I had my yearly vehicle registration renewal recently and I was really impressed.

After getting my paper work stamped at the test center, I headed over to the Traffic Department in Maidan Hawalli. It was crowded just like all other government offices but the atmosphere was so different … so friendly.

I went over to the first counter to hand in my paper-work and noticed that all the staff there were very cheerful and friendly. All of them spoke “politely” (very rare in Kuwait) and in English (even more rare) to the non-Arabic speakers.

Then I took a seat in the main waiting room and this was the best part. Two of their employees were walking around with rolls of freshly printed “daftars” (registration documents), calling people by name, walking over to them and handing them their “daftars”. They were very jolly and kept everyone entertained with their jokes and other funny comments. Although most of it was in Arabic, it was still pretty entertaining for me.

If the attitude of staff in all the government offices & ministries in Kuwait were similar to this one, I bet all  expats would have a very different (better) opinion of Kuwait.

Good job Hawalli Muroor!