The iconic Kuwait City Water Towers.
Eman, from Britain was an excellent guide.
Tuesday, February 10th.
Today was a busy day that got off to a rough start. We could find the coach driver - he was eating the buffet breakfast; the coach was blocked in by a car - 15 minutes later they found that driver and when we got going George realized there was no microphone for him or our local guide to talk to us - when we were dropped at our first stop he sent the driver back to get the mic he had forgotten…
After that it was a great day and very busy. Our first stop was at the iconic Kuwaiti water towers built which were completed in 1979. There is no fresh water anywhere in this area and up until the salination plants were built water had to be brought by dhow boat from Iraq until the 1950’s. We took an elevator to the rotating observation deck where our local guide Eman gave us some facts about the city and country. Eman is a very interesting woman. As a young woman growing up in Britain she didn’t understand or believe the religion she was being taught and when she learned about Islam she converted and dressed accordingly. Later told her parents she intended to marry a Muslim. She visited Kuwait to see friends and met her future husband there. She has lived in Kuwait since and has a daughter who is a Kuwaiti citizen because of her father, but Eman herself can never get citizenship. The original people were nomadic tribes who came from Saudi Arabia in the 1600’s and stayed and fished for a living. Their first leader they had was charged with always being good to the people of the country which is the mandate to this day. There are 5 million people living in the country but only 1.5 million are Kuwaiti nationals, so the same situation as Qatar. Traditionally the Emir is allowed to have up to four wives, and he used that to marry politically and appease the local Bedouin tribe leaders. In 1899 Kuwait did not want to be overrun by the Ottoman Empire so they petitioned Britain to become a protectorate. They achieved their independence in 1961 and were already becoming a wealthy nation after the discovery of oil in the 50’s. Kuwait was the jewel of the Arab world until Saddam Hussien invaded the country and ransacked it. Eman was there and was evacuated by the British embassy, her husband and family stayed and rode it out. At the time there were many Palestinians living in Kuwait and they backed the Iraqis and were betting Saddam would leave it to them to govern. They lost and were asked to leave the country. Since then the major Arabic community is Egyptian. It wasn’t until Saddam was dead that the Kuwaitis were able to rebuild the city with the wealth they had from oil and to mend their relationship with the Iraqi people. With the new found wealth the Emir lived up to his promise and provided free education and health care to all the citizens of the country. And the price of petrol per litre is less than the price of a litre of water. The country is a democracy and has a 50 member elected parliament, but sometimes when the government is divided and can’t pass the laws that the Emir wants he overrides them, or closes them down; one time was over women's rights which he wanted and the government was dragging their feet. Today the divorce rate is quite high for an Arab/Muslim country.
When the bus came back we moved onto an incredible private collection which turned into the Tareo Rajab Museum. They were a married wealthy Kuwaiti family who traveled extensively and bought antiques, collectibles, and artifacts from around the world. The museum houses a mindblogging collection of jewelry, pottery, weapons, old texts and transcripts, photographs, clothing, footwear, coins, musical instruments and displayed immaculately in a large family home. The woman managed to decoy Saddam’s ransacking soldiers by filling one exterior room with some items while hiding the real collection behind a door that led to the real museum. Amazing place.
Then we visited the Maritime Museum where we learned about the fishing and trading industries of the early years. The Kuwait’s became master ship builders and built Dhows that were powered by sail and oars that were used for transporting water, for fishing and pearl diving and for trade with the countries of the Persian Gulf and across the ocean to India. Next we visited the Al Suda Society Weaving Cooperative which is struggling to maintain the weaving traditions and skills of the Bedouin women who wove sheep, camel, and goat hair into yarn and created the walls for their tents that protected the nomads from the sun, wind and sand of the desert and were portable enough to move with their lifestyle. I saw a young nomadic man there who was watching the presentation video with us. I got talking to him and recognized a Canadian accent. He is footloose and fancy free wandering around eastern Europe and Asia. We had a good conversation and I learned he is a heavy machine operator in BC (although born in Ottawa) and his father recently died and left him some money which he is using to fund his trip.
We went to the old part of town and visited the Souk area looking at the shops. I was walking beside a Kuwaiti gentleman who asked where I was from and I told him that I was traveling with a group of Canadians and Americans, and he immediately said “Oh! And how are you getting along?” We went to a local Kuwaiti restaurant and tried some local cuisine. We had lentil soup in a bread bowl, an assortment of salads, yogurt, humus, babaganoush, chicken and mutton.
After lunch we went to the fish market. It was large and busy with many varieties of fish and seafood brought here from the fleet of dhow fishing boats in the port behind the building. Suddenly there was a great racket of men shouting and yelling. I went to investigate and wound up in a melee of fishermen selling their fish in basket lots by auction to loud and eager restaurant and store buyers. It was chaotic and exciting. I was taking videos but kept getting blocked until I found stairs to a second floor where I could take excellent videos of the scene below. Incredible. Then I had checked out the dhow fleet before we boarded the bus for our last stop of the day. We went to the Grand Mosque. We had a guide provided by the mosque who took us through and explained about the construction, significance and some of the nuances of Islam. The building was beautiful, much more elaborate than the Saudi mosques. We were even allowed to go up to the platform where the Iman would preach from.
That was an amazing day. We got back to the hotel by 5:30 and I decided to just relax for the evening. I had had enough to eat and spent the evening updating this and reading.
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