That afternoon we had class for two hours (it’s intense), I know this is the first time this program is being run and everything is a little up in the air but I feel like some of our classes are really helpful. The one we had during this time was all on Islamic Banking to prepare us for our visit for the Kuwait Finance House, which is under an Islamic Banking system. But, some of the classes drag on and I wish we could just discuss our events and visits for the day. I want a de-briefing and discussing what we liked, what we learned or were surprised by. I mean, we talk about this informally every evening over dinner or snacking from the grocery store next door, but I wish we had it in a class/seminar setting. That would be nice. I’m sure next year it will get better.
Chamber of Commerce and Kuwait Fund gives great backpacks
Today was a really busy day. I just typed this and lost all the information. So here goes take two. I hate when that happens. An e-mail just disappears and you write three pages or a document. I hate you Microsoft Word right now. Stupid “recovery” and doesn’t save my work. Hence why I definitely need a new computer. Ahora. Damn.
Let’s try this again!! We visited the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and had a presentation and power point and what they did for Kuwait. It is a non-profit organization so they are not owned by the government, which is refreshing since 90% of the people who work in Kuwait work for the government. There is a very small private sector here that they are trying to develop but most of everything oil, cellular phones, malls, everything is owned by the government. The director came in a little late but totally answered our questions SO WELL. He was the kind of guy who totally kicked ass and took names. He answered by question really well. We talked about the government not providing enough financial capital to Kuwait to further develop and investing it abroad. The board frankly said to be honest with them about Kuwait or the Parliament because since they are not government-owned we could say anything we wanted there. It was really nice. We talked about them wanting to build some bridges, vacation spots, and building Kuwait as a financial capital of the Middle-East, but because the government invests so much money abroad they want them to invest more nationally.
Afterward the director had other meetings and left so they showed us around the building to their conference rooms or more “VIP” rooms for when International leaders come to sign papers or make a public appearance. We visited the business center and the training center…which was the best. Okay, the best part was the free deliciously yummy buffet which we completely took over at the training center. Even the board members suggested we should have come there first if they had known they were hungry. They had little sandwiches, rolls, yummy amazingly heavenly fruit tarts, really good everything. It was perfect. My eating schedule is SO off here. I cannot wait to go home and cook again. We eat out all the time and they eat break from like 7 am till 9, lunch from 2-4 pm, and dinner at like 8:30-10 pm. Strange for us Americans. After our photos were taken (which ended up in a different newspaper the next day…we have now been in the paper three times, obviously so much is happening in Kuwait), we headed to our next visit, Kuwait Fund for Economic and Social Development! Now we show up places and people know us from the paper. It’s really cool. There is always a photo, some are online, and I will try to send you or put the link on here for anyone to check out. Pretty exciting. I am a nobody very Jewish looking girl who scared of May in the United States, but watch out…in Kuwait I am a cool student who can’t speak Arabic and visits big wigs in the Middle-East. ;-)
The Kuwait Fund was similar to the Arab Fund, but a little more organized. Every place we go they serve you tea (soooo yummy), Arabic or Turkish coffee (more yummy) or juice. Here we were given orange juice. It tasted like Odwalla. Best priced knock off Odwalla I ever had. Yummy. The whole board was there that we talked to about the projects they had worked on in the past and the great name they had established abroad. I really enjoyed learning about, but by this time I was pretty exhausted from our morning. They gave us the best give-away. Everywhere we go we get annual reports, notepads, pens, other brochures and “grub/Schwag”. Here, watch out, we got a BACKPACK FOR FREE, mouse pad, polo t-shirt, pen, and an entire LARGE folder full of reports, brochures on projects and other stuff. It was awesome. Everywhere we go we get stuff. My suitcase is going to weigh so much. But, I’m not sure how much I am going to bring back with me, cause I doubt I am really going to read a lot of it over. If ANYONE is interesting in a lot of this finance crap or the places I have visited, I will bring back the information and it’s all yours!! After we came back and had class again. It was awesome…..
After Anu, Jaris and I bought ice cream (they have Marble Slab Creamery here!) which was yummy and took it easy and called it a night.
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