(Written November 2011) Aside from a few pigeons and some stray cats, I have yet to see much wildlife here. And yet, I think the real wildlife of Kuwait lies in the drivers. Without fail, every Friday and Saturday morning you can spot the wreckage from the previous night's drag-racing, speeding, fate-testing antics strewn about the sides of the highways.

Just last weekend, on our way to the grocery store, we spotted three; and one was a Porsche! Hope he had a spare.

The Kuwaiti government is quite aware of this reckless behavior, and subsequently has spent quite a bit of money and effort to put all manner of signs up encouraging drivers to be safe, buckle up, don’t text while driving, slow down, etc.. Of course, if you’re flying low at 120 mph, it might be dangerous to stop and read the signs.

In all seriousness, this is the most hazardous thing about life in Kuwait. And we don’t take it casually. It leads to some tense driving times, but after our training in Cairo, we feel that we can handle this. I mean, in Kuwait there are no propane donkey carts, or families of five on a motorbike, or bread bicycles, and they rarely try to make five lanes out of three here. Kuwaiti drivers just speed excessively, cut in, pass you on an off-ramp (that’s always a hoot) or drive in reverse if they took a wrong turn. But we do our best to fully anticipate the idiocy and drive accordingly. Let the idiot pass, we’ll get his car’s picture next weekend.