israel-palestine

i raised my arms, shielded my face and exclaimed, "don't hurt me." they laughed. 

the topic in class today: marriage and the family. we discussed the differences between endogamy (marrying within your own race, class, religion, etc) and exogamy (marrying outside.) today was an especially tangental day for class discussion. i didn't help the matter any. in giving an example of exogamy i said, its like if i were to marry a muslim man. good one meredith. 

some of the students in the class already knew i was a christian, that's why this example semi-worked. others found out today. then somehow discussion shifted to what my family would think of such a marriage (your family's approval for marriage in kuwait is a necessity and not always easy to come by.) i said they would probably be alright with it. "but you're christian, ms. meredith." i replied, "yeah, but my family isn't." "oh, well then what are they?" another asked. okay, decision time. take the p.c. route or the truth. i went with the truth. 

so, my dad's family is actually jewish. and that is when i raised my arms, shielded my face and exclaimed, "don't hurt me." the whole class laughed. so you are christian but your dad's family and heritage are jewish? correct. and now you are probably thinking, "and you are teaching in a muslim country?" also correct. 

in case you didn't know the battle between israel and palestine is a big deal in this part of the world. there's a fair number of palestinians in kuwait and some in my class. while being jewish should not be confused with being israeli, it certainly isn't the other side either. (as a brief aside: i know most of you reading this live in the united states. and the us unswervingly supports israel in this conflict. but there's another side that i've learned about this summer. i'd really encourage you to do the same; it's not all as the media says. shocker.)

so why then did i say it? because i had to. i think my students know me fairly well by now. they hopefully know i respect their culture and religion and enjoy their company. but they need to see the other side. we all do! i am not israeli, or some may say not even truly jewish, but in some respect i am someone different. if you like, it's a little application of a social psychological principle called the contact hypothesis (stereotypes and prejudice decrease with contact. when we get to know people our assumptions about people "like them" change.) and you know what? nothing happened. we have reached a point, i believe, where we know one another well enough to be able to recognize our differences. and i think we're all ok with that. 

*disclaimer: i'm not saying since i'm jewish i side with israel. thank you. 

people

i think that's my favorite part about traveling. i enjoy a beautiful beach or a nice hike just about as much as anyone (and surprisingly found out i actually like historical stuff too-i.e. egypt), but i enjoy people more. i'm afraid that when most of us travel we do so in seclusion. we may travel with our friends or family, but rarely do we engage in meaningful conversation with others, especially locals. but the middle east is a culture of hospitality, not a culture of isolation so many of us are familiar with. 

neil and i just finished having turkish coffee (which i like to describe as espresso on steroids) with our new friend faisal. apparently the airport in luxor isn't too busy at 3 am, when we were scheduled to fly back  from egypt to kuwait. so there we were in an empty airport trying to keep our eyes open. then this tall, thin man takes a seat next to us. i'm not even sure how the conversation began but it lasted a good 90 minutes. as we boarded the plane we took our respective seats (neil and i in front because we're americans--read the airport post for more info on that) we agreed to meet after the flight and share a taxi home. 

i know some of you are thinking, what!? you just met this man and now you are going to share a taxi with him at 6 am? and then you are telling me that you just had this same man over to your apartment for coffee? have you lost your mind!? perhaps. 

coffee was great. faisal is quite the chatter, eager to share with neil and i about his family, his dreams, his experiences. in the midst of conversation i brought up the fact that people in the united states would think we're crazy for doing this. faisal agreed. 

but here's the thing. we all complain about our 'busy lives' and yet we never slow down. this is where the united states definitely has it backwards. we probably haven't even had coffee with the person who lives next door. 

airports

love to travel. hate to get there. our recent trip to luxor, egypt proved no exception. our flight out was scheduled for a few minutes past midnight. we were in the air a few minutes after one a.m. not too shabby. but lets talk about what happened between our departure for the airport and our eventual arrival in luxor...

neil and i decided it'd be good to leave the hotel around 9 pm. if you know me that means 9 pm, maybe even 8:59 pm, but definitely not 9:01 pm. neil is learning this, slowly. we hailed a cab and made a deal to travel to the airport for a fee of 2.5 KD (around $8.50; there's no official meters in taxi's-just negotiation.) the roads are crowded as usual. and then we pull of at an exit. what!? oh, only to fill up with some gas, of course (you'll be happy to know the driver filled his tank for 2.5 KD.) ok, back on the road. i'm getting ancy. it's almost 10 pm. i hate to be late. signs for the airport are visible. i settle down a bit. we turn into the airport and then a standstill. here we go again. luckily, it takes only a few minutes--the apparent problem--only one entrance into the parking lot. finally inside. 

kuwait's airport is well, to put it politely, could probably use some help from you industrial and human factors engineers. it is inefficient, at best. pretty sure neil and i had our luggage scanned about five times. also pretty sure at none of those times was the worker actually checking the monitor to scan the luggage. we made it through, finally. and then we waited. waited some more. then, a mad dash. 

apparently our gate was moved. this also meant luggage screening number six. ok, fine. we are getting on the plane now. through the gate onto what, that's not a plane, it's a bus. so now we have to be transported via bus to the actual airplane. for most people this would not be a big deal. for me it was a bit uncomfortable. i was one of about three women on the booked flight, and definitely the only western woman. where should i sit on the bus? how do i position myself to not bump into men? to not be offensive? in the back, of course. 

finally, i see it. the airplane in all its gloriousness. neil and i were previously re-seated when we checked in to row 4. i thought nothing of it at the time only to be informed on our flight back to kuwait the reason for our prime seating...we're americans! i began to cry. why exactly, i still cannot explain.  i wrote this in my journal about the whole experience: "i am not sure why it upset me so much but it did. maybe its the assumption that my life is more valuable because of where i come from or maybe its the idea i come from a country people don't want to mess with." 

we arrived safely in luxor, egypt to go through the joy which all you fellow world-travelers know as customs. we were finally picked up by ali, our little tour-guide, hotel worker, smooth talking hustler. we finally arrived. 

no, i haven't forgotten about the blog :). i know it's been almost a week since i posted. neil and i just visited egypt this past weekend so i'm trying to catch up on work, life, sleep, etc. hope to post some fun stories from our trip in the next few days.