Kuwait, 1996-1998. Tired of hospital administration, I longed to get back to working at a practical level with children. So it was that I taught at a school for children with special needs in Kuwait City.
My class was made up of children aged six to eight years who had mobility issues. Mainly due to cerebral palsy, plus a little girl who had sustained a severe head injury after a fall from a 3rd storey balcony, leaving her without speech and a right sided paralysis.
Having nursed children for many years, this gave me valuable insight into the subtleties of the rapport between teacher and pupil, quite different from the relationship of nurse and sick child. I loved this experience, and admired the hard work carried out by physio, speech and occupational therapists.
One weekend with a group of six friends, we went into the Kuwaiti desert for a two day camping trip. During that week end we found over 2,000 tanks abandoned , rusting and forgotten during the aerial bombardment of the fleeing Iraqi Army by the coalition forces in 1991, following the invasion of Kuwait. All I could think of was how much each tank must have cost, how much money was sitting there in the desert. Every dollar spent on munitions is a dollar not spent on health and education.
