Bahrain - March 2008 (cont.)

by Hannah

Thursday March 13, 2008

Wow! Today was a very busy day for us; I'm wiped! We started with a discussion about how comfortable we are with each other and what appreciations we wanted to make.  Then we went to a handcraft mall, which was a mall with all kinds of items that are hand made by the Bahraini people.  It was very exciting and many of the things are very beautiful.  For example, they had really delicate glass perfume bottles with really good smelling perfume in it and they also had pretty head scarves and traditional dresses and outfits.  Afterward we went to meet with the government people and learned a lot; but what stood out most for me was the fact that here in Bahrain people aren't being taxed, houses are provided and free medical care. 

We also learned that they had two different groups of representatives; one appointed by the king and the other elected by the citizens.  Those two houses are comprised of 40 people and they can serve 40 years per term.  We also attended a "How to Plan Your Life" workshop.  First people gave us welcoming speeches and then we discussed about what we wanted to do in life.  After the discussion, we were told to write down what we wanted to do on a big piece of paper and take it home and put it up on our bedroom wall so that we can see it whenever we are in our bedrooms.  They told us that, by seen the piece of paper with our life goals on it would encourage us to keep up the work we've been doing in order to reach our goals successfully.  I wrote that I wanted to travel when I grow up and try to change disability rights in other countries.  What I didn't say was that I also wanted to be a lawyer and a math teacher!

But the most exciting thing we did today was attending the evening party with the Bahrain Mobility International, who are the people who work in Bahrain for MIUSA (Mobility International USA).  At the lively party, we danced, hung out with people, made welcoming speeches and how glad we are to be here speeches.  We also received a lot of presents like sparkly traditional Bahraini dresses that were very long! This was our longest day yet, but most of it was inside; but tomorrow we will be outside most of the time working and hanging out with the other Bahraini people; riding camels!

Friday March 14, 2008

The food here in Bahrain is very tasty.  They use a lot of rice, meat and vegetables and they also use some cheese in cooking.  Best of all, they use a lot of different kinds of spices and they also make very delicious dim sum that are often sweet or spicy.  They eat desserts too and they are often very sweet such as different kinds of cheese cakes, fresh fruit served with a sweet coating of sauce (not sure what it is) and baked sweets topped with sugar or some kind of sweet cream.  In Bahrain, Fridays and Saturdays are the off days for workers and students.

Today was the most fun day yet in Bahrain because I actually rode a camel; that was about eight feet off the ground when he stood.  He made growling noises, but he was very sweet. 

I don't know if I have mentioned about being a leader, but during these three weeks in Bahrain everyone of the delegates has to be a leader for two or more days because it is MIUSA’s tradition.  On that day the leader gets to lead the group by telling them what we are doing today, what to expect, what to bring and what to wear because we have special outfits for different workshops or events.  Well, I was the leader for today and it was fun. 

Today was also Essam's birthday and we gave him a water gun and a hat.  During his celebration, we said happy birthday in different languages and in Arabic and English as a group.  Afterward we went to the Tree of Life, which is a certain kind of tree and it is the very first tree that was found of that kind.  It was founded about 400 years ago in a big desert area that had nothing except for sand, rocks and other desert wild life things.  The trunk of this tree is surrounded by a four feet tall fence that protects it, so no one would destroy it because before the fence was built many people wanted a piece of the tree, so they would just cut it.  The tree is very tall with its wide pointy spread out branches in all directions. 

After that we went to a desert day camp in association with the other Bahraini delegates.  It was hosted by the Southern Governorate.  We played some trivia games, rode camels, got to know other Bahrainis and ate delicious food.  The camping place had really tiny sand grains and whenever the sand blew, it would get everywhere especially on people.  We also had traditional Bahraini music plus some American pop.  It was much like a party except maybe a little louder because there were a lot of people and loud music.  The sun was also super bright, which hurt my eyes because everything was desert like.  We then went back to our Youth Hostel and ate dinner and now I'm about to go to bed because it's almost 1 o'clock AM.

Saturday March 15, 2008

Today was a very long day because in the morning we went to two museum, the Museum of National History of Bahrain and the Museum of the Holy Koran.  The national history museum was very interesting and it had many exhibits.  We went on a tour and learned about a lot of information about Bahrain.  The tour guide had a strong accent, but I learned that Bahrain's rich oil was discovered in 1932.  We mostly saw a lot of pictures about the olden days in Bahrain and we saw a lot of old graves that were very amazing.  The Holy Koran Museum was fun except that I could not understand our tour guide, but we saw a lot of pictures about the old and new Koran and all the different writings used in Koran. 

But in the afternoon we went to one of the biggest markets in Bahrain.  It is called the Saturday Market because they have this particular market every Saturday.  This was very crowded, but we went into two huge buildings that had basically everything a person would want or imagine.  Everything was very cheap, but on the other hand Bahraini money is worth twice as much as American money.  There were gutters for drainage in the ground in case it rained.  The market smelled of very various things depending on where we were.  For example if we were near the perfume, then the scent of perfume would float around us.  As I've mentioned before people here in Bahrain wear a lot of perfume and they like to be clean. 

The Saturday market was very fun because I bought a few gifts including a sparkly head scarf and two bottles of perfume.  The market was very noisy, but was interesting and fun because I got to be buddies with a Bahraini delegate who went to Oregon last summer.  It's about 12 o'clock AM here in Bahrain right now and I have to get up at six in the morning because we are going on a camping trip for five days with the other Bahraini delegates; instead of home stays.  This market was very different than the markets in the U.S., but it is very similar to the markets in China because of the smells and rush.

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