We were in Spain the summer of 1990, we had a nice beginning for a very promising summer vacation. Then we headed to nice, we stayed at my uncle’s place, and that was when we got the news that Iraq have invaded Kuwait.
I was young, 8 years old, and when they got the news, I was downstairs playing with their Nintendo (yeah the old one with big cartridges. I remember I liked Mario and that game with the gun.. I also remember that somehow my cousins loved playing zelda.. me not so much), and as I was playing, my brother who is 4 years my senior, came running down to me and told me “Kuwait have been invaded and my father was killed” He said those words with the biggest grin I’ve ever seen! Ofcourse at that age I didn’t understand a word, and ofcourse the comment about my father was lie, nothing happened to him il7emdillah. But then I gradually understood what had happened. From the shushhs and the occasional chub, Me and my younger brother knew that something extremely dangerous have happened and that we should steer away from the living room everytime they had Sky News on.
^My aunt’s house
Later that month we went to london, to stay at my grandfather’s place. My father met us somewhere between nice and london, I don’t remember since it’s all blurry now.. But I remember going to King’s Fahad academy in london.. I can’t believe how my parents convinced me to study so hard and let me go to school while all the other Kuwaiti kids were on a prolonged vacations! (its something I won’t ever forgive them for 😛 ) and then we moved to france so my mother could see her sister, then to nice again, then london.. and thats when we heard the good news about Kuwait and we, as in my parents, decided we should go to Bahrain in preparation to get back to Kuwait as soon as possible.
^Our Neighborhood
And in Bahrain we stayed at this place, shown in the pictures. I don’t know how much time we spent over there.. but I remember it was some of the best days of my life! My cousins were there, some little future blogger and bloggerette were living right across the street from us 😛 and we all had fun.
^Our house
So going back to these places after 19 years was a very nice & weird experience. I remembered every wall and every place. In my memories, the places, houses and streets were much bigger than what they really are. I remember the streets being longer and wider, scary at night and with turns we didn’t bother exploring. Now that I’m 19 years older, I see things completely different. The first questions that come to mind are: How did we survive with no internet? How did we play on those narrow streets? How did we ever pass the time?! And why the hell was I scared from those streets at night???!
To each their own good and bad memories of those times (1990-1991) but for some reason mine were all great memories.
Ah, simpler times..
wow your journey during the war was almost the same as ours, we started our vacation in spain and heard the news there after that we went to stay at my grandfathers apartment in london my siblings went to king fahad school i was 4 years old and non of the schools accepted me 🙁 however, my mom visited my aunts in egypt not france 😛 anyways although there were some good memories during those days with families and friends but thank god they are over
kanat thakryat gadema gadema bel 7aal 😛
When you said u’ve been to King Fahad Academy it brought a smile to my face. I was there too during the invasion. Like you, i’ll never forgive my parents for making me go to school and especially when it was winter when there was snow all over the place!
King Fahad was divided into 2 sections, Private and Kuwaiti. Private section was for the regular students of KFA and the Kuwaiti section was set up for the Kuwaiti students. Kuwaiti parents in London volunteered to teach, one of was my father (he tought geography and used to literally feed the students answers to the exams hehe).
Unfortunately, my brother and i and 10 other Kuwaitis (they might know themselves when they read this) were the only ones who attended the private section. We used to have fights every single day with their students. Lots of Iraqis there and they were always giving us a hard time. We couldn’t wait till it was lunch so we’d run to the Kuwaiti section and eat with our friends.
Things i remember at KFA:
1) Noon prayer (jama3a)
2) Food hall (baked beans and mash potatoes)
3) Student bus drives
4) Fights in classrooms
5) Not doing any homework
6) Couldn’t wait to go back home and play in the snow
Wow you had a very very different experience. I was in Paris when the invasion happened and I remember fights with the Iraqi kids we used to be friends with. I remember one of them told us that if we went to the demonstrations he’s gonna come with a gun and shoot us all. Of course we went to the demonstrations anyway and I still remember the chant “Notre choix, Deja fait, AlSabah!”. I also remember crying at school with an American girl whose relative was participating in desert storm. Generally speaking, for me, it wasn’t about good memories at all. It was mostly about feeling betrayed as an Arab and extremely patriotic as a Kuwaiti.
9eg 7’oooooooosh thakrayat , bs laish ma 7’athetney ma3ak youm re7t ahnak ya shgooooooooool :(. kint aby ashooooooooooof al place
Ahhh we all have memories such as that! U want to King Fahad Academy! I went to ICC in London too and studied when it was damn cold! Some people in different locations but we had some family in Kuwait!
i think in those days you only had good happy times without thinking of any problem because of your age ..
LoL I was in London too and We all went to king Fahed Academy too , my aunt was one of the teachers as well lol.. I remember like it was yesterday I was 14, first year of high school .. and i went on the double decker bus!
But we stayed there all the holiday, some of my family members were in Switzerland as well but most of us were in London.. we were 12 people in an flat of 3 rooms! I don’t know how but we managed!
Rakan the food hall!! LooL I remember the cakes YUM!
aallaaaaaaH! la3benha 9a7! lool
I was a 2 yr old. All I remember is sitting in the basement near the washing-machine! lool and the shadow of the Iraqi military man on the door lurking (way3a twya3h!)
My mom mentioned a funny story about me.
The Iraqi guy said: “Tjeeen ma3ana Baghdad”???!!!
Me: “abiiii arooooooooooo7” loool
My mum: “hahahaha” ohh kids! and hid me under her 3abayah!
(madri mn gali Baghdad =”Disney-Land” ?! lool
Yousef, “prolonged vacation”of peeing on urself and ducking down everytime you hear bombardment! Not exactly a vacation I had in mind! loool
During the invasion we covered the whole of KSA but we mostly lived in Al Zilfy and played around all the time with my Saudi friends… I dont know why but during our stay in Saudi Arabia I spoke with a heavy Saudi accent! My parents didn’t like it one bit… but couldn’t do anything because I was only 6 at that time.
I remember going to Bahrain in the final few months and lived in Madinat Hamad… I’m not sure of the name but I remember we lived in a neighborhood filled with Kuwaiti families and remember burning a metal gauze at night and swinging it wildly. The sight of sparks at night mesmerized us for some reason.
I remember my day would not start without having my daily dose of Captain Majid in the morning.
The days…
Rakan lol I remember the food hall too, the school bus rides to and from school. I also remember that I used to spend hours doing homework and study hard…….. ugh
Wa6n_3Mri, LOL seeda bitro7een weyahom! 😛
ShoSho, laish 7as ina your aunt was my teacher? is she an arabic teacher?
You were in King Fahads academy then?!
Dad was a teacher there, ishwaya 7amaqe o yezef, my aunt was my math teacher, my arabic teacher was my fathers friend and after work he would come to our apartment to stay with the men and bel marra check that i did my homework :S. our downstairs neighbour was my PE teacher… walla ayam!
does anyone remember when they filmed the Q8ys in King Fahad Academy for KTV? I have that tape if anyone is interested 😀
inzain intifaham
did i hit u ayam el ghazo;p ? hadait 3alaik el chalb ;p ? makent adre ena kintaw 3indina;p rafajnakom wela migna 3alaikom? I NEED DETAILS YA RAJOL ! 😛
Hello! I would really like to play tennis in Kuwait. You were you have a trainer and everything, but i don’t know where that’s offered. I thought you could post about this so that we could now where to go! And no, i don’t want to go to the Kuwaiti clubs, i want private trainers. THANKS!
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yousif: i live in bahrain and i don’t know where is this man! ayaaaam! u remember ur self being 3abqareno and wanting to see a blood sample under the microscope ? 😛
Yousef lol no English teacher, Aziza if you know her 🙂 I am not sure sure if she taught middle or primary school at that time ..
Weld El-ma6aba Yes yes I remember that incident where you scraped your knee on purpose just so I could take a blood sample to put under the microscope!!! LOOOOL!! what were you thinking!
um-mit3ib kintay yaahil 7azat’ha manil3ab ma3ach 😛
:::ShoSho::: aha no i don’t know her 7asafa..
law sama7t.. mo intaw ele ma til3iboon ma3ay;p AANNNAAA ma al3ab ma3akom ;p
yousef: kila eb soub w 3arabanat elbarrid eb soub
“some little future blogger and bloggerette were living right across the street from us”
Who are the bloggerette and blogger?