5Kuwait was beautiful. That’s what I thought when Ghassan took me out to the shopping malls and the restaurants. The streets were remarkably clean. They had to be, because the cars that drove on them weren’t ordinary cars. Each building and house was different, and each had some special feature – the colours, the design and so on. And the cars parked outside were so beautiful!
I was particularly struck by the way men kissed each other as a form of greeting. In fact it wasn’t really a kiss, but it came close to one. The man brushed his cheek against the other man’s cheek as they shook hands. I heard from Ghassan that it was the traditional form of greeting here, and not just between men. In fact the women did the same when they greeted each other.
One man walked past us and whispered ‘As-
