .

Me and Mia at the Daibutsu
(no buddha is not the one in the orange t-shirt)

Mia wishing all her bad karma away.
What kind of bad karma can an 8 year old possibly have?

Maki and Mia at a shrine dedicated

to the Shogun who ruled
Japan something like 700 years ago.

The one thing that always strikes me about Japan is how much longer their history is than the US. To us pilgrim stuff from 1620 is old. Today I saw armor and a womans Kimono from the the Shogun who ruled from Kamakura. He ruled from 1192 to 1333 - the Kamakura Period. We also saw some coins brought to Japan from China in 672.

But really I just like to go to these places for the gardens. Even before I met Maki I loved Japanese gardens. Visiting all of the shrines and temples is very calming. Somehow even with tourists running around these places still seem peaceful.

Mia and Maki walking through
a garden at Hase Temple in Kamakura.

Mia in amongst the bamboo

So thats it for today. BTW, I put some links in above for anyone interested in Japan-stuff. I'll try and get another Japan installment done before I go back to Kuwait.
But before I go, one last parting photo . . .

Mia and her friend Mika after eating spaghetti with squid ink sauce,
its one of Maki's favorites and honestly it tastes pretty good.

John Belushi Isnt Dead!!

John Belushi is actually alive and well and living in Kuwait. And in true comic fashion, he's running for a seat in Parliament. No Im not photoshopping this, this is a real guy running for parliament. Anyway, after a long break I actually have a bunch of things to write. Going to start with politics.

At the beginning of June the Kuwaiti's began their Parliament election process. I dont know how often they do it or exactly how it works to tell you the truth. I know they start nominations in late May or early June and the elections are June 29. With only 1 month to campaign, the candidates here make our local city council candidates look like amateurs. As you can see from the few pics Ive put here, instead of simple 3' x 4' signs with someones name alot of the parliament candidates here put up full billboards, 8' high signs and such with full color glossy glamour shots of themselves.

As if the barrage of signs wasnt enough they also set up areas to entertain potential voters. I've put a picture of that here too.
Right off one of the main highways I use to get to work there are half a dozen or more tents. Apparently they feed people, serve them drinks, non-alcoholic of course ;), and try to win their votes. They have camel rides for the kiddies and sheep to pet too.


On a more serious note the newspapers are of course always full of election stories. Not really because there are any big issues but because this is the first time women will be allowed to run for Parliamentary seats. There are about 500 candidates for Im not sure how many seats. About 10% of the candidates are women. And all manner of women at that. From women in full birkha covered from head to toe to very western type women like you'd see at home. There is no lack of defacing women's posters and angry remarks in the papers about women holding a man's position. Its quite interesting to see something that we dont think twice about generate quite a bit of controversy here.


Cool fact for today - Kuwait has very little infrastructure water. Most houses have 500 or 1000 gallon tanks on the roof as a water source. They fill these from tankers that run around selling water. Water costs approximately $5.86 per gallon. Gasoline costs approximately $0.87 per gallon.

Work and People

So my Aunt Joany asked what I’m doing for work and what I think of the people.

WORK

I’m working on projects for the US Military. Even though they talk a lot about pulling out of Iraq and such the US is actually increasing its presence in the Middle East. It's all temporary construction, at least temporary for the US, but there's a lot of stuff going on here. The main installation we're working at is about 2 sq miles.

I’ve got projects in the works at three installations. From the image I included here you can see a two of them (Camp Arifjan and Ali Al Salem AB). The third is not identified on the map. Actually there is great detail for that third place on Google it’s just not called out as a military base, I’m assuming for a reason. I got that map right off of Google Earth so its not classified or anything. There’s even more detailed info at www.globalsecurity.org although that info is a bit dated, probably intentionally.

It’s a bit humorous actually. They won’t let me take pictures on-base without an escort, they won’t give me electronic maps of the bases, but I can get a picture from Google with enough detail to count HMMVs in the parking lots.

Anyway, I’m rambling as usual, essentially the work we’re doing is constructing small (or maybe not so small) cities. The projects are running utility lines (water, sewer, electric) and erecting buildings for various uses (vehicle maintenance, dining facilities, etc). Routine stuff nothing that’s Top Secret or Classified, just things that generally make soldiers’ lives a little more bearable out here. Which I suppose is probably why I can tolerate working for the military. I honestly was a little conflicted about coming out here since I’m generally opposed to war, Iraq in particular. I actually find it more nerve-wracking eating lunch with a few hundred 18-20 yrs old guys carrying automatic weapons than I do walking around the streets of Kuwait at night.

PEOPLE

Actual Kuwaiti’s make up less than 40% of the population of Kuwait. My real contact with true Kuwaiti’s is limited to about 6 people, mostly business owners of either subcontractors or of our corporate sponsor here. Kuwaiti’s and most everyone I’ve met in Kuwait are very nice people. Very friendly, very laid back. I’ve not met anyone here that I didn’t like or even felt that anyone really disliked Americans. Maybe I’m naïve but they don’t seem judgmental at all and seem very accepting of others. It’s certainly not a country of religious zealots hell bent on the destruction of western ideas.

The people are super polite. I’m "Mr. Robert" to everyone, with an occasional “Sir” thrown in when dealing with Indians usually. I’ve taken to the same way of addressing people since they seem to like it that way.

With the exception of their driving (which makes Boston look like the Pike from Sturbridge to the NY border) they don’t rush to do anything. Their way of doing business is exactly opposite of the US. It’s more about relationships than contracts. A typical business meeting is about 30 minutes of tea/coffee/water and socializing followed by a 2 minute business discussion then one more cup of tea and handshake and goodbye. They push to get a promise to do business but actually getting a contract and doing work takes time. There’s an Arabic word “enshala” which means “god willing” that basically personifies the Kuwaiti attitude. They do everything at their own pace and “enshala” the work will get done. The typical “I need it yesterday” American way just doesn’t cut it here. It’s a bit frustrating but it makes for very relaxed easy to deal with people (at least on the Kuwaiti side, our American clients still operate in the American way).

Other than Kuwaiti’s the population is mostly Indian, Phillipino, Sri Lankan, Egyptian and Lebanese. Only Kuwaiti’s can actually be citizens and own businesses so essentially everyone else here is on a Residence Visa that has to be sponsored by a Kuwaiti employer. The Lebanese seem to run all of the restaurants. The Indians seem to run most of the laundries. Indians, Lebanese and other Arabs also hold a lot of the banking and finance related jobs. Most of the engineers are Indian and Phillipino. And the physical labor force (servants, hotel workers, construction) is mostly Phillipino, Sri Lankan and a variety of other people from “developing countries”.

The culture here is very mixed. I’ve added a couple of pictures taken from the
Marina Mall. They’re blurry but you can see that a lot of people are dressed in jeans and t-shirts. There are just as many dressed in the traditional “dish-dasha” which is the traditional white robe and head-covering that you think of when you think of Arabic culture. There most common dress for the muslim women that I see is a combined thing where they wear a head scarf showing their face completely, then a kind of long shirt that has a skirt ending just below the hips, and jeans.

There is plenty of western culture here. The malls are filled with a lot of the same stores as back home. The malls are full of kids having a great time hanging out with friends and going to the movies (there a 6 theater cinema at the Marina Mall). And they all cruise the food court looking for members of the opposite sex. There are no bars or nightclubs per se so the mall is the place to be. That or they talk to each other between cars as they drive up and down Arabian Gulf Street.

I also attached a picture of the hotel swimming pool. The non-traditional women here wear bikini’s and the men wear Speedos or shorts. There are certainly women around that don’t put on bathing suits at all but there are plenty of locals who dress the same as they do in the states for a day at the pool. There is an uptight side to the culture but everyone is friendly to everyone. Its not uncommon to see different levels of dress within a family, a woman in full robes sitting and talking to a woman in a bathing suit in the pool.

OK its hard to talk about the people without getting into a million other subjects so I’m just going to stop here. More later . . .

I see dead people . . .

So I lied. I said the next installment would be about similarities between Kuwait and Miami. I decided however that it would be totally uninteresting for me to ramble on about every little detail of my trip and tell everyone how similar it is here to home. So instead of telling you about palm trees, sandy beaches, wave runners and hot weather . . .


Every morning I open my hotel room door and like every other hotel in the world I am greeted by a newspaper at my feet. But there are no USA Today's here in Kuwait. No moderate commentary or oddly interesting little front page polls.

Sunday morning I opened my door to find the picture you see here staring up at me. No its not an add for the newest Johnny Depp Pirates of the Carribean box office smash. Its an actual picture of a skeleton found in a mass grave in Iraq.

Journalism in Kuwait is blunt to say the least. I dont think a day has passed where there havent been full color pictures of dead bodies in the paper. From car crashes to babies killed in earthquakes its all here. A startling dose of reality. It's mostly car crashes here because Kuwait has one of the highest automobile fatality rates in the world but theres always a good shot of a guy caught by a car bomb with no skin on his legs or some such story. And the odd part is that there is rarely a story to go with the picture. There's always a caption but most likely the editor has simply stuck the photo in the middle of a page of unrelated stories, as was the case with the pic I put here, no story just a picture and caption surrounded by stories about the upcoming elections.

I cant even imagine what would happen if US papers started printing stuff like this on a daily basis.

Rob's Kuwait Blog

Howdy everyone! Decided since so many are asking what its like here in Kuwait that rather than send endless strings of emails Id just join the rest of the Blogging world.

Kuwait is not at all like I expected and I've been here a few weeks now so I'll have to back track a bit.

I arrived here on May 4, 2006 after a long trip from Boston first to Frankfurt then to Kuwait. I had heard that Lufthansa was a premier airline, not necessarily true. The planes had been recently refitted with seats etc and the business and first class cabins seemed very nice. But I was in coach and I've yet to fly coach on any airline and call it a great trip.

I only had a 1 hr layover in Frankfurt and Frankfurt isnt exactly user friendly ( Frankfurt makes O'Hare look easy) so there wasnt even any time for a last beer (Kuwait is a dry country) or even to exchange a dollar for euros just for fun.

I cant really sleep on planes and total flight time is around 14 hours including layovers so by the time I got to Kuwait Int'l I had been awake for about 28 hours. Not a great way to come in to what I would describe as a shady customs process at best.

Kuwait Int'l is alot like your typical small US airport like TF Green, Chicago Midway, etc. Its got one main strip of gates, a main entry area with a Burger King, a couple ATMs, thats about it. Pretty much a typical airport experience, except for the folks walking around in traditional Middle Eastern garb and me not understanding a single word of arabic.

The most interesting part of the trip over by far was getting through customs. Im not exactly sure how widely known this process is, and its only allowed for people with military IDs, but it doesnt seem to be a secret.

You walk to the end of the terminal and theres a desk that says "Visas". You walk right past that desk and take an escalator down to where the Kuwait Customs Agents are. You wait in a line and when its your turn you hand the agent your military ID (called a Common Access Card - CAC). The agent takes a white label, sticks it on the back of your card and writes a number on it. Then the agent waves you through the gate. That's it, no questions, no papers for you to sign, no limit on how long you can stay, nothing. At no point in the process do you ever show anyone your passport. So like I said, shady at best.

So after that process, which admittedly had me nervous, a Bangladeshi guy grabbed my bags (whether I wanted him to or not) and had me in the hotel shuttle. I had gotten Kuwaiti Dinar at an ATM but I didnt have any small bills. I tipped him $3 US (about 1 Kuwaiti Dinar) and he seemed glad for it. Found out later that these guys make about 40KD a month so a 1KD tip is far more than expected (they must love us americans).

Stopping here for today. Maybe Im providing too much info I dont know but what the hell . . . blogger is free.

Next installment . . . Kuwait looks alot like Miami.