Friday, April 19, 2013

#Kuwait - Expat culture


From Kuwait 2013

Here I am, thinking it is a cool idea to take up Jake Johnson's weekly challenge
for a short photo assignment. He asked me to take a 'cultural street photograph
from wherever I am at the moment'.

Well, I am in Kuwait.
Getting photos of Kuwaiti culture isn't easy to come by.
You would have to go to the few heritage sites that are left in the city center.
BUT, he did say from wherever I am, right?
I am in Mangaf, that's down further in the South of Kuwait.
A place where some years ago, Kuwaitis didn't set foot in and didn't even visit
their relatives when they were fallen from Grace and had to move here for financial reasons or other.
It's the Corner where most Expats live, at least lower labor workers
(correct me, if I'm wrong, which you folks will do, I'm sure).
There for sure are more Expats here than Kuwaiti folks.
So, I figured, I take a photo of what has become the cultural scene for me.
Asian Expats at work. Two street cleaners in the front and car mechanics in the back.

Easy snapshot you say. It is. In a way.
For me though, as a woman, it is not exactly that easy to ask these guys for a photo.
I usually don't and just steal one.

So, one challenge for me was to overcome my unwillingness to ask :-)
The lighting of course sucked and the weather is still hazy, so, no matter where
I would have gone today, I would not have been overly happy.

What I do and did like though, were their smiling faces
(before, during or after, they all smiled at one point).

I know, you all would have liked to see something different.
Maybe. 
But sometimes you have to go with what you get.

Even with mosques for example, as a Non-Muslim you can
(unless you have the patience to find it out) never really tell, who goes there to pray.
The one in my approximate neighbourhood for example is visited predominantly
by Egyptian worshipers (and I don't even know if it's Sunni or Shiite - I think Shiite).

 Now, enough talking. I think I had too much sunshine, so excuse this little waterfall of words ;-)

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