This morning, after my daily venture to Starbucks, my best friend and I decided to run a quick errand. The weather was very dark, almost rainy, and we had experienced the worst sand storm ever last night. It was still very windy today.

While we're waiting in the car for our errand to be complete, another vehicle pulled up next to us with the typical Kuwait family. Man driving, woman wrapped in black, and kids climbing all over the place without any restraints. Before the vehicle could even stop the woman had her door open, the man started yelling, moving his hands all over the place as if his voice wasn't enough to make a point, and then he drove like a maniac into the nearest parking space. The woman, clearly angry, jumped out of the vehicle, her black clothing blowing in the wind, her underneath clothing showing as if it was all she was wearing. It was almost as if she was so angry at her husband she was screaming, "SCREW YOU!" only without words, but allowing the wind to speak for her. Though I understand quite a bit of Arabic at this point I was unable to hear anything they were screaming when she returned to the car. Although I am sure it went something like, "You stupid, small minded woman! You never listen." And, "That's because you never speak and make sense!" Needless to say my best friend and I laughed hysterically for a while about them.

After a business meeting downtown we decided to head to Mais Alghanim for lunch. It's my absolute favorite place to eat in Kuwait, and the food is to die for.

During our lunch I noticed this incredibly attractive man sitting across from us, but he was with his wife. However, when she excused herself to go to the restroom, he didn't attempt to hide the fact that he shared my interest. Though it seems we're both very attached to someone else. Personally, I think most Arabic men are incredibly attractive, but I would never stray from what I have. However, there seems to be a shortage of men in this country, in turn giving them the right to stray all over the place should they choose to do so. Most do, some don't. Because he was clearly with his wife I wasn't going to allow our interest to be more than a few innocent glances across a table. But rest assured, had it been his wife exchanging glances with a man, she could have very easily been berated right there in public. And a man would never look at another man's woman while he is present. It's almost like threatening to steal someone's car when their back is turned. However, the woman is always to blame. "If you were covered more he wouldn't be looking." Something along those lines.

The more time I spend here the more obvious the difference in culture is. I still love it, and more than anything I love to find humor in this culture I have come to embrace.

All in all it's been a quality day in Kuwait.

Fortunately I have been raised in a country where what people think of you plays a very small role in your life. Of course we all encounter the teenage years where we feel the need to fit in, but we soon outgrow that and grasp what's really important in life. It doesn't take long to realize "fitting in" will only be a priority for a short time.

I suppose being American, being raised the way I was, where I was, by the people who raised me, I assumed the rest of the world cared about as much about what strangers thought of them as I did.....virtually nothing.

Talk about wrong...I was clueless.

In Kuwait, an Islamic country, perception plays an enormous role in the daily lives of the residents here. About 97% of the population is "Muslim", and my guess would be about 5% of them are really practicing Muslims. Don't get me wrong, they're all praying five times a day, covering themselves accordingly, etc. But when heads are turned, and no one is looking, something very devout disappears rapidly. Do any of them openly admit this? Only behind those closed doors.

In this country women who must remain virgins are partaking in more premarital "sex" than most American women I know. However, they're still a virgin when they marry, and if they're not, they can use the power of perception to convince their new husband otherwise. In my mind, this entire marriage in founded on a fraud. But that's just me.

More shocking? Men are having sex with men. Boys with boys. Men dress up as women and sell themselves as prositutes to other men who then like to claim, "I thought it was a woman." Either way, it's still wrong, and against their religion.

Non-Kuwaitis in this country (other than Americans) are treated worse than animals. College age girls attend school just to get out of the home to "have fun" with boys. Married women have many "boyfriends" while their husbands have an equal number of "girlfriends." Their theory is, "Who cares? They come home to me at the end of the night." Maybe they're right. Or maybe they just feel they're worth nothing more.

In my entire life I have never seen such a large existence of hypocrites and liars. However, I absolutely love this culture. That's because I don't consider the above stated to be part of the real culture of Kuwait. I feel there is a sense of truth and honesty in this country, it's just getting more and more lost as people stray further and further away from their religion.

When your every day is spent attempting to lead a group of people to believe something about you that isn't true, then who are you really?

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices  
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 8, 2006

The legal status of tens of thousands of bidoon residents remained unresolved. The bidoon are Arabs who have residency ties to the country, some persisting for generations and others for briefer periods, but who either lack or conceal documentation of their true nationality. The exact number of bidoon residents was unknown, but a 2004 government census estimated 107 thousand persons to be bidoon. Since the mid-1980s, the government has actively discriminated against the bidoon in areas such as education, employment, medical care, and mobility.

The MOE approved free education for all children of bidoon parents effective as of the opening of the 2004-05 school year. The bidoon also began to receive free health care. During the year the Waqf Health Fund, a partially government-funded program, signed contracts with several insurance companies to pay the fees for bidoon health services.

The government discontinued their access to most government jobs. Some bidoon served in the nonofficer ranks of the armed forces, although bidoon enlistees are now barred from joining. Others were accepted in the institutions of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training. The government denied the bidoon official documents such as birth certificates, civil identification, and marriage certificates, which made it difficult for many unregistered bidoon, particularly younger bidoon, to find employment. The government did not issue travel documents to bidoon routinely, and if bidoon traveled abroad without documentation, they risked being barred from returning to the country without advance permission from immigration authorities. The children of male bidoon inherit their father's undetermined legal status, even if born to citizen mothers.

Only bidoon registered by June 27, 2000, could begin the process under which they could be documented as citizens. According to this law, bidoon who were able to prove sufficient ties to the country (that is, their presence, or the presence of their forebears, in the country prior to 1965) were eligible to apply for citizenship directly. The government maintained that at least 40 to 50 percent of the bidoon were concealing their true identities. The government granted citizenship to approximately 1,769 bidoon during the year. In recent years a total of 10,200 bidoon received citizenship. There were 87,300 bidoon citizenship requests pending.

Many bidoon are unable to provide documentation proving sufficient ties to the country or present evidence of their original nationality, as they are truly stateless. Others, the government claims 26 thousand over the past several years, have disclosed their true nationalities and have obtained passports from their countries of origin: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Once documented, bidoon are able to obtain residency permits and other official papers.

The political, economic, and long-term budgetary implications associated with extending citizenship, and the generous welfare benefits that come with it, to the equivalent of roughly 5 percent of the population have rendered the issue highly divisive.

There were no reports during the year of the government deciding the nationality of any bidoon without a hearing. There continued to be reports of bidoon obtaining false documents in order to apply for citizenship.

On several ocassions I have written about the Kuwaiti Bidoun (Bidoon), Bedoun Jinsiya, Stateless, Unspecified, residents here in Kuwait. Over the past several months I have invested a great deal of time researching their lives, getting to know them as people, and respecting them for who they are, without judging them for what they're not.

Some of my dearest friends are Bidoun. They're the most kind and gentle people. More willing to give what they don't have than most who have it all. I watch these people and listen to their stories. I have come to realize all of their rights to hopes and dreams have been stripped away. Much less the right to actually follow through with any hope or dream. The Bidoun children know better than to aspire to become a Doctor, because they learn at a very young age higher education isn't offered to them as freely as it is to citizens. As a matter of fact, ANY education comes at a very high price for a Bidoun. A price few can afford to pay.

During my time with them I have learned what it means to truly die from the inside. To be dangled between hope and reality. To be rewarded for nothing, and punished for everything. They live as prisoners in a country they call "home" without the right to visit anywhere else, yet denied the right to be a citizen of all they know. I see young men unable to take on a wife, or start a family due to lack of finances. I see families ashamed and humiliated of how they have to live. I see elderly men who, many years ago, were a hard working productive part of their community. And now they're known as a "Bidoun" and refused the right to even provide for their family. Their pride as a man....as a person....as a human is stripped away. Life filled with freedom and happiness doesn't exist in their world.

I watch these people die inside while hanging onto a strand of hope....and eventually giving up.

It's obvious Easter isn't "celebrated" on this side of the world. Nor is it a holiday my children and I have ever celebrated other than candy filled baskets and chocolate bunnies. This year, though I am in Kuwait, I did manage to find Cadbury Cream Eggs....my absolute favorite Easter treat! I only found them in one Supermarket and I only bought two. I feel a trip to the Supermarket coming on.

Easter is a religious holiday, but is traditionally celebrated by giving children candy, "peeps", easter egg hunts, and cooking large meals for the family to gather around and spend quality time together. Of course there are many people who attend special church services for Easter, but all in all it's become more like Christmas....a commerical holiday.

Either way....I certainly hope all of my friends and loved ones back in the states enjoy their holiday however they choose to celebrate it.

In the Muslim religion no Muslim is to be considered better than another. Not one is to be treated differently than you treat the next. Regardless of their race, or nationality.

However, here in Kuwait, Indians, Sri Lankans, Bangledeshi's, etc. are all treated terribly different as I have mentioned many times before. Muslims don't walk around with a tattoo on their forehead pointing them out in a crowd, nor do they wear anything that signifies they're a Muslim. Yes, there is traditional clothing but it's culture based, not religion based.

Muslims consider one another brothers and sisters, and even refer to each other as such. Yet in Kuwait there are people who are treated worse than animals, some who are worked like slaves, and many who aren't even allowed to travel to Mecca per the Kuwaiti government.

How can an Islamic country deny a Muslim the right to travel to Mecca? Does the Human Rights Act only apply in a time of convenience?

Furthermore, though America can't solve every problem, we do have a tendency to "jump in" when we have something to gain. I mean, we aren't beating down the doors in Africa, but we sure made a quick trip to the Middle East when we saw oil slipping from our fingers. But on the same note, we rushed to the Middle East to protect whom? Muslims from Muslims?

Unfortunately, since there's nothing to gain by protecting the real victims...the slaves in third world countries, and the bedouns of Kuwait...I assume this will continue for as long as Kuwait wants it to. I mean, who do they have to answer to? They have America holding back Iraq, all the money a country could want, and enough oil to control super-power countries for as long as they see fit.

I suppose all anyone can hope for is minds to begin to open, and people begin to treat people like people because it's the RIGHT thing to do. Insha'Allah.

Then again, right and wrong are only opinions without anything definitive to support them.

It's all gray.

Starbucks anyone?

About three evenings ago I was shopping in the grocery store...one I usually don't shop in. I am normally in the middle of the desert in a grocery store that is similar to something one would expect to see in the poorest of neighborhoods in America. Unclean, unsanitary, and not the greatest selection. However, it's nearby, so I pop in for staple items. Not meat...no way!

Well, because I was downtown having dinner, and we needed to make a supermarket run, we opted for a store next to the Sharq Mall. When I walked in I thought I had taken a flight to the Food Lion near my home in the states. All of a sudden I could smell fresh produce, and the apples weren't the size and color of rotting prunes. It was large, easily accessible, and amazingly clean. It was as close to home as I have felt since I arrived in Kuwait last year.

OK, now to make my point. While shopping I came across so many American items...Hot Pockets, Tyson Chicken (frozen and pre-cooked), Stouffers meat products, etc. Um, I have lived in America all my life and have NEVER known these items to be Halal. As a matter of fact, I am certain they're not. This is a huge concern to me, as in an Islamic country these people believe without a doubt their super markets are providing them with ONLY Halal meats. Unfortunately, I doubt that is the case here.

Sometimes I find my mind cluttered with what's right and wrong. And who's to blame, or who can fix it. Therefore, I just step away, let it go for now, and think.

Today I think it's going to be a nice long walk on the beach with a cup of Starbucks.