One thing I've learned from living in Middle Eastern countries: aesthetics are not important! If there are city ordinances regulating what you can park outside your building or hang from your apartment balcony, they are not enforced. In my opinion, the trash strewn about and random items that can be found in varying states of disrepair all over the place makes it look like Arabs don't care about appearances. To an outsider, entire Arab countries can look kind of trashy. But that's not really the case. I'm not sure why it's ok to park a broken down Camry with 4 busted tires outside an apartment building and leave it untouched for years (I've seen it done), but that's just the way it is over here. But if you ever find yourself inside an Arab home, you find it to be very clean and orderly.
After the initial shock, it starts to get kind of entertaining. What random crap will I see today?! The neighborhood where our apartment is located is rife with piles of haphazardly discarded trash, vehicles, and furniture. Here's my first entry in the log of things that make me giggle on my morning commute to work.
I like to think that this car is parked outside the home of the former driver for the Emir. In my imagination, he served his country well and was rewarded handsomely by being allowed to take one of the decommissioned cars as a personal vehicle. But the car was too precious to just parade around the streets. It needed to be preserved. So here it sits, under a dirty towel, missing a hubcap. Just waiting for its chance to shine again.
After the initial shock, it starts to get kind of entertaining. What random crap will I see today?! The neighborhood where our apartment is located is rife with piles of haphazardly discarded trash, vehicles, and furniture. Here's my first entry in the log of things that make me giggle on my morning commute to work.
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| A vintage Rolls Royce. |
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| See! It even has the seal of Kuwait. ...I think. |
In all seriousness, this Rolls is parked outside an apartment building, in a dust lot, surrounded by building scraps and trash. I have no idea what the story is here, but this random example of luxury in the middle of rubbish makes me chuckle every time I see. It is such a fantastic example of what you see all the time here in the Middle East.
There are lots of other random items that catch my eye on my morning commute. Check back frequently to see the next installation in this series.
Vicariously yours,
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