Day 14: Arab Organization Headquarters

Today was pretty cool. We didn't have class and instead left at 9:30 to tour the Arab Organization Headquarters, which is home to four major Arab organizations: the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development, OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries), the Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation, and the Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Company. It is considered one of the most acclaimed buildings in the Middle East because it is also home to hundreds of incredible antiques from across the Arab World. Our tour guide was the electrical engineer who worked on the building during its construction. Originally from Palestine, he has been living in Kuwait for almost 40 years. He was so passionate about the building and knew where everything came from, the materials from which it was made, and pretty much anything else you could possibly think of. It had so many interesting pieces and so many beautiful rooms:

Waterfall fountain in entrance from Morocco 

Mini model of building

Beautiful tiling on wall

22 Arab state flags

Largest conference room

Can you say...bright future?

Diwaniyya room

Conference room with long granite table

Birds throughout the building, constantly chirping
and singing!

Chandelier from Morocco! 

Shirt from Syria with entire Quran
written on it! 

Stained glass window in Prayer Room

In Islam, heaven is thought of as being a garden and a paradise. For this reason there are plants (and even animals - birds!) all throughout the building. With the lighting, colorful tiling, fountains, and foliage, they really do all they can to make the Arab Organization Headquarters look and feel like paradise. I have to say, they do a pretty good job!

In the latter half of the day, we went back to the AWARE Center to meet 4 Kuwaiti students (some who had already graduated, others who were still in school). We talked about a lot of interesting things, such as dating in Kuwait (which is pretty much nonexistent) and religion in Kuwait and the U.S. Dating in Kuwait is fascinating; there is no such thing as public dating. People "date" through texting, over the phone, etc. Once a couple gets engaged, they are allowed to visit one another in the home to have lunch/dinner with the family. This stage is more like "supervised dating," as one of the students phrased it. This is when you ask the other person important life questions (like, how many children do you want?) to make sure you can really spend the rest of your lives together. I can't imagine waiting until right before the wedding to talk about such things!

Our final stop today was dinner at a Kuwaiti home: our friend Reem who we met the first day! Her family had us over for dinner and tea, which was so much fun. Their house was absolutely stunning - I can't believe people actually live like that. It was absolutely gigantic and had beautiful decorations and furniture. They had domestic workers, as do most Kuwaitis, who served dinner and cleaned up. The domestic workers live in the home with the family (of course their rooms are very tiny), which is something I only realized a couple of days ago. My favorite part of the night was desert. We had chocolate ice cream, something I have missed soooooooo much since our arrival 2 weeks ago. I can also still taste the Moroccan Mint tea we were served - delicious! I'm really glad that we were able to see a traditional Kuwaiti home, even though it was a bit of a shock at first. 

Tomorrow should be a good day as well, inshahAllah!