It is a Tuesday night. I just made one of the strangest dinners I think I have ever eaten. I consisted of leftover salad that I put in a pan and FRIED, yes FRIED along with some frozen vegetables and chopped bits of shish kebab that my South African math teacher friend brought the other night when people came over to eat at my place. I didn’t make meatloaf and scalloped potatoes for them - just too hard. I made rigatoni, which we used to call “sewer pipes” when I was growing up (quite a disgusting name for a dish when I think about it) and a big salad. But people came with all kinds of their own dishes, since it seems that every meal turns into a potluck, and I have been eating leftovers every night since. Anyhow, tonight’s dinner of fried salad was a real shot in the dark. Hey, I cooked the hell out of it, salted it up, and it all tasted like a big shish-kebab stir-fry. However, I don’t think I’ll enter it in the Betty Crocker cooking contest.
So… here we are, it’s almost November. I looked at the Yahoo weather today and saw that it was 98 degrees in Kuwait. But it actually feels quite cool. The hot water heater is turned on, and there is a less miserable look about the trees and plants that people keep alive with trickling garden hoses. The mornings and evenings are dark. I still haven’t seen a drop of rain since coming to Kuwait, but I’m told there will be an occasional sprinkle come winter time. Supposedly it rains mud because of the sand and dust in the air, so it doesn’t sound particularly pleasant, but I suppose the desert weeds are happy with it. I still haven’t worn any of the long-sleeve shirts I brought with me. I am one of the dandiest dressers of the school, by the way, sticking to my neckties as a kind of trademark.
I am heavy into the juggling act of teaching and school work. I stay at work till 5:00, making for 10½ hour days. Behavior problems are nearly daily occurrences now. So-and-so throws a chunk of eraser at whats-his-name, and he misses and hits the other guy, who goes ballistic and attacks So-and-so. Before I came there was a big controversy over a vice-principal who was barred from leaving the country pending a court case over her decision to give a kid an in-school suspension. The powerful father said that she had put his son in jail. There was even an effort to get teachers to boycott their contracts in Kuwait, and a few teachers actually left. It’s because of something called “wasta” which means “top-down pressure.” People who have a lot of power and influence can basically do as they please and you’d better not get in their way. So discipline here is very touchy. You basically discipline as long as the parents go along with it, but if they object, you say “ok, no detention, never mind, have a nice day.”
Today I had my first encounter with a mother who wore full black cover. Most of the mothers don’t wear that, so I was caught off guard. I forgot that you’re not supposed to offer your hand to these conservative Islamic women. The first thing I did was smile and stick out my hand. She put up her hand in a gesture of STOP, and it just went downhill from there. Goodness gracious, was she full of anger and spite! I decided that since she didn’t want to be seen, I was not going to look at her eyes, so I looked at my desktop for the entire conversation. The conversation itself was surreal - it was about her son being exposed to bad behavior and comments by another student. She actually spoke good English, but her voice was shrill and quivering. She was scary! Whew, I was glad when she left. I will not look at the boy the same way again.
My Arabic teacher has the idea that Americans have mistaken ideas about Islam just because of 9-11. All the terrorism, he explains, is coming from bad Muslims who don’t listen to the Prophet. He thinks that American media is controlled by the Bush government to intentionally keep Americans from knowing that most Muslims are really nice people. I told him that I thought the call to prayer was too noisy and the women in black cover were scary. He and his son had a good laugh when I said these things.
Next week there’s going to be a lecture at the AWARE (Advocates for Western-Arab Relations) Center given by the Archbishop of the Holy See in the Vatican on the topic of Muslim-Christian Dialogue. I might go, or, since it’s a Thursday night and that’s fun night for teachers, maybe I’ll skip it to play games and drink special fruit-juice punch and eat snacks with my friends. I did go to mass again, and I have to say that it was 100% better. It was Mission Sunday, and the priest talked about “Mission Moment” and finding God and purpose in the Now -- pretty sophisticated and deep stuff for any Catholic church. The excellent homily made up for the fact that the Indian Catholics practically trample each other bustling and pushing to get to the Eucharist - it’s actually comical and horrifying to see how they act like they’re starving for communion. I blocked one man who tried to butt in front of me in line. I was going to tackle him and pin him to the ground to make him wait his turn. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind at the last supper. When I think of how absurd people act out of religious intentions, it just makes me laugh.
By the way, if you remember from my previous entry, I got to know a taxi driver from Bangladesh named Mohammed who starts every sentence with “this is.” I was with another teacher friend getting groceries. There is a huge grocery store that’s right in the middle of a super high-class shopping mall, and all the people who buy groceries park in the underground parking and pay someone to push their grocery carts down there and load up their cars. We called Mohammed who had agreed to pick us up, and told him to come and get us. Would you believe the guy said he was too busy with his flower shop, he couldn’t come. We ended up pushing our carts through the mall and getting ride home in junky taxi with no AC that sounded like it was going to break down any minute. The next time we saw Mohammed, he said, “Sir, this is I wait for you long time at shopping mall, this is, why you never call back?” As a matter of fact, the teacher friend who had been with me that day was in the cab. We looked at each other mutually confused. “Mohammed, I said, we DID call you, and you told us you were too busy with your flower shop.” Then Mohammed said, “Sir, what are you talking this? I am taxi driver only I don’t have flower shop!” I took out the business card of flower shop Mohammed and said, “Isn’t this you?“ Would you believe it? It turned out, that there are TWO Mohammeds, both Bangladeshi taxi drivers of similar size, accent, and voice. One has a flower shop and one doesn’t. I don’t know how we ended up with two of them. We thought they were the same Mohammed. So flower-shop Mohammed had probably gotten a call out of the blue saying, “OK we’re ready, come and get us right now. Please park in the underground parking.” No wonder he said he was busy.
There are some pigeons living in the window-well outside the bathroom window. I want to feed them, but there is a fan installed in the bathroom window and you can’t open it. For a long time I couldn’t figure out what the noise was - it sounded like an overworked washing machine or some kind of squeegy or something. It was the pigeons roosting in there. I know I shouldn’t feed them because then there will probably be a hundred of them. But I sort of want to feed them. Any thing that survives here deserves a little help.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
ho-hum Eid
If you are busy, come back and read this another time, or skip it completely, because there isn’t anything interesting to report, and I’m just dredging up some crumbs to keep the blog updated. It’s Eid vacation, and there has been no school this week. Those of us waiting for our residence cards knew that we would be stuck in Kuwait with little to do. I haven’t minded much. I went the gym a few times, practiced the banjo, did a little shopping. Ramadan is over, and mosque noise is back to its regular level, which is enough to bother me but not as maddening as it was during Ramadan.
I had an Arabic lesson with my tutor last night. He is a member of the Arabic staff at my school, and consequently makes only a fraction of what we foreign hires make. It’s a supply and demand issue, I suppose. Would I give up 25% of my income to see the salaries equalized? Well the reality is, I probably would not have come to Kuwait if the salary were that much lower, so I guess the answer is no. Unfortunately it does result in a huge inequity. From his point of view, I make a fortune, and get free housing, free benefits, transportation to and from work, everything handed to me. He gets the meager salary and no benefits at all. Of course there is also the fact that he and his wife produced five children who have to be fed and cared for. Anyhow, the fallout of all of this is that I think the money I’m paying for my Arabic instruction is an important chunk of income for him. Got the picture? Now here’s the problem…. he’s not a very good instructor. Since I taught foreign language for many years, I have an idea of how a language should be introduced to a non-speaker. My Syrian friend teaches Arabic to Arabic speakers, so he is more comparable to an English teacher who teaches Mark Twain to American kids…. but put that teacher in a room with Chinese people, and he/she may not know where to start. My teacher makes the mistake of thinking that because he has an impeccable knowledge and expertise in Arabic, there is nothing that I would ever need that he doesn’t know. The truth is, I need a good teaching technique, and that, I don’t think he has. I tried to steer the lesson in a different direction last night, but he quickly directed us back to his grammar lesson. Maybe I’ll look for another teacher to get some conversational practice on the side. Right now, I’m not learning very much.
Since the instant message conversation with the guy in UAE in which he told me that part of the tirade from the mosques had to do with outrage toward Israel, I have been reading up and paying more attention to that conflict. It really is a very interesting saga. There were once local Jews living in Kuwait, but according to the internet, the last of them left some decades ago. Oddly enough, there are practically no Palestinians in Kuwait either. Because Arafat cooperated with Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, Kuwaitis expelled 400,000 Palestinians--a full 30% of the population at the time! Anyhow, I have never felt more than a general sense of disgust about the perpetual ugliness between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East--sort of a “Go ahead, blow each other up, be my guest!” attitude. I still feel a lot of that, but living here where the conflict is a bit closer does heighten the sense of drama. I think I would really enjoy visiting Israel, but we were told early that one loses entry rights to Kuwait if his/her passport has an Israel stamp in it.
I have to think of something good to make for dinner and have my teacher friends over. This is something we’ve gotten into the habit of doing. It’s kind of fun having these little dinner parties. We don’t sit at the table--that would be too formal. We sit in the living room and put our plates on the coffee table or hold them in our laps. I want to make something very American, since I am the only American in our clique. I’m thinking of meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. Seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it? But it’s something to do. I have a cookbook that I brought from home, so I can probably get the recipes from there. Prices are really very high here. I guess it makes sense, given that everything must be imported. I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I just felt like I wanted to get some fresh vegetables. Everything was so expensive. I figured cabbage was a sure bet. Cabbage is always one of the cheapest vegetables per pound, don’t you think? I paid 485 fils for a small head of cabbage. That’s $1.74. Isn’t that a lot for a small cabbage? But maybe it’s what one should expect given that it has to be transported from far away. Other things are cheap. You could build a house out of flat bread. There’s a tiny little shop across the street where men bake some kind of fresh flat bread in a fiery oven right there every night. You can get a pizza-size flatbread, hot and delicious, for about a dime. It’s best eaten hot though. It gets kind of hard and rubbery after it cools.
Tonight, we’re all going on the bus to Fahaheel, a district in Kuwait that has a very elegant shopping center with fountains and nice restaurants. I was finally able to withdraw some money from the bank now that Ramadan is over. I was pretty strapped for cash for a while because the banks were only open from 11:00 to 1:00 during Ramadan, and I was in school at those hours every day. In a few days we’ll be back in school for full schedule days again. I have a lot of planning to do. I’ll probably try to put a dent in it today before we head off to Fahaheel.
I had an Arabic lesson with my tutor last night. He is a member of the Arabic staff at my school, and consequently makes only a fraction of what we foreign hires make. It’s a supply and demand issue, I suppose. Would I give up 25% of my income to see the salaries equalized? Well the reality is, I probably would not have come to Kuwait if the salary were that much lower, so I guess the answer is no. Unfortunately it does result in a huge inequity. From his point of view, I make a fortune, and get free housing, free benefits, transportation to and from work, everything handed to me. He gets the meager salary and no benefits at all. Of course there is also the fact that he and his wife produced five children who have to be fed and cared for. Anyhow, the fallout of all of this is that I think the money I’m paying for my Arabic instruction is an important chunk of income for him. Got the picture? Now here’s the problem…. he’s not a very good instructor. Since I taught foreign language for many years, I have an idea of how a language should be introduced to a non-speaker. My Syrian friend teaches Arabic to Arabic speakers, so he is more comparable to an English teacher who teaches Mark Twain to American kids…. but put that teacher in a room with Chinese people, and he/she may not know where to start. My teacher makes the mistake of thinking that because he has an impeccable knowledge and expertise in Arabic, there is nothing that I would ever need that he doesn’t know. The truth is, I need a good teaching technique, and that, I don’t think he has. I tried to steer the lesson in a different direction last night, but he quickly directed us back to his grammar lesson. Maybe I’ll look for another teacher to get some conversational practice on the side. Right now, I’m not learning very much.
Since the instant message conversation with the guy in UAE in which he told me that part of the tirade from the mosques had to do with outrage toward Israel, I have been reading up and paying more attention to that conflict. It really is a very interesting saga. There were once local Jews living in Kuwait, but according to the internet, the last of them left some decades ago. Oddly enough, there are practically no Palestinians in Kuwait either. Because Arafat cooperated with Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, Kuwaitis expelled 400,000 Palestinians--a full 30% of the population at the time! Anyhow, I have never felt more than a general sense of disgust about the perpetual ugliness between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East--sort of a “Go ahead, blow each other up, be my guest!” attitude. I still feel a lot of that, but living here where the conflict is a bit closer does heighten the sense of drama. I think I would really enjoy visiting Israel, but we were told early that one loses entry rights to Kuwait if his/her passport has an Israel stamp in it.
I have to think of something good to make for dinner and have my teacher friends over. This is something we’ve gotten into the habit of doing. It’s kind of fun having these little dinner parties. We don’t sit at the table--that would be too formal. We sit in the living room and put our plates on the coffee table or hold them in our laps. I want to make something very American, since I am the only American in our clique. I’m thinking of meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. Seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it? But it’s something to do. I have a cookbook that I brought from home, so I can probably get the recipes from there. Prices are really very high here. I guess it makes sense, given that everything must be imported. I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I just felt like I wanted to get some fresh vegetables. Everything was so expensive. I figured cabbage was a sure bet. Cabbage is always one of the cheapest vegetables per pound, don’t you think? I paid 485 fils for a small head of cabbage. That’s $1.74. Isn’t that a lot for a small cabbage? But maybe it’s what one should expect given that it has to be transported from far away. Other things are cheap. You could build a house out of flat bread. There’s a tiny little shop across the street where men bake some kind of fresh flat bread in a fiery oven right there every night. You can get a pizza-size flatbread, hot and delicious, for about a dime. It’s best eaten hot though. It gets kind of hard and rubbery after it cools.
Tonight, we’re all going on the bus to Fahaheel, a district in Kuwait that has a very elegant shopping center with fountains and nice restaurants. I was finally able to withdraw some money from the bank now that Ramadan is over. I was pretty strapped for cash for a while because the banks were only open from 11:00 to 1:00 during Ramadan, and I was in school at those hours every day. In a few days we’ll be back in school for full schedule days again. I have a lot of planning to do. I’ll probably try to put a dent in it today before we head off to Fahaheel.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
top of the morning to ya
It is the first day of Eid vacation, but I am not sleeping in. Can you guess why? Can you guess why I’m wide awake at my computer at 6:15 in the morning, and I’ve already been awake for over an hour trying to figure out the digital recording equipment that I bought a year ago, brought with me to Kuwait, but still cannot use? Yes, the mosques. The noise started about an hour ago. At first I just thought, my goodness the mullah today needs some voice lessons! Then I realized that it was just some old guy in the mosque that had been handed the microphone, and he was just crying out something over and over again, Probably “God is Great“ or “God is Merciful“ or something like that. And then, from what I could tell, the microphone was just held in the crowd so that people could yell “God is Great, God is Merciful“ into it over and over. I say people, but it‘s all men. No women in the mosques. It was not like singing or chanting, it was just a kind of desperate yelling, a whole crowd of people yelling it at the same time into the microphone, and this blared at deafening levels into the early morning. They sounded like they were in torment. I actually thought it would be a great soundtrack for Hell in a horror movie. I got out of bed and paced back and forth once, thinking that I had to do something because I was getting upset about it, and then I decided that I would try to get a recording of it, because I don’t think people would believe my description. Unfortunately, I only got more upset as I tried to figure out the recording equipment and soon determined that it would require much more concentrated studying that I was prepared to do. Gradually the “God is Great! God is Merciful!” switched over to an angry sermon, and we all got to listen to the mullah scream about whatever it is that is bothering him.
Now it has stopped. It is 7:00. All the Muslims will now go home and go to bed. I am wide awake, and I don’t feel particularly relaxed. The noise itself is a nuisance, but the emotional context of the noise is what’s really disturbing. My mother wants me to just wear earplugs, but what if you lived somewhere where you could hear your neighbor beating his wife and kids? Would you just put in earplugs and have a pleasant sleep? I am somewhat hopeful that all of the frenzy will die down once Ramadan is officially over. Maybe that’s today. It has something to do with the moon, nobody will say when Ramadan is starting or ending--it has to be announced from the mosque. So anyhow, maybe it will really calm down now.
To be very honest, I must admit something. The noise and disturbance outside is only a replacement for the noise and disturbance inside. It is like when I was kid and I stubbed my toe, and my older brother would say, “I’ll pinch your arm real hard, and then you won’t feel your toe anymore!” Life is awfully noisy and not usually very peaceful. If Kuwait is the arm-pinch, what is the stubbed toe that I’m not feeling? The fact that I am a single, middle-aged funny man without a life plan? But life plans don’t often go the way we want them to anyway, do they? Better not to have one, and trust God. After all, God is Great, God is Merciful.
Now it has stopped. It is 7:00. All the Muslims will now go home and go to bed. I am wide awake, and I don’t feel particularly relaxed. The noise itself is a nuisance, but the emotional context of the noise is what’s really disturbing. My mother wants me to just wear earplugs, but what if you lived somewhere where you could hear your neighbor beating his wife and kids? Would you just put in earplugs and have a pleasant sleep? I am somewhat hopeful that all of the frenzy will die down once Ramadan is officially over. Maybe that’s today. It has something to do with the moon, nobody will say when Ramadan is starting or ending--it has to be announced from the mosque. So anyhow, maybe it will really calm down now.
To be very honest, I must admit something. The noise and disturbance outside is only a replacement for the noise and disturbance inside. It is like when I was kid and I stubbed my toe, and my older brother would say, “I’ll pinch your arm real hard, and then you won’t feel your toe anymore!” Life is awfully noisy and not usually very peaceful. If Kuwait is the arm-pinch, what is the stubbed toe that I’m not feeling? The fact that I am a single, middle-aged funny man without a life plan? But life plans don’t often go the way we want them to anyway, do they? Better not to have one, and trust God. After all, God is Great, God is Merciful.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
interfaith dialogue
Here is a transcript of an online conversation I had with a Syrian man who is learning Japanese. We didn't talk about Japanese though.
K: hi jon , how is life ? how are you ?
J: depressed
K: oh, why ? could you tell me ? what happened !
J: why don't you tell me about yourself instead.
J: You're where? UAE right?
J: are you enjoying life there
K: well not that much
K: life here is expensive and my salary is low . so i can't do much activity
J: If you had the money, would there be a lot of fun things to do? What would you do?
K: hmm. I would go to swim in Jumeira beach each weekend and I would go to music shows .and
K: to a lot of shopping
J: There are music shows there? Nice. Kuwait is a cultural wasteland.
K: and enjoying parties
J: You're 20-something right?
K: you know night life also
K: i am 24
K: and you ?
J: me what? my age? I'm nearly twice your age.
K: i see.
K: and what do you do in your weekends?
J: not much.
J: Are you fasting?
K: yep
K: i enjoy fasting
K: have you visited dubai before?
J: no
J: but you're in one of the other emirates, I thought. you're in dubai?
K: i am in ajman city 50 km near dubai
J: are you still practicing Japanese?
K: yep
J: ganbatte ne
K: i make little advancments. still beginner
J: I am a beginner with arabic
J: but I have a problem with regards to arabic because I am finding the arabic culture to be too conservative for me, and this affects my enthusiasm for learning the language.
K: you mean no alcohol and not sexualy liberated , right ?
K: but still you can enjoy other things in arabic culture !
J: There is more to liberal thinking than sex and alcohol. Those are small things, really.
K: i understand. you mean money and politics
K: Jon , can i ask what you are working in kuwait ?
J: I'm teaching. What country are you from? You're not a native of UAE are you?
K: i am from syria
K: what are you teaching ?
J: does it matter?
K: hmm. just out of curiousity
J: I teach English to children with learning disabilities.
K: i see . nice job
J: Your job is technology related?
K: yep
J: My Arabic tutor is also from Syria. He is a nice man, but also very conservative.
K: you are lucky to have syrian arabic tutor.
J: Yes, I've heard that Syrian Arabic is very good.
K: ya , sure
J: Have you ever had any non-Arab friends?
K: ya, many ..
K: from france , germany and england.
K: when i was in syria. i used to make language exchanges with foriegn students who came there to study arabic.
K: with some of them , the relation develped from language partners to friends
J: nice
K: and you . have you ever had any arab friends?
J: No, I never have. I rarely even met any Arabs before coming to Kuwait. Now that I am in Kuwait, I have opportunities to meet Arabs, but there are few social venues for meeting them. My tutor is a nice man, though we have little in common.
J: I meet more Indians and Pakistanis.
J: Language is also a great barrier with the Arabs I'm meeting. Maybe after I learn more things will change greatly for me. I would like to meet Arab intellectuals.
K: i see.
J: Does that make you think anything?
K: i think that you want to understand the arabic mentality , that is why you want to meet intellectuals
J: I watched a program on CNN about life in the Middle East, and they interviewed people at a music festival. These people were interested in peace and freedom of expression. They said that while the news often shows us the segment of Arabic culture that is extremely religious, there is this other side of Arabic culture. I would like to find that other side. The side that likes to demonstrate their religioius piety is everywhere, but I don't see the other side much.
J: Do you understand what I mean by demonstrative piety? We also have many Christian fundamentalists in the US who take this role. I find it very distasteful. The idea of blaring a religious sermon over loudspeakers so loudly that forces everyone to hear your religious beliefs - I find it very offensive.
J: What are they usually saying during those Friday sermons when they are yelling from the mosques? Do you know?
K: you make me really laugh . yelling from the mosques!!
K: ya, i know what they are yelling !
K: do you want me to tell you ?
J: Do you think I am joking, Khalid? They are screaming and yelling in an angry voice. It makes me very upset, though I have no idea what they are saying. There are 3 mosques all around my apartment.
J: Please tell me.
K: ohh, three mosques around your apartment. you are trapped man !
J: It does not give me a very good feeling.
K: i see.
J: So what are they saying?
K: hmm. lots of things
K: first of all . mercy from God to all muslims.
K: peace , hope and love between muslims
J: I'm sorry but I don't believe that. That kind of message is not delivered in an angry voice.
K: and some sayings against Mr.bosh and his regiem
K: who made war in Iraq and who continues to interfier with middle east issues
K: messages against Israel and Jews
K: Jon, what do you know about Islam?
J: Have you ever met a Jew?
K: no , still pinning hope that one day i meet one
K: we don't see jews in arabic countries. rarely!
J: I have met many Jews. Every Jew I have ever met was very decent and good-hearted. I love Jews.
K: well. this is great that you have met many nice Jews. I hope I can also meet nice jews
K: where did you meet them?
K: In America ?
J: I think I have a pretty informed idea of Islam. I was introduced to Islam when I was a teenager. I had a good friend from Hyderabad who was a devout Muslim. Unfortunately the Jews often have a great feeling of insecurity. They call this a "persecution complex." It is because they have been persecuted for hundreds of years. As you know, there are many Muslims who savor the thought of killing a Jew. Yes, I met Jews in America. I had a very close friend who was a Jew when I was in college. He helped me through some very difficult times in my life. He died from heart illness at a very young age. I was with him days before he died.
K: I am sorry for your friend. really hope that God bless him.
K: but , how told you that Muslims savor the thought of killing Jews?
K: well, I really want you to learn Arabic in order to understand Quran
J: I saw it on YouTube.
K: what did you see in YouTube?!
J: There was a little girl who was trained by her parents to say that Jew were dogs and should be killed.
J: She was a very small girl, barely able to talk.
J: It was in Arabic with English subtitles. It made me very sad.
K: Oh, no Jon. Her father is realy sick
K: no good father will teach his little daughter those kind of things.
J: I agree with you about that.
K: he is for sure not a raw muslim model
K: It seemed that he had suffered a lot dear Jon.
K: that is why he turned to that bad state.
K: I really want you to study and to be perfect in Arabic . so that you can read Quran
J: Some people just have a tendency toward hatred. We have many Christians who feel the same way about people who do not think like them. They are fundamentalists. Every religion has fundamentalists.
K: but this is their problem not the Religion problem i think
K: it is their problems to be fundamentalists , not Islam's or Christanity's problem
K: In Quran for example, God has praised several time Jews
K: He is telling that lots of admired prophets were Jews.
J: Forgive me for saying this, but I don't believe the Quran comes from God. I believe it is a book of religious teachings like any other religious book including the Bible. I believe that God reveals himself to us in our lives. Our life story is God's communication to us. This is my belief.
K: Then let me say to me that Quran include your life story and my life story , and thousands and millions of other societies who were one day living creatures upon our beautiful planet
J: I can tell that you have a good heart and a beautiful spiritual attitude.
K: those qualities that you mentioned , Quran always taught me to be spiritual and to respect others .
K: I can be your arabic tutor for free. Just for one reason
J: Well, if you want to attribute everything to the Quran, that's okay. I think your decency reflects not what Quran has done with you, but rather what you have done with the Quran.
K: well even though I don't agree on that. I still want to be your tutor so that one day you will be able to read and judge
K: maybe you will change my vision on Quran , as I really seek truth
K: Truth and nothing but Truth
K: I am really open to all people.
J: When a person immerses himself in something, the ideas will inevitably alter his thinking. If you were to study Buddhism or Christianity or Judaism or even Hinduism very seriously, you would start to see truth there, and if you don't turn back, you would become a convert. I know that as a human being, I have an impressionable mind, and I could be drawn into any of these. But I don't want to go in that direction. Therefore, I look at the Quran as a kind of trap. I am not interested in studying it. I trust God to lead me in my life. I don't need to seek truth because it comes to me every day.
K: I see.
J: This is really true, Khalid. Also your life experience gives you the direction of your soul's journey. If it is consistent with the Quran's teaching from birth to death, it is still the story that life has given you.
J: Thank you for hearing my thoughts and sharing yours. I appreciate having this conversation with you. It is the first time I have spoken candidly with a Muslim.
K: me also. I appreciate it.
J: I have an idea. I know that Muslims pray at designated times during the day. I pray at undesignated times. But I always pray when I am going to bed and falling asleep. I will be praying soon as I lay down for my night of sleep. I will pray for your peace and happiness without any specific wish for any change in your religious status. Please do the same for me.
K: sure sure. I really pray for your happiness. Have a nice sleep . sweet dreams also. Hope to talk to you soon next time
K:
J: Good night!
K: Good night and take care
K: Bye
J: Masalaama
K: مع السلامة
K: hi jon , how is life ? how are you ?
J: depressed
K: oh, why ? could you tell me ? what happened !
J: why don't you tell me about yourself instead.
J: You're where? UAE right?
J: are you enjoying life there
K: well not that much
K: life here is expensive and my salary is low . so i can't do much activity
J: If you had the money, would there be a lot of fun things to do? What would you do?
K: hmm. I would go to swim in Jumeira beach each weekend and I would go to music shows .and
K: to a lot of shopping
J: There are music shows there? Nice. Kuwait is a cultural wasteland.
K: and enjoying parties
J: You're 20-something right?
K: you know night life also
K: i am 24
K: and you ?
J: me what? my age? I'm nearly twice your age.
K: i see.
K: and what do you do in your weekends?
J: not much.
J: Are you fasting?
K: yep
K: i enjoy fasting
K: have you visited dubai before?
J: no
J: but you're in one of the other emirates, I thought. you're in dubai?
K: i am in ajman city 50 km near dubai
J: are you still practicing Japanese?
K: yep
J: ganbatte ne
K: i make little advancments. still beginner
J: I am a beginner with arabic
J: but I have a problem with regards to arabic because I am finding the arabic culture to be too conservative for me, and this affects my enthusiasm for learning the language.
K: you mean no alcohol and not sexualy liberated , right ?
K: but still you can enjoy other things in arabic culture !
J: There is more to liberal thinking than sex and alcohol. Those are small things, really.
K: i understand. you mean money and politics
K: Jon , can i ask what you are working in kuwait ?
J: I'm teaching. What country are you from? You're not a native of UAE are you?
K: i am from syria
K: what are you teaching ?
J: does it matter?
K: hmm. just out of curiousity
J: I teach English to children with learning disabilities.
K: i see . nice job
J: Your job is technology related?
K: yep
J: My Arabic tutor is also from Syria. He is a nice man, but also very conservative.
K: you are lucky to have syrian arabic tutor.
J: Yes, I've heard that Syrian Arabic is very good.
K: ya , sure
J: Have you ever had any non-Arab friends?
K: ya, many ..
K: from france , germany and england.
K: when i was in syria. i used to make language exchanges with foriegn students who came there to study arabic.
K: with some of them , the relation develped from language partners to friends
J: nice
K: and you . have you ever had any arab friends?
J: No, I never have. I rarely even met any Arabs before coming to Kuwait. Now that I am in Kuwait, I have opportunities to meet Arabs, but there are few social venues for meeting them. My tutor is a nice man, though we have little in common.
J: I meet more Indians and Pakistanis.
J: Language is also a great barrier with the Arabs I'm meeting. Maybe after I learn more things will change greatly for me. I would like to meet Arab intellectuals.
K: i see.
J: Does that make you think anything?
K: i think that you want to understand the arabic mentality , that is why you want to meet intellectuals
J: I watched a program on CNN about life in the Middle East, and they interviewed people at a music festival. These people were interested in peace and freedom of expression. They said that while the news often shows us the segment of Arabic culture that is extremely religious, there is this other side of Arabic culture. I would like to find that other side. The side that likes to demonstrate their religioius piety is everywhere, but I don't see the other side much.
J: Do you understand what I mean by demonstrative piety? We also have many Christian fundamentalists in the US who take this role. I find it very distasteful. The idea of blaring a religious sermon over loudspeakers so loudly that forces everyone to hear your religious beliefs - I find it very offensive.
J: What are they usually saying during those Friday sermons when they are yelling from the mosques? Do you know?
K: you make me really laugh . yelling from the mosques!!
K: ya, i know what they are yelling !
K: do you want me to tell you ?
J: Do you think I am joking, Khalid? They are screaming and yelling in an angry voice. It makes me very upset, though I have no idea what they are saying. There are 3 mosques all around my apartment.
J: Please tell me.
K: ohh, three mosques around your apartment. you are trapped man !
J: It does not give me a very good feeling.
K: i see.
J: So what are they saying?
K: hmm. lots of things
K: first of all . mercy from God to all muslims.
K: peace , hope and love between muslims
J: I'm sorry but I don't believe that. That kind of message is not delivered in an angry voice.
K: and some sayings against Mr.bosh and his regiem
K: who made war in Iraq and who continues to interfier with middle east issues
K: messages against Israel and Jews
K: Jon, what do you know about Islam?
J: Have you ever met a Jew?
K: no , still pinning hope that one day i meet one
K: we don't see jews in arabic countries. rarely!
J: I have met many Jews. Every Jew I have ever met was very decent and good-hearted. I love Jews.
K: well. this is great that you have met many nice Jews. I hope I can also meet nice jews
K: where did you meet them?
K: In America ?
J: I think I have a pretty informed idea of Islam. I was introduced to Islam when I was a teenager. I had a good friend from Hyderabad who was a devout Muslim. Unfortunately the Jews often have a great feeling of insecurity. They call this a "persecution complex." It is because they have been persecuted for hundreds of years. As you know, there are many Muslims who savor the thought of killing a Jew. Yes, I met Jews in America. I had a very close friend who was a Jew when I was in college. He helped me through some very difficult times in my life. He died from heart illness at a very young age. I was with him days before he died.
K: I am sorry for your friend. really hope that God bless him.
K: but , how told you that Muslims savor the thought of killing Jews?
K: well, I really want you to learn Arabic in order to understand Quran
J: I saw it on YouTube.
K: what did you see in YouTube?!
J: There was a little girl who was trained by her parents to say that Jew were dogs and should be killed.
J: She was a very small girl, barely able to talk.
J: It was in Arabic with English subtitles. It made me very sad.
K: Oh, no Jon. Her father is realy sick
K: no good father will teach his little daughter those kind of things.
J: I agree with you about that.
K: he is for sure not a raw muslim model
K: It seemed that he had suffered a lot dear Jon.
K: that is why he turned to that bad state.
K: I really want you to study and to be perfect in Arabic . so that you can read Quran
J: Some people just have a tendency toward hatred. We have many Christians who feel the same way about people who do not think like them. They are fundamentalists. Every religion has fundamentalists.
K: but this is their problem not the Religion problem i think
K: it is their problems to be fundamentalists , not Islam's or Christanity's problem
K: In Quran for example, God has praised several time Jews
K: He is telling that lots of admired prophets were Jews.
J: Forgive me for saying this, but I don't believe the Quran comes from God. I believe it is a book of religious teachings like any other religious book including the Bible. I believe that God reveals himself to us in our lives. Our life story is God's communication to us. This is my belief.
K: Then let me say to me that Quran include your life story and my life story , and thousands and millions of other societies who were one day living creatures upon our beautiful planet
J: I can tell that you have a good heart and a beautiful spiritual attitude.
K: those qualities that you mentioned , Quran always taught me to be spiritual and to respect others .
K: I can be your arabic tutor for free. Just for one reason
J: Well, if you want to attribute everything to the Quran, that's okay. I think your decency reflects not what Quran has done with you, but rather what you have done with the Quran.
K: well even though I don't agree on that. I still want to be your tutor so that one day you will be able to read and judge
K: maybe you will change my vision on Quran , as I really seek truth
K: Truth and nothing but Truth
K: I am really open to all people.
J: When a person immerses himself in something, the ideas will inevitably alter his thinking. If you were to study Buddhism or Christianity or Judaism or even Hinduism very seriously, you would start to see truth there, and if you don't turn back, you would become a convert. I know that as a human being, I have an impressionable mind, and I could be drawn into any of these. But I don't want to go in that direction. Therefore, I look at the Quran as a kind of trap. I am not interested in studying it. I trust God to lead me in my life. I don't need to seek truth because it comes to me every day.
K: I see.
J: This is really true, Khalid. Also your life experience gives you the direction of your soul's journey. If it is consistent with the Quran's teaching from birth to death, it is still the story that life has given you.
J: Thank you for hearing my thoughts and sharing yours. I appreciate having this conversation with you. It is the first time I have spoken candidly with a Muslim.
K: me also. I appreciate it.
J: I have an idea. I know that Muslims pray at designated times during the day. I pray at undesignated times. But I always pray when I am going to bed and falling asleep. I will be praying soon as I lay down for my night of sleep. I will pray for your peace and happiness without any specific wish for any change in your religious status. Please do the same for me.
K: sure sure. I really pray for your happiness. Have a nice sleep . sweet dreams also. Hope to talk to you soon next time
K:
J: Good night!
K: Good night and take care
K: Bye
J: Masalaama
K: مع السلامة
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
in lieu of progress reports
I seem to have reached the point of routine. I must have adjusted to my normal state of being a teacher because I am terribly bored with school work and procrastinating like there’s no tomorrow. (Wait a minute… if procrastinate means “put it off till tomorrow” then how can you put something off till tomorrow like there’s no tomorrow? Oh well.) My progress reports were supposed to be done by the end of the day, but I just packed all my paperwork in my briefcase and brought it home and left it on the couch. It is still there, untouched. I have spent the evening with my banjo trying to figure out songs which are probably unsuitable for the banjo. Can anyone really play “It Ain’t Me Babe” on the banjo? I don’t think so. I sure can’t.
My favorite shuttle driver has been transferred to a different route. He was an Indian from Madras. His buddy, another guy from Madras, still drives us to the grocery store. Today I talked to this #2 Madras guy about his family. Communication is very dicey with these Indians. They mix English up with their native language because that’s what is commonly done in India, and they don’t slow down because they don’t know that it’s not normal English. I think he told me that he wanted to bring his wife and child to Kuwait with him, and his wife drank poison because she didn‘t want to come. She went to the hospital, and now she’s okay, but she didn’t come. So I guess her tactic worked. He told me that he is Hindu, and said that the other Madras guy is Hindu, too. I found this interesting because the other guy had told me that he was Christian. I wonder if Hindu religion is somewhat malleable. Maybe you can be a Christian for a while if you feel like it, the gods don’t mind. The grocery store was a madhouse. The funny thing about Ramadan is that everybody is fasting, but you have never seen so much food in your life. It’s because they have huge feasts at the end of each day of fasting, which amounts to every night for a whole month. They gain weight. Speaking of which, I haven’t been to the gym for about a week. I hate paying for a taxi to go to the gym. It seems like I should get paid instead of having to pay. I do carry my heavy briefcase around. But I should go to the gym, because the swimming pool is probably cool enough to swim in now. It still gets into the low 100’s everyday, but that feels like nothing to us.
The paperwork is a drag, but I like my job. The kids are cool. There’s one boy, a little tyke with black-rimmed glasses who loves to say his English words so he just says them over and over. “Good morr-neenk! Good morr-neenk! Good morr-neenk! How arrre you! How arrre you! How arrre you!” The staff likes to say that they are spoiled rotten brats because they’re all from such rich families, but the truth is they are really very eager to please their teachers. You can say to them, “Will you be good boys and girls today?” and most of them will smile and nod eagerly practically jumping up and down to let you know how much they want to please you. If you said that to American kids I think they would laugh at you and shoot spitballs at you. Not that we don’t have behavior problems. But even their behavior problems are kind of funny. Two boys will be fighting. “Sir, he hit my shoulder.” “Well, sir, he put dirt on my paper.” “But sir, he said that my mother was hairy all over.”
I’m sitting here looking at my messy apartment. I have to clean it up. Tomorrow the maid comes. It’s funny that I feel like I need to clean up before the maid comes. She’s Indian too. I know it’s time for her to come when I see the little cottony bits of dust here and there on the floor. There is a lot of dust in the air here, and it gets in through the air conditioners. The maid told me her theory that something was wrong with my bed and cotton was spilling out of it and ending up on the floor. I just nodded and didn’t say anything about the AC. I enjoy hearing her ideas. She is not shy about telling me what I need to do. I need to get a new iron, she says, my iron no good. Also she tells me that my apartment not nice other school’s teacher have much more nice apartment my apartment not nice like other school teachers. She’s very proud of her English because she never went to school herself, and it is pretty good English when you consider that. She likes to be paid at the end of the month in one lump sum, otherwise her husband will spend the money.
Last week she showed up really early and I was getting ready for school. There was a small basket of candy in front of my door. Today is Sweets Day, she explained. Somebody give you sweets. There is a day in the middle of Ramadan called “Girghiahn” when the Kuwaitis dress in their traditional colorful clothes and do something like trick-or-treating. All the kids wore their outfits to school. It was pretty cute. It was funny to see the boys dressed up like little sheiks walking around. A lot of them handed out very fancy gift packs of candy. Mostly the fanciness was in the packaging, and inside was actually very cheap junk candy and peanuts in the shell. One day I didn’t have any lunch with me and I ate that junk candy all day. But I don’t think that’s why I got my case of 27-hour hiccups. The hiccup marathon was a mystery. I have no idea where that came from. I had the hiccups from around noon on Tuesday till Wednesday evening. I was giving an IEP test to a sixth grade kid when the hiccups hit me. Actually it was the same kid with the black rim glasses. I asked him how you say hiccups in Arabic, and he said “Mafaaghe.” He didn’t complete the test, and I had to continue testing him the next day and I still had mafaaghe. He didn’t seem that surprised though. He just looked at me funny. He probably thought foreigners get mafaaghe for a long time. At least the hiccups stopped for about an hour when I had to be interviewed at the Ministry of Education office on Tuesday night. I thought it was just going to be a formality, showing my certification and getting some papers stamped or something, so I didn’t dress up - I was wearing jeans and an Alaska t-shirt. When I got there, all the other teachers were wearing suits and ties. And there I was, jeans, t-shirt, and hiccups. One of the custodians there took me into a small kitchen and gave me a glass of cold water, and I held my breath and took tiny swallows ten at a time. It worked long enough for me to get through the interview. As soon as I got home they started up again. The next day I went through all kinds of superstitious ideas and philosophical analysis about what it meant to have the hiccups for so long. They finally stopped in the evening. I don’t know if it was the foamy non-alcoholic beer I drank or the intercessory prayers for a cure that my brother offered up on my behalf after reading of my ordeal in a family email.
I still don’t know who gave me the little basket of candy. Unlike the peanuts and sour chewies that were in all the kids’ Girghian bags, this had really good milk chocolates in it. I think it might have come from the neighbor across the hall. She’s a science teacher, and she makes big bucks moonlighting as a tutor for physics and chemistry students. She was the one who talked to me about her career the day that I broke the window when I was locked in. I hope she isn’t trying to flirt with me. But the chocolate is very good. I wonder if she hears me playing with the banjo sometimes. I have to say “playing with the banjo” because you see, I’m not actually playing the banjo. That would require some kind of knowledge of how to play a banjo.
Tomorrow I am going to have to go to my coordinator and tell him that I had technical difficulties and couldn’t complete my progress reports.
My favorite shuttle driver has been transferred to a different route. He was an Indian from Madras. His buddy, another guy from Madras, still drives us to the grocery store. Today I talked to this #2 Madras guy about his family. Communication is very dicey with these Indians. They mix English up with their native language because that’s what is commonly done in India, and they don’t slow down because they don’t know that it’s not normal English. I think he told me that he wanted to bring his wife and child to Kuwait with him, and his wife drank poison because she didn‘t want to come. She went to the hospital, and now she’s okay, but she didn’t come. So I guess her tactic worked. He told me that he is Hindu, and said that the other Madras guy is Hindu, too. I found this interesting because the other guy had told me that he was Christian. I wonder if Hindu religion is somewhat malleable. Maybe you can be a Christian for a while if you feel like it, the gods don’t mind. The grocery store was a madhouse. The funny thing about Ramadan is that everybody is fasting, but you have never seen so much food in your life. It’s because they have huge feasts at the end of each day of fasting, which amounts to every night for a whole month. They gain weight. Speaking of which, I haven’t been to the gym for about a week. I hate paying for a taxi to go to the gym. It seems like I should get paid instead of having to pay. I do carry my heavy briefcase around. But I should go to the gym, because the swimming pool is probably cool enough to swim in now. It still gets into the low 100’s everyday, but that feels like nothing to us.
The paperwork is a drag, but I like my job. The kids are cool. There’s one boy, a little tyke with black-rimmed glasses who loves to say his English words so he just says them over and over. “Good morr-neenk! Good morr-neenk! Good morr-neenk! How arrre you! How arrre you! How arrre you!” The staff likes to say that they are spoiled rotten brats because they’re all from such rich families, but the truth is they are really very eager to please their teachers. You can say to them, “Will you be good boys and girls today?” and most of them will smile and nod eagerly practically jumping up and down to let you know how much they want to please you. If you said that to American kids I think they would laugh at you and shoot spitballs at you. Not that we don’t have behavior problems. But even their behavior problems are kind of funny. Two boys will be fighting. “Sir, he hit my shoulder.” “Well, sir, he put dirt on my paper.” “But sir, he said that my mother was hairy all over.”
I’m sitting here looking at my messy apartment. I have to clean it up. Tomorrow the maid comes. It’s funny that I feel like I need to clean up before the maid comes. She’s Indian too. I know it’s time for her to come when I see the little cottony bits of dust here and there on the floor. There is a lot of dust in the air here, and it gets in through the air conditioners. The maid told me her theory that something was wrong with my bed and cotton was spilling out of it and ending up on the floor. I just nodded and didn’t say anything about the AC. I enjoy hearing her ideas. She is not shy about telling me what I need to do. I need to get a new iron, she says, my iron no good. Also she tells me that my apartment not nice other school’s teacher have much more nice apartment my apartment not nice like other school teachers. She’s very proud of her English because she never went to school herself, and it is pretty good English when you consider that. She likes to be paid at the end of the month in one lump sum, otherwise her husband will spend the money.
Last week she showed up really early and I was getting ready for school. There was a small basket of candy in front of my door. Today is Sweets Day, she explained. Somebody give you sweets. There is a day in the middle of Ramadan called “Girghiahn” when the Kuwaitis dress in their traditional colorful clothes and do something like trick-or-treating. All the kids wore their outfits to school. It was pretty cute. It was funny to see the boys dressed up like little sheiks walking around. A lot of them handed out very fancy gift packs of candy. Mostly the fanciness was in the packaging, and inside was actually very cheap junk candy and peanuts in the shell. One day I didn’t have any lunch with me and I ate that junk candy all day. But I don’t think that’s why I got my case of 27-hour hiccups. The hiccup marathon was a mystery. I have no idea where that came from. I had the hiccups from around noon on Tuesday till Wednesday evening. I was giving an IEP test to a sixth grade kid when the hiccups hit me. Actually it was the same kid with the black rim glasses. I asked him how you say hiccups in Arabic, and he said “Mafaaghe.” He didn’t complete the test, and I had to continue testing him the next day and I still had mafaaghe. He didn’t seem that surprised though. He just looked at me funny. He probably thought foreigners get mafaaghe for a long time. At least the hiccups stopped for about an hour when I had to be interviewed at the Ministry of Education office on Tuesday night. I thought it was just going to be a formality, showing my certification and getting some papers stamped or something, so I didn’t dress up - I was wearing jeans and an Alaska t-shirt. When I got there, all the other teachers were wearing suits and ties. And there I was, jeans, t-shirt, and hiccups. One of the custodians there took me into a small kitchen and gave me a glass of cold water, and I held my breath and took tiny swallows ten at a time. It worked long enough for me to get through the interview. As soon as I got home they started up again. The next day I went through all kinds of superstitious ideas and philosophical analysis about what it meant to have the hiccups for so long. They finally stopped in the evening. I don’t know if it was the foamy non-alcoholic beer I drank or the intercessory prayers for a cure that my brother offered up on my behalf after reading of my ordeal in a family email.
I still don’t know who gave me the little basket of candy. Unlike the peanuts and sour chewies that were in all the kids’ Girghian bags, this had really good milk chocolates in it. I think it might have come from the neighbor across the hall. She’s a science teacher, and she makes big bucks moonlighting as a tutor for physics and chemistry students. She was the one who talked to me about her career the day that I broke the window when I was locked in. I hope she isn’t trying to flirt with me. But the chocolate is very good. I wonder if she hears me playing with the banjo sometimes. I have to say “playing with the banjo” because you see, I’m not actually playing the banjo. That would require some kind of knowledge of how to play a banjo.
Tomorrow I am going to have to go to my coordinator and tell him that I had technical difficulties and couldn’t complete my progress reports.
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