local pottery

my favorite food

chicken tikka. small pieces of spicy chicken, grilled. eaten with fresh, flat bread. (naan)

Also, at the restaurant there is something called the "family section." Tables are surrounded by a curtain so women can remove the head cover and enjoy a meal with their family. (first pic)

Happy Thanksgiving

Things in Bahrain I'm thankful for:
1. always sunny skies
2. leaving the window open day and night
3. fresh juice stands
4. stinky fish vendors on the corner (I don't actually buy anything, but it makes me laugh!)
5. blooming bougainvilllea
6. peppermint tea
7. shawarma
8. Coke in glass bottles
9. my pet fish
10. the smell of shisha
11. evenings sitting on the corniche looking at the city
12. mini marathons (only 5K!)
13. environmentally friendly jute shopping bags
14. the one and only beach that we only go to at night :)
15. afternoon nap time

my balcony garden

My plants were growing splendidly. I was so excited to come home after school and see their progress. Then one day when I opened the curtains, all I saw were stalks. Some hungry bird must have found one of the only green things on the island and had a feast.

Now it's back to square one.

Women Who Know Their Place

A point of view.

Barbara Walters, of TV's 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters' vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom.

Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?"

The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes and without hesitation said, "Land mines."

famous :)

feels like spring...

Now that it is November 5th, and the weather has cooled to the 70s (night) and 80s (day), it's time for some spring planting. No, you're not crazy, you did read that right. :) This week I started a little garden on my balcony. Believe it or not, there was a sale on potting soil, which I took as a green light for this little project of mine. I bought some pots, filled them with dirt, and planted some seeds. Now I feel like a little first grader waiting for my seeds to sprout. I have no idea if it will work, but I'm determined to try. In light of today's economic struggles and the rising cost of food, I figured my little 12 cent seed packs would be worth the effort. Plus in a bleak and colorless country, any hope of green is well worth it. So now I will sit back and wait for the harvest...

did we really have to put that in writing???

From a recent memo at school--

"Hitting a student is not allowed. If a parent issues a complaint in this regard, the administration will not support a teacher in such an action. Also, name calling is forbidden. It is a form of abuse and will not be tolerated in the classroom."

an interesting discovery

When I first arrived here, I was under the impression that the tap water was saltier than what I was used to but perfectly fine otherwise. Recently, I've come to learn otherwise. I was baking with a friend, and we needed some water. Naturally I went to the tap and filled the cup. My friend looked at my with a puzzled/shocked/disbelieving look on her face. I wasn't sure what I had done. She proceeded to tell me that I can't use that water for baking. Now I was the one wearing the puzzled/shocked/disbelieving look. Why not, I said. I've been doing it for a year! And not only for baking, but all my cooking and even making tea. She just about fell over. Apparently no one uses tap water for anything because even though they say it's clean, it's really not. She asked if I was worried about getting sick to which I merely laughed; after drinking the tap water for a whole year, I'm pretty sure it doesn't make me sick! Since then I've come across two other people who find my water drinking habits shocking. I guess I'll be buying more bottled water from now on! :)

you know it's hot when...

*the pool water feels like bath water
*your sunglasses fog up whenever you step outside
*you have to wait longer for the tap water to turn cold than to turn hot
*you start sweating within 5 minutes of leaving the house
*the shoes you bought in a nicely air-conditioned department store don't fit anymore because your feet swell up before you reach school :(
*the whole country shuts down from 1-5 pm
*when you walk into a room, you turn on the air conditioner before turning on the light
*the evening temperature of 101* feels refreshingly cool

:)

Back in Bahrain

Well, I made it back for year number two. The temperature is a balmy 108* with a heat index of at least 120, so needless to say, I spend my days running from one air conditioned location to the next. :) I really forgot what the heat feels like here. This weekend we lost power for an entire afternoon. I decided that was a good time to take a trip to the local air conditioned grocery store. Like I said, one air conditioned place to the next!

School started yesterday. Things seem to be getting off to a good start. I was more than ready to get back to it. I feel so much more confident this year as I have some idea what I'm doing. I was also able to map out the entire year of what I am teaching when, which will cut down on a lot of planning time throughout the year. Again I am teaching three sections of seventh grade English. The classes are only 15 students this year, which I'm really looking forward to. Even though that's only 3 less than last year, it still feels much more manageable.

Today was the first day of Ramadan. I had recess duty, and the students all seemed a little wilted standing out there in the heat. I feel like this could be a long month seeing as Ramadan has only just begun and the energy levels are already quite low. But, we'll see how it all plays out.

The school is still in need of several teachers including English and math teachers for the high school. I'm not sure what they are going to do. We are all hoping for some sort of miracle as finding qualified teachers is quite difficult here. In the meantime, I guess we will all be doing extra lessons to make up it. But like I said, I'm feeling confident and rather optimistic; year two is going to be a good one.

oh the joys

Today was "Every Male on the Island Stare at Jena Day." No one told me. If they had, I would have stayed home.

Ice Hotel

The end of the school year is rapidly drawing to an end. The students are feeling it, the teachers are feeling it--everyone is just ready to be done. Following this spirit, my classroom activities are falling more to the entertaining side rather than the educational side. Take for example last week's project. We read a Russian fairy tale about a snow girl who comes to life. Then we read a short article about a hotel in Sweden made entirely of ice. That got me thinking...what could we do in class that relates to this? Then it hit me: we should have our own ice hotel building contest. However, considering that the temperatures are now 100+, we can't use real ice. The next best thing? SUGAR CUBES!! I divided the students into groups and gave them each a box containing the following items: one box of sugar cubes, macaroni noodles, 10 straws, 6 paper clips, 3 pieces of white paper, 2 pieces of tin foil, one piece of cardboard, and 30 Q-tips. The students had to use these materials, and only these materials, to create an ice hotel in 30 minutes. Oh yeah, and just to make things interesting, they had to use frosting instead of glue. Below are some snaps of the chaos (I mean fun!) that ensued. :)

not so sunny rise

The dust has been really terrible around here again lately. Here is a little "snapshot" to help you get an idea of the kind of air pollution that exists in this place. I've recently started walking/running again in the mornings. That means I am up and going by 4:45. Yes, believe it or not! Since summer is just around the corner, the sun is rising earlier and earlier. By the time we get to the beach at 5, the sun is already up. You wouldn't know it though. You can only see a faint horizon, mostly a cloudy purplish gray color. It takes a while to spot the sun, which is about 10* above the water. It's outline is faintly seen through the dust. Ten minutes later the full shape of the sun can be seen. A pale yellow color, it hangs about 30* in the sky now and seems to resemble the moon rise more than the sun rise. The color is so muted, you can look right at the sun; it's not bright at all. So much for the morning "rays." Only after about 30 minutes, when they sun has fully cleared the dust belt along the horizon can you see the sun shining. It's rather sad.

video games

Every day my students start class by writing in a journal. Sometimes I ask meaningful questions; other times silly questions. My goal is simply to get them thinking about something and writing down their thoughts. The other day I asked them if they thought video games were bad for kids and why or why not. Here is the overwhelming response I got:
Yes! video games are bad for kids because it makes their eyes bad. After staring at the TV so much, a lot of kids need to get glasses!
Not exactly what I was getting at, but it still brought a smile to my face.

Sandy Spring

The "skyline" of Bahrain. These pictures were all taken in the middle of the day.
The ocean view. It is the current trend on the island to reclaim land from the sea. A few years back, the building from where I took this picture did not exist. The area was underwater. Developers are now reclaiming land from the sea by pumping in sand. These areas are becoming the new home of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, and business towers. As you can see from the picture, they are creating "islands" that will be the financial center in Bahrain. The increasing frequency of dust storms is due in part to this kind of construction work.
Creating new islands on the north end of the Bahrain.

This year has been marked by some unusual weather. We had one of the coldest winters in history with temperatures dropping down to 6* Celsius, and now our spring is bringing more sand storms than ever. Since most of you have probably never experienced a sand storm, I will try to paint some pictures (and show you some real pictures) so you can get a feel for it.

When you wake up in the morning, the sky is a whitish gray, like you would see during the long Midwest winters. :)

Visibility is almost nothing. It seems like a really foggy morning, but the fog persists all day.

People walk around withe their mouths and noses covered so they don't inhale so much dust.

By the end of the day, everything is covered with a fine layer of brown. Due to the construction of most buildings here, the dust also gets inside. Air conditioners are a big culprit as the wall units allow dust from the outside free passage inside. It is almost impossible to stay on top of dusting in this country. I sweep the floor of my bedroom, and I'm not just sweeping up dust, I'm sweeping up a layer of sand/dirt that you would expect to find outside.

Hawar

Last weekend I was able to attend the youth group overnight retreat on the island of Hawar. I've been working with the youth group since August, and the weekend retreat is always one of the most anticipated events. This year about 31 of us met after church to head out to the island. Of course, we were planning to leave around 12:30 and didn't end up leaving until 1, but unfortunately, I'm getting used to accuracy of "Middle East time." :) After all donning our new youth t-shirts, we piled into the vans for the 40 minute drive south to the jetty where we would be departing. In my opinion, we were about to start one of the most exciting parts of the trip: the boat ride to the island! We split the group into two speed boats and headed out into the open sea. At one point we couldn't see land anywhere around us. On the hour ride to the island of Hawar, we even saw some dolphins! After arriving on the island, we headed to our apartments to unpack. The island is kind of funny because on one end is a resort. There is a pretty nice hotel, two outdoor pools, a water slide, a pretty nice beach, and a four wheeler race track. Of course there are the typical palm trees you would expect at an island resort, but the rest of the area is brown; the island is still a desert. And outside the fence of the resort is nothing but uninhabited desert land, used as a base by the Bahrain Defence Force. Not exactly what you would imagine when you go to a retreat on an island in the Gulf! Nonetheless, that didn't stop us from having fun. Some of the highlights were the two big water slides, the poolside dinner buffet, and a praise and worship session on the beach. New relationships were build, old relationships were strengthened, and a good time was had by all.

youth retreat

March 25. The air conditioners were officially turned on at school.

desert BBQ

During spring break, we (all the volunteers) took a trip to the desert for a little BBQ. We drove through the arid land looking for the perfect place to fire up the barbie. With little change in scenery, each new location was the same as the last. We finally settled on a spot close to a little ridge where we could see out over the endless desert. We circled up the cars, spread out our blankets, and started grilling chicken kebabs. Yum! While the food was cooking, I did a little exploring. I found an interesting looking bug, and the bodies of seven dead camels. Although slightly disgusting, I was intrigued. All of them were in various stages of decay; some were nearly whole, while others were only a pile of sun bleached bones. We're not sure why the camels were there or how they died, although we did note that all of them were bound at the feet. Fortunately the wind was blowing in the other direction so the stench did not ruin our feast.

Below are some pictures.
My roommate and I at the famous Tree of Life.
Our picnic location.
A few snaps of the desert.
My interesting desert bug.
The dead camels

Birthday Surprise!

Somehow or another, my students found out that I had a birthday coming up. They were very excited about this. So excited in fact, that my student with a broken arm took it upon himself to write it on the chalkboard in his awkward left-handed print. The big day was coming, but this year my birthday landed on a Saturday, a weekend, meaning no day party day for my hopeful students. Well, you can imagine my shock when I came to school (late) on Thursday morning and found a crowd of seventh graders waiting in my darkened classroom. I opened the door to a chorus of "Suprise!" and a round of "Happy Birthday." They got me so good. I had no idea this was coming. One student had made cupcakes; another had baked a chocolate cake; others had brought in an assortment of decorations that were strung around the room; several students got me presents; and someone had purchased a giant card that most of my students had signed. It was so nice and extremely thoughtful, especially considering most 13 year-olds are rather self-focused. I had such a nice day with them. Here's a few snaps of the party.

The Ordinary, Every Day Things

Last week our washing machine flooded three times. Well, let me be more precise. The drain pipe in the floor of my bathroom that the washing machine, sink, and shower all drain in to overflowed and flooded my bathroom floor. All I wanted was clean clothes. I threw a load into the washer and about 15 minutes later I heard a gurgling sound coming from the bathroom. I walked in and found water bubbling up from the floor drain. I cleaned it all up only to see that it flooded two more times before the load finished. Yuck. Then the next morning, I was in the shower and two minutes later, I was standing in several inches of water. My shower, which was perfectly fine the day before had lost it's ability to drain. Yuck again. Then my friend was in the bathroom washing his hands and suddenly the bottom of his jeans were wet. Yes, it flooded yet again. Finally this weekend I took the bull by the horns. I poured half a bottle of Drano down the pipe and then proceeded to pull wads of crap from the drain. Fortuantely I had gloves. We've had no problems since. Well, no problems in the bathroom that is. Now our stove has no gas.

ESL

My students were working on a comparison/contrast assignment last week in which they needed to fill out a Venn diagram comparing themselves to a partner on different categories such as birth month, countries visited, favorite movies, music, TV show, etc. As I walked around the room, I saw two boys huddled over a piece of paper. Heads bent close, they were writing, analyzing the word, scratching it out, and writing something else. I walked over to see if I could help with something. Looking at the paper, I saw the words "dranke cola."
"Teacher, is this right?" he asked.
"Drank cola? You mean like he drank __ cola? He likes to drink cola?" I said, guessing at what he was trying to say. Knowing what the assignment was, I couldn't figure out how this fit into what they were writing about.
"No, dranke cola like this." Then he used his fingers to make fangs and made a hissing sound.
I frantically searched my brain, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Dranke cola. Fangs. Comparison. Favorite movie. Then it hit me.
"OH! You mean DRACULA!"
"Yes! That one!"
:)

winter blues

Winter here has been more of a challenge than I anticipated. Coming from the bitter cold Iowa winters with mounds of snow and icy wind, I figured a winter in the Middle East where it only got down to the 50s wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. This year Bahrain has had record low temperatures. It got down to 6*C, so 40-something. Again, considering my background, that really isn't that bad. Actually, I'm sure some of you are praying for some 40* days right about now. :) However, what they failed to tell me was that this country does not know how to deal with cold weather, meaning nothing is heated. When it's 40 outside, my bedroom is also 40. I go to school to teach all day in a 40* classroom, and then I come home to a 40* apartment. We have one small space heater in our living room, but it kills all the power in the room, so we couldn't use it. I never thought I would freeze to death on an island in the Gulf, but I came very close. For the past month now I have been wearing roughly 4 shirts a day. I started teaching with my coat on and wearing my gloves in between classes. I came home and crawled back into bed with piles of blankets on me. It was a truly miserable experience. Then to make matters worse, I caught a cough and cold about three weeks ago that still hasn't completely left. Fortunately, the end is in sight. Each day gets a bit warmer. Now the air outside is warmer than my apartment, so I'm opening the windows to let in the warm air! This week is supposed to get up into the 70s. I'm grateful for the chance to let my body thaw.

Nakuru--safari part 2

safari!