Salmiya

To all my friends in the Middle East: Ramadan Kareem! Thanks for the wonderful crescent to intlxpatr.com .

I have recently mentioned these two guys in another posting mainly featuring my friends Seyed and Mirwuis from Afghanistan. All of them are dedicated and honest carpet dealers with profound knowledge, selling high quality pieces from their home country, from Iran and Central Asia. I don’t know how carpet business is right now in Kuwait for Ali and Hussain. It all depends on the Westerners, I suppose. Kuwaitis go for different pieces, I was told in the Persian Carpet Exhibition in Salmiya. I had mentioned them in relation to a photo which I have carried for some time even in my wallet. It shows both, Ali and Hussain and a little Afghan girl weaving a carpet. Hussain, the lad on the right, proudly smiles into the camera. Ali, his older brother, seems to be more quiet but very self-confident. The girl doesn’t smile. In fact, you can feel even an atmosphere of embarrassment emanating from the girl. She might not be older than, say, seven or eight. Let’s call her Fatima. The photo is a ki...

I know that I was always very privileged when living in the country. My Ramadans were usually nice times full of interesting discussions about religious matters and in general plenty of opportunities for widening my horizon. However, the easy-going times of Ramadan are now definitely over. Since last year (when I had left the Middle East for good already) the Holy Month is moving into the summer months and will be observed for about 12 years during the scorching heat. A full circle of the Gregorian-Hijra calendar is 33 years, an entire generation. Since in Muslim countries the population is very young, few people have experienced the harsh conditions of fasting during the long, extremely hot and, what makes it even worse, humid days. I have noticed that the weather conditions were very uncomfortable in Kuwait the last days. When living in Kuwait, I had expressed my concerns many times and usually was told by the older Kuwaiti colleagues that people were used to it. I doubt. Most people...

Ramadan had always amazed me when I was living in the Middle East. The whole society voluntarily synchronized, and for days before the beginning of the month preparations took place in order to store enough food at home for the upcoming days of fasting during daylight. I remember one Thursday morning, the last day of the month Sha’aban, when, as usual on weekends, I drove my car to the huge industrial areas of Shuwaikh in order to do my weekend shopping. Besides the Sultan Center’s wholesale grocery store there, I loved to visit the two Al Mirah Markets close-by. It was unfortunately too late when I realized that tens of thousands of Kuwaitis in their huge four-wheel-drives had exactly the same idea of shopping food. I was standing for several hours in the car queues with stop and go. During Ramadan it was, of course, tolerated that we Westerners did not strictly follow the religious rules. Many of us had, at least in their closed offices, a sandwich for lunch. Our Bangladeshi coffee b...

When Kuwait University Dental School was established there was soon a demand for a special animal teaching model for oral surgical methods. Dental students throughout the world are frequently trained in different flap designs and suturing techniques by using mandibles of freshly slaughtered pigs. But they were, of course, not available in an Islamic country. What is available and can be seen hanging on hooks in the numerous butcheries in Kuwait are sheep. Arabs love eating mutton and lamb. I quickly learned that the animals were not slaughtered in these places. Early in the morning the butchers are supplied with the slaughtered sheep by the local slaughterhouses. But where are those? Not being able of reading Arabic signs, I was too new in Kuwait, as to be able to find easily every place in the vast industrial areas where I assumed the slaughterhouses to be. Somebody had told me that the main slaughterhouse of the State of Kuwait is located in Shuwaikh, close to the main fire station o...