Jahrah

LTC Sweeney left for R&R today. His leave doesn't begin until the day after he lands in the United States which will be, roughly, 21 Dec. His leave will end fifteen days later, 4 Jan. Soldiers usually take a shuttle bus from Camp Arifjan to Camp Ali Al Salem--about an hour-and-a-half drive. He, however, wanted to be driven in the G1 car. SSG Schmidt and I felt up to the task, and we left for Ali Al Salem with LTC Sweeney in tow at 1300. We arrived at Ali Al Salem on time--about 1430. We stayed for about an hour to keep him company. We really like him, and were having good conversation. Ali Al Salem also has a McDonald's so we decided to have a late lunch. Kuwait McDonald's taste just like American McDonald's, Greasy and delicious. We said our goodbyes, and we were on for an uneventful drive back to Arifjan. Well, sort of.

We ran into construction, and what Americans call a detour, the Kuwaiti call--probably using British vernacular--call a diversion. Driving on Kuwaiti highways is difficult enough with the crazy drivers, but the highway signs are also in Arabic with few romance letters/words on them. Usually the only romance characters are the numbered highways. We were on HWY 70 and were looking for 6-Ring Road (Or, a road the signs of which are plastered with Arabic but have the numeral 6 on them). Add this together with construction, and the situation is a little confusing. Add also that there is a fork in the road with no signs with romance characters, and you have a problem. SSG Schmidt, the driver, decided to take a right at the fork. Immediately we knew this was the wrong decision because ahead of us was a stop light, followed by what appeared to be strip malls and other buildings. And then, in English is a sign that says "Jahrah." Jahrah is a small town about 15 miles away from Kuwait City. It's a suburb. The traffic was pretty heavy, and SSG Schmidt and I didn't know where we were because the diversion wasn't straight. It took us round about the highway, and posited us in Jahrah. We continued to drive down the road until we noticed a car make a u-turn. Once we realized we could do that, we did, and found ourselves back in the diversion. We went the opposite way on the fork, and saw the numeral 6 on a sign. We went eastbound--per our directions--and were pretty satisfied.

About ten minutes down the road, I said, "Dude, look! It's the gulf." The gulf was to our right, and was quite beautiful. The sun was setting, and the sea was a beautiful blue. This was the first time I had seen it so I was excited. Unfortunately, this means that we were going the wrong way. The drive from Arifjan to Ali and back again is around the outskirts of Kuwait City. The closest to the gulf we should have been was about fifteen to twenty miles. The fact that I was seeing it now told us that we were lost. We drove on until we saw an exit, which turned out to be a round-a-bout, and started going the opposite way on 6-Ring Road. (Kuwait is small, and if you drive about two hours north of Arifjan, you're in Iraq. About twenty minutes south, you're in Saudi Arabia--same with about an hour west. I think we were heading north-east our map was pretty crappy) which would have put us somewhere in southern Iraq, had we kept going in that direction. That diversion was winding, and disoriented both of us.)

We were kind of at a loss because we knew that we were going to hit the diversion again, when, fortuitously we saw a sign that said--in English!--MSR Tampa, SPOD, ARIFJAN, KNB. That was the road we needed to take, and it set us on track. As far as I can tell, that diversion takes those wanting to go to Arifjan through the city of Jahrah. If Arabic had romance characters, I wouldn't mind taking a detour through a city I don't know. However, everything is written in a script which I can't even begin to recognize. So, I was hesitant to go through the city due to its complete foreign nature; so was SSG Schmidt. At the end of it all we made it back to Arifjan, but it took about two-and-a-half hours. We were lost for a good hour. Thank goodness we had a full tank of gas when we left.

It was a fun little trip, and I look forward to my next trip to Ali. Why? Because it will be my turn to leave for R&R! It's 40 days from now! So excited.