Message from land of sand and camel shit

I have not had the chance to update this Blog in a week or so. It has been quite an eventful time. Originally I was to come over to Kuwait as an Operations Supervisor, to aid the field operators and maintenace crews in the operation of the Lower fars Pilot project. After beginning over here, things changed slightly.

I have now taken the position of Project Manager for the Lower fars Project. Not sure how I always find ways to make more work for myself, but here I go again. No more rotation, so less travelling than orginally planned. I do get my weekends off now so I will at least get the chance to see more of the country, which so far I have found quite interesting. I was told a quote a couple days ago, by a guy who had worked in Kuwait. He had said "Kuwait is not a country. It's a screen saver." Looking at it, it appears nice and neat, but behind the scenes there is alot going on, some of which is not so nice, that keeps things operating as they do. In some areas, things are quite surprising to myself, mainly as I am a spoiled westerner. And in other areas you see the ferrari's, the bentley's and other expensive cars, which are equally surprising.


Along with the fact that they are paying more money, and that appeals to my selfish side, they also supplied me with a new apartment. No more view of McDonalds from my window. Now the view is of the water. Although it is a block away, the view is fairly appealling. The picture shown is taken from the leaving room balcony. Even though the sand and water look nice and inviting, I highly doubt I will see any bikini sporting blondes strolling past. More likely the view will consist of women dressed in black from head to toe, showing nothing but their eyes, and possibly some expats who are mainly men. Oh well.

All in all, I have had an interesting time so far. Still a lot to see, do and learn. I will try my best to find time for entertainment, and not only work. As well, I will try to update this more often, but time to sit and ramble has been limited lately.

Till next time,

Baldwin out!

Frogger

I am gonna start off by telling you about the scariest thing I have done in my life. Crossing the street on foot in Kuwait!!!! Of all the things I thought I would find that would be difficult, I never would have guessed that trying to walk across a street would be one of them. I feel like I am in a game of "Frogger", only the vehicles here are faster. While on the topic of things that make me damn near shit my pants, I might as well mention the driving here as well. Thankfully I am still using a driver rather than attempting it myself yet, but I am not sure he has a license. Yesterday was the first day I went into the field. The trip there is about an hour on a major highway. It is the most direct route from Kuwait City to Iraq. The average speed on the road was around 150km/hr(posted limit is 120). Nobody signals, and where as back home we just get pissed off on the highway if someone is in the fast lane going to slow(which here is 130-140), here they will ride up on your ass and honk and if all else fails try to pass on the shoulder.

Other than the near death experiences work is going well. The Pilot project has been put together quite well and the workers seem friendly enough even if I have no clue what they are saying most of the time. My field office is approx 400m south of the of the old Iraq border (pre '91). There is also 2 additional locations north of this border which I need a gate pass to get to (still waiting for that), as it is patrolled. The field is approx 10km south of the new Iraq/Kuwait border. I would like to take some pictures, but this will take time as I have to be careful not to be seen with a camera anywhere off of the highway. There is 1 camera in the field which is licensed with KOC (kuwait Oil Company).

As for trying to take pictures of everything else around the city, this also has proved challenging. I got in shit for taking a picture in the loby of the apartment building in which I was staying, or more I would assume for having the camera out and potentially taking a picture of his ugly mug.

I managed to snap one of the lobby anyways.




I will apologize now for my camera skills, as most of my pictures are, and probably will continue to be shot from the hip, as everyone seems to have an issue with cameras.

Here are a couple pictures i took of the beach which is a hop and skip across the road from my apartment building. This is where I was headed when I found out the dangers of walking across the streets here.









Here is a picture of some kids playing on the beach and in the water. 25 degrees celsius and fully clothed from head to toe.


Well that is all for now, I will try and update again soon as long as I don't get ran over crossing the f%&king street.


Later,
Brett

Arrived

After a fairly uneventful flight, I have finally arrived in Kuwait. It is a relief to be here considering I was running almost a month behind schedule. Right now I am sitting in my apartment, which is not to shabby. I am drinking an expensive dunkin donuts coffee and watching 1 of the only 4 english channels that are on the tv, all of which are news. I didn't manage to get any sleep on the way over so my body is unsure of which time it actually is. The lack of sleep can't be blamed on to much coffee, as the only coffee I have had in the last 24 hours was a $7 cup of coffee( nothing special) in Frankfurt airport.

I got to the apartment around 10 p.m. and found the place to be fairly nice. Below are some pictures of the place and the McDonalds across the street.