A week in Kuwait

This week I travelled to Kuwait for work. I've never particularly wanted to visit Kuwait, but I was very grateful for this opportunity. First I travelled to Dubai to meet up with a colleague from Nigeria, and then we travelled together to Kuwait. We stayed in a hotel in Al Ahmadi for 2 nights (Sun 21st and Mon 22nd April) before going out to the camp for 3 days.

The white outline is the Kuwait country border, with the green A showing Al Ahmadi,
the red square shows the approximate location of the camp we stayed in for 3 days

My colleague Nnamdi

Lovely view of an oil refinery from my hotel room

View of the Camp - 600 people are based here and everyone lives and works out
of these containers which are on wheels so they can move the camp as needed.

This is the Shisha Smoking Area

Closer view of the containers and sand blowing between them.

This is the Mine Garden, which contains bits and pieces of the Iraq-Kuwait war found in the area

I was there to talk with the people who are working on this land seismic crew, and also to see the operation in action as I've never actually visited a land seismic operation. It is such a massive operation which is running 24 hours a day with 300 people working in the field at a time, and hundreds of big trucks and efficiently managed teamwork. I was really impressed with the people I talked with and grateful for the chance to be here.

These are the guys who are laying out the geophone sensors and the cables

 There were so many camels! They were just walking around the desert and would go back to their Bedouin tent camps at night. Each herd of 20-100 camels were accompanied by a Bedouin guy who was making sure they stayed safe.

Some cute baby camels and their Mama

Camels in the distance

Another camel

It was great travelling with Nnamdi. I learned so much about Nigeria and the history and dynamics between the 3 main tribes (Ibo, Hausa, and Yoruba), as well as about his previous position in Sudan and South Sudan. We were a good team together during this week because we were representing the Training and Development department of the company. So we had some good and interesting discussions with other people and also between us.
But I'm glad to be home now! I got back on Friday night and we've had a really great weekend.

Boston and our flight home

We spent most of the day exploring the "Back Bay" part of Boston before meeting Annie at 4:30 pm so she could drive us to the airport to catch our 7:30 pm flight.

Here is the park the kids played in, and the sandpit
where Rhiannon pulled out a TagHeuer watch

I had originally planned to spend the day at Faneuil Hall Market, but then when we set out from the house it was starting to rain and I had just remembered that there was something exciting close by! So we stopped at a park on our way to the Mapparium.

The Mapparium was amazing, but we were only allowed in there for 20 minutes. The acoustics were very special and the glass sphere itself was stunningly beautiful. It felt so special to stand inside of the world like this.

Standing outside the Christian Science Mother Church,
where the Mapparium is located

After the Mapparium visit, we walked past the Berkelee School of Music to the Prudential Center so that we could do some shopping. First we had lunch and bought some treats at Trader Joe's next to the Irish pub we had lunch in. At the Prudential Center, we were able to buy some new books and magazines for our trip home as well as a special holiday present for each of them - Tryfan got a Decepticon Transformer and Rhiannon got a Ergo baby carrier for her doll Ella.
[...It turned out that this exact area was where the Boston Marathon finish line was bombed just 3 days later. Glad we weren't there for it!]

View of the inside of the Mapparium (we weren't allowed to take photos)

Our flight home was uneventful and easy. We landed early into Heathrow this morning and so caught an earlier bus to Gatwick, arriving around 8:30 am. It was a happy reunion when Rhods came to pick us up! We are very grateful for our whole fantastic two weeks and the special people we were able to see along the way. It is always a success when none of us gets hurt, loses something or has something stolen or forgotten. Actually I did forget my camera in Maine, but fortunately Carol and Jackie are going to send it back to us. Thanks you guys!

Portland to Boston

We didn't want to leave Peaks Island. Actually, it was more that we didn't want to leave Carol and Jackie.  We had a really special time with them.

Originally we were going to take the 11:15 am ferry, then delayed until the 12:45 pm ferry, then finally had to catch the 2:45 pm one so we could get on the 3:30 pm bus to Boston.
But first we took some photos with Carol and Jackie..

Finally on the ferry, looking back at Peaks Island

 We just barely made it onto the bus on time, but we did so thanks to Jackie's good memory! The kids chose the very back row of seats on the bus (next to the toilet) so we could all sit together. The bus was showing "Sister Act" on the television monitors, but we only had one pair of earphones so Tryfan was generous enough to share with his sister.

We arrived at 5:30 pm, took a taxi from the bus station to Annie's house, and fortunately she was there when we arrived. She made us a delicious dinner and we all enjoyed a lovely evening together before the kids went to bed, Annie went back to studying for her exam, and I caught up on some work.

Rhiannon and Annie

We have really missed Annie since she left London. We can't wait to go to her wedding in a couple of months!

Into Portland for the day

We took the ferry this morning into Portland so that we could visit the Children's Museum and see a bit of the city.

Map showing Portland and Peaks Island

 

Jackie is a natural policewoman

Rhiannon's favorite part was working in the grocery store

When we got back to the Island, the troops and I hopped in the golf cart and did some exploring along the beach road.

The troops decided this piece of driftwood looked like a couple dancing, so they re-enacted it

Jumping on the beach

 Back at the house, we made some dinner and enjoyed our final night together, which went by altogether way too fast!

Carol and Tryfan playing around

Jackie and Rhiannon making brownies

Peaks Island wonderfulness

Any day that starts with having breakfast on the beach is going to be a wonderful day!

Carol and Jackie busted out their new walkie-talkies and left one for Carol (aka Flossy-2) while we took one down to the beach. It was a cloudy and cold, windy start to the day but that didn't dampen the excitement of cold cereal with fresh strawberries and a new toy to play with!

Breakfast location, checking in with Flossy-2 via walkie-talkie

 After breakfast, we got out the art materials and had a lovely time with Jackie playing the piano while Carol and the kids painted and I did some work on my computer.

Jackie playing the piano during watercolor time

Carol showed the kids how to use a straw to blow the watercolors around

 Then one of their Island friends dropped this golf cart by the house and we took it for a spin!

Very excited to get going in the golf cart!

 We tooled around the island and stopped every now and then to get out and explore

This was the porch at the "5th Maine" center

Fun with golf carts!

Later in the afternoon, we went back down to the beach. Their house is the one looking at the camera in the background!

Oppa, Island Style!

The troops

I loved the way the seaweed looked on the rocks

 It is just SO wonderful to be here with Flossy-2 and Sniffy!

Sunset on Peaks Island

Before eating dinner, the kids and I went to the beach (which is just a few hundred feet from the house!) to throw rocks in the water and look around. It was sooooooooooo wonderful to wind down from our big bad travel day with fresh sea air on our skin.

 

 

 

A bad travel day (but we got there in the end)

After getting to the airport on time and having no trouble getting to our plane and settling into our seats, we got the dreaded announcement over the PA system in the airplane: "Umm, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are having some maintenance issues that we can't fix and we are going to have to go back to the gate and de-plane the aircraft. We are going to cancel the flight and there will be 2 Customer Service Agents to help all 120 of you get rebooked onto another flight."

Reading in Newark

Reading in Newark

Well, that was terrible news for us because we were trying to get to Peaks Island off the coast of Portland, Maine and the next flight with AirTran that would have gotten us there or even anywhere close to there was not until 10:35pm or later. And it was now 7am. We waited in line for a lonnnng time and finally around 9:00am we received information that they couldn't do anything for us and they also didn't have ANY information about any of the other airlines leaving from the same airport. So the kids and I effectively went door-to-door asking the various other airlines if they had any flights that would work for us. In the end, I went online and booked us a flight on United via Newark which got us to Portland at 4:45pm. It turned out to be half the price to book online compared with having the desk agents book us a flight. Anyway, once we had our new flights and were underway, things went much smoother.

I have to say that the people we met and dealt with along the way today - starting with the other passengers when we were waiting for 2 hours in line to speak with a stupid agent who knew nothing anyway - were really friendly and kind and helpful to us.

Anyway, we got to Portland finally and were VERY happy to see Jackie in the parking lot waiting for us! We were able to catch the 5:35pm ferry to Peaks Island and Jackie seemed to know everyone on the boat.

Looking back at Portland as we head to Peaks Island on the ferry

Inside seating area of the ferry, with a bunch of people Jackie (red jacket) gave a hard time to

Finally we got to Carol and Jackie's house!

Holland Part 2

We had a really great day today here in Holland.
First we had breakfast and then a customized church service in the living room.  Annabel played the piano and the rest of us sang hymns, then there was some reading of the Bible and S&H, then we listened to a radio program for children, then had silent prayer and the Lord's prayer, then sang another hymn and the service was finished! It was a fun way to have church.

In the afternoon, after a bit of playing tag and box hockey in the yard, we all headed out for a walk in the forest. There was a big surprise at the halfway mark (turning around point) of the walk, and that was something big and blue and called... Lake Michigan!

The kids all had a fun time on the trail even though there were a lot of ups and downs and the weather was pretty chilly!

Chris, Skylyr, Kyrstyn and Tryfs. Rhiannon was barefoot in the water with her leggings pulled up 

View of the beach looking north

There were not many signs of Spring yet. This tree had beautiful ivory colored leaves from last year that were still clinging on despite the strong winds.

 On the drive back home from the walk, we stopped in Saugatuck to do some window shopping and sightseeing in this cute town before getting back into the car.

This fountain had mostly dried up so the middle part was full of pennies and other coins! Kids had to investigate...

 We had to say goodbye to everyone when we went to bed because we had to get up very early the next morning ... actually it was more like the middle of the night. We had to be on the road by 4:15am so we would get to Grand Rapids airport by 5am for our 6am flight.

BFF

It was sad saying goodbye but mostly I was just grateful to have been able to visit Annabel and her family, and for our kids to be able to have a great time playing together!