Journey to Kuwait's Failaka Island

The following happened four or five weeks ago, but I've only begun writing about it now. I'll definitely be returning to Failaka Island. Pictured is Texas Jeff, another social studies teacher in the UAS high school.

Failaka Island sits in the "Arabian" Gulf about an hour's ferry ride from Kuwiat City. Twenty years ago the island was a bustling resort town brimming with beachside vacation condos ringing its sandy shores from all angles. But during the invasion in 1990, the Iraqis moved in and occupied Kuwait, including Failaka Island. The Iraqi Army waged an especially brutal campaign to take and occupy the island.

When the Americans came in to liberate the island, they had to shoot it up pretty good as well. For some odd reason though, the Kuwaiti government hasn't allowed the island to be repopulated. Ostensibly, there is a danger from landmines off of major roads, but other than that, Kuwait's decision to keep the island closed is somewhat baffling to me. Perhaps concern over its strategic position in front of the bay?

Whatever their reasons may be, I much prefer the deserted island with remnants of another era. Instead of another bland, uninspiring tourist trap hoovering money out of your pocket, the island is now the biggest ghost town I've ever seen. What a great playground! There are a couple ferries to the island and one hotel open. One doesn't have to venture far to wander through a post apocalyptic landscape of empty concrete buildings. My friend Jeff and I rented a quad ATV and drove all over the place wandering through empty buildings filled with dust and construction debris.


Above are pictures of us climbing to the top of a mosque's minaret! The building below was ostensibly the police headquarters. You can see the obvious damage from the firefight. Considering it was invaded twice, most of the other buildings were shockingly untouched. Rows and rows of resort bungalows lined the beach and there wasn't a soul in any of them.

Some may be interested to know the person in the picture is Universal American School's Jeff Wallick, (see his blog here) who teaches world history in the High School. More pictures coming soon!

My Grandfather's New Book

Well, everyone now knows what I want for Christmas!

After more than 15 years, endless persistence, re-writes, consultants and lots of late hours looking at his computer screen, my Grandad Richard Beal finally got his book published. You can actually buy it right now on amazon.com! See this link to buy the book!

I've read chunks of some of the earlier manuscripts long ago, so I'm eager to finally read the finished product. As I think I mentioned in an earlier post back in March, he finally found a publisher to print his book and sell them.

Regardless of the subject matter, I'm sure my grandfather is thrilled. He has been writing this book and searching for a publisher since I was about ten. He's also been working on other books, including a commentary on the book of Acts and Christian themed fiction.

For those of you who don't know him, my grandfather was an entomology and biology professor at Northern Arizona University (GO LUMBERJACKS!) and also a minister before retiring to Prescott Arizona. He currently teaches a Bible-study class for the senior folks at his church in Prescott.

Everyone knows him as a warm-hearted, cheerful old guy who loves insects. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Kuwait Rugby Fundraiser Dinner

Went to the Hilton Convention center a few weeks ago with some other teachers to see the Kuwait Nomads Rugby Club Fundraising Dinner/Event/Shindig. It had very little to do with Rugby, and seemed to be just an excuse to get all dressed up and go to a fancy dinner full of mostly Commonwealth teachers at English schools in the area.

The Nomads are a semi-pro Rugby team from Kuwait that holds matches with other teams from this region.

While the dinner was slightly expensive, a good time was had by all who attended. I also got to get out and meet some other teachers and people in the area. The invitations were all organized by a new teacher at our school from New Zealand named Scott Mogey.

Another Pile of Youtube stuff from Japan

How do the Japanese train children to use a toilet you ask? They have these helpful videos!! You can watch this unbelievably hilarious potty training video! I found this on the Pittmeister's Parade Around Japan.

A Mika Nakashima song from her movie awhile ago. 一色 Isshoku? I think that's how you read it. I never learned to read Japanese very well. Here's another one. These are both from awhile ago, but I remember hearing them getting played everyday.

Some of you may recognize High and Mighty Color's song from Bleach (a Japanese Anime show).

More coming again soon.

Kuwait's Failaka Island

The following happened four or five weeks ago, but I've only begun writing about it now. I'll definitely be returning to Failaka Island. Pictured is Texas Jeff, another social studies teacher in the UAS high school.

Failaka Island sits in the "Arabian" Gulf about an hour's ferry ride from Kuwiat City. Twenty years ago the island was a bustling resort town brimming with beachside vacation condos ringing its sandy shores from all angles. But during the invasion in 1990, the Iraqis moved in and occupied Kuwait, including Failaka Island. The Iraqi Army waged an especially brutal campaign to take and occupy the island.

When the Americans came in to liberate the island, they had to shoot it up pretty good as well. For some odd reason though, the Kuwaiti government hasn't allowed the island to be repopulated. Ostensibly, there is a danger from landmines off of major roads, but other than that, Kuwait's decision to keep the island closed is somewhat baffling to me. Perhaps concern over its strategic position in front of the bay?

Whatever their reasons may be, I much prefer the deserted island with remnants of another era. Instead of another bland, uninspiring tourist trap hoovering money out of your pocket, the island is now the biggest ghost town I've ever seen. What a great playground! There are a couple ferries to the island and one hotel open. One doesn't have to venture far to wander through a post apocalyptic landscape of empty concrete buildings. My friend Jeff and I rented a quad ATV and drove all over the place wandering through empty buildings filled with dust and construction debris.


Above are pictures of us climbing to the top of a mosque's minaret! The building below was ostensibly the police headquarters. You can see the obvious damage from the firefight. Considering it was invaded twice, most of the other buildings were shockingly untouched. Rows and rows of resort bungalows lined the beach and there wasn't a soul in any of them.

Some may be interested to know the person in the picture is Universal American School's Jeff Wallick, (see his blog here) who teaches world history in the High School. More pictures coming soon!

Happenings Around Here

Hello everyone. If you haven't forgotten, this blog and Tyler Beal still exist! I apologize to all my faithful readers for the lack of updates, but there have been a number of problems here, not the least of which is that the internet I was promised in my apartment is far less reliable and speedy than I would have hoped.

But that can't take all the blame for my lack of communication, as I've been struggling to adjust to things here and haven't found the energy lately to write much. This new job is really consuming a lot more of my energy than I had anticipated.

Some things here have been difficult, but some things have been pretty good as well. All the teachers I work with have been pretty decent folks. I've also gotten to know some kids that I like in some of my classes.

But I'm not really doing much besides working and going to the gym. I work, hope I have enough time and energy left to get my butt to Al-Islah fitness center, and then go to sleep. I haven't been working out as much as I used to though. On the weekends I usually go out to eat or to a party with the other teachers, but I'm not doing much beyond that.



Some recent events in my life include:

1. Paintball with several of my students one night. Running around in a field at night with a facemask and a gun sounds like fun right? Not when you've got seventh graders who would like nothing more than to shoot you with painful little balls of fluorescent goo! Seriously though, I had a good time with several of my students at a paintball place. Lots of fun. Now if these welts would just go away.

2. My school is insane. Most of my students are Kuwaiti, but I've got kids from Lebanon, Syria, India, Korea, Canada, the USA, Pakistan, Egypt etc, etc. After years in orderly Japan where Middle School runs like clockwork for the most part, I'm now riding the waves of chaos, anarchy, and just plain nuttiness that comes with the American variety.

3. My school recently had their annual "Ramadan Around the World" fund-raiser. Actually it was over a month ago, but I never got around to blogging it! Each grade was responsible for putting on a big production of food, crafts, and well a big shindig from different Muslim countries. I spent the entire time dreading it, but I actually had a good time. The seventh grade did a big thing for Morocco. Some of my students' parents made couscous and some other dishes. Pretty tasty as I recall.

4. I'm busy planning a vacation to Egypt for the Christmas/Winter holidays. I really want to go diving, but I'm afraid it will be far too cold. Perhaps another time. I'm going to see the desert at least. We'll see.

Last but not least, here's a couple pictures from the top of my Apartment Building. The big blue building is my school, Universal American School.

I'm going to update more often now, I PROMISE!