Hey, so if anyone is still checking this once and a while I have not posted in a while and have no real excuse for it. So here goes.
I was recently on a school trip to Kuwait, yea things are done differently overseas. In alberta you have to get waivers and permisson to go across town with students. We go to Kuwait with 20 students with 2 teachers and are not in charge of them the whole time. The students were hosted by families in Kuwait, Iwill get back to some of those stories in a bit. We fly to Kuwait at 7am on wednesday morning, we arrive at the visa issuing desk and start the process of buying entrance into the country. It is early morning and there are a lot of businessmen there as well so I knew this was going to take a while. when we get to the counter we find out there is a list of countries Kuwait will let into the country and many they will not without special visas. well as you can guess I have 5 students who are on the do not let into the country list. The once officer makes it clear that the girl from Venesuala will not be coming into his country...the Taiwanese girls (3 of them) have diplomatice passports or they would have been told the same thing. they have to get permission from the Chinese government because China still considers Tiwan part of China, it is crazy. Oh and the last girl is a South African...they are horrible people as well to the Kuwaities, I guess. A man with more Wasta comes over, (more power) and says he understands we are here for a school funcition and wants to help me get into the country with every student. he was a very nice guy and I did not ever get a chance to thank him for his work. So we have to contact the school that we are going to and they have to go and get visas for us so that we can come play badminton. this does get sorted out but it does take 5 hours in all. The plus side to all of this is that the students did not know each other all that well and they had ample opportunity to gel. That part was really good, the stressful part is that a Canadian teacher that has not gone with students to a different country has the hardest time getting into a country then all of the other teams that travelled comined this year. Good learning experience forsure.
Kuwait was amazing though. it is a very beautiful place but there is not a lot to do there. it is a dry country, kind of. you can smuggle beer and wine making kits into the country or you can buy blackmarket booze of the governement that is in charge of making sure it does not come into the country...ha ha got to love political corruption. It all depends on who you are... the black market booze is really expensive so most people do not bother with it anway. I did try my hosts beer, I think I could go without if that was what my choice was...it was not overly great. Labatt has nothing to worry about with competition. We got a chance to go to an amazing spa for a while, it was called the Palms...very nice place.
Three days of badminton started at 7:30 am and finished around 6 pm most nights, it was a lot of sitting around and watching but the students had a great time even with all the sore shoulders. The friendships they made were fantasic, the hosting was second to none. A few students got to stay at the Amir's home (he is the ruler of Kuwait) the got to ride around on a tank in the back yard, go for a drive in a farri and get rides to school in a bentley, it is a tough life. Some of the students said they stayed in a house big enough to need an elevator, absolutley rediculous.... the money that is over in the middle east is mind boggling. A story on that, the Kuwait goverment is disscussing paying off all local loans to help the kuwaitie people with debt. like they need this. the funny thing is that because it became public they are expecting it to happen now. (the local Kuwaitie people that is). Unfortunalty you can not become a Kuwaitie even if you live there the rest of your life, you have to be born into this world.
Back to the badminton, the students had a great time overall and were a bit tired when we had to come home, but most wanted to stay a little while longer to hang out with new friends. That i think is a great success. We got back into Dubai at 1:30 am when the airport is the busiest it possibly can be, crazy busy. there were 10 000 people waiting at passport control easliy. we did not wait long and got out of there in less then an hour I would say. all students got picked up from their parents and slept the next day for a long time.
well if you are still reading I thank you, I hear it is cold and lots of snow in Alberta right now. that is not great, it is staying warm here and the messed up thing is that below 30 degrees now I feel cold. I know I have no sypathy at all from those of you reading this but I will freeze my butt off when I get back in June I am sure.
7 more weeks, I am excited to come back, even more so to see everyone again and just be back with my family. it has been an amazing ride so far I am already looking forward to next year and see how it plays out. I may even stay a 3rd year, but I should probably finish the first before I think about the 3rd.
Take care, I will get pictures up of Kuwait soon!!
Curtis
