It is 25 years since I spent a year working in Kuwait, but arriving here tonight brought back torrents of memories of my time there. Arab men striding through the terminal resplendent in their shimmering white robes topped with a white or red chequered headdress, followed at a respectful distance by their wives clad head to toe in black.
Hordes of migrant workers from other muslim states occupying most available floor space armed with what would count as hold luggage in the West. Sat drinking a cold Heineken watching a plane from Damascus disgorge it's passengers, mainly women all wearing hijabs but these and their clothes were a riot of all the colours of the rainbow.
It reminded me that I had stepped into a culture very alien to that which I am accustomed, neither better nor worse just very different and also very ancient.
It is far too easy in these troubled times to condemn that which we do not understand and yet I remember from my time living there that the people were kind and generous and wanted the same for their kids as any westerner would.
Shopping was an entertainment, remember buying my acoustic guitar there (a hand made Martin clone) from a small musical shop, it took over three quarters of an hour and involved cups of sweet Turkish coffee and good natured haggling over the price. Back home this would have infuriated me but I enjoyed playing the dance and feeling part of the culture for a brief time before parting with handshakes and smiles.
The world would be a far better place if there was more understanding of different cultures and less finger pointing and demanding that we all conform to some global homogeneity.
Then discovered the premier lounge where $22 US (still has a global reach the US dollar, all prices were marked in local currency or dollars) got me four hours of comfortable seating, free booze, soft drinks, snacks and BBC news on a large widescreen plus internet access and smoking to boot – it made for a very pleasant stay before it was time to catch the next flight.
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3 comments:
Thanks for checking in, dba! Was wondering how your travels were working out - sounds like everything is going very well so far.
YAY! Good to hear from you.
There is good and bad to be found everywhere.
Lin, Everything apart from a decent high speed internet connection is going grand - all text posts = dialup.
rt, Very true.
More posts when I get my hands on a faster connection.
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