Ahhhh, the life of the ex-pat wife

Our friend Christine was flying from Vancouver to meet us in Jordan on June 16^th, which gave us just over 3 weeks to cover Syria and Lebanon before meeting her.  However, since we ended up traveling with other people in these 2 countries we shared private cars instead of taking public transport.  This allowed us to see 2 or 3 sights a day instead of one, effectively leaving us with too much time to cover these 2 countries.  We could have stayed in Lebanon for a few more days to relax and party, but Beirut is pretty expensive so for the sake of our budget we decided to move on.  Here we were, with about a week extra to kill before meeting our friend and we didn’t know where to go.  We took a look at our map to see which countries were close by and there on the Gulf was our answer, Kuwait.

My aunt and uncle (pictured above) have been living in Kuwait for the past 7 years.  My uncle works for Chevron and is one of many qualified and highly educated ex-pats running this tiny country.  My aunt is a lady of leisure, pretty much like all of the other ex-pat wives here.  I gave them an email, wondering if they would take in 2 poor, tired, and starving travelers.  Much to the delight of Di and I (and our stomachs), they said yes.  We hopped on a flight from Beirut to Kuwait city and about 2 hours later there was my aunt, waiting for us at the airport with a driver from the Hilton, sweet!

The first thing you notice here when you exit the airport is the heat, it is scorching.  It was 50 degrees Celsius while we were there.  50 degrees!  Supposedly this has been an abnormally hot summer though, usually it’s a balmy comfortable and cool 45 degrees, we were just unlucky.

The driver took us back to the Hilton where my aunt and uncle are living in one of the chalets (thankfully with an extra guest bedroom for us).  The ride there was interesting as we were sitting with an American working for the White House who was en route to Iraq the next day.  Not often do you hear someone in government telling you how badly their government has screwed up, but that was his view.  I think his exact words were “We completely destroyed Iraq, and for what?”  Though the car ride was only about 30 minutes it was interesting to say the least.

When we got to the Hilton, we were greeted by 2 fresh glasses of OJ at the check in counter before getting another ride to our chalet.  Inside there was a room for us with fresh ironed sheets, plump white pillows, and A/C.  My aunt then proceeded to make us some Chinese food.  Not that we don’t like Middle Eastern food, but 3 and a half months without white rice or soy sauce has been giving me withdrawal symptoms.  It hit the spot.

From that moment on, we spent the next week living the life of an ex-pat wife.  It goes something like this: breakfast, meet friends for coffee, meet other friends for lunch, shop, maybe play bridge, meet husband for dinner, watch tv.  I know that sounds hectic, but luckily you can usually squeeze in a nap or some time to read a book somewhere in that busy schedule. 

As my aunt had a scale, we weighed ourselves.  I won’t tell you how much Di weighed, but I dropped down to 139 pounds.  One of my goals for the week was to gain back at least 5 of the 15 pounds I’d lost.  They had a great gym at the hotel and we were going to be eating a lot so I was quite confident I could do it.  My other goal for the week was to get a haircut as I hadn’t had one since I left Canada almost 4 months ago.

I was going to get a haircut in Syria, but one of the guys we were traveling with got one there.  He emerged with a buzz cut after asking for a trim.  That was motivation enough to not go to a Syrian barber.  When I told my aunt I needed a cut, she said she knew someone who could do it and who wasn’t too expensive.  There was a Toni & Guy salon here, but I decided to go with her suggestion instead as everything in Kuwait is super expensive and I was worried about the Toni & Guy price.  Her suggested salon was in a mall with stores like Tiffany & Co, pretty high end, so that inspired some confidence.  The stylist was a Filipino named Barbie, and I thought to myself with a name like that you’ve gotta be pretty good at cutting hair.  He proceeded to first give me a wash which went smoothly, but once I got back in the chair it started to go downhill.  He asked what I wanted, and since my hair looked like a mop top schlop I asked for a book of haircuts to show him.  He gave me a picture book from 1993 with categories like “Business”, “Casual”, and “Party”.  I tried my best to keep a straight face as I put the book down and just politely asked for a trim.  I was hoping he didn’t give me the “business” look as I wasn’t auditioning for a part in the movie remake of Dallas or LA Law.  Anyways, he cut my hair, giving me something really neat and tidy.  After that he decided to blow dry it, giving me as much body as possible.  I emerged from the chair biting my upper lip trying not to laugh as I thanked and paid him.  My hair looked like it belonged to a Hong Kong pop star (more Andy Lau than the others), circa 1993…score.  I walked down to Starbucks where Di and my aunt and uncle were waiting, only to be greeted by laughter.  Even my quiet uncle made a remark that I had a bouncy pillow on the back of my head.  I kinda liked it for the day, too bad I didn’t have a suede vest and light blue high-waisted tapered jeans with a tucked in baggy shirt to match.

There isn’t much to see in Kuwait.  For sights we went to one small private museum and we checked out the Kuwait towers.  It is a socially interesting place though.  The malls look identical to ones you’d see in any nice suburb in the states, right down to the stadium seating cinemas and the 5 starbucks stores.  However, not one Kuwaiti works in any of the stores.  All of the service staff are either Filipino or Indian or Sri Lankan etc.  In fact, it’s basically all expats that run this country, with more highly educated ones working in the oil companies (like my uncle) and the less educated doing all the service and cleaning jobs.  Supposedly there are about 1 million “real Kuwaitis” and 2 million foreigners here to help the country run.  Though many women wear burkas, that hasn’t been unlike many other Middle Eastern countries we’ve been to.  The big difference is many of the men here are decked out in full Arab Gulf wear (the long white one piece tunics with the red and white head scarf held down on their heads with a black band).

A few months ago I wrote about the “curse of oil” as an observation of Libya.  Here, it’s a lot more noticeable.  Kuwait is a far richer country with (in relation to the small population) basically unlimited oil.  When you go to the supermarkets the only product that is Kuwaiti is the fish, reeled in from the Gulf.  Everything else, all the produce available, is imported from the rest of the world.  Educated ex-pats come here in droves to collect a heavy pay check before going home, none I met want to stay.  Other workers from poorer countries are treated badly but don’t really have a choice as they need to make a living.

Social issues aside, we had a great time here.  Having a nice bed, clean laundry and fantastic meals daily does wonders for your energy levels.  Hanging out with my aunt’s friends everyday, other ex-pat ladies of leisure, was super entertaining.  Plus seeing my aunt and uncle was really nice, especially since it’s been a while since I’ve seen any family.  They were great hosts and the week blew by.  As my uncle is retiring and moving back to the States in a few months this will probably be the last chance we have to visit the Gulf for a while, unless I figure out a way to convince Di to be a high earning ex-pat out here.  I have 7 months to achieve this before we return home; I’ll start learning bridge in the meantime to prepare myself for that lifestyle.