I'll have to update this with more details tomorrow. At dinner tonight Dr. Anas arranged for us to visit a museum tomorrow morning so I am going to retire for the night real soon. I do have several thoughts about the Friday market and our dinner with Dr. Anas that I want to write about tomorrow.
Today we visited the Friday market, which is basically a giant flea market. It's called the Friday market because it is only open on Friday. If you were to drive by the location on any other day of the week it'd be a ghost town. However, every Friday morning the place becomes a hub of capitalism. There are booths and makeshift shops of an endless variety. You can buy household appliances, furniture, and rugs in some sections, and buy souvenirs, jewelry, perfume, and other personal items in other sections. It is the type of place that Mike and Frank from American Pickers would go crazy in. We spent a solid three hours at the Friday market but I believe Frank and Mike could probably spend three days.
While I was wandering around the market I started to notice men springing and jogging past me. I was a bit worried about if there was a fight or accident or problem of that sort until I stumbled upon a huge crowd of men gathered together in prayer. It was fascinating. Shopkeepers would hastily cover their booths and run toward the prayer tower. Shoppers would stop what they were doing and go join the crowd. The crowd spread into the booths and it was quite a sight to behold. It was like something I had never seen before. Of course, you'll notice people praying throughout the day in Kuwait and anywhere where Islam is popular. But to see hundreds of people stop selling and shopping for a solid 30 minutes to join together in solidarity was something I will never forget.
After the Friday market we had a few hours of downtime in the hotel before we had dinner at the Sheraton hotel with Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed.
Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed is a distinguished alumni of Arkansas State University and I believe he is also the only distinguished international alumni of the school. He is the former Minister of Information for Kuwait and is currently a professor of journalism at Kuwait University. You can read more about him and the other distinguished alumni from A-State here:
http://astatealumni.org/s/1531/social.aspx?sid=1531&gid=1&pgid=471
Dr. Al-Rasheed and Dr. Fowler are good friends so the dinner at the Sheraton was a fun and relaxed time. Dr. Al-Rasheed told us about some of his experiences living in Jonesboro and his memories of being a student in Dr. Fowler's classroom. He also offered some wonderful advice for our group in pursuing careers in journalism, media, and politics. The dinner itself was amazing, particularly the ice cream which had some sort of lemony syrup on it. I've become a fan of Turkish coffee, which is a sort of chocolate expresso that really wakes me up. Dr. Al-Rasheed is well-respected and admired in Kuwait and you can tell from how people interact with him. It cannot be overstated how unique our opportunities on this trip truly are. The average Kuwaiti person may only hear about Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed or Ali Najim the radio man and never meet them in person, yet here are some American college students who come into the country and get a first class tour of the place with some of the society's brightest and most talented people.
I have several photos from our time today in the slideshow below, particularly of the praying at the Friday market
Today we visited the Friday market, which is basically a giant flea market. It's called the Friday market because it is only open on Friday. If you were to drive by the location on any other day of the week it'd be a ghost town. However, every Friday morning the place becomes a hub of capitalism. There are booths and makeshift shops of an endless variety. You can buy household appliances, furniture, and rugs in some sections, and buy souvenirs, jewelry, perfume, and other personal items in other sections. It is the type of place that Mike and Frank from American Pickers would go crazy in. We spent a solid three hours at the Friday market but I believe Frank and Mike could probably spend three days.
While I was wandering around the market I started to notice men springing and jogging past me. I was a bit worried about if there was a fight or accident or problem of that sort until I stumbled upon a huge crowd of men gathered together in prayer. It was fascinating. Shopkeepers would hastily cover their booths and run toward the prayer tower. Shoppers would stop what they were doing and go join the crowd. The crowd spread into the booths and it was quite a sight to behold. It was like something I had never seen before. Of course, you'll notice people praying throughout the day in Kuwait and anywhere where Islam is popular. But to see hundreds of people stop selling and shopping for a solid 30 minutes to join together in solidarity was something I will never forget.
After the Friday market we had a few hours of downtime in the hotel before we had dinner at the Sheraton hotel with Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed.
Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed is a distinguished alumni of Arkansas State University and I believe he is also the only distinguished international alumni of the school. He is the former Minister of Information for Kuwait and is currently a professor of journalism at Kuwait University. You can read more about him and the other distinguished alumni from A-State here:
http://astatealumni.org/s/1531/social.aspx?sid=1531&gid=1&pgid=471
Dr. Al-Rasheed and Dr. Fowler are good friends so the dinner at the Sheraton was a fun and relaxed time. Dr. Al-Rasheed told us about some of his experiences living in Jonesboro and his memories of being a student in Dr. Fowler's classroom. He also offered some wonderful advice for our group in pursuing careers in journalism, media, and politics. The dinner itself was amazing, particularly the ice cream which had some sort of lemony syrup on it. I've become a fan of Turkish coffee, which is a sort of chocolate expresso that really wakes me up. Dr. Al-Rasheed is well-respected and admired in Kuwait and you can tell from how people interact with him. It cannot be overstated how unique our opportunities on this trip truly are. The average Kuwaiti person may only hear about Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed or Ali Najim the radio man and never meet them in person, yet here are some American college students who come into the country and get a first class tour of the place with some of the society's brightest and most talented people.
I have several photos from our time today in the slideshow below, particularly of the praying at the Friday market