road trip

This afternoon we took a break from apartment hunting and went on a bit of an adventure to see more of the island. It is only 12 miles wide and 30 miles long. This is what we saw:

An entrance to a swanky outdoor mall. Bahrain is wealthy and developed, but this was the last of upscale development we saw for the day.

The Shi'a neighborhoods, which in Bahrain often consist of lower income people, still show remnants of Ashura, a holiday where Shi'a Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad with a big public ceremony that often involves self-inflicted bloodshed. Shi'a is one of the main divisions of Islam (the other being Sunni), and represents a repressed majority in the country; the minority Sunni control the government. 

A beach on the western coast where there was a playground and dozens of little dhows (boats). It may be December, but the water was warm. 

The Tree of Life, which some people truly believe is in the location of the Garden of Eden. The tree is about 400 years old and no one really knows where it gets its water.

The Durrat Al Bahrain, an isolated city of man-made islands that we think are ideal for introverted,  agoraphobic, wealthy celebrities. The condos seen here are extremely high end, but I took this picture out of a moving car, so they can't be seen that well. 

Different Things

      These first four days we have been battling jet lag (mostly Emet, who is 19 months old), all the while getting our phone situation straightened out, exchanging our money, looking for housing, trying to figure out what to do for meals, and attempting to normalize our sleep schedule. I am pretty much over it now, but the first few days, I would get really sleepy mid-afternoon (4am PST), and then be wide awake around ten pm (11amPST). Last night, we went to LuLu, the “hypermarket,” to buy groceries for my birthday dinner and meals Christmas Day. I’ve always said that the best way to get to know San Francisco is to ride its public transit, but here in the Arab world, I think the best way is to go to the food store. A lot of grocery stores here are in the first floor of large shopping malls, which makes going to the grocery store that much more daunting. Because of the hot weather, Arabs do things in the evening hours and the most popular time to be at the market is like 9pm. As soon as I walked in, I noticed that most people there were with their whole family, not shopping alone. The food is similar, but the American-branded food looks different, like Dove chocolate is called “Galaxy,” but the font and packaging is the same, and much to my surprise, Nutella costs less here than in the states. There is an entire aisle devoted to rice, which they sell in giant cloth sacks weighing about ten pounds. I was looking for ground beef, and could only find “minced beef” from either Australia or Brazil. There is this milk-like beverage called Yogurt Drink that people here love, yet most of us find fairly odd, and I accidentally put some in my eggs today thinking it was milk. It’s like really thin yogurt and sometimes comes in mint flavor. Even though for the most part, you would never know it’s Christmas (because while Jesus was an important Islamic prophet, they don’t believe in His deity so few celebrate His birth), there were two men dressed as Santa (maybe Indian or Filipino? It was hard to tell under that beard) walking around blowing whistles and handing out candy. Quite confusing.

            There are pretty much no addresses or street names here. It makes navigating and giving directions really difficult and finding apartments next to impossible. They often give each other directions like “start at the Burgerland, turn right, go to the third round-about, etc…” Vague, no? Instead of calling them houses, a lot of people here live in villas, which are large, multi-bedrooms homes that also have a maid’s quarters. It is customary here for middle and upper-class families to employ a live-in maid, usually a fairly young Indian or southeastern Asian woman. One of the maid’s quarters we saw today while looking at housing options had hand-written English Bible verses taped on the walls. The small room had been emptied (the villa was vacant and being renovated), but those remained. Across from this same villa lives an ostrich. We saw it running around in someone’s backyard amongst playground toys.

      Will you please join me in praying for appropriate housing for us? It is difficult to find something that is safe for me, but that is also culturally appropriate for a single woman and will enable me to do the most effective ministry. Our team intends to live close to one another, so finding three places within a small vicinity also adds another element of difficulty. However, our team leader has a friend here who used to be a Realtor and knows every building and owner in the city – he has been a tremendous blessing. 

Christmas

     December 25 has come and gone for me (not in the states, though, it’s not even noon), and despite a few holiday-feeling customs, it felt just like a regular day. I skyped my family last night in honor of my birthday (which also didn’t feel very birthday-ish), but had my traditional birthday dinner and watched a movie with the team. We’ve been staying in a house that some friends live in; they are stateside for several weeks and letting us use it. Friday, which is holy day, we went to a house church that they host and then ate lunch. After we sang and had a lesson/biblical discussion, the group shared prayer requests and told us about their friends’ interest in following Christ. The stories were very encouraging and excited me tremendously about the future. [redacted]. 

we are here!

so we arrived in Bahrain - no troubles.

I got a Bahraini phone number and access to the internet, so I can post on here as soon as things get a little more settled.

Bahrain is more like America than Europe is. I'll try to upload some pictures soon, too.

Can ya'll see the gadgets in that sidebar or is it blank? My computer isn't showing them.

US

I wish I had time to write more on this, but pretty soon I'll be reporting from Bahrain and then you all won't even care what I did during training.

These last eight days we have been at our Sending Organization's headquarters in the States for the final stages of our preparation. We have received budget information, heard from leaders in the Church-planting community, listened to former long-term workers tell us about their years in Bahrain, and discussed team roles and expectations, among other things.

I have been living with a family who works at our U.S. Sending Base, and they have been wonderful hosts. It has been pleasant, BUT I'M READY TO LEAVE ON MONDAY! Can you believe it? It's been a long two years of prayer and preparation.

I sent out two letters this month - a little closer together than I originally planned, but it's not a huge deal. Look for those in the mail. Tonight marks the end of our formal training and the start of our last weekend in the states. I have a few more things to get done before I leave, but look forward to a refreshing couple of days.

PTL (praise the lord!) - we found temporary housing for our first week in Bahrain (which will allow us to look for housing for the duration of our stay); a long-term family is back in the states on furlough and is letting us use their 3bd-3ba home!

language practice part 2

Part 2: Each day after formal training, we went out into the community to visit local Arabic businesses. Here is a description of a few of them:

        AlAmir (Majnat, aka Arabic pizza): There were no girls in there like the boys said there would be, but the guy at the counter was the most helpful with Arabic out of anyone I’ve spoken with. He is Lebanese and studying mechanical engineering at Cal State Long Beach, and has lived here five years. In Arabic, I was able to greet him, order food, tell him I was learning Arabic, ask him where he was from, ask him if he was a student, and say the total price of the food. He said my Arabic was good and seemed to enjoy that I could speak it. Anything he said to me in English, he would repeat in Arabic so I could learn it.

       La Mirage: a new young girl was working there tonight. She is Egyptian, divorced, has been here 5 years, is an online accounting student, works two days a week at La Mirage, but wants another/different job. After I greeted her in Arabic, she asked if I was Arab and I said no, but asked if I perhaps could pass for Egyptian (something I’ve been told) and she laughingly said no, because she’s Egyptian. In Arabic, I was able to exchange pleasantries, order quantities of foods, ask her how long she’s been here, and tell her I am learning Khaliji Arabic, but studied under a Lebanese teacher who taught us standard Arabic, and currently am learning from a Saudi man. We then talked about accents.


      Prince Market: There is the most Arabic of the markets I’ve been in so far. I felt like this may be a good picture of what the markets will be like in the Gulf. I walked around for a while and picked up two types of tea and some playing cards (for the airplane). I walked over to the woman that works there and asked her in Arabic if she liked this kind of tea, only she didn’t understand me because she was expecting English. She asked me if I was speaking Arabic, and then realized what I was saying. When I told her I was going to Bahrain soon, she said that learning the language before I get there is smart. We talked for a while about learning Arabic and she asked where I was from. I said San Francisco, and then she specified that she meant what nationality. She is Egyptian, and encouraged me on my language skills so far. She said Arabic is a very hard language to learn. No kidding.

Oriental Magic, The Islamic Super Store: the owner is Syrian, has been here 20 years, and was extremely helpful and friendly. I told him I was looking for a gift for Hadeel, so he walked around the store with me to point things out, and describe the significance of others. I learned that those beads I’ve seen are prayer beads and that each bead represents one of the 99 names of God. They will go through them by thumbing past each one and praising God or asking for forgiveness. The men often carry shorter strands of 33 beads that they can go through three times. He also described a thing that they have in Bahrain that is sort of like a silver cage/box (with a Quran inside? It was unclear); he used to have one but it got unwillingly given away (in a misunderstanding, haha). He asked me to bring him back one when I returned. He said Bahrain is beautiful and described it as like the Middle East and Europe combined. The store has only been open a week, so he gave me a “grand opening special” where I’m pretty sure he just makes up the price. 

ENTJ

Near the end of training, our language learning has been interspersed with Bible study and team-building activities. A couple came in from Colorado to administer Myers-Briggs tests to us and to do conflict-resolution exercises, both of which were based around biblical principles. If you are at all familiar with Myers-Briggs test, then it will actually mean something when I tell you I tested as an ENTJ. Are you surprised? Probably not. If you're not familiar, this test measures a person's natural tendencies, their preferences, and their methods of thinking. It helps with team dynamics to know how people think and what communicative strengths they have. Here is the ENTJ profile. Now, it doesn't cover every aspect of my personality or behavior, but it is simply an indicator of my preferences. 

Training has since ended (as of the 11th), and we are now in Arizona for some final preparation before leaving next Monday!

language practice

Each day after formal training, we went out into the community to visit local Arabic businesses. Here is a description of a few of them:

      Al Bayan: This was essentially just a store pertaining to anything Islamic. I was the only person in it, which I was actually glad about because it gave me uninterrupted opportunities to talk with the owner. He is an older man (at least 70s) that reminded me a lot of my grandpa in his gentle disposition. I greeted him when I walked in and asked him some questions about the books. Anytime I said something in Arabic, he would respond in English. He said he is from Iraq, but spent 20 years in Lebanon and has been in the states for 10 years. He went on to explain that because of 9/11 a lot of Arabs have left the area to go back to the Middle East. Life has become difficult for him because “most of them were Arabs, well Saudis.” When asked about his family, he didn’t mention his wife (that’s personal business), but said his brothers live in Virginia and his grown children live in Dubai and other Gulf areas. He told me that Bahrain and Dubai are good areas for women; I told him I was moving to Bahrain soon, but that didn’t seem to phase him, nor did he ask anything about why I was moving there. He was much more interested in where I was studying Arabic. I got the feeling that he is a very religious and conservative man, but he was kind and respectful towards me and made sure I was well taken care of. The store itself had all sorts of books on religion and Islamic philosophy or lifestyle, a whole room of Arabic literature, and whole room of English Islamic literature. There were also kids books and other resources, plus a few pieces of clothing, calling cards, trinkets, and CDs. I noticed that the CDs were separated by gender, that the male artists were on one display and the female artists on another. When I paid for my two books, the man put my change on the counter instead of handing it to me, ensuring we wouldn’t touch.

       La Mirage (Middle Eastern pastries): I walked in a greeted the two people behind the counter, a man and a covered woman, in Arabic. We exchanged some formalities and then broke into English when I felt limited. The woman’s husband owns the bakery and the man was a friend of hers/theirs. They are both Syrian, but he has been in the states 25 years (spoke incredibly clear English) and she six. We talked about families and Gulf/Levant climate. The man goes back to Dubai frequently and taught English at one point. The woman (probably early 30s), was incredibly friendly and I liked her a lot. We had been talking for about ten minutes (and not a thing about their baked goods) when some customers walked in. The woman apologized and even got my approval to break the conversation and go serve them. I continued to talk to the man for another ten minutes or so; he doesn’t work there but offered me samples and turned me over to the woman when I wanted to order. I thanked her a lot and she said told me to be sure to come back. I told her that I had come here on a friend’s recommendation and would certainly be back.