Bahrain - March 2008 (cont.)

by Hannah

Sunday March 16, 2008

Today has been a super long day because we traveled from our Youth Hostel to a resort on a small island called Hawar Island.  We traveled first by a bus and then we sailed on a huge boat! While on the boat, I realized that everybody here is very open and energetic because we sang songs and did hand claps the whole way.  The trip took about 2 and a half hours or a little less.

When we reached Hawar Island, I was told by one of the delegates that the water in the ocean is very green because the sun is reflecting off of it.

We will be on this Island for about five days with the other Bahraini delegates.  Everybody here is basically covered from head to feet and the women usually wear black when they travel out of their house while the men usually dress in white.  Most of the people here are Muslims.  Our resort is like a palace because it is huge with about six floors and it is a four star hotel.  I am trying to learn Arabic, but it is very hard.  I have noticed that there are only two blind delegates on this trip plus four deaf delegates.  The blind delegates don't seem to be very active and they do not use canes; I will be giving a speech about the importance of using a cane and sighted guide tomorrow.

I forgot to add that yesterday when I was at the Saturday market, I saw a lot of head scarves and some had masks that covered the face.  I tried a head scarf with a mask built in and it felt really strange.

I would also like to say that our resort has two swimming pools and one of them has a water slide and it is right on the Persian Gulf.  It's getting really late and I have to think about what I'm going to present to the blind delegates tomorrow.

Monday March 17, 2008

Guess what? Firstly of all, I found out that there are 6 Mohammeds in the Bahraini delegation and secondly I had a lovely and relaxing day.  In the morning we had a discussion about the safeties of being on this Island and watched two films about how rich Bahrain has become throughout the years. We then had another discussion about the oyster shells that have pearls in them, which is another thing that Bahrain got it's riches from. After the shell discussion, we went outside and found many shells that were buried by the staffs. We were divided into four groups and our group found the fewest shells, but we all shared afterward, so it was pretty equal. 

And in the afternoon, I had a presentation and discussion with a small group of Bahraini delegates about how to use sighted guides and canes. We also talked about Braille.  There are only two blind delegates in the Bahraini group plus a blind staff, but he can see more than I can.  But the two blind delegates haven't had much experience with a cane or sighted guide so far, so I taught them how to use sighted guide and some other day I will be teaching them how to use a cane. 

After my presentation, we had a workshop on how to be an equality person, but I didn't learn anything from that because the person who presented the workshop just talked and talked, but I don't remember what he said. 

But guess what? In the evening, we had a camp fire and people presented different Bahraini traditions and one of them was a traditional wedding.  In that particular wedding, I was the bride and I wore a special Bahraini long red dress with sparkly declarations on it.  The dress also had a head scarf kind of thing that covered my hair and I got married to this guy who's name is Ali.  People danced around us and sang songs and clapped and took pictures.  This wedding was very different from other weddings in other paces, but it was very fun! Now it is about 11 o'clock PM and I better go to bed because I have to get up at 7 in the morning.

Tuesday March 18, 2008

The weather here is very warm and hot.  It's about 70-80 degrees and we have to wear long sleeves out of respect to the Bahrainis.  But inside our resort is sometimes chilly because people like to have the air condition on all the time.

Today we had a few presentations from people who wanted to talk about their interests.  It was very interesting, but I don't remember what everyone said.  One person talked about power soccer, one person talked about going to school, one person talked about Bahraini families and some more that I can't remember. 

After the presentations, we divided into groups and did some art drawings and discussed about the schools that we attended and how accessible it is.  It was very hard to explain Waldorf Method and charter schools because only a few people knew about these kinds of things.  I said that my school is very accessible and everything is explained to me in a understandable way, but there were some blind people who did not like the public school that they attended because people did not know how to explain things to them and some people in wheel chairs didn't like there school because they did not have elevators and had many flights of stairs leading to the upper or lower floors. 

In the afternoon, we planted trees as a community service project.  The trees were about two feet tall and they were very small.  We planted them in a big patch of dried green grass.  Afterward we had an oyster shell opening party where everyone opened their shells that they found yesterday.  Inside of the shells were disgusting gooey smelling oysters and we only found two pearls in all.  It was fun, but I think I got a sunburn on my right eye.  We then went for a swim in a big pool and I went on the short water slide even though it wasn't open. 

In the evening we had the wedding ceremony over again because the television crew was here and they wanted to film it.  It was the same as last time, but we did not have a campfire.  Two of the U.S.  delegates did a Japanese dance using fans, umbrellas and Japanese style of clothing.  We also did another dance using empty water bottles filled with rocks and decorated with strips with colorful paper.  We shook the bottles and danced around each other and did some complicated walking; it was very confusing for me.  It was a fun day and the food here is much better than the Youth Hostels because here they have more choices and they taste much better.  The fruit here tastes a little old, but otherwise everything's fine.  Our schedule has been changing around a lot, but I believe tomorrow we'll have some workshops on managing time.

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