Eid Al Adha

     Tomorrow is the first day of the three-day celebration of Eid Al Adha.  What does this mean to me?  Not really that much, especially spiritual-wise, but I do get a week of vacation time that just happens to correspond with Eid Al Adha.  A welcomed break from school, you can imagine.  I don't really know that much about it, so I won't try to share anything but the things that I actually do know.

     First, this Eid is related to the hajj.  I have seen photos of this majestic ceremony.

    Secondly, this is a time of giving.  Yesterday at school, the Arabic staff gave us a delicious lunch of fatayer, arayes, machboos, a sweet, and a drink.  I love being social over a nice meal.  Isn't that what life is all about?  When I thanked several teachers, they told me that this is their way of sharing their Eid with us as Eid is a time of giving.

     Thirdly, I know that the first day of Eid is fatteh (sp?), a fatted sheep is killed, rather like an offering.  One third of the meat is given away to others and the rest is cooked up for the fatteh feast.  I have been invited to the fatteh feast tomorrow at my friend Inas's house, which I am anticipating very much!

     This morning a pickup pulled up to the apartment building next door and unloaded 4 sheep.  The video I took is too big to upload to this blog, so here is a photo:

Closeup of Construction Practices in Kuwait

Watching construction of all kinds fascinates me, but mostly I love houses and buildings.  I blame it all on my dad; he was a carpenter.  I learned so much about construction by watching him building the houses in our neighborhood as I was growing up.  I saw everything from the excavation to the final finishing touches......and was able to learn by helping him.  

So now I am in Kuwait and seeing construction practices that I have never seen before and which would have my dad turning in his grave.   I want to share some of these things with you, because you never know:  some of you might even be as interested as I am!   I have taken many photos of buildings around here in their various stages, but nothing as complete as the process that is going on at the building next door.

Now keep in mind:  this is Kuwait, a third-world country with first-world money.  And one of the reasons that Kuwaitis are as rich as they are is that they find the cheapest labor they can find to do all the hard work.  These people come from many different countries to earn an honest living, but they are being taken advantage of and put in unsafe conditions just so that Kuwaitis can save a few bucks.  A sad situation, in my mind.

Anyway, to begin.  My story starts last April when I returned from my vacation with Grace in Cairo.  The building next door had a little accident with the brick facade falling off.   I posted a photo on Facebook about it.   There were bricks and debris all over the place over there; every day I would have to look out at it because my window overlooks the roof and the lobby area.  The debris took a little rest over the hot summer until this past week.  I have been photographing and videoing the repair process and that is what I am sharing with you.

One morning I looked out and saw a man digging through the debris and sorting out the salvageable bricks.   He picked out the reusable bricks and put them in his wheelbarrow and wheeled it over to the wall and then stacked the bricks next to the wall.   Here is the video:

Then another morning I saw they were building the scaffolding.  This was such an interesting process.....and very old fashioned.  When is the last time you saw old wood scaffolding that was lashed together with pieces of cloth?  

The next step was to get the bricks up on the scaffolding so they could begin the actual work:

Here is a video showing their manual labor as they are putting up the bricks:   Aw, too bad...the file is too big to upload.   I will have to learn to edit and cut it down to proper size.

Here is a video of them mixing the cement.   Is it any wonder that the bricks don't stay attached to the wall????   Damn.....too big, also.

Did you notice the workman wearing sandals?   There are no safety standards that have to be followed here.   Who cares if someone gets badly hurt?   Workmen are a dime a dozen....okay, a dinar a dozen....almost literally.   There are working people here who make $350-$400 a month and are expected to survive on that.

This was my documentary of the day.   Hope you enjoyed it.   I will get those videos fixed and attached as soon as possible.

Home - Summer 2014

Yes!   I'm finally home!  Grace, Alex, Cassi, and Jeramiah met me at the airport at 8 pm!!!   So happy to see them all, but missed the girls.  We went out for Mexican, since that is what I have been dreaming about.  A very nice homecoming indeed.

Yesterday morning I was awakened by Jill and Brian who had driven up from Laramie on their 34th anniversary!  I'm so glad they came!   We went to Tacos Mexico for lunch, stopped at Big Lots to check out their treasures, then joined Cassi and her mother for Cassi's wedding dress fitting.  Then we went out to Beth and Ed's to see Alex's new baby and Grandpa Richard.  After a long day of visiting in-laws and out-laws, the Blocks drove home.  They needed to get home to have a good rest since they planned to go to the Brooks' new home in Wellington to help them move.  A big day and a happy day for me!!!   I love my sister!!!


This morning I left the house at 5:30 for a walk down to the river.  The sky was overcast and so beautiful; rain was falling to the north, I could see and was hoping it would come our way.  The storm clouds were all shades of navy blue from dark to lightest gray.  There was a silver light shining through a hole in the clouds: the sun wanting to say "Good morning!"  I walked along the path next to the Three Crowns Golf Course and enjoyed the emerald greens.  Quite a few of the trees along the path have died and disappeared, but there were still caraganas, cottonwoods, and elms.  The variety of prairie grasses brought back memories of my childhood and our traipsing up to G-Hill or playing in Mrs. Dye's weeds.  The river was a bit low, but the best part was the white-tail doe on the little island near the bridge.  She was very aware of me, but wasn't afraid enough to run away.  It was only 54F which is only a few degrees warmer than the 50C that I left in Kuwait!  I love it!