Desert Campout

February 27, 2010

So, a Hindi, a Buddhist, a Mormon & two Christians all came together for a party in a Muslim country...Sounds like a joke waiting for a punch line? No, it's just Emily's 16th Birthday celebration in the Kuwaiti desert, just shy of the Iraqi border off the I80 where troops pass back & forth. There was even a big sign on the road as we neared the border "God Bless the Troops."

I can't wait to see what God is preparing my kids for when I see the paths he leads them through. Emily's girlfriends were discussing spiritual matters in the wee hours of the night under a sandy, moon dusted night in the Gulf, while a watchful Bangladeshi Guard secured our campsite. Emily has delighted in rather "unusual" birthday parties from the age of 4 when she had a pretend wedding party. This year, she longed to experience the Bedouin-ish lifestyle of desert camping which is a huge part of Kuwait culture from Nov-Mar each year. Thousands of otherwise sane people, abandon beautiful villas for tent cities that resemble refuge camps. This "getting back to nature" makes us laugh--how much "nature" is their when all you see for miles is sand??? However, just outside the city in every direction the desert is dotted with camps; each surrounded by tires "planted" vertically in the sand to mark off individual dwellings.

One of Robert's colleagues heard that we were having a hard time finding a place to rent and offered his family camp over the Prophets Birthday when many people flock south to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This friend is one of 9 brothers who share a camp site off the road to Baghdad. The fully equipped site had many tents; one large one with a squat toilet attached, a kitchen with running water and a generator with lights strung from tent to tent. Emily's girlfriends arrived for the sleepover full of excitement for the unknown. She & Ethan had already found a carcass of a 15 inch poisonous lizard in the sand. While "sledding" down some sand dunes in the area, they discovered a scorpion with a golden, translucent body known to be highly poisonous here...I tried not to think about how easily the girls could have been bitten as they carried a piece of abandoned cardboard they planned to use for a sled, only to discover they had transported the scorpion as well. We have since discovered that the sandy, dusty weather brings them out.

Other "entertainment" included a massive foam & silly string fight, in keeping with the spirit of liberation and National Days: Feb 25-26. These back-to-back holidays celebrate Kuwait's Independence from Britain and it's liberation from Iraq. This occasion has a reputation for rowdiness, to put it mildly. Vandalism and dangerous behavior are more accurate...this year, 11 teens died over the holiday. To our delight, most of the other campers in the area seemed to be black veiled women & children. We ran to investigate when we heard horns blaring and got caught up in a parade of Kuwaitis who were just as intrigued by us, as we were of them. The teens rode on the running board of our host's driver's jeep (something NO decent parent should allow!) while 8-10 other vehicles drove randomly on the sand with tons of kids and teens stacked on and hanging off. We exchanged friendly fire of silly string and foam under pressure which is sold for this occasion in copious amounts...I just happened to bring a bag along! Some people stopped for a close-up photo, others jumped off and ran over to give our kids Kuwait flags to wave. We followed behind with Molly in our vehicle taking photographs. Only one kid tried to spoil the fun by intentionally foaming Molly's camera. Otherwise, this was a sweet exchange of goodwill. They were happy to hear we were American and we were thrilled to get an inside glimpse of this desert-dweller life.

In the afternoon as we were eating in our "dining tent" we felt the wind whip up. The tea boy (this is what they call the men hired to take care of a place) began closing tent flaps to protect us from the blast but we had to experience our first sandstorm. As pins & needles lashed at my exposed skin I imagined hauling this whole crowd back home for the balance of the party, but thankfully, it died down to just a dusty haze.

Robert & Ethan were fantastic to share their Boy Scout skills and knowledge with us, they even made warm dump cake topped with sparklers over hot coals in the sand...yum! I pre-cooked BBQ beef and sides. Fireworks after dinner lit up our night sky and we sat around the fire with the tea boy communicating with us in broken English. The girls retreated to talk, Molly went to sleep in her own tent in preparation for her trip to the states, and Ethan had to pitch his own camping tent in spite of the many large tents at our disposal. The evening cooled off but it was quite cozy in our sleeping bags.

After a breakfast of fresh fruit & S'mores, we packed two car loads of gritty girls & gear and returned to Kuwait City. This was another memorable teenage party; I was very thankful Emily has managed to make such super sweet, smart, caring, quality friends. They clearly adore her, and seemed to tolerate her quirky family quite well:)