Rachel’s Reflections

Well, Jeremy’s mother was here for a week.  That’s why I haven’t written for a week–we’ve been busy showing her the town.  She went back today.  It was really nice having her here.  We took her shopping and we took her to church and she cooked Thanksgiving dinner for us.  That was awesome!  And we took her to the Tree of Life, a tree out in the middle of the desert, and we saw and got to pet camels, and we took her to a pottery barn where I got to make a pot (that was cool), and we took her out to eat, and she got to go to the museum and Jeremy took her to the Grand Mosque.

We did take pictures, but you’ll have to wait until I can get them entered into the computer before I can post any.  Hopefully it won’t be long, but it may be a few weeks.

It was a really nice visit, and I’m glad she came.

If anyone else wants to come, you’re more than welcome.

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In my family it’s a tradition that on Thanksgiving everybody present for the big feast takes a turn saying what he or she is thankful for.  Since I’m going to miss my family’s Thanksgiving Day celebration at Mom and Dad’s house (Hi everybody!) I’ll say what I’m thankful for here.

1. I’m thankful that I get to be stationed with my husband Jeremy.  For the first year and half of our marriage we were separated, and it was hard.  Now we’re together and we’re like newly-weds–still figuring it out–but it’s definitely better.
2. I’m thankful that he’s an eternal optimist.  He helps me think of the bright side of things.  Whenever something goes wrong, he says, “It could be worse….”
3. I’m thankful that I have a job I like and I work with people I like.  I didn’t have either at my last command.
4. I’m thankful for my apartment.  It’s huge!  And beautiful!  And wonderful!  Someday (when it’s neater than it is now) I’ll post pictures.  This is the first time I’ve ever had a place of my own.  And I’m thankful for that.  Always before I either lived with my parents, in a dormitory, in a barracks, or on a ship.
5. I’m thankful that I can go home at night.  I’m not deployed out on a ship, nor do I have to live on base anymore.  This allows me to leave the stress of work at work and helps me retain my sanity.
6. I’m thankful that I have some free time to work on some hobbies. That’s really nice, and I appreciate it.  I so love being creative.  It’s a need for me, and I’m glad I have the time, resources, and space to do creative things here.
7. I’m thankful Jeremy’s mom was able to come and visit us for Thanksgiving.  It’s wonderful to be able to share holidays with family.  I’d also been wanting to share Bahrain with family, so it’s nice to have her here.  Anyone else want to come?  You can have your own bedroom and bathroom.
8. I’m thankful it’s not cold.  I really don’t mind the heat, but I don’t have a very good cold tolerance.  By all your standards, it’s still summer here.  And that’s just fine with me.
9. I’m thankful for the church we got involved in.  It’s really nice getting to know some of the local people and this gives us a chance to learn and experience some of the local culture.  This makes our experience here in Bahrain so much richer.
10.  I’m thankful to be in Bahrain.  I really like getting the “ex-patriate” perspective on my country.  I still love the USA, but I like getting the perspectives of people on the other side of the world.  It’s different, but interesting.  Bahrain is an interesting place; I’m really liking the experience of living in a foreign country.  Yes, the people here are different, but on another level, people are people are people the world over.  Just like at home they’re very human here.
11. I’m thankful for my family.  I love you guys, and I know you love me and miss me, and I miss you too! And I’m also thankful for my Christian Family–and specifically for your love and support and prayers for me–your prayers have been lifesavers in ways you’ll never know until you get to heaven.  A big, huge thank you.
12. And last but not least, I’m thankful for a God who doesn’t keep Himself aloof and distant with a bunch of rules and regulations by which we might hope to appease Him, but instead wants to be close and intimate, real and personal with us.  He wants to have a relationship with us and has provided a way we can be reconciled to Him, so we can have that relationship.  I’m glad and thankful that Jesus is my friend.

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On Veteran’s Day Jeremy and I went boating. A man from the church named Yusef invited us to come on his boat and go fishing with him. He loves to fish. Just the other day he caught a barracuda. So we went. Jeremy drove.

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Yusef sat in the back trawling. This means he dangled a fishing line over the back of the boat while we went slow.

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And I took pictures. So everybody had a job.

You can find more pictures than are included in this post on the sidebar, under Pages, under “Pretty Pictures,” under “Bahrain by Boat.”

I took pictures of the shoreline,

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of the Islamic Library which isn’t open yet,

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and tried to get a picture of our building. I finally did.

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You’ll notice tall buildings–not the left most one, but the second group–there’s a white one with a white and pink one directly next to it. If you look closely you can see it looks like it has a little gazebo thing on the roof. That’s our building. If our apartment were high enough you’d be able to see our windows–but we’re on the second floor (in American that’s the fourth floor) and so the other buildings cover it up, I think.

I also tried to take pictures of the ship yard which is just on the other side of the base. As usual it wasn’t very busy.

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And I also took a picture of the bridge connecting the main island with Muharraq, name of the island and the city on it. This is also where the airport is, so if you ever come visit me, you’ll travel across this bridge, or actually, probably across one of the other two bridges linking the two islands. They don’t look as nice as this one, though.

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We also saw a big boat.

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Yusef called it a dhow, and it did look like the smaller ones,

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only bigger. We couldn’t tell what the cargo was. Notice the laundry hanging out to dry on the back.

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And then we caught a fish! It flopped around a lot. Here’s Jeremy with the fish at the end of the trip after we came on shore. In case you’re wondering what kind, it was a mackerel.

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After that we had some engine trouble, but Yusef was able to get us going again so we drove around the water very fast. I even took a turn at the wheel.

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We also passed the Arad Fort.

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We haven’t been there yet. I didn’t know it was so close. It seems farther away when getting to it by car, I guess because you have to go around the water instead of cutting across it, like we did in the boat.

We went under the other two bridges to Muharraq, and after this we came back in, but the tide was out, so Yusef let us out on some rocks and we climbed up. Then he anchored his boat and waded in. After this he got some knives and proceeded to slice the fish up and gave us some of the slices. So now we have mackerel steaks in our freezer. Anybody know how to cook mackerel? Anybody want to come over and cook for us? All you can eat fish steak if you do!

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I posted this information on the “About the Subtitle” page, so if you’ve already checked that out, my apologies for repeating information.

I took the header picture (picture at the top of the blog) on November 11, 2007.  My husband, Jeremy, and I went boating, and I took the picture from the water, facing back to land.  This is of part of the city of Manama, the city we live in.  It is also the capital city and where most of the people live.  The tall buildings are just an example of Bahrain’s skyline.  There are a lot of tall buildings.  We live in one.  When you live on an island and can’t build out, it only makes sense to build up.

The boat in the foreground is a dhow.  It’s a distinctive, local design of ship and was used in the past for fishing and pearling.  Bahrain is famous for its pearl beds, although now with all the “land reclamation” (creation) the environment, which includes the oyster beds, are being damaged.  I think pearl divers still go out, at least they sell pearls in the souk (market, also mall).  They still fish too.  So I guess it could be said dhows still are used for fishing and pearling.

In-shah-allah (God willing) I will post an account of our boating trip real soon.

P.S.  In-shah-allah is a common Islamic/Arabic expression meaning “If God wills.”

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This is my first post of my new blog. Welcome. This blog comes to you from a small island off the coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabian Peninsula) in the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf.

It is also the Land of the Two Seas. Why? “Bahrain” means “two seas” in Arabic. What are the two seas? The locals tell us visitors that there are fresh water springs that come up from the ocean floor near Bahrain. The two seas refers to both this fresh water and the ocean’s salt water. Interestingly, locals call fresh water “sweet water.” So the two seas are sweet and salty water.

You will notice a weather “widget” on this blog. It tells you the current weather here in Bahrain. It also shows you whether it’s night or day here because at night it will show a picture of the moon. I think this will be interesting for you because you’ll be able to see at a glance at any time just how different my time is from you and perhaps also my weather. For those of you living in North America (which as far as I know is all my readers right now) my weather is considerably warmer than your own (although I’m told it does get cold in January and February).

Enough weather report. Here are some facts about Bahrain:

• It is a kingdom and has a king.
• Its time zone is GMT +3. For reference Eastern Standard Time zone in the U.S. is GMT -5. GMT being of course Greenwich Mean Time or 0.
• It is a bilingual country, both Arabic and English. Everywhere signs are in both languages and the people speak both usually.
• Its religion is Islam.
• There are other religions here, too. Christianity is one of them. Yes, some Arabs are Christian. My husband and I attend a local church. The services are in both Arabic and English. We find this to be interesting.
• There are a lot of what Americans call TCNs here, Third Country Nationals. These are people, mostly men, from nearby countries, like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Thailand. This is not necessarily a complete list. These people come to work in the restaurants, hotels, construction, and similar “blue-collar” jobs. These people come here for economic opportunity, but the average restaurant worker makes 100 dinar a month. That is equivalent to $266 a month.
• There seems to be either rich or poor here. I haven’t really noticed a middle class. People can afford to live in nice villas or apartments where the rent is three or four times the restaurant worker’s monthly wage or they are that restaurant worker.
• That being said this is a very booming place. There’s construction all over the place, all the time. Most of what is being built is high-rises. They are also building new land–they actually create it from the sea, I guess by dumping dirt into the water.

That’s enough facts for now. I could go one, but this post is long enough already. In closing I want to thank you for coming along on my journey, for sharing my thoughts and adventures. I hope you have a wonderful day! May God bless you!

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