"Welcome to Kuwait!"

"Welcome to Kuwait" is a phrase I keep hearing from other expats. It is equivalent to me saying, "Welcome to the world of rational numbers!" to my Middle school math students. It is more of a warning that the most bizarre and incomprehensible is still to come.  When I make a comment about some aspect of Kuwaiti life that seems unreasonable, the response is always, "Welcome to Kuwait!"
Since we arrived we have been working on trying to understand how our phone plans work.  This involves a trip to the main shopping mall to track down a representative at the phone store. We choose a plan, pay and leave.  A week later we get a message..."Activate your phone". ???
So we go back to the mall and to find out what we need to do to be able to use the phones we were under the impression we had paid for.  The representative looks at us like we are old and senile, "Put money on it!" he says.  We question the need to put more money on an account that was only just opened and activated. "Just put money on it!" We have no other choice than to use the cash machine to put more money on the

account and our phones work.  A few days later our data is cut off. We receive another message telling us we need to choose another internet plan. As we trek back yet again to the phone store in the mall I start to appreciate the wisdom of the unlimited plan. This time we are told, "Use the machine to recharge your phone."  Didn't we just do that???? Again the representative does not understand our reluctance to simply pay the suggested amount and walks us over to the machine and guides us through the payment options. We accept defeat and pay the money.  As we walked away we received yet another message warning us that we didn't have enough credit for our data plan.  This time I took a seat while Jon sought the help of another representative.  "Just pay more money, sir."
I accepted a drink served to me from a silver coffee pot. The unusual karak tea temporarily distracted me from the fact that we still had no idea how our phone plan worked and why we kept having to add more money.  When I asked my colleagues they simply smiled and said, "Welcome to Kuwait!"

We had the same reaction when we told people of the difficulty we were having getting our shipped items cleared through customs.  Most people were amazed we had even attempted a shipment to Kuwait.  Our main frustration was that our shipping company seemed to have no influence when it came to obtaining the correct documents, dealing with customs officials, or generally gaining audience with the right person who could make things happen.  The shipping company, of course, did not employ local Kuwaitis. So, over the course of a month, we became accustomed to receiving text messages in broken English late at night with a request for an unheard-of document, large sum of money or an appearance at some mystery location early the next morning. Well, what did we expect, people pointed out... "Welcome to Kuwait!"  Just as we were giving up all hope of ever seeing the inside of our boxes, and had all but forgotten the contents, one early morning visit to the port resulted in a container-load of our belongings being delivered to our door. And I have spent the day unpacking all those unnecessary items like corkscrews, umbrellas and other promising white elephant gifts.

So the phrase "Welcome to Kuwait!" is more in tune with "You're not in Kansas any more!" If you move to the Middle East, then you can't expect everything to work like it did in the west. I am having to adjust my reaction to these differences and expect something completely unexpected.
"Welcome to what will be!"