A Year in the Middle East

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.” —Hebrews 11:8

In 2004-2005, I moved to Kuwait with my young family. It was a year of many transitions for me.

There were obvious changes: leaving New England for a desert climate of almost constant sunshine and heat; a calendar of feasts and fasts that rotated around Islam and the phases of the moon; weekends that began on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, and ended with work and school on Sunday mornings.

There were other transitions: learning Arabic, with its calligraphic script that is read from right to left; adapting to a region where alcohol and pork are illegal; making friends from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, India, and the Philippines; joining the Kuwait Ladies Bible Study.

Not all transitions were welcome. One day, I ventured to the local souq to purchase an abaya, burkha, headscarf, and gloves. When I looked in the mirror, I saw myself disappear behind the layers of black fabric as I became indistinguishable from every other woman in the public square. I chose not to wear hijab that year.

Some images have faded: camels, fabrics, spices and sand, even the glorious Arabian Sea. What remains is what I did not know I would find: a new understanding of this fascinating and diverse world that we have inherited, and my own place in it, as a woman, a global citizen, and a Christian.

Kay Peterson