Extreme Kuwait in a Day - Farmers Markets and Camel Races

We had a wonderful long New Year's weekend and took advantage of the extra time and beautiful Kuwait wintertime weather (~70 degrees and sunny everyday!) to spend time with friends and explore a couple unique Kuwaiti locations.  Today we had a busy day and got a taste of two dramatically different aspects of Kuwaiti/Middle Eastern culture.  In the morning we headed downtown to the Qout Market, and in the afternoon we drove far out into the desert to watch the weekly camel races.  

The Qout market is held on the first Saturday of the winter months on the rooftop of one of the many skyscrapers in Kuwait City.  Kuwait is undoubtably an arid desert country, but in a part of the southern part of the country near the Saudi Arabia border, and part of the northern part of the country near the Iraq boarder, there are large underground water sources which allow for farming.  Kuwaiti's take great pride in these farming locations and many wealthy Kuwaiti's own property and run small organic farms and harvest a large variety of fruits and vegetables. The Quot market is an opportunity for these farms to showcase their crops, and for local bakery vendors to sell their goods.  There was lots of great food, coffees, teas and even some live music.  The atmosphere was very vibrant and had an almost artsy feel, which is very unique for Kuwait.  

This is the sign marketing the way to the market

The market location offered a great view of the surrounding buildings.

This is the Hamra Tower, the tallest building in Kuwait 

We tried a delicious goat cheese and blueberry foccacia bread.

Fruits and goods from one of the farms near the Iraq/Kuwait border

We finished at the Market in the late morning and headed out of the city and into the vast and barren Kuwaiti desert.  Camels served a critical role in Kuwaiti and Arab life throughout history.  Camels are of course no longer the preferred method of travel across the Arab desert, and are no longer heavily utilized in everyday life in the desert, although there are many parts of the bedouin community that still continue to use camels as an everyday part of their life and work. Camel racing is very popular, and during the winter months, the Kuwait Camel Club host a series of weekly races far out into the desert.  Each Saturday at noon, the owners of the racing camels meet at the club for lunch.  Following the lunch, or whenever they feel ready, they lead their camels to the starting line and begin the races.  There is a finish line with huge leather seats for the owners and the race is broadcast on large TVs.  For the rest of us it is much less high tech and luxurious, but a lot more fun.  The race is not run on a circular track.  The camels are lead to a starting line many kilometers away and then race back to the finish.  The camels are fitted with "robot" jockeys which are controled by team members who ride in the back of pickup trucks along side the camels.  The spectators also follow along side the race in vehicles, which is what we did to get an up-close look at the racing action.  Just like a lot of things in this region, almost anything goes and you are for the most part free and drive along side however you see fit, so it was a lot of fun for all! 

Camel being lead to the starting line of the race.

The metal fencing marked the race course and vehicles drive along side the fence to watch the race.  The sand does not look very deep or rough in this shot, but we were very thankful for our 4x4 and even needed to drop it into low gear to get ourselves unstuck.  

Getting  up for the start 

This man is carrying a "robot" jockey to mount on his camel.  There is a small whip, which from what we could tell, was basically just set to smack the camel from start to finish.  

Ben was keeping a close eye on the racers so that he would not miss the start

The racers are off!

We hung with the pack to see the action!  Notice the background music?  In Kuwait during the call to prayer, the local radio stations all go off the air for 5 minutes and broadcast this music as a notice of prayer time.  

Family photo with some worn-out racers.

After driving the course along side the racers we were thankful to have survived and viewed the remaining races from the finish line area. 

Here is the winner!

Close race for second.

From the finish line you could not see much of the course, but you would see a cloud of dust in the distance getting closer.  This is what was coming...

And very fitting for the occasion, we got caught in a little traffic on the way home.  

It was a great day and we are glad to have the opportunity to experience these unique aspects of life in Kuwait.  We will likely return to each before our time here comes to an end in the coming months.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our family and friends around the world! We feel so thankful and blessed for the wonderful 2014 year. Nathan and I were talking about the past year over lunch yesterday, and we enjoyed remembering the experiences and memories made though out the year.  We are thankful for all the family time we had this past year, for our families' visits and for the new places we had the opportunity to explore.  As we drove around and observed life around us, we talked about how things that seemed so foreign to us 18 months ago, are so normal to us today. We have embraced and enjoyed life in this part of the world, and despite the craziness and things that just don't seem to make much sense at times, there are many aspects that we have come to love and certainly will miss when we leave this summer.

It has been a big year for the boys. Caleb started his second year of pre-school here, and is a very fun little boy. He became potty trained this summer, and has done great with the transition. We can now have full conversations with him, are told stories and jokes, and we love watching his imagination run wild.

At the beginning of this year, Benjamin was crawling, and now he runs at full speed, loves to ride a scooter, kick balls, and set up his trains, cars, and animals. He is starting to talk a lot more, and loves being a helper. Benjamin started pre-school this year and loves being a big boy. This year has been crazy, fun, and we wouldn't want it any other way! 

We brought in the new year last night with a campout in our living room. The boys have been enjoying their new sleeping bags, camping chairs, and tent.

 Dad even made a fire (out of construction paper) and we made smores.

 Caleb is really into Charlie Brown movies and was enjoying the Great Pumpkin movie last night.

 On New Years Day, we went to the zoo with some friends.

 The weather was beautiful and the animals were out and about. 

A trip to the zoo is not complete without riding the train!

 Our friends and their sweet daughter.

 The three stooges checking out the parrots.

 Afterwards, we had a picnic and the let kids run around for a couple of hours.

Everyone is showing their funny faces!

Sending you New Years wishes from Kuwait!

Out and about with the boys

We had a fun long weekend. The sun is going down early, around 5pm, so we have been doing a bit of night walking and playing. This weekend we walked to a different park that is close to our house, that has lots of great play equipment. 

Ben is becoming a great climber like his big brother. Just a few weeks ago he would not cross this bridge and now he can do it all by himself.

Around here, a lot of parks are not lit at night and safety standards are a little different than in the US.  It's not uncommon to find play equipment with no bars to preclude kids from walking or falling off. Well, the boys had lots of fun playing, but after both boys walked right off of the equipment and fell to the ground, we thought maybe it was time to call it a night. They both shook it off and were fine, but I guess we should go back to this park when the sun is up ;).

The next day we went to the Science Center, saw an IMAX movie, and went out to lunch. We played by the water for a little while before going inside the science center.

And we even saw a man walking in his underwear!

 Enjoying a strawberry donut at Starbucks.

 Caleb admiring the skateboards in his new skateboard shoes that daddy got them when he was in the states.

 Benjamin lining up his trucks in the sandbox.

 He is turning into quite the dare devil and likes to jump into your arms.

 Boys were excited to see the Galapagos IMAX movie. They did great and both sat through the entire film. Caleb wore his 3D glasses and asked about all the animals. Ben chewed on his glasses, but he liked seeing all the blurry animals.

 Afterwards, we ate at a new Applebees that is connected to the science center. Nathan and I were saying at lunch how much things have changed with the boys this past year and a half. When we first moved to Kuwait, we could only be out for a couple of hours, before they crashed for naps and now we can be out for hours on end. Lots of fun time ahead!

 And that day made for two tired boys…and parents!

Happy Monday!