Thursday, January 28, 2010

Driving in Kuwait

I went with Aaron and several others today to get my Kuwait driver's license, where we learned that we are the only emabassy in Kuwait required to take their written test. Now before any of my family and friends get their hackles up at those. Know that we are required to take the test because that is "the reciprocity between our nations." Additionally know that the test is unbelievable easy, a multiple choice test of sign meanings, when the the signs are universal and the other choices can be somewhat crazy. For example, they have a picture of a stop sign with the word STOP and one of the choices is that it means stop and another option is that it is the end of a prohibition. So, needless to say not very worrisome.

Last week, while coming home from the mall with a neighbor and friend, we heard the sound of an ambulance. When I realized that it was coming from behind. I did what you do in American and I slowed down and angled my car away so that I could make an extra lane for the ambulance. No one else did this. We were at a light and everyone just sat there. The was actually several emergency vehicles and in addition to their sirens, they began to honk and speak over a loud speaker. Eventually the cars in the lanes in front of them moved out of their way, but no one in my lane or the next one to me gave way at all. At the next light we came to, one more emergency vehicle came along and again had to honk and honk and honk for people to move. The people in the front cars did move, but used this as an opportunity to go through the light and onto the highway still obstructing the emergency vehicles. I was completley appalled.

2 comments:

  1. Natascha was amazing the first time she saw a line of cars pulling over for an emergency vehicle. It was like a ballet, where everyone knew the dance steps and we were all in sync. She thought it was beautiful. As a driver I think it made her feel connected to all the other drivers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's much excitement in our house about visiting Kuwait. You're so good.

    ReplyDelete