Harvey's Diary: 12/11/07
Yin, Yang, Boomerang!!
What’s that, you say? That is me, beginning the ‘processing out’ process here in marvelously-undecipherable Kuwait. AUK has its own mini-bureaucracy – had to get each department head to sign-off that I wasn’t absconding with anything the university owns, including my desk (desk?), library books (and no, I didn’t sign for myself – was tempted to but…). This morning, I was escorted to an office in Kuwait City where my sole task was to tell the Labor Ministry official that “all was okay, no problems” with processing out – 5 seconds, tops. It seems there are many problems here, and this guy’s job is to ask just that – one wonders what happens if you say ‘yes’ and there’s a kafuffle… do you have to stay? Eeek!! Now, my residency visa will be cancelled and my Civil ID returned. I am on the road to exit-ville…
The past few days have been relatively quiet. Only one trip to Electricity Ministry to get my deposit back – a miracle (took 3 trips to get them to take the deposit in the first place). I am getting lots of ‘warm fuzzies’ from people on campus – nice to be acknowledged as a kindred spirit. I also dropped by the bank to deposit my ‘exit check’ – you don’t think I do this for fun, do you? NBK is an excellent bank – remarkably efficient, as one would expect and hope for in a country gushing with money from oil !!