An assistant pharmacist reflects on separation, injustice, and life in Kuwait post-COVID

English transcript | نسخة عربية

Nationality: Egyptian
Occupation: Pharmacy Assistant
Date of interview: 05 August 2020
Language of interview: Arabic

Ahmed is an assistant pharmacist and has been living in Kuwait for 11 years. His young family is back in Egypt -- his wife was pregnant when he last returned to Kuwait three years ago, and he has yet to go home. His first month back, his sponsor did not pay him, and when Ahmed notified him that he wanted to quit, the sponsor opened a court case against him as “absentee”. The sponsor said Ahmed could leave the job if he paid him 500KWD, twice the salary Ahmed was never paid. If Ahmed refused, after 60 days he would be arrested by the police. Only the sponsor could lift the charges. Ahmed had no choice but to pay. He got into 1500KD debt from paying his sponsor, looking for work, paying rent and sending money home. It meant he couldn’t travel home to see his family for a while. Luckily he found his current job, but had to wait the legal minimum of nine months before he could request leave, and then travel got banned due to the virus. Sometimes these days, he feels like he is dead to his own children, merely a picture they see and a voice. Although he is upset not to see his family, he is thankful that he is in Kuwait. He feels that Kuwait has done a good job taking care of people’s health, enforcing serious measures to contain the virus and making sure to meet people’s needs in lockdown. Ahmed follows all the guidelines, not even seeing his brother who lives in Hawalli. For the past seven months they have only spoken online.

Ahmed lives with seven men in a clean apartment. They are not interacting as much as they used to because everyone is scared that the others might not be careful enough when they go outside. When they would cook together during the full lockdown, they would sterilize all their shared cooking items and use plastic utensils. His roommates are depressed. Luckily, the apartment is near the beach so Ahmed can walk to let off steam, but, honestly, he has also been going crazy with stress during the pandemic. He feels mentally exhausted, doesn’t feel like eating, cannot sleep and has tremendous anxiety. He cannot reply when clients are disrespectful to him at work - he always thinks that because he is Egyptian, he could be deported if he argues. At night, he replays the conversations in his mind and cannot sleep. Usually he is patient but now he finds himself getting angry… he tells himself that everyone is unhappy, stressed, on edge, but he takes the anger home with him. He thinks that what he has learned from the pandemic is that you should only be kind to those who are kind to you, and for the others, give them back what they give you. He didn’t feel this way before, but you really learn who cares for you when crisis hits, he says. He has gotten closer to his family.

“Kuwait has over 120 nationalities of citizens. Kuwaiti, Lebanese, foreigners, Africans. Everyone had a beautiful and happy soul, and being trapped is awful, at the end of the day. And lack of money is awful as well. It really affected people’s spirits. Social distancing is also awful, not seeing your family and relatives. And going out, for instance, also really affected people's spirits. But if you have faith in God, and you are being patient, then... this whole issue just needs patience, that's all. “

Ahmed thinks Kuwait is incredibly generous. His father worked here his whole life, and he himself came when he was 21. He feels he shouldn’t complain because he has earned his living here and worked with many Kuwaiti friends over the years. Things have begun to change though. People used to feel excited to come to work in Kuwait, but because of the recent rise in discriminatory rhetoric and policies, that is not the case anymore. He thinks Kuwaitis can solve their problem with demographics by investing more in their own country, and asking people they don’t need in their labor force to leave, yes, but with kindness and courtesy.

In the clip above, Ahmed B. talks about the importance of patience, and how it helps him manage the pain of being separated from his family in Egypt.

اقرأ القصة باللغة العربية