Diaries of a Kuwaiti Scout in 1963

We heard about the Scout “Marathon” being held in Greece in 1963. Since we had not received the necessary nomination to participate in this “Marathon,” and following several meetings, we, as young Kuwaiti Scouts, decided to go to the “Marathon” in Greece at our own expense. Scout Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Fraih was chosen to lead the group due to his travel experience; he had accompanied his father on the Hajj three times by car, traveled to Lebanon by car twice during summer vacation, took a ship from Beirut to Port Said, was fluent in English, and had also visited Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. He attended the Morocco “Marathon” with the Kuwaiti Scouts in 1962, and visited Italy and Spain during the time when Mr. Faeq Tahyoub was the Scout leader at Al-Shuwaikh High School; he was a physical education teacher at the “Omar ibn Al-Khattab” School and was appointed Scout leader at Al-Shuwaikh High School.

The vanguard initially included Scouts Muhammad Al-Fraih, Dr. Muhammad Al-Attar, Abdul-Razzaq Abbas, and Muhammad Al-Ayad. However, our fellow Scout, Muhammad Al-Ayad, was unable to join us on the trip due to family matters. For the record, all of these young Scouts later became prominent figures in Kuwait, known both locally and internationally, and served Kuwait in the fields of food security, fish development research, and the establishment and management of the Emergency Department at the Ministry of Health.

The idea was presented to the teachers at “Al-Shuwaikh High School,” and it was accepted by all the teachers, especially the principal, Mr. Suleiman Al-Mutawa, Mr. Yaqoub Al-Ghunaim, Mr. Abdullah Al-Ghunaim, as well as Mr. Ghuloum Al-Attar, the older brother of Muhammad Al-Attar, who provided the greatest encouragement and was a strong supporter of our undertaking this Arab and European tour.

The organizing committee held several meetings chaired by Mohammed Al-Fraih. Tasks and responsibilities were first assigned, and in subsequent meetings, we mapped out the itinerary, specifying the countries we would visit, as well as the historical and tourist sites. We set the total budget for the trip at 150 Kuwaiti dinars to cover shared expenses throughout the journey, including food and transportation. This amount was paid solely by the parents; we did not request any assistance or donations from any other source.

Praise be to God, the entire trip was completed in 74 days. We covered a distance of about 11,000 square kilometers, using every mode of transportation except airplanes, and we arrived back in our beloved Kuwait with the remaining change from the budget!