I haven't posted anything for well over a month.
In part it's because I have been busy traveling to 2 wonderful weddings and for my own wedding anniversary but even more so, I have encountered a strange kind of 'writer's block'. It's not that I don't have anything to say - it's that I have so much to say and I don't know how!
It's always easy to post holiday pictures and talk about travel experiences. It starts being a whole lot more difficult when it comes to talking about things that are deeply rooted in culture and religion. On top of that, I have a number of friends and acquaintances in Kuwait who read my blog - and I am happy they do. My Kuwaiti friend A once told me that reading my blog helps her understand me. But the written word is also a powerful one and things are easily misunderstood - unintentionally. I am a big fan of google translate for a lot of languages but for Arabic it's terrible (and I've told them). Considering the results I get when I try and translate someone's blog posts written in Arabic or even just facebook status updates I am afraid to imagine the results they get when they try to translate my posts!!
So what to do? Self-censor out of fear that someone will misunderstand my posts and wrongly think that I am criticizing the society that is hosting me? Or post away and risk to offend those people who have been the kindest to me here and without whom I would understand very little of this complex society but whose English isn't strong enough to understand the nuances of my posts in English?
I suppose that I have already made the decision to keep on posting. I know I'm not doing mankind a big favor here - but I have realized how little I knew and understood about the region and in large part also about its religion. There are so many misunderstandings and so many misconceptions - and they absolutely go both ways! So if my blog posts help someone back home - or anywhere else in the world where I have friends who read along - understand this part of the world a little better and if I can make someone here in Kuwait understand me, my culture or even 'the western world' at large a little bit better and tear down some of those misconceptions, then I think it's worth the risk of maybe involuntarily offending someone along the way.
My apologies in advance if I ever offend (or already offended) anybody - believe me it will never have been my intention! And my sincere thanks to those of you who take the time to read my posts- it means more to me than you know!
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Yes, please go on. IMHO it's bridge-building what you are doing. And you two must be starting to know the arabic world quite well, with all the travelling you do :-) Looking forward to new sights on the blog, from new and exotic places :-)))
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support :-) Originally it was just to keep friends and family updated (which I guess has worked fairly well) but if there are some bridges that can be (at least partly) built, then I'm happy to carry on. Will see if I can get a few pics from Bahrain up as well (since that's the only new place I've been in this region). Thanks again!
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