March 2012 in Kuwait

If only you could have been along for the ride this month. So much has happened. In the last letter I told you of our recent move to an apartment in Salwa. Needless to say in less than 3 weeks we have transitioned from there, to another 4 places. This makes our total 9 so far!

Let me begin by saying that it is easy for you to be taken advantage of when you are not familiar with laws and customs. This was the case with our rental in Salwa. First, it helpful to know that Landlords cannot pro-rate rent here. We did not know this and were under the impression that, the money which we gave to the owner's representative of this apartment was for the half of February we were living there. However, it should have either been a deposit so that we could move in on the first or it should have been have half of our first month’s rent of March. Apparently it is common to do such a thing with westerner only complexes (meaning no Kuwaiti’s). They know we are used to having rent prorated and so they take the so called prorated fee pocket it and the first of March ask for the whole rent! People here move from one place to another on the first to avoid this.

But like I said we did not know this and moved. The place was beautiful but it was a sub-basement meaning a number of things. First, No cell phone reception unless we wither stood next to an open window or held our phones out the window. Next, the smell that permeated the place was literally making me sick. They had not properly installed a plug in the drain in the kitchen and we could smell the sewage pipe that ran underneath of our floor in our kitchen so badly!  We literally kept the door closed to the kitchen and the window open all the time in there.

However, trying to make the best of the situation we borrowed furniture from our Kuwaiti family like big leather chairs. Bought two new appliances at the Friday Market.

Needless, we tried to turn the new apartment into our new home but it just never felt right and the drain issue was starting to make us all sick.

We spoke to the Owner about the problem but he never took care of it and told us to speak to the Harris. When we spoke to the Harris (man whom you pay ten KD a month to wash car and take out your trash) to see if he could help he told us to run water. Did no good at all. Craig feeling convicted by the Lord made friends with the Harris however and spoken often to him with the little Arabic he had learned. Turns out it was a good things he did. But it was the bottle coke he was able to give the man regularly that won him over.

Finally on the 25^th and 26^th of February we called the realtor and the owner’s rep. several times to tell them they needed to fix this or we were moving out. Never hearing back from them we started to move out. However, on the first Craig got a call from the Owner saying he wanted his rent and Craig said we would pay it but we wanted the stuff (a door that was hung wrong that never closed, a shower head that was never attached, drain smelling) taken care of. His response was “ ok, ok” we waited. Everyday, however, the Harris, who was really nice about it, and his friend, who was not, to pay rent, hounded us. We told them we talked to the owner and we are working it out with him. But they would not leave us alone and no ever took care of our issue. So since we had not signed a contract and I being resourceful got on the Internet discovered what they had done was wrong and we could leave if we liked we packed up our stuff and moved out on the 4^th.  Needless to say it was stressful and But evident the Lord was with us!

First as we were starting to pack out stuff into our car we the Harris’s friend began to be mean us. His friend threatened to shut off our electricity and water, which the did but we were moving out so we didn’t care much other than meant Avi had to sit in vehicle while we were packing up to keep her safe.

Then the owner’s representative and another man came. They threatened us and told us we had to pay for the whole month of March even thought we were moving out, that they were going to call the police and get us in trouble. I told them to go for it. I knew according to the law here the Police would be on the side of renters and not the Landlords or owners do to the why laws are here. You see they can shut off your electricity and water but eviction is illegal. This did not make them happy when they realized we knew this. They kept telling us we had to pay for March but we kept saying no, we gave you notice. They said no we have to give 30 days notice. I said no, we never signed a contact stating that and we called on the 25^th and 26^th, which are days that you have to speak to the Landlord by to move out of the place if no contract is signed, to tell them we wanted out. We even had records of the phone calls they never returned. This alone would have been enough to prove to the cops we had done everything right. They never called the police because it was a false threat. We stood our ground and in less than hour we had packed up our stuff and moved out of there including all our furniture we had borrowed from our Kuwaiti family and our new appliances which included a small refrigerator and combo all-in-one washer/dryer.

With very little money and no place to go we choose to stored our stuff in the company warehouse and found a cheap motel to stay at. It was all the money we had

It was a really nice place and the people there we good to us.

However, The following morning as Craig was driving through Kuwait City in a round about his bumper scrapped another car’s bumper. Seeing as how it was in front of cop it turned out to be a big deal. First, Craig has not been able to get his Civil Id yet here. I will explain all that as well. And without one you can not get a driver license for here however, it is ok to drive without one here as long they don’t know about it, you are American, and you don’t get into an accident. Unfortunately the car Craig has been given to drive was without all the necessary paperwork like registration and insurance info. Craig has been asking and asking for it but everyone says, “no problem, the company owns the car and they have it all so you don’t need it.” Turns out you do. Craig and the other man had to taken to the police station to sort it all out. Craig had to wait for someone to come from the company to translate and to provide proper documentation for the car. Then they had to wait for a magistrate. Sit and talk about what happened and then get the results of who’s fault it was and then sign some paperwork. In the end it took five hours to get it all sorted out, Craig was told he was at fault, and we are waiting the ticket to know what the fine will be on it.

It was stressful as well because we had not planned on staying another day at this hotel but Craig could not call me to tell me what was going on and we had to check out by 1:00. In the end I was able to get a later check out, Craig returned and we stayed decided to stay another night.

We got money from the company to pay for the room for that night. Knowing there was no money left after that night we as had become in the habit of doing on regular and more often than not basis asked God what to do next. Where could we go? Our Kuwait family could not take us in. They had been renovating their villas and every room and bed was full of people or stuff. Needless to say one of Craig’s workers offered us his un-rented room until the 15^th of March. We took it. It was free and that was all that mattered.

Turns out it was small as well. This resourceful man to a small 300 feet squared apartment and put up partitions and walls and reconstructed it to make a 4-bedroom place. We were in the largest bedroom but it was cramped with all our every day things. However, praise the Lord for the three guys who lived there not only took care of us by cooking and giving us food but they and a couple of ladies took us on our first BBQ on the Beach. They are Pilipino and so it was amazing food and company. Avi loved especially. I ate so much food I was nearly sick! I haven’t had duck liver since I was in Thailand and they cooked us some. I actually love it by the way. Them kabobs and fresh salad, can I just say that Kuwait has the best food. I mean everything here is organic because it’s there culture. Which means it all just tastes amazing. The fruit here is just incredible. There are no preservatives in anything unless you buy foreign. You don’t usually because its super expensive to do so. It was also a great night for Craig and because they played with Avi and He and I finally felt we got a rest for the first time. Everything was so stressful around us and we thanked God for people he had placed to take care of us.

Staying at our new place as a challenge. Having to cook around peopel. Sharing one shower. But worst of all, they were redoing the pipes in the building and we were often without running water. After the first day of being there when there was no water we understood why there was bucket of water next to the toilet with a bowl in it. Basically it is the old fashioned way to flush.

During this time Craig was trying to get his civil id. Everything is done here in person and just like sitting at the DMV, you take a number, wait in line to discover you either missing paperwork or at the wrong desk. After 3 days, and hours of time spent going from one government office to the airport to another government office Craig discovered some interesting stuff about his residency visa which he need to get to be able to his civil id. Basically with our currently tourist visas, we must close them out and then they will stamp, yes that was he needed was stamp on the paperwork, to have it done. However, in order to close a visa you must leave the country and come back. So here we are. Our Kuwaiti family upon learning this is helping us get to Dubai. It’s a better place to go and come back from. All of us must go so it will be a neat but short trip.

So By the 6^th of April we will be residents here officially, meaning there will be stamp on a bunch of paperwork we cannot read because its in Arabic.

Craig and I have been struggling with faith here. We know God is at work and through it all he would help us and get us to a good place but we both felt he had promised us things and we were losing hope they would ever come to fruition. We started to grumble and then be convicted about it. We understood why the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt. Faith is a muscle you must learn to use but after a while it gets sore and it gets harder and harder to use it. Every time we felt like God was like ok take a break and let your faith restore its strength we had to flex it and use it a lot more sooner than we expected.

One night we were able to get a baby sitter and we went out for date. It was fun and was a much-needed time but it took money and we began to be anxious about spending it.

The night of the 10^th of March Craig and I fell on our knees before God. We needed money and a place to move to the 15^th.  Exhausted we went to bed. We awoke to the next day to an email about a place in Fintas fully furnished 250 KD a month, one bedroom. We decide to go look at it. Turns out it was perfect. That very day Craig was given his first Salary. This meant we had money for the deposit on this place. However there was one catch. We couldn’t move in until the night of the 17^th. What to do?

We sought out or Kuwaiti family to see if we could stay at their farm. It turns out no at either place they have one because at one place it was going to be all the men and no women and children which means Avi and I could not go and we would have no place to stay cause we could not stay back with the women cause there was no room for us where they were. And other place was to dangerous do a sandstorm that come in.

We were stuck. The family had no money to give us for a hotel and we had not enough money left after paying for our apartment to get a room for two nights. We began to pray again.

The night of the 14^th after trying our best to figure out what to do and where to go we decided it was time to just stop and wait on the Lord. Craig kept finding reasons to out to our car and I kept saying why? They just seemed silly to me but finally I agreed he should just go. As he stood by our car an Egyptian man about what he believed approached him. He told him and the man instantly revealed he was the same. Suddenly he was inviting our family to go with him and his wife the following evening. He also told Craig he might be able to help him with is civil id stuff but it is better to let family send us to Dubai. Still, we met up with them and they took us to Hamada to look at the lights. In honor of Kuwaiti days the entire place is covered with Christmas Lights. Its very pretty and it is actually great to drive through. They bought us Ice Cream let Avi play at one of the parks. It was so much fun. It wasn’t long after that they found out we had no place to stay. Rather than letting us spend money on a hotel we did not have they invited us to stay with them. Strangely we did not know the full extent of this but we felt God had given us another way to out. They even gave up their bed for us and slept on the floor. They also share a flat with several other families but it was good size for all of us. They fed us, took care of Avi, and even made sure we had all we needed to so we could rest. It was amazing. A total miracle for God to provide a couple that could take us in a moment when we had nowhere to go. We stayed with them and on the 17^th we moved into our apartment. It was newly furnished.

Through our displacement Craig and I had been praying God would give us a sanctuary. A place we could come home to and feel as though we could just relax. Everywhere we went or moved we never found it. This has been a journey of trying to keep up a good attitude and trusting God all the while knowing that the only hope you have is the chance of rapture at any moment. We had to struggle and fight just to keep going. We tried to encourage each other but there were moments we could not and fell on our faces down pressed down, persecuted by the enemy, and even stuck down by our circumstances. We thought of coming back to the states but every time we heard of what life were like back there it was no better than where we were.  So we would seek God, he would tell us to run the race, stay the course, to win the prize. So we pressed on and here we are.

The place we live at has beautiful out door area all fenced in. A pool and work out room. We have balcony and are to sit outside and we can see the ocean from there. But best of all its less than a five minute walk to our favorite beach. We go almost every day. One day we went and collected at least 50 shells and pieces of coral from the gulf. Another it was nice enough to take Avi swimming. Craig and I have a finally come to love Kuwait. We know where to shop for food and how to live well but cheaply, which is an art form here. We have come to love going for drives. Last night we drove down to a Sultan Wholesale center, which has a fountain, they play music to and the water sprays up to the music. We sat out side ate our samoose, and watched the show. We love where we live. Everyone says it’s too far away but it basically the distance from one of the springs to the other with traffic to any place from here. It’s the atmosphere that we love the most. Everyone here is just relaxed and happy! We meet so many other Americans and foreigners because this part of town has a lot of company owned apartment complexes. Plus the beach we love is only a little over a year old, which makes it clean and like new for us. Its got play ground equipment and beach is the right amount of large rocks into the ocean and sandy inclines into the water to be able to swim.

Avi is such a water girl and living near the ocean has brought out the best in her. She likes to dunk herself and chase bubbles and pick up seashells. We discovered 100s hermit crabs the other day and had a blast watching them scurry across the rocks.

God finally has finally settled and we finally feel like all the things we were not able to do or focus on or even reach out to take care of back home God has blessed us to be able to. For a while felt so out of place. Nothing ever went as planned. From the date of when we were to leave to the night we moved in here the struggle to learn to say Lord will can then wait on him became what we were forced to do. We tried and tried to bring plans into fruition. We made them and remade them but in the end it was only when we waited and then acted at the moment the Lord told us to, that things went as He planned. We learned together that you have no control and no amount of planning can keep things together. God took away money, stability, and even encouragement. All because He desires that we give it all up to Him and only do as he wills and be willing to go along with Him when plans change. Being a planner is helpful but it does not mean you are obeying God. So here we are. Waiting again on the Lord for the next adventure he has planned. Whatever it is we are ready at a moments notice.