I am having a little trouble with putting photos on the blog. It has something to do with this little announcement:
The latest from Blogger Buzz
Three new languages and a whole new direction for Blogger
January 17, 2008 — permalink
We are excited to announce that Blogger is now available in three more languages: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian!
Now everything in Blogger shows up in Arabic for me. I can make a post because I know where to click, but photos are a whole different story. Now I know you are all thinking, "surely you can change the language settings" and I'm sure I can. I just haven't, so deal. I have, however, taken some pictures so I will put them up as soon as I figure it out.
Speaking of taking pictures, it's not a easy as you would think. People are funny about it and really don't like their pictures taken, even inadvertantly. Photography is discouraged inside most buildings which makes it difficult to take pictures of my favorite thing, funny signs. One of my current favorites is in IKEA. "Ladies toilet and prayer room".
In other news, Rowan has been sick all week so we have been staying home. He is on the mend now and we are both ready to get out of here. Today is Jesse's friday, so we will be going out tonight. We got a couch! A nice one that we love. I will post a picture. Our house is slowly coming together. This weekend it will be time to start searching for curtains and rugs. We are going to go to some of the markets or "souqs" to look for that kind of stuff. I also found out that we have a Sears! Apparantly you can get clothes at decent prices. I was beginning to think that I would have to order all our clothes from the States because the prices here (in the malls at least) are so outragous.
There is a family here in our complex that also homeschools. The guy works with Jesse and they have two kids, 5 and 7. Rowan gets along great with them and they seem to be really nice kids. The 7 year old is a boy! They had a little get together this week and invited all the people from the office that have kids. It was great to meet other people and we had a really nice time. It could become a regular thing, especially as the weather gets warmer and we can use the pools. We catch ourselves complaining about the cold weather, knowing full well that when it's hot, we will long for the days of winter.
That is pretty much everthing that has happened to us this week. If I keep writing, I'll have to go into my battle with the dust, and that just doesn't make for very good reading. I promise I'll work on the picture issue. If any of you (and you know who you are) already know what I should do to solve my language issues, you can feel free to post instructions in the comments.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Medical Exams
The bureaucracy is far from over. Rowan and I now have two months in which to complete our residency. It's a little disheartening since we just got done with the mad dash to get the visas and dependant status. Now we basically have to start all over again. We have decided to go ahead and hire someone to walk us through the process. He makes all the arrangements, picks us up and takes us where we need to go, does all the translation and generally makes things a whole lot easier. This service does not come cheap, but I do think it's well worth it. The guy we hired works for Jesse's company a lot and others have used him so we know he is trustworthy.
Yesturday he picked us up and took us to the place where they do the medical exams. This was by far the shabbiest building I have seen in Kuwait. It was a government building, so it made perfect sense! Our guy dropped us off, told us to take a seat and that he had to run to the Immigration office and he would be back. What he didn't tell me was that he had to do the immagration thing before we could proceed with the medical exams. So Rowan and I sat there for over an hour not having any clue what was going on. People came and went and no one waited as long as we did. He finally came back and we were able to proceed.
The medical exam only consisted of drawing some blood and a chest x-ray. They wanted to know if Rowan had been vaccinated for TB, but they called it something else. I just kept saying "what" over and over until they finally took off his shirt and looked for the impression that the shot leaves. There was no impression so they had to do the skin test. He was not amused. They didn't take his blood and I'm worried that they will do that when he goes back to get the skin test read. I don't know if I'll be able to hold him down.
They took my blood and then ushered me to a changing room where the lady said "take everything off". She didn't give me a gown to wear or anything. I went in the dressing room and saw a gown hanging there, to my relief. I started to take everything off and someone yells, "not your trousers!" Yes, I do realize that you don't have to take off your pants for a chest x-ray, I was just flustered by the lack of gown, and she did say to take everything off. I put my pants back on the got the gown on. I then realized that those coming back from the x-ray room were changing back into their clothes and hanging the gowns on hooks in the dressing room. Guess where I got my gown? Yes, from a hook. At that point, I didn't really care that I was wearing a used gown, I just wanted to get it over with.
At the end of the day, it all worked out just fine and our medical exams are over. At least the rest is just sitting in boring offices, no needles involved.
Yesturday he picked us up and took us to the place where they do the medical exams. This was by far the shabbiest building I have seen in Kuwait. It was a government building, so it made perfect sense! Our guy dropped us off, told us to take a seat and that he had to run to the Immigration office and he would be back. What he didn't tell me was that he had to do the immagration thing before we could proceed with the medical exams. So Rowan and I sat there for over an hour not having any clue what was going on. People came and went and no one waited as long as we did. He finally came back and we were able to proceed.
The medical exam only consisted of drawing some blood and a chest x-ray. They wanted to know if Rowan had been vaccinated for TB, but they called it something else. I just kept saying "what" over and over until they finally took off his shirt and looked for the impression that the shot leaves. There was no impression so they had to do the skin test. He was not amused. They didn't take his blood and I'm worried that they will do that when he goes back to get the skin test read. I don't know if I'll be able to hold him down.
They took my blood and then ushered me to a changing room where the lady said "take everything off". She didn't give me a gown to wear or anything. I went in the dressing room and saw a gown hanging there, to my relief. I started to take everything off and someone yells, "not your trousers!" Yes, I do realize that you don't have to take off your pants for a chest x-ray, I was just flustered by the lack of gown, and she did say to take everything off. I put my pants back on the got the gown on. I then realized that those coming back from the x-ray room were changing back into their clothes and hanging the gowns on hooks in the dressing room. Guess where I got my gown? Yes, from a hook. At that point, I didn't really care that I was wearing a used gown, I just wanted to get it over with.
At the end of the day, it all worked out just fine and our medical exams are over. At least the rest is just sitting in boring offices, no needles involved.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
First Impressions
We have been here for about a week now and I thought I should jot down a few of my first impressions of the place. First of all, it's cold! I mean really, really cold. This morning it was below freezing. It's really sunny and beautiful and, of course, dry so we Oregonians think we need to spend as much time outside as possible before it rains. The fact is, it's just too cold. We tried to take Rowan to play at a park the other day and we could only make it for about 10 minutes.
2. The roads are really nice. I don't know why this impressed me so much, but it did. I guess I wasn't expecting really nice roads. There are freeways everywhere. They are wide and nicely paved and clearly marked. Now, more about the driving and all the hilarious stuff you can see while driving on these nice roads will have to be a whole post in itself. I need a whole host of visuals to go with it.
3. I'm sure you are all wondering about the whole "woman" thing. So far I haven't had any trouble. I feel 100% comfortable walking around in my "western" attire with no head covering. There are so many people from all over the world here and, as far as I can tell, only Muslims wear the coverings. I'm sure I'll have more to report on this subject as time goes by.
4. This entire country seems to be all about kids. It's amazing. Everywhere you go there are kid friendly activities. I don't think I've ever seen so many playgrounds (at the grocery store) and carnival rides in my life. It's like one big Fun Land. I have heard people say it's a good place to raise kids, but I didn't know how much they would accommodate children. At least we won't have to worry about never having anything to do.
5. I will leave you with this last thought: Corn. I will do an entire post on corn just as soon as I can take some pictures. Let's just say it's a big deal.
2. The roads are really nice. I don't know why this impressed me so much, but it did. I guess I wasn't expecting really nice roads. There are freeways everywhere. They are wide and nicely paved and clearly marked. Now, more about the driving and all the hilarious stuff you can see while driving on these nice roads will have to be a whole post in itself. I need a whole host of visuals to go with it.
3. I'm sure you are all wondering about the whole "woman" thing. So far I haven't had any trouble. I feel 100% comfortable walking around in my "western" attire with no head covering. There are so many people from all over the world here and, as far as I can tell, only Muslims wear the coverings. I'm sure I'll have more to report on this subject as time goes by.
4. This entire country seems to be all about kids. It's amazing. Everywhere you go there are kid friendly activities. I don't think I've ever seen so many playgrounds (at the grocery store) and carnival rides in my life. It's like one big Fun Land. I have heard people say it's a good place to raise kids, but I didn't know how much they would accommodate children. At least we won't have to worry about never having anything to do.
5. I will leave you with this last thought: Corn. I will do an entire post on corn just as soon as I can take some pictures. Let's just say it's a big deal.
Monday, January 14, 2008
We Are Here! We Are Here!
We finally made it and all in one piece! I'm sorry we have been so neglectful of the blog recently, but I did want to report that we made it to Kuwait and are so happy to be here. Jesse was able to have a total of five days off, so we are trying to make the most of them. It is so nice to be a family again. Our apartment is amazing. I think we are really going to love living here. The only problem is that we have no furniture to speak of. We are working on this issue but it's not as easy as I thought it would be. Everything is incredibly expensive here. It was a very depressing moment when I realized that $100 dollars is only a measley 28kd. We bought the cheapest stove we could find for around 50kd. That gives you some idea of how hard it is going to be to furnish an entire house. I guess that's why God invented credit cards.
As soon as we get more settled I will give a better account of life so far. Right now I just want a place to sit down!
As soon as we get more settled I will give a better account of life so far. Right now I just want a place to sit down!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Have Visa, Will Travel
I can't even believe it myself, but we are actually going to leave for Kuwait on Jan. 10th as scheduled. On Thursday morning I started getting calls from various agencies that had things I needed. Everything was done! I gathered it all and got ready to send it overnight to the Kuwait Consulate. I called before I sent it to ask if they really could get it done fast enough, or if I should change my ticket.
A brief word about the Consulate of Kuwait in LA. I have never before met more helpful and courteous government officials in all of my life. The first time I called I had expected to be given the run around with the automated answering system and then put on hold forever. Instead, a real person answered the phone and directed me to the appropriate person. Within two sentences, this guy knew who I was (he had the faxes Jesse sent) and what I needed. He gave me his name and told me to contact him anytime I had questions. I did need to call him a few more times and he always knew who I was when I gave my name. He went above and beyond to help me. I do have an idea that the LA branch of the Consulate of Kuwait is not a terribly busy place. Not high tourist season or something . . .
Back to the story. The guy says that if I sent the stuff overnight and he got it all on Friday, he would turn it around and send it back the SAME DAY and I would get it Saturday. Well, it's Saturday and I'm going to Kuwait on Jan. 10th. He called me from the FedEx place to tell me he was sending it and wanted me to call him when it arrived. I'm sure I sound like a blubbering idiot on the phone, but how do you thank a guy enough for saving the day!
Now I guess I need to go pack or something!
A brief word about the Consulate of Kuwait in LA. I have never before met more helpful and courteous government officials in all of my life. The first time I called I had expected to be given the run around with the automated answering system and then put on hold forever. Instead, a real person answered the phone and directed me to the appropriate person. Within two sentences, this guy knew who I was (he had the faxes Jesse sent) and what I needed. He gave me his name and told me to contact him anytime I had questions. I did need to call him a few more times and he always knew who I was when I gave my name. He went above and beyond to help me. I do have an idea that the LA branch of the Consulate of Kuwait is not a terribly busy place. Not high tourist season or something . . .
Back to the story. The guy says that if I sent the stuff overnight and he got it all on Friday, he would turn it around and send it back the SAME DAY and I would get it Saturday. Well, it's Saturday and I'm going to Kuwait on Jan. 10th. He called me from the FedEx place to tell me he was sending it and wanted me to call him when it arrived. I'm sure I sound like a blubbering idiot on the phone, but how do you thank a guy enough for saving the day!
Now I guess I need to go pack or something!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Good news/bad news
The good news is that the police report was done early and Kerri was able to pick it up and mail the whole package to the Kuwaiti Consulate yesterday. So it looks like they may be able to leave on time! We were telling each other that it was possible they might make it without changing the tickets, but it would take a miracle... ;-)
The bad news in the world is of course Kenya... where my cousin Josh and his wife Audra are currently living in Nairobi. Please keep them and the country in your prayers.
The bad news in the world is of course Kenya... where my cousin Josh and his wife Audra are currently living in Nairobi. Please keep them and the country in your prayers.
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