Bahrain Update: Chapter 8
February 2002
 

I’ve intended to write this for the past couple months but just didn’t know where to start.  Since I last wrote, there was the murderous event of 9-11 that changed all of us Americans.  We had the same feelings as the rest of our country.  We were shocked, hurt, sad, and angry. But for Danny and I, living in an Arab country was like we were living on pins and needles for a while and not knowing what we were going to do next.  There was talk of evacuation and this would have been for Winnie and me since Dan would have had to stay since he was considered essential personnel.  Well, as you know we are still here and have over seven long months to go.

The weather is in the seventies now, but when I came back in August it was around 120 degrees. It was so hot that we had to turn off our hot water heater.  We also had to brush our teeth early in the morning since the cold water would warm up during the day and it was like having only on temperature.    Hot!!!

Here are some tidbits about the Bahrainis that I’ve learned over the past year:

*They are big on their Scrabble contests…. it’s almost like a sport with them.

*You never see RV’s here, but they like the SUV and large cars.  Most cars are white or light colors and a Bahraini told Danny that the car dealerships could only sell white pick-up trucks by order of the Amir.  Whether this is true or not, we have no idea.  You see, they (Arabs) will lie to us…Americans!

*Their phone book’s largest section is the “A’s” and they only print the names and numbers, no addresses. It’s all those Al-  ???..!

*The women have their hands, (both back and front) painted with designs. They call this Henna.  They seem to do this as much as they have their nails painted.

*They celebrate Mother’s day in March and on all their cards they have Mum instead of Mom.  It’s something else they got from the British.

*They have three different sets of holidays called “Eid” and one comes right after their Ramadan (their month of fasting).  They just celebrated one of their Eids and it lasts for three days. During this time their children dress in their best clothes and go door to door collecting Fils (coins). This reminds me of our Halloween except they aren’t after candy.

*During their Ramadan season they decorate some of their buildings with these red and white lights which sort of looks like Christmas here..  (Some lights are still up and Ramadan was over months ago). They also put up these large tents all over town. These are the gathering spots where they meet after the sun goes down (fasting lasts only during the day hours).  In them they eat, drink and socialize.  They also smoke on these gadgets that have fruit favored tobacco in them.  They are called Hookah or She She Hubble Bubbles.  I’ve heard they have them in some Arabic and Indian restaurants in the States also but we can’t ship or bring back any of them since they are on our lists of no-no items.

*They also have this thing about slaughtering goats. We actually saw several groups of Arabs doing this in an empty lot in our neighborhood as we passed them going to a party.  I think they had already killed them and were skinning them at the time.

*They opened a French Hypermarket here in one of their new malls and it’s on the second floor.  It’s called Geants.  They’ve opened so many restaurants this past year, it’s hard to keep up with them all.  The Bennagans that they have here is not allowed to serve alcohol even though in the States we consider it mainly a bar.   They do have some restaurants that can, but it all depends on their location.

*Showing of the soles of your feet while seating in the present of Arab men is considered disrespectful.  I’ve never heard how the women feel about this.

*The Arab men are the only ones allowed to pray in their mosques.  Women normally do it at home.  They do prayer rooms in their malls and there is one for men and another for women. So, while they are out shopping they can stop & pray when they hear the call from the many mosques.

*They declared themselves a kingdom on February 14, 2002 and the Amir became a king (and here I thought since he ruled this country, he was already one), now they will have elections in March to select their Parliament.

Well enough about the Arabs.

I went shopping at Seef Mall a few days ago and felt like I was home since it was full of Americans.  You see, we had the Roosevelt (an aircraft carrier) in port for a week.  If you have wondered where all the service people are, just come to Bahrain. It seems that most are here.

Nancy gave birth to Alexis on October 14, 2001.  He’s growing so fast and changing all the time.  I know this since I get to baby sit him on occasion. This helps me get my grandmother “fix”!

Kailash, our Indian guard and all around handyman invited us to join him and some of his friends to celebrate “Diwali, meaning festival of lights.  This was on November 14, 2001. He had it in our courtyard and cooked most of the food.

We got new neighbors this month and they are great people. Their names are Guy and Tammy. They have two daughters, Marina & Dana.  They also have a dog and now Winston isn’t the only one in the compound.  Charlotte, my old neighbor finally came back from the States a few days ago.  She was scheduled to fly back on 9-11.

Until the next time……God bless America.

Sylvia