Saturday 16 December 2006

On the Road in Kuwait


The traditional dress of both Arab men and women consist of cloth obscuring their vision (interesting fact for those people who observe beyond the concrete). Most Arabs here wear the traditional dress. This means that there is no point in anyone looking over their shoulder to check for traffic as all they will see is material! so they just blithely merge into the traffic. I have even seen women driving with black cloths actually totally over their faces and peering through the material! There is also a big element of impatience resulting in weaving around the different lanes at great speed. It seems quite suicidal, their lack of concern for life. They have a saying 'In Shalla' meaning God willing, which punctuates every sentence, so if they do not arrive at their destination but end up 'in paradise' instead, it is classed as God's will. You could pray for all the children who are free to jump around inside the cars and the babies who even sit on daddy’s knee to help drive (with no other person in the car!). It is only the western expats who have car seats and strap their children and themselves in even though it is actually the law here.