I taught at a school in Kuwait for a year from 2003. This was an interesting experience culturally. I had not lived in a Muslim country before. I taught mathematics up to A-level at Kuwait English School. This is one of the better international schools in the country. Some of my classes were difficult and it was hard work. We started the day at 7 am which was the time we had to be on site. Lessons started at 7.30 and finished by the early afternoon. This had its advantages as we could then have the afternoon free. To be honest I was often so tired that I just went home and slept.
I lived in a block about 10 miles from the school which was where the school rented some basic apartments for staff. I hired a car each term, which worked out surprisingly cheap. I think petrol worked out at about 10 US cents per litre. The driving in Kuwait is an experience not to be missed. The standard of driving is amongst the worst I have seen anywhere in the world. The main technique could be called ‘point and push’. It was very scary. There were horrendous accidents every day on the highway which ran south from Kuwait City.
A famous landmark in Kuwait CityThe weekends were on Thursdays and Fridays. We called this the virtual weekend. Saturdays and Sundays were normal days. One weekend, we went out for a drive in the desert to see if we could find the so-called tank graveyard which was where the US military had dumped all the Iraqi tanks and trucks that it had attacked during the Iraqi retreat from Kuwait in the first Gulf war. There were hundreds of tanks in row upon row as well as armoured vehicles, unexploded ordnance and so on. It was blisteringly hot in the desert and I only had a rough idea of the location as we were following directions given to us by other teachers. But we found the site in the end.
View from my window – lovelyThis huge amount of scrap metal rusting in the desert is worthless. The reason is that depleted uranium, a byproduct of uranium enrichment, is used in the armour piercing shells that the Americans used. The result is a lot of contaminated metal. It will lie there for many years to come.
At the top of the post, you see pictures that we took on that day. Unbeknown to us, there was a military base nearby and we were soon seen by some soldiers who came over and arrested us. We were questioned in broken English and our cameras were confiscated but not before I had removed my camera’s card. We had to report the next day to the army headquarters to collect these items. We were politely questioned by a well-spoken Kuwaiti officer and given tea.