New Delhi Trip

Ok, I have been meaning to get this post up for months now, but for some reason just haven't been inspired or something.

While Kerri and Rowan were in the States I got word that my aunt Luanne would be in India doing a crazy trekking trip in the mountains.  She was going to be in New Delhi for last few days, so I thought it would be fun to hop over there and hang with her for a while.

I ended up able to take about 10 days off for this, which was my first mistake.  It would have been better in retrospect to just spend a few days, but somehow it's always hard to think of flying some long distance and only spend 3 days...when I *could* spend 10...I mean, why not?  Anyway...

We stayed downtown near the train station in an area with lots of tourist hotels (the cheaper kind).  Ours was quite nice which we were grateful for, as the sweltering heat made going out a short-lived proposition.  The Hotel Grand Godwin was the name, and if you do have to stay in that area, I can recommend it.

So, I guess the bottom line was that it wasn't a very enjoyable trip from a typical travel perspective.  It was miserably hot and humid, absolutely stunningly dirty, and the "touristy" things to see in New Delhi are not all that interesting (in my opinion).  That isn't to say I wasn't glad I went...the experiences I had may not have been "fun" but they were good to have had.  The poverty there is simply unbelievable...and this coming from a person who grew up in and around Manila.  Lu and I both felt somewhat chagrined at our reactions to the heat, poverty and dirtiness of it all given our past experiences.  But truly, it is beyond anything either of us had ever seen before.  Sure, there were pockets in Manila that bad, but the general presence of it *that bad* everywhere you went?  Not so much.

We did take the train out to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which was...y'know...what you have to do, was kind of fun.  Nice to see something other than unrelenting downtown.  Requisite photos will be posted.

I think when we go back (Kerri and Rowan also), we will spend one night in Delhi to experience the sheer reality of it, then take the train to Agra, see the Taj, maybe spend the night, then take the train to Jaipur (which I hear is nice), then back to Delhi, then fly to the southern tip of India where Kerala is (which I hear is nice also).  Then fly back to Kuwait.  If we go while here.  I know Rowan is dying to see the Taj and has been since he was a toddler.

Anyway, it's been too long now to give any scintillating descriptions, so I'm afraid the crummy photos will have to do.  If Lu let's me know the URL, I'll link to hers also.

Netflix Blu-ray Service: Hello goodbye

With the advent of the aforementioned PS3, I enabled blu-ray access on our netflix queue, which by the way has worked great for us the entire time we have been over here. After a phone call to set up our APO address, and bumping up to the 8 at a time plan to balance the long shipping times, we've had no complaints about Netflix's regular DVD service (streaming is another matter...we can't stream because our IP address comes from Kuwait...stupid movie studios and their stupid licensing rules). I can't remember the last damaged DVD we got from them.

Blu-ray, however, is another matter. Since I started blu-ray access about a month ago, I have received 3 cracked blu-ray disks. The first one wasn't noticeable til it got to a certain point on the disk, then it refused to play. I then looked closely and could discern the hairline fracture starting on the edge of the disc and running about a quarter of an inch directly towards the center.

Since then, I started checking each blu-ray disc as it comes in, and I have found and returned 2 more. The latest one was the worst: the crack was so pronounced that there is no way it could even have attempted to play.

I have returned the previous 2, but this 3rd one made up my mind: no more blu-ray from Netflix til they figure out a safer way to ship them. I cancelled the blu-ray access and called to politely complain (very nice customer service btw, located in Oregon!). I was informed they are working on a solution.

The long dark night of the blog

Wow...it's been a long time! The main reason for that is there hasn't been much to report. I'll try to summarize things that have happened since our trip to Turkey:

- I got LASIK surgery and can now see pretty darn good without glasses (still occasionally need reading glasses, but that just goes with getting older I guess). The experience was fine, though filled with the occasional hilarity that goes along with doing things in a different country. Total cost: 400KD (about $1500). About the cost of a new computer...not bad really. The procedure went without a hitch, though it did take about a month for the full healing to take place and my eyes to start learning how to use their muscles to "auto-focus" which I've never had to use before because I had glasses.

- Got a PS3 in preparation for Kerri and Rowan leaving. I figured even I would need a break from WoW now and then, so it's been good to have other options. Much as I am a Sony hater, I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised by the PS3, especially the online store which is sooooo much more responsive than Nintendo's. Even in the US with cable internet, the Nintendo store was like molasses. The PS3 store is zippy and best of all does queued background downloading. Been playing Bioshock, which is something of a sci-fi horror game, and it does its job well! I have to play with the lights on, and even then I can only handle it for short bursts. Started Resistance and it's very enjoyable. In WoW news I finally got all 4 of my characters to 80 and am working on gearing up my hunter to join my rogue in epic awesomeness.

- Kerri and Rowan (as mentioned earlier) are in the US for 2 months. They are visiting friends and family for the first time since they came out here in Jan 2008. It's been almost 1 month since they left and they'll be back in about 1 more. They are doing well, though very busy with everything. They did get to visit Kentucky where my father-in-law is now living and went to the Mammoth Caves which are going to be the highlight of the entire trip for Rowan I'm sure. He regaled me the other night on Skype about it.

- Night shift begins! As of right now, I'm switching to night shift again for 2 months, 1 of which while Kerri and Rowan are gone, which is good. Also, I believe I'll get at least a few weeks of Ramadan while on nights, which is excellent. Much better to be in sync with the rest of the populace.

- Towards the end of next month, I'll be heading to New Delhi to hang out with my aunt Luanne for a week and half or so. She'll be wrapping up a trekking trip in the mountains and I'll have some time to kill, so we're just going to hang around New Delhi and maybe make a trip out to the country side or two, nothing fancy. Getting the visa was interesting though. You have to purchase tickets first, then go to a private company here in Fahaheel (link from the embassy's website) which processes visa applications to India. You photocopy your passport, residency, and itinerary, fill out a form, provide two passport style pictures, and pay around 12KD to start applying. It takes around 10 business days to process total. Then they call you back to submit your passport and pay the rest (another 20KD or so), then another 3 business days and you can come pick up your passport with your new visa to travel to India. What a pain! But hey, now I know.

Well, that's it really. I'm going to head out now, it's around 4:30pm, so everything is just opening up for the evening after the heat of the day. I might head down to IKEA and see about finding some kind of darker curtain backing for keeping things nice and dark during the day.

Istanbul

What did you do for Memorial Day weekend? We went to Istanbul! We made a vow that we would never again spend a holiday weekend in Kuwait when we have so many places to visit close by. There is a discount airline that runs out of Kuwait and they have some pretty good deals for places in the region. The one problem with traveling around the Middle East this time of year is, well, it's hot. Lucky for us they also fly to Istanbul where the weather is fine.

We left early on a Wednesday and came back Sunday afternoon. It's only a three hour flight with no time change. When we landed the sky was cloudy and the air was cool. It was like landing in heaven. We saw green trees and real grass and cows! And that was just on the ride from the airport. We rode a public bus into town and the people on it must have wondered what cave we've been living in as we exclaimed about all the green (and I yelled "COWS" really loud before I could stop myself). The public transit system was wonderful. We took it everywhere and it worked great.

The first thing that struck me was how clean everything was. There was no litter, no trash heaps, no nasty smells, no dust. The second thing that stood out was hills! I know that sort of sounds silly, but the desert is really, really flat and Istanbul is really, really hilly. Then, of course, it was the amazing buildings everywhere you look. They truly don't make them like they use to. The first picture is of the Blue Mosque and all the other mosques are patterned after it.

We did a lot of walking and, while we did sightsee, we didn't have a big schedule to follow. That made it a lot more relaxing than our Egypt trip. It was fun just wandering up a street to see what was there. We ate a lot of street food and sat in a lot of beautiful parks.

We took one day trip out of the city. We went to Nicea (now called Iznik). We got to take a ferry and then a local mini bus. The drive took us through olive orchards and then beside a lake. Nicea is a little town now but it use to be the capitol so there are a lot of historic sites. The main reason for going there was to see the place that the Nicean Creed was writen. Rowan memorized the creed this year so it was really great to be able to take him to the place that it came from.

Another thing we did a lot of was drink tea. Turkish tea is really strong and really good. It seems to be a national obsession and there are tea gardens everywhere. They drink it out of small glass cups with no milk but lots of sugar.

We came away from the trip with a real sense of discovery and excitement. We really didn't know what to expect and we ended up falling in love with the place. It had a really nice feel about it that made us want to stay a while. If the chance ever presents itself, Turkey would be high on the list of place we would like to live. Since we only saw a little part of it, we have a lot more to go back for.

Kerri

Wafra Trip

Yesterday afternoon our friend Muhammed (abu Khaled) Failakawi (the guy in the yellow shirt in the pictures) dropped by to pick us up for a trip south to Wafra. Wafra is in the southwestern corner of Kuwait, just north of the Saudi border. It contains mostly farms that use the brackish water in that area to raise a surprising number of different crops. If it says "from Kuwait" in the grocery store, then it probably came from Wafra.

Muhammed's friend Mubarrak has a small grass farm down there, along with some camels and goats that he raises primarily for milk. We were privileged to spend some time in his tent (next to his house) lounging on the ground, drinking coffee, tea and eating dates. Then he showed us his camels, and proceeded to milk one of them. Apparently, you can't milk a camel directly...you have to fool it by letting one of its babies drink, and then you can milk it simultaneously. We then took the huge bowl of warm milk into the tent and each had a bowl...well...Rowan had 3 bowls. He digs the camel milk.

Afterwards, we walked around his property, which is lovely and green due to the grass he grows for sale elsewhere in Kuwait. He also had a pen of many goats, which we had some fun with as you can see in the pictures above. We also had a delicious meal of kebab and shish tawouk afterwards before bidding him good night and heading back to Fahaheel where we live. It's about 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on which road you take, so we were home in no time, which was good as I had to crash having stayed up way past my usual bedtime (7 or 8pm).

Such a good time had by all, once again Muhammed has shown us a lovely time in Kuwait.

Return of the Sun

Wow...it's been a loooong time since our last post. Not much has been happening honestly...I've been working the night shift, which has been unpleasant for Kerri as her weekends become pretty meaningless. We've endured and finally, tonight is my last night! I'll be converting over the next 3 days to dayshift and back to work again.

Who knows? Maybe something interesting will start to happen...

Been reading John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion on my ipod and enjoying it immensely. Best 99c I've ever spent. It's easier to understand than I thought it would be and every other line is packed with profundity.

So we did try going to church during this night shift, and I have to say I was disappointed. The service we went to is trying really hard to be...I dunno..."hip" or something. Pretty typical worship time, then the pastor and another pastor (younger guy) sits up on stools and everyone else sits around tables. The preaching was very shallow and many times cringe inducing. And I *hate* being told to share my deepest personal feelings/secrets/experiences during a 5 minute window with total strangers. There's a very anti-intellectual bent in this church, lots of "don't think about it, just go with the spirit" mentality that I don't agree with. Once a "team" visited from another church somewhere in the middle east to do some sort of spiritual ministry and there were several individuals that night who did the whole "word from the lord" thing which in this case I was pretty sure was just intuitive guesses about people. I've been around the block many times with these types of churches and finally it got too much and I just couldn't stand it anymore. In addition, there are some fundamental doctrinal differences we have with them that would be difficult to ignore.

The good news though is that when I switch to days my weekend will now be Wed, Thurs, Fri, so we'll be able to check out all the services on Friday which are much more common, since Friday is "sunday" here. I'm hoping we can find a fellowship with which we can agree doctrinally, and that we can really try to stick with however long this schedule lasts. Barring that, maybe we can find a home group nearby, or perhaps start one for others in our complex. We know several families that have given up finding a church that they can consistently go to for various reasons.

The ongoing saga to get good Internet

When last we saw our trusy adventurers, they had attempted to get a phone line about 8 months ago so they could get DSL and therefore some decent internet. Having been told it wasn't going to happen, they resigned themselves to paying 15KD for the not very good Zain cellular internet service. In the evenings, this service is practically unuseable, so they occasionally mooch off a neighbor's unsecured wireless access point.

As it was a new year, and recent changes to telephone numbers gave us some hope of change, they decided to try again for a phone line. After several tries, and a trip downtown, we were once again told that there was simply not enough "room" and we would need to put a work order in. Trouble is, there is a labor dispute and no knowing how long til it will be resolved. And it will cost 150KD. Not counting the actual phone line activation which is 65KD. Well, they put the application in, and then called the local WiMax provider and decided to plunk down the 600KD for WiMax. They were told it would be possible where they lived. Until the technician came out and tried to set it up, and they found out our building was too low.

Once again, they are back where they started, getting more and more desperate. Neighbor's doors might get knocked on and offered money to double their bandwidth in exchange for use. Emails have been sent to satellite internet providers...

What will happen next in the ongoing saga!

A perfect summary

One of the blogs I follow is Challies and he has a hilarious posting up today about how he converted to Mac. It's a great summary and reflects my own experience as well:

http://www.challies.com/archives/general-news/personal/my-ipology.php

Back in Kuwait

Actually, I never really left.  They've had some trouble getting me on a flight and I've been back and forth to Ali Al Salem airbase 4+ times in the past week and a half.  After the 3rd attempt I told them I'd really rather not go as this limbo is really causing issues with Kerri and Rowan getting back into a schedule.  I've said goodbye 3 times now, then returned home.  I've also switched my schedule to nights and would really like to have a time of stability.  Anyway, tonight was the last try and it failed, so here I am for a while.

Kenya/Uganda Pictures

Sorry it took us so long to get this post out.  Things have been a bit crazy around here since we got back.  We broke the pictures up into , hopefully, manageable chunks so you don't get too overwhelmed.   Just to recap, we spent three weeks in Kenya/Uganda over Christmas and New Years.  It was Jesse and Rowan's  first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa and I hadn't been to Kenya for 10 years.  Uganda was a first for all of us.  We were visiting Jesse's cousin Josh and his wife Audra (and kids Raeleigh and Gabriel) in Nairobi.  They work with Wycliffe Associates.  In Uganda we were with Jesse's Aunt and Uncle (Josh's Mom and Dad) who live in Kampala and work with Mission Aviation Fellowship. 

This first set of pictures is of the Giraffe Center in Nairobi.  The first week we were in Kenya, we just stayed around Nairobi as Raeleigh was still in school and Josh was still working.  But as soon as Saturday rolled around . . .

We drove to Uganda!  What fun!  No really, it was pretty fun.  This first pic is of Rowan and Raeleigh at the boarder crossing.  The drive there was about 13 hours, but the roads were not too bad.  We only hit a few patches of rough road so we were pleased.  We also had a portable movie player so that helped the kids out a lot.  It was so great to be with Jon and  Cher for Christmas and see where they live .  The house is beautiful!  Rowan has started calling Cher "his" grandma.  Why not?  


Jon took us on a plane ride!  We flew over Lake Victoria and all the kids got a turn at pilot.  So did Jesse.  What an experience for a little kid (or an adult) to fly an airplane.  We are so spoiled.


Another day we went on a canoe trip through the marshlands on the edge of Lake Victoria.  It is mainly a birdwatching expedition and it was so breathtakingly beautiful.   The main attraction is the Shoebill.  A bizarre looking bird that can only be found in tropical East Africa.  There are only about 5-8,000 individuals left.  Did we see one?  Nope, we saw TWO!  There was a group in another boat that had come just to see the shoebill and paid through the nose to do it, and here we were.  Again, we are so spoiled.

The telling of our time at Jon and Cher's would not be complete without monkey stories.  Jon brought home a little baby monkey one day last spring and now it is running the house.  His name is Sheeda, which means "trouble" and he is very well named.  Having a monkey in your midst sure does keep things interesting.  He was hard to photograph because he moved so fast.  It was funny how the kids we all over him at first trying to hold him and catch him.  A few days later they were shooing him away.  Every now and then you would hear an exasperated child yell and you knew that Sheeda had just stolen something.  I have never seen anything move as fast as this guy.  You could be sitting down with something IN YOUR HAND and he could snatch it from you and be in the next room before you realized it was gone.  The funniest had to be when he would swing by and take a handful of your drink (yes, dip his tiny monkey hand into you glass) and be off before you knew what happened.  He is adorable , sweet, and a ton of fun, but now I know for sure that I do NOT want a monkey for a pet.  You can never really be sure until you try it out, so I'm grateful to have had the chance to try it out.

We stayed in Uganda for one week and then drove back to Kenya.  The way back only took about 10 hours and we were thrilled.  We had a few days to unwind and then we all headed to Tsavo National Park for some animal watching.  It was about 4 hours drive on a mixed bag of roads (some good some bad).   Josh and Audra rented this great guesthouse with a watering hole just out front.  So all we had to do was sit around and let the animals come to us.  It was fantastic!  We did do some driving around and a few of the pictures are from Mzima Springs where we saw hippos and a crocodile, but he was too far to get a photo of.  We didn't get to see any cats (lions, leopards, cheetahs), but I think we did pretty good for just sitting out on the porch.  The great part about that was having a chance to really observe the behaviors and antics of the animals instead of just driving by and taking pictures.  I really enjoyed Tsavo!

We came back for our last few days in Nairobi.  We went out to a tea farm where a lady does a presentation about tea and you get a tour of the area and a really nice lunch.  It was a beautiful place.  Tea fields are amazingly green.  They  almost looked fake.  The lady has this  wonderful garden and the kids could just run around and play.  The weather was perfect.  I really could have just moved in and stayed forever.  I have decided that I want to retire on a tea plantation.  With someone else doing all the work, of course.  Jesse says that's fine as long as there's good internet.  

Here is where we finally found chameleons.  We had been looking the whole time.  One of them was just a tiny baby and so cute.

The last place we went was a place where they make glass by hand out of recycled bottles.  It is a really funky, artsy place that is decorated with all kinds of glass objects and art (check out the toilets).  The stuff they make is fantastic.  

We had such a wonderful trip.  We can't thank Josh and Audra and Jon and Cher enough for everything they did for us.