Part 1 - On August 2, 1990, my life changed forever
I have lived in Kuwait since I moved here in 1984 to marry the love of my life. It’s been quite a life, filled with many memorable moments; good and bad.
I remember August 2, 1990 like it was yesterday.
My husband, three young children (ages 3 months, 3 and 5 years old) and I had arrived in Orlando on August 1st to spend 10 days at Disney World. I woke up the next morning in our suite at the Marriott Renaissance looking forward to eating breakfast, courtesy of me and heading out to have some Disney adventures.
I turned on the TV in the living room and was searching for something to keep the boys occupied while I prepared breakfast when I passed CNN and our lives changed forever. It was just 8:00 a.m. in Florida and the announcer was listing the headlines. I heard him mention “Kuwait”. That was highly unusual at the time since nobody ever paid attention to such a small country far away from the United States. My first thought was to stop and listen to find out what happened in Kuwait. The children were shouting behind me that they wanted to watch cartoons and not news. I immediately called out to my husband who was in another room. “Something is wrong in Kuwait! Come and see the news!”
He jumped up and ran over. It was soon apparent what had happened; while we were asleep, Kuwait had been invaded by Iraqi soldiers. We spent the next 10 days, trying to sort out our lives and decide where we should go next, how we were going to live, and find out how relatives and friends left in Kuwait were doing including my mother-in-law. All not knowing when or if we would ever be able to return home.
Our first thoughts were to call my mother and father (we had just visited them for two weeks) to ask whether we should return and stay with them, or head to Spain where we owned an apartment at the time. After consulting with them, my husband and I decided the best plan would be to go to Spain as we had originally planned. There were several reasons for this; 1. We would have a Kuwaiti consulate near us which meant contact with official news, support , etc. 2. We would be staying near other Kuwaitis which would offer us a way to find out more about what was happening and make more informed decisions/know more about a time-line;
We thought about leaving earlier from Florida since we were just going through the motions with the kids and not really enjoying ourselves, but changing our itinerary wasn’t possible, so we spent the next 10 days trying to distract ourselves while staying up to date with what was happening in Kuwait. It’s a good thing we took photos of that visit because my husband and I don’t remember our time there at all.
We left Orlando bound for Malaga, Spain. Once we were settled into our apartment on the coast, we visited with my brother in law and some close friends who had luckily been in contact with our family before the lines were cut.They reported that my mother-in-law and other relatives were fine so far. Then we began discussing how long the occupation might last and how we were going to survive since we hadn’t planned on being away from home for more than a few weeks. Luckily, we had a foreign credit card since all bank accounts in Kuwait were frozen and there was no money “officially” going in or out.
September was fast approaching and the boys were supposed to start school back home. We began investigating possibilities for schools near our apartment. My 5 year old and his cousin could attend the local English private school, but what about my other son? At 3 years old, he was only eligible for nursery school and the only one nearby was Spanish. We enrolled him and hoped he would be able to manage. If not, we would keep him at home.
Our days were spent keeping up with the news. I had studied Spanish in school and was able to understand enough to manage. We also watched British Sky News and BBC which were broadcast. My husband met daily with the other Kuwaitis who lived nearby and had various contacts that brought news from inside Kuwait. We also followed news about the Kuwait government in exile and what they were planning with the U.S. and allied countries’ support.
We cooked; actually, at first my husband prepared our dinners. He didn’t know too many recipes, so after a few days of the same machbous laham (Kuwaiti dish of lamb with rice), I realized I needed to learn how to cook. That’s when my Kuwaiti cooking lessons started. Close friends who lived two buildings away, gathered every evening. They would give me recipes to write down and then I would try them and then ask for advice if they didn’t quite turn out as they were supposed to. I even baked pita bread! It was a good distraction from what reality we were experiencing.
In October, a rally was organized to protest the occupation. We road to a square in Malaga and stood with other locals and Kuwaitis who had signs proclaiming the necessary liberation of Kuwait.
As the first few weeks passed, we realized that having the television news on while the children were at home made them very anxious. They asked a lot of questions and expressed fear about various things that they overheard. We decided to keep the TV off and limit our discussions about events to the hours when the children were either asleep or out of the apartment. It was hard to feel like we were “at home” even though we owned the apartment. We were just biding our time until we could return to Kuwait. At least this is what we prayed for.
News sounded more hopeful at the end of 1990 when the allies seemed to be putting together a coalition to free Kuwait. On January 19th 1991, the offensive started. On one hand, we were thankful that the end of the siege might be near. On the other hand, we knew how unpredictable war could be and had no idea how our friends and family still in Kuwait were managing. (Parts 2: Liberation will be posted next week, Part 3: Reflections on being a refugee will be posted in two weeks)
Free Kuwait-Malaga, Spain 1990