---with Apologies to Paul Harvey (and those of us who grew up listening to him in the barn on the radio), I am stealing his idea of grouping a bunch of random thoughts into one posting.
***Page One
Recently at my 8 am Friday morning Breakfast Club,I had a truely surreal multi-cultural moment. As we (the two BFF Canucks, TenneseeBrain, WallaWalla guy and I ) were enjoying our usual stimulating conversation and the view of the gulf complete with yachts cruising by,the group of waiters and waitresses (all Phillipino) approached a nearby table with a birthday cake lit with candles and launched into song.
The slightly offkey version of Happy Birthday was okay, but then when they broke into a version of "It's Your Birthday" to the tune of "La Cucharacha" (works well btw) and ended it with "Olay!"--I knew I had crossed over the line.
*** Page Two
This country has less Kuwaitis (40%) than expats. The country depends on the expats for work, for income and maybe for a little variety.
***. According to Google,"Approximately 96% of Kuwait's population is urban. The State of Kuwait's current population is estimated at roughly 3-3.5 million people; counting both locals and foreigners. Roughly 1 million (or nearly one third) of Kuwait's population is local, with 2-2.5 million residents registered as foreigners/non-locals. It is estimated that one in every 3-4 people in Kuwait are of Kuwaiti citizenship.[citation needed]
The foreign population of Kuwait mainly consists of Egyptians followed by Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Filipino and Sri Lankan residents. Other foreigners consist of European, North American and Northeast Asian communities - but these are negligible."
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Considering above, we get a chance here to sample MANY cultures. For example, Friday night there was a HUGE talent show in our auditorium (packed to the gills with 1400 people) for Indian singers. Not just India talent show finalists, but those from a specific region of India. It was explained to me (in terms I could understand) it would be like having people from Minneapolis have their own language, customs, jokes etc. So while they are many, many people from India living here in Kuwait, they might not even all speak the same language. And it's not like a Minnesota dialect and a southern dialect either-it's a whole language. Amazing-I never knew that.
Oh I just looked up India's population on Google, and it says there are over 13 BILLION people. I guess one or two different languages would make sense (gees I feel so culturally ignorant sometimes!)
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On another note, I have had people ask me if I know "so and so who is from America" (as in I know someone from Colorado do you know this person?) You may laugh over there in North America, but I have had several Rotary Norwegian foreign exchange students tell me that Minnesotans would assume that the student knew their relatives in Norway. "Oh I'm norwegian, do you know my relatives the ...(insert your favorite Scandinavian name here).The students always thought that was funny and then they would always end with "These people are NOT Norwegian just because their relatives came from the country 150 years ago."
***Page Four
BrotherPete was always amazed by how many people we knew or by the connections to so and so who knew so and so. He would always tell us that by knowing us he was "one degree from brilliance" (thank you sir). It became a game (for me) to see who I could meet and make a connection and then tell him. The second day here, we met someone whose mother taught with David's father in Germany about 25 years ago.I think that by moving here, we're just taken the game to a new level.
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