Episode 2:  First Impressions

December 9, 2007
Mahboula, Kuwait
By Mary Sincioco

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.
Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”
—Susan Heller

Trump Towers – Almost

After a tearful reunion at the airport, my husband Sin drove me to his shared apartment at the upscale “Mareena Towers” in Mahboula, Kuwait. The complex was impressive, but seemed very out of place among all the construction rubble, trash piles and bumpy dirt roads surrounding it. Sin says that is common here in Kuwait, to have a million dollar building but no infrastructure around it. But his apartment comes furnished, complete with breathtaking ocean view! Too bad we’re only staying here for a few days until we move to our new apartment 20 minutes south in Fahaheel, Kuwait.

A New Day Dawns

I awoke at 6:30 a.m. the next morning and my husband laughingly teased me that I had been snoring as loud as a jackhammer! I was starved but so weak from exhaustion that I could barely lift my spoon to my mouth to eat my Apple Jacks. No local fare for us this morning! We started the morning off right with hearty sugary cereal with “full-fat” milk, as it is labeled. (Btw, do you think any conscientious American would ever buy something that reads “full-fat”? Just a thought.)

I stumbled to the bathroom, almost fell over and had to get Sin to help me back into bed. I have to admit that I felt so weak after 30+ hours of travel, that I couldn’t even open my own bottled water. That’s pretty pathetic! After a few more hours of sleep I felt almost human, and forced my tired body out of bed reminding myself that I might as well try to adjust to the new time zone now.

Sin had bottled water delivered from the store downstairs – a whole case of it! The tapwater here is desalinated and okay for brushing teeth and showering, but most people just drink bottled water. Sin said that he drank the tapwater anyway on his first day here without any consequences. But, there’s no EPA here so I’m not taking any chances. Sin also ordered us a curry chicken and rice dish from the Jamaican restaurant downstairs. Absolutely delish! Now that I think about it, it’s funny that my first Kuwaiti meal was actually Jamaican. Pretty representative of Kuwait, though, because it seems that almost everything here is imported, including the cuisine. It is difficult to find any products at all that are native to Kuwait.

At this point my wonderful husband took me out to see the new apartment he had procured for us in Fahaheel, Kuwait. An apartment that he told me wouldn’t be as luxurious as the Mareena Towers, but infinitely superior due to its location. It’s attached to a mall, with another mall across the street. Yay! (Yes, for those of you who believed I was truly suffering here, I hate to disillusion you…)

The whole place looked like Las Vegas to me, complete with palm trees and a fountain that dances to music! I was stunned. We walked through the mall admiring the glass-front stores and meticulously-dressed clerks. The stores and restaurants were more familiar than I had anticipated – Chili’s, The Body Shop, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts (no joke), even designer stores like Ralph Laurens.

I was also relieved to find a grocery store across the street from our complex, called “The Sultan Center.” But we immediately suffered from sticker shock upon seeing the prices. You see, the U.S. dollar is sadly lacking in spending power here compared to the almighty KD (Kuwaiti Dinar). 1 KD = $3.78 USD. To give you an example, 1 bottle of liquid dishwashing detergent = 4 KD = over $14! A dozen small eggs at the Sultan Center (not even Grade A) can run you 2.5 KD = almost $10! Now I understand how immigrants to the U.S. might feel, if their currencies don’t stand up to the almighty dollar. (Later I found some cramped and unpleasant, but far cheaper, “wholesale” stores; I’ll share about that in another entry. There's also a PX at Camp Arifjan but it's more like a CVS).

—Mary Sincioco