2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
Dr. H is a Kuwaiti family medicine resident working in a polyclinic in Kuwait. I’ve invited her to write on the blog about her experiences and I think these will end up being pretty interesting posts. She just published her first one below so check it out.
I’m a 20 something year old doctor working in family medicine in a polyclinic in Kuwait City. I’m Kuwaiti but I was born and raised abroad, and then finished med school abroad. When I graduated I decided to come back to Kuwait. There’s a lot of ups and downs of being back, it’s been a joy and struggle at the same time. So i’ll be writing about some of that, as well as healthcare, and life as a Doctor working in Kuwait. For my first post, I’ll be discussing an issue I face on an almost daily basis in practice, one that I almost always feel helpless in solving. The treatment of foreign workers in Kuwait.
Patient: Dr. Can you please give me an injection?
Me: Which injection?
Patient: Something that will make my flu go away, that will make me able to work again
Me: I explain that flu’s take time, and that she needs to rest, and that its vital she does so.
I see hesitation.. followed by
Patient: Please, give me anything madame says I have to work
This is sadly a very common scenario. Typically it would be a housemaid, who’s come to seek treatment for a flu or common illness, and is worried that she’ll get in trouble, get deductions from her salary, or even worse, get hit if she doesn’t work through her illness. This is a trend I noticed very early on while working in family medicine.
I thought for a while about what the solution could be, so I started asking for the numbers of their employers, and started explaining to them; the need for rest, how ‘contagious’ a flu can be, and how vital rest is to ‘speed up recovery’ time. Coming from a ‘fellow Kuwaiti’ it wasn’t hard to convince… and trying to appeal to their own selfish nature by implying that they’ll get something out of letting them rest also helped. As if showing a little bit of empathy and basic humanity isn’t enough motivation to do so.
This just highlights a major issue in this country that largely goes un-noticed. Or perhaps its noticed, yet nothing is done. While I was working on a OB/GYN residency, a housemaid came into the emergency room in tears, claiming that she just found out she was pregnant and that she’d been raped earlier. I was horrified, and I contacted the police. Instead of them taking a statement from her, doing their best to protect her.. they dragged her down to station for ‘questioning’ and detained her! “illegal pregnancy” they said.
There are not enough laws to protect foreign workers. We have people from all over the world coming to work in Kuwait whether it be in homes, streets, hotels, restaurants. Immigrants make up a huge percentage of the population of Kuwait.. a percentage that Kuwait wouldn’t be able to run without.
What support systems are in place should they need help? Who can they approach? Is there a helpline they can call? Is there a ‘union’ that defends them? Are there organizations in place?
These issues need to be addressed, if not for the country’s sake, for the sake of maintaining a little bit of humanity, and not losing track of the reality that we live in.
Post by Dr. H – A family medicine resident working in a polyclinic in Kuwait
For the sneakerheads in Kuwait, there is an interactive exhibition showcasing some of the most iconic sneakers to be referenced in hip-hop music taking place tonight at the Visual Therapy Gallery. The exhibit is called “Walk This Way” and features local sneakerhead @KicksTQ and music by DJ Bonita.
The exhibition is from 6 to 9PM and it’s only taking place today, after that its gone. I’ll probably be there the whole three hours as well so drop by, check it out and say hi. For more info including a map of the location, click [Here]
Update: Turns out the event is till Saturday.
Sultan Center have finally launched their online shop so you can order your groceries online and have them deliver it to your home. Their delivery charges aren’t that bad either:
The minimum order value is 10KD per order Charges: Delivery charges differs with respect to the type of delivery whether express or next day delivery. Express delivery: We charge 1.5 KD for the express delivery, if the order is 40KD or above the delivery will be free. Next day delivery: This delivery is Free of charge.
I live right next to like four Sultan Centers so I’ll always prefer to stop by my local branch but I’ll definitely start checking their website whenever there is an item I can’t find. Actually, maybe you guys can help, right now I’m having trouble finding Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Light which seems to be out of stock everywhere. It’s delicious hot chocolate and just 25 calories!
Anyway, their website is still in beta so there might be a few issues here and there but you can check it out right now by visiting [sultan-center.com]
I get emails every so often asking if I know a places that teaches hip-hop or contemporary dance, so figured I’d post about it incase anyone ever googles the question. The only place I am aware of that offers contemporary or hip-hop dance classes is the Loyac Academy of Performing Arts (LAPA). They have the following dance classes:
Children:
Ballet
Popping
Adults:
Contemporary
Popping
Hip-hop
Breakdancing
Bollywood
If you’d like more information you could check out their instagram account @lapaloyac or call them on 97239408
Last year I posted about how Edfa3ly were the cheapest way to ship lightweight items from the States. Well that no longer is the case, seems they’ve made some major changes one of which being that they now charge KD2.5 per 1/2kg. In comparison, PostaPlus charge KD2.5 for the first 1/2kg but then charge KD2 for the extra 1/2kg’s which makes Edfa3ly now more expensive than PostaPlus. Thats not even including the Edfa3ly service fee of 1%. So I’ve updated my original post to highlight these new changes. It was good while it lasted.
Super/Foods is a new whole foods bar that just opened up this past weekend in Shuwaikh. It belongs to a friend of mine and so I’ve know about the concept for sometime now and I’ve eagerly been waiting for it to finally open.
Whole foods is defined as foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible and thats the main philosophy behind Super/Foods. It’s a vegetarian place with a lot of vegan, gluten free and raw options as well. Their menu is pretty straight forward, you have the create your own greek yogurt or chia pudding bowls, they’ve got savory toasts, sweet toasts, a number of salads and finally drinks that include smoothies and cold pressed juices. Oh they also have a ton of dessert bites as well as pre-bagged nuts and chips.
Their chef was based in the UK and had previously worked at Nama Foods and Tanya’s Cafe, both popular raw food restaurants in the UK so even though the place is new, there is a lot of experience in the kitchen. They’ve only been open for four days now and I’ve already been there twice so far and I’m hooked on two things, their avocado on toast as well as their beet-hummus on toast sandwiches. I’m also in love with their sparkling Blue Majik drink although I think it has to do more with my obsession over its color than its magical properties.
I’m also in love with the branding of the place as well as all their packaging and all the copy thats written on them. The feel of the place along with the good food has made Super/Foods one of my favorite restaurants at the moment alongside JOA, Habra and Table Otto. So many good places at the moment, I don’t remember the last time I was so excited over food like this.
Super/Foods is currently in their soft launch phase and are open from 10AM to 6PM. They’re located in the new Mayar Complex in Shuwaikh [Google Maps] and you can follow them on instagram @superfoodskw.
And here is a picture of their [Menu]
Photo by @kuwait1
Damn.
Update: Here is a video, looks like it could be just the roof.
For more videos, I’m retweeting a bunch on my twitter account @mark248am
Update2: Looks like fire is out and was only exterior superficial damage to one of the four main structures which hadn’t opened yet. The main theater building wasn’t affected.
Update3: Below is a video from inside the building that was on fire. As you can see there doesn’t look like there was any interior damage.
Update4: I drove by the cultural centre an hour ago and there were like 50 workers on the roof already working on it.
Just a random tidbit, 14 years ago today I posted my first post ever on a blog called Qhate. Before 248AM I had a blog called Miskan, before that I had another one called Moblogging from Kuwait (it was like instagram, but before instagram) and before that I had another blog called Qhate. Qhate was a war blog where me and a few friends were posting about life in Kuwait during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
My first post on February 6th, 2003.
Unlike my old posts here on 248AM, I don’t cringe when I read my old posts on Qhate. It kinda feels like I started off writing pretty well and then took a big dip in quality by the time I started 248AM, only to recover again years later. In around 10 days time its also going to be 248AM’s 12 year anniversary. Crazy.
All my posts from all my previous blogs are still online except for “Moblogging from Kuwait” since it was hosted on textamerica.com which shut down a decade ago. You can still find some stuff from it using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine but not much. I used to take all the photos and post to my blog using the Sony CLIÉ UX40. That was back when smart phones didn’t exist and Sony PDA’s were so ahead of their time.
Some of you might already know JOA since they’ve been on Carriage but they just opened up their first physical location and it’s located right next to Habra in Kuwait City. For those of you who don’t know, JOA is an ORA creation that serve sushi but also specialize in poke bowls. I had previously only ordered sushi rolls from them but over the weekend I passed by their location for lunch and finally got to try one of their poke bowls. I fell in love instantly.
I ordered the regular sized “Tuna on Fire” poke bowl with extra protein and it was so damn good that I ended up ordering it again for dinner that same night from Carriage. They’re soft launching their new location today and their timings for now will only be from 12PM to 7PM. The place is tiny with no indoor seating but they do have an outdoor seating area.
So if you’re interested, their instagram account is @joa.kw and here is their location on [Google Maps]
Last month I posted a complaint about how my past few shipments with PostaPlus had taken twice as long to arrive than usual. While previously packages would take around a week to get delivered to Kuwait after arriving to my US mailbox, my past three shipments had taken 11, 13 and 21 days. But things are back to normal now since I received two packages since that post, one had taken 6 days from my US mailbox to my door, the other 7.
During that time I was in contact with PostaPlus who investigated the delays and they sent me the explanation below:
1. Weather conditions: Europe (Our transit HUB) has experienced bad weather conditions that had caused flights to be cancelled.
2. Change in customs management structure, if you recall there was a big situation going on and has caused some key people to be removed, henceforth situation was unstable and extra security has been added on shipments.
So everything is back to normal, now if they can only hurry up an implement Knet payments everything would be perfect.
Swar Shuaib released his first episode yesterday of his latest season which features an interview with Lindsey Lohan. I was a huge fan of his previous two seasons of the show but this new episode was fairly disappointing. Other than the fact the interview with Lindsey was so bleh (probably cuz of the language barrier), but the show is now filled to the brim with non-stop annoying and distracting product placements. Basically like a local fashionistas instagram account except in video format. Check it out above and skip to 18:22 if you just want to watch the awkward Lindsey Lohan interview.
Note: By the way, just to give you an idea of how popular his videos are, he’s already got nearly a million views and it’s just been 12 hours since the video has gone up.
Sons of Yusuf released the music video above a few days ago but what caught my attention was the background where the video was shot. I knew the video was shot in Kuwait but the location looked like one of those old gas stations you might find outside an old U.S. town. After a bit of digging around it looks like a guy in Kuwait built this backdrop on his property to park his vintage American muscle car outside it. Check it out in the picture below and again in the music video above.
Picture from @kingdome.co and video by @miniaturemalekpour_
Guys, if you haven’t previously been to the K-Cats Cat Show then you have to, it’s one of those rare super legit events that take place here that you never knew about. It’s one of the biggest cat shows in the Middle East if not the biggest. Anyway check out the full list of this weekends events below:
Thursday
Exhibition: Until – Ghadah Alkandari
Exhibition: KRM – Four Hands
Kuwait Riders Bike Show
Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Hatha Yoga with Rosie
Expats Morning Coffee Gathering
Kuwait Riders Bike Show
K-Cats Cat Show
Embassy Fundraising Concert
Salwa’Walk and Socialize Meetup
Saturday
Yoga with the 3
Kuwait Riders Bike Show
K-Cats Cat Show
Qout Market
Workshop: Food and Drink Styling and Photography
KES Spring Bazaar
We Bring the Rock
Bootcamp by One2One
Music Night
Show: Once Upon a Time
Burgers & Arts
If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]
Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.
The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and Sky Cinemas:
New This Week:
Kung-Fu Yoga (6.2)
Jackie (7.3) ♦
Live by Night (6.5) ♦
Ozzy (5.6)
Split (7.5) ♦
Swallows and Amazons (6.3)
Other Movies Showing:
Ballerina (6.8)
Hacksaw Ridge (8.8) ★♦
La La Land (8.9) ♦
Moana (8.2)
Monster Trucks (5.4)
Patriots Day (7.2)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (7.0)
Sing (7.3)
Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania (N/A)
The Great Wall (6.0)
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (5.6) ♦
The movies below are now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:
A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)
Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.
