Adventure

stress relief

2012-01-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty hectic since I got back to Bahrain. I arrived at 10:00pm on Sunday night, and was up by 5:00am for school on Monday morning. It's been a solid running pace since then. We are in exam season at school right now, so that means lots of preparation for teachers. Exams need to be written, double checked, rewritten, triple checked, submitted, and assembled. As the English coordinator, it's my job to do all the checking and rechecking. Add to that the piles of papers I still needed to grade, and second quarter grades that needed to be calculated, barely left me enough time to sit or eat lunch. Then, nearly every evening was spent in meetings for a youth camp that we are planning for April or worship team practice (for Rey) or meetings with other people or dinners to attend or____________; the list goes on. Finally, a few weekends ago, we decided we needed a break. We called up the gang and headed out for a night of fun. Along the way we captured these pictures that pretty much sum up our night (and how badly we needed to get out!) ...

some local flavor

2011-12-06T10:55:00.001-08:00

Our new neighbors, Dan and Kendra, fellow teachers at Al Raja, are very keen to see the sights of Bahrain. Wisely, they have been pacing themselves as they could have easily finished everything off in about 3 days. :) One of our recent sightseeing trips was to the Grand Mosque. I hadn't been there since 2009, when my family came to visit. It's always an interesting place to go. This time we had some connections--Dan and Kendra's Arabic teacher offered to give us a tour. It was quite long but very interesting. And of course, dressing up in the thobes and abayas is always fun too.

chandelier over the main prayer room

I love the star patterns they use in decorating. I'm going to figure out how to use this somewhere...

outside view

passage to the outdoor courtyard

local style

ninja (as Rey likes to call them!)

prayer time

probably the most awkward looking animal ever

2011-12-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

After 4 years, I finally made it to the camel farm. I had heard rumors of such a place, but had never made it out there. The closest I got was driving by, which allowed me to see the giant sign saying, "Private Property! No entry." After a few inquiries, I discovered that is indeed the place; you simply drive past the sign and go right in! There's Bahrain for you :) We partnered up with our friends Dan, Kendra, and Kristine and took a little field trip there one afternoon. There are about 450 camels out there, all of which belong to the private collection of one of the sheikhs. Upon arriving, we quickly met one of the workers there who eagerly showed us the newborn camels--only a week old they still reached nearly to my shoulder! But the best part by far, was when Rey discovered the food pile, which quickly transformed him into the camel whisperer. Soon all the camels were straining against their ropes trying to get a little closer to the greens. We all took turns feeding them. What a riot.

Rey working his magic

Hello, Mr. Camel

everyone wants some food!

Who's hungry???

close up

feeding frenzy (it looks like there in one eating my hair!)

Here, camel, camel...

awkward nap time

oh, ya know, just hanging out

tear gas

2011-11-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since Bahrain has made it into the news, but unfortunately things have not completely settled down since February. There are still regular riots and arrests of protesters, especially in the villages. Last month 30 women were arrested after starting a protest in City Center, the largest mall in Bahrain. This month the activity continues. According to CNN, five people were arrested this weekend who apparently had plans for terrorist activity in Bahrain. The latest tactic by the protesters is to pour oil onto the highways. Two or three times a week one road is blocked due to oil.

This weekend I had my first experience with tear gas. Some friends and I went out for a movie and dinner this weekend. As we left the theater, we heard shots--mostly likely rubber bullets or tear gas canisters. Sadly, we hardly notice these sounds anymore. We've become so accustomed to them, they barely register among the other sounds of the city--honking, traffic, kids playing, men talking. After the movie we went to Juffair for dinner. Juffair is where the US navy base is located. There is one particular street called American Alley. Virtually every American fast food restaurant is located on this street, and it's always very crowded with Americans and visiting Saudis. After eating our delicious pizza dinner, we went outside to walk to our car. As soon as we stepped outside, we could smell it. I had had a cold all week and my nose was completely blocked, but after a few seconds outside, my sinuses, throat, and eyes were burning. That is some nasty stuff. We were several blocks away from where they shot it, so I can't imagine what it would be like to have been right there.

Although this was my first experience, unfortunately it is not uncommon these days. We continue to carry out our daily routines as if everything is normal, but experiences like this are a sobering reminder that not all is well on this island.

Please continue to pray for peace in Bahrain.

Eid

2011-11-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

Last week those of us in the Middle East celebrated the Muslim holiday called Eid. This is the second Eid of the year, where Muslims celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. Many Muslims slaughter a sheep or a goat on the first day of this three day celebration. Most people spend the holiday with family and friends, dressing in new clothes, and collecting money from relatives. For the rest of us, we celebrate a week off school! :)

This Eid I traveled to the United Arab Emirates for a conference put on by Youth for Christ. The conference was a gathering of all youth leaders from the Gulf for a time of encouragement, brainstorming, and training. I went with my good friend and fellow youth leader, Nuku.

We arrived in UAE a day early, which gave me a chance to meet Rey's brother Melvin in Dubai.

Burj Dubai--the tallest building in the world

bottom of the Burj--Dubai reminds me of a city in outer space or in some alternate universe :)

The conference was held in Al Ain, which is on the border of Oman. While Dubai is a city of steel and glitz, Al Ain is a quiet place nestled in the mountains and surrounded by beautiful sand desert. We had some free time, which allowed us to have fun in the sand dunes.

quad bikes

Nuku, ready for her first ride!

bumming around on the bikes

beautiful sand dunes

some local Emeratis getting a kick out of watching us bike and sand board

SAND BOARDING!!! Basically snow boarding but the desert version

ready to take on the hill

practicing

It's pretty difficult to balance, but totally fun. I went down the huge hill twice; both times rather unsuccessfully as I totally wiped out half way down. We were pretty much covered in sand from head to toe and every random place in between. I could definitely get used to sand boarding! Can't wait to go again. :)

Cross that one off the bucket list.

Last week

Al Raja School

2011-11-12T04:25:00.001-08:00

As some of you may recall, I originally moved to Bahrain to teach at Al Raja School. I spent 2 lovely years there as the seventh grade English teacher before moving on to another school where I took on the role of grade 5 classroom teacher. That was a wonderful (mostly!) experience, as I really love teaching grade 5. But this year finds me back at Al Raja. My good friend and teaching mentor, Verna, called me this spring saying that she would love to have me back at Al Raja. At the time, she was supervising the entire English program from K to 12, and it was proving to be quite the task. She was wondering if I would be willing to come back and help coordinate the English department, and so a beautiful partnership was formed; she would coordinate grades KG-6, and I would take grades 7-12. In addition to managing the English department, I am also back at my old post of seventh grade English teacher. Coming back to Al Raja was a bit like coming home: a lot of the staff remembered me, and about 85% of my old students (now in grades 10 and 11) came back to say hi. It was quite the shock to see some of them: I left them as scrawny, awkward middle schoolers and now find them as full bearded adults! Among some of the first to greet me where the notorious middle school trouble makers, asking, "Miss, do you remember me?" As if there was a chance I would forget! :) Overall, it's been good. Coordinating adds new responsibilities and challenges, but I'm learning as I go. I'm thankful for the opportunity, as in the US I would never be considered for such a position. Funny how being in my 5th year here makes me a veteran!

Here is my classroom...

colorful and organized, just the way I like it :)

flat 32

2011-11-12T04:17:00.000-08:00

My lovely sister pointed out, that it might be helpful to see the rest of my flat, seeing as you only got to see one room. Well, we haven't had time to fix up every room yet, but here's what we've got so far. This is actually the same flat I first lived in when I came to Bahrain in 2007.

hall (sitting room) view from the doorway. Christine and I painted one wall dark brown; the rest we left white.

hall (opposite corner)

from the hallway

small hallway--from here you have the kitchen to the left, bedroom straight ahead, and Rey's music room to the right

very LARGE kitchen (too bad we don't cook!)

my oven for baking

kitchen table

our bedroom (from the doorway)

bedroom 2 (looking back towards the hallway)

And there you have it! Al Bait Phillips (The Phillips' House)

wall art

2011-10-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

What do you do with three creative girls with a lot of time on their hands and lots of white walls? You start decorating! This summer my dear friends Christine and Sharina and I undertook a project to give Rey's new music room a little make-over. He wanted to go with a "retro music" theme. We started with a bright blue wall, a funky orange carpet, and internet inspired photographs of retro/hippie graphics. Sharina put her drawing skills to work, and Christine and I followed up with some bright colored paints. Here's what we came up with...

collage of various music/drumming, retro pictures and memorabilia

Woodstock poster (I painted onto a canvas)

a few more music inspired canvases

Christine's handiwork

graphics...

Rey's very own VW van! :)

graphics corner

angle one: spare bed, cupboard, drum kit

Rey's corner

other side of the room

It was quite the project, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it certainly helped pass the unbearably hot days of Bahrain summer!

I left my heart in India...

2011-09-20T11:01:00.001-07:00

I realized I started this blog months ago and never published it. Sorry about that. India truly was the trip of a lifetime. Rey and I spent the first 9 days in Kerala, one of the smallest states on the western coast of India. We have a lot of friends from there, so we were eager to see what all the fuss was about, as Keralites are quite proud of their heritage. It wasn't long before we understood why. Kerala is absolutely beautiful. We booked a tour package online, which was the best thing we could have done because we pretty much just showed up and everything was taken care of. We started in Cochin and moved out into the spice plantations, tea estates, and backwaters of this largely natural and unspoiled state. Everything was amazingly green, and the rainy weather (it was actually monsoon season) only emphasized the vibrant colors. Here is a quick photo highlight tour of the trip.

Allepey--water taxi on the backwaters. The old man at the front literally ferried people back and forth across the river all day. The people in the backwaters live on the edge of the water and travel most places by water. They also use the river for washing dishes, doing laundry, and bathing. In the afternoon we saw a "water school bus" taking the kids home from school!

Kumarakom--Snake boat training on the backwaters

Kumarakom--exploring the coastal area

Thekkedy--elephant ride at the spice plantation!

spice plantation--Maddie our elephant

near Munnar--national park in the mountains

near Munnar--our hotel in the forest

photo shoot along the way

Cochin--Jew town

After our stay in Kerala, we took a bus to Tamil Nadu to meet some friends. We stayed at their house in Coimbatore before heading out to the hills for a little safari. We saw wild elephants, bison, spotted deer, birds, and sambar. After the safari, we explored the hill stations of Ooty and Coonoor. Great scenery, great company. For our last leg, we took a 7 hour train ride up to Bangalore, where we met another friend. There we explored the city life of shopping, auto rickshaws, and fantastic restaurants. At this point, after three weeks exploring south India, Rey was more than ready to head home. I, on the other hand, began plotting my next trip to India! :)

so this is summer???

2011-07-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

The phrase "summer vacation" generally brings to mind images of ice cream cones, lazy days by the pool, eating lunch outside, bike rides, baseball games, and the like. According to that definition, my "summer vacation" hardly qualifies. We kicked things off with a two-week experiment in Parenting 101. Rey and I were chosen to house sit/babysit? (not quite the right word...stay with?) two teenagers from our church while their parents went to Scotland for the graduations of their other two children. Our main responsibilities were driving them to school and feeding them. Ok, seems simple enough, right? Well, why not make things a little more interesting by scheduling this right at the end of June when we have to be packed up and moved out of our old apartment and into the new place by the 30th. Ok, so the game plan is, take the kids to school in the morning, go to our old flat, spend the day packing and cleaning up, get the kids from school, start dinner, and crash by 10:00. Go team Phillips. :) But that still seemed a bit too easy, and we like a challenge, so why not throw an infected cavity in there for Rey just to spice things up a bit? When he was finally in so much pain that he agreed to go to the dentist, his blood pressure and sugar levels were so high they couldn't do anything for him until they came down. So that left me rushing to the emergency room two nights in a row so he could get an injection of painkillers and left him so drugged up for the next week that I was suddenly a single mother of three. We somehow managed to empty our old place and bring it all to the new apartment, but that girl wasn't leaving until the 30th, so once our housesitting gig was up, we were homeless for a few days. Living out of our car and plastic bags and sleeping at Rey's parent's house, we managed to survive.

At this point, I've had enough excitement for a while and am ready to just get into our new house, start settling in and begin unpacking and organizing everything. It's Friday morning, Rey's tooth is out and healing nicely, and we are getting ready for church in the morning. After church we are finally going home. Or so we thought. We got a call in the morning from India: one of Rey's uncle's has passed away. He had cancer and had been suffering for quite some time, so it wasn't exactly shocking, but still. Rey's dad was close to him, so he decided to go to India for the funeral. And if Rey's dad was going, then his mom was going. And if both his parent's were going, Rey should also go too so he can help them out. So instead of settling into our new place, we spent the day getting flights, packing, and rummaging around for Rey's clothes. They flew out that night leaving me alone for a week in a house full of boxes. I spent a fairly quiet week unpacking and setting up as much as I could, although for those of you who know Rey and know about his obsession with electronics and wiring, there was only so much I could do by myself.

Thankfully now, things are pretty much back to normal. The house is unpacked. We've painted some walls (a topic of a future blog post). The outside temps are a steamy 110* that feels like 120. Things are as they should be. There have been no days lounging by the pool, baseball games or picnic lunches. Instead I've enjoyed teenage-sitting, a drugged up husband, and unpacking. But on Tuesday, Rey and I leave for our three week vacation in India where fried bananas, elephant safaris, tree top apartments, and houseboats await us. It certainly wouldn't be called a "normal" summer, but since when have I done what's "normal"? :)

Happy summer!

Farasha (butterfly)

2011-06-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

It was a moment I had been dreading; I didn't know how to bring it up, and quite frankly, I didn't want to. She is one of my closest friends, and in all honesty, probably the one person who could make me change my mind; the one person who could make me stay at MKS. How do I tell Faten that I'm leaving? Faten, my dear Egyptian friend who taught Arabic to my class for two years, who makes me laugh harder than anyone else at school, who tells my students that I'M the one from Egypt and she taught ME English, rather than the other way around; Faten who walks arm in arm with me down the hall, who teaches my completely unhelpful Arabic words like monkey and diarrhea. How do I tell my best friend that I'm not coming back next year?

I didn't plan on telling her that way, but maybe that was God giving me an opportunity because I wasn't ready to bite the bullet. I was quite upset that day because the school was giving me a hard time about my annual ticket home, and everyone was being unhelpful and just plain rude. I came back to my class, and Faten just knew something was wrong. She asked me if I was ok, and of course I said, yes, because it really wasn't the time to discuss the issue. But she knew I was lying. She always knows. She found me later in the afternoon to ask me again if I was ok. I explained what happened, and she randomly asked me if I was coming back next year. There it was: that dreaded question. As hard as it would be to tell her the truth, it would have been harder to lie. So I told her. She didn't believe me, didn't want to believe me, so she asked me again and again. She thought I was leaving because of the issue with my ticket, so she offered to pay me the extra money so I would stay. When I finally turned to look her in the face, I found her eyes filled with tears. I realized in that moment that both our hearts were breaking. I turned away knowing that if I stayed looking at her, my own tears would begin to fall. After a few more minutes she fiercely kissed me on the head and left. I should have known that wouldn't be the end of it.

The next day she teamed up with the PE teacher, another Egyptian woman, and began her quest to get me to stay. Little did she know that every plea made my heart ache and made my decision even harder to bear. Finally one day as we were sitting together, I brought up our friendship; partly as a change of subject and partly out of genuine curiosity. I asked her how in the world we became friends. As far as I can remember, she just plopped down in my room one day and started talking (and hasn't really stopped since!) Without missing a beat, she looked me in the eye and simply said, "God." God wanted us to be friends, so we are. As simple as that. As I sat back in wonder I thought, 'She's absolutely right. Probably more right than she even realizes.'

......

Today was our last day. She came to say goodbye and made me promise that I would meet her before she left for Egypt for the summer. The other fifth grade teacher was there and started giving her a hard time (as he always does) saying, "I thought Jena was your friend. Where are your tears? You aren't sad that your friend it leaving? If you were really friends, you would have tears. Now I know you have just been faking it; you aren't really such good friends." Faten, always quick with a response, looked right at him and said, "No, Jena is not my friend. She is my sister."

My sister, Faten...

class of monkeys

2011-06-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Well, once again, it's been a while since I've written anything. Today was my last day of school. A welcome end to a very long year. The combination of the country's unrest and a rather rambunctious class made for one exhausted teacher by the end. My class had quite the range of characters this year, including several drama queens, a hacker, a hot head, a turtle, an Energizer bunny, a chipmunk, and quite a few of the Seven Dwarves (Sleepy, Dopey, and Bashful come to mind) Here is a picture of the lovely monkeys. (I'll let you try to figure out who is who! :)

Although it was a very tiring year, I still look back with many fond memories. I truly love teaching grade 5. However, I received an offer a few weeks back that led to a rather abrupt decision to resign from my current school. A very dear friend from my old school, Al Raja, called asking if I would be interested in coming back. They were in need of an English teacher and coordinator and thought I would be perfect for the job. I must admit, I went to meet the principal with no real intention of changing schools, but low and behold, a week later I was handing in my resignation and packing up my things. I can't really explain what happened, other than to say God presented me with an opportunity and in a week's time managed to change my mind about taking it. I'm not necessarily super excited about it (although in all fairness, I usually don't get excited about such things), but I am confident I made the right decision. In September I will return to Al Raja School as the seventh grade English teacher and the coordinator for the English department grades 7-12. I'm sure it will be a learning experience as I take on this new responsibility, but in many ways, it feels like I'm coming back home.

The Pearl is gone!

2011-03-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

We are now on day two of peace and quiet here in Bahrain. There are reports of isolated skirmishes and acts of violence continuing in some of the villages, but for the most part, things are peaceful. People have begun to come outside. We had our church service this morning. Shops are opening up and being restocked with the essentials. Even the garbage collection has resumed (although that task is far from complete--it's amazing how much garbage piles up when a few days of collection are skipped!) Now we have learned (from CNBC) that the iconic Pearl from the Roundabout has been demolished. Can't say that we are surprised by this, as people have been talking about the possibility of it's destruction since this all began; yet you can't help but feel a little bit sad, as this was one of Bahrain's most recognizable structures, one of its very few landmarks so to speak.

the plot thickens...

2011-03-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

The king of Bahrain has declared a three-month state of emergency, state TV reports, following weeks of pro-democracy protests in the kingdom. ---BBC

So what does this mean for us? Well, I haven't been to school in two days. Most schools are officially closed. My school has not made that decision, but since no one is showing up, we might as well be closed.

We are all staying at home as most roads are blocked and most destinations aren't even open. We managed to get out to a grocery store yesterday morning to stock up on food, but other than that, we're just home. Rey went to work for a few hours this morning, but there wasn't any work to do, so they all went home.

People are becoming very paranoid by the hundreds of rumors that are flying around. The truth is that no one really knows what's happening. As Rey was coming back from church on Sunday night, he said the streets were deserted of cars but crowds of boys were roaming around with sticks. We've heard other reports of "gangs" roaming the street beating people up. Last night we went out for bread, and it was like a ghost town. Rey made me wait in the cold store while he got bread from the fresh bread guy because it just felt unsafe to be outside. There is a very creepy feeling lingering, like the air itself is charged and just waiting in anticipation for something to start. It's unsettling to say the least. For now we are just waiting. I feel secure in knowing that God is in control, and we are all praying for peace.

videos

2011-03-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/14/bahrain.protests/index.html

There are two videos available on the site. The first shows the thousands of people protesting.

The second gives a recap of the protests, which started back in February.

troops move in

2011-03-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Foreign troops have begun to arrive in the strategically and financially important Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, following a month of citizen protests, the Bahrain News Agency reported Monday.Saudi Arabia, Bahrain's giant neighbor, appears to have provided at least some of the troops, who come under the banner of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The Saudi state news agency said the government had responded to Bahrain's request for help in view of the importance of security there. According to the state news agency of the United Arab Emirates, it "decided to send a security force to keep the peace in the Kingdom of Bahrain," at that country's request. side Bahrain protests

Dr. Anwar Mohammed Qerqash, UAE minister for foreign affairs, said that this is a part of his country's responsibility within the Gulf Cooperation Council in order to bring "security and stability to the region." The mission is being called Operation Desert Shield -- the same name the United States used after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait in 1990. The arrival of the troops follows a day of clashes between protesters and security forces that resulted in more than 1,000 people hospitalized, human rights activists said. Protests have swept the Arab world this year, toppling the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, but it's not clear that any country had called in foreign troops for help before the GCC forces arrived in Bahrain on Monday. It is not clear exactly how many foreign security troops have entered Bahrain or where they are from. Various parts of the Bahraini government referred CNN questions to other government offices on Monday. An eyewitness told CNN that dozens of armored vehicles and buses full of soldiers crossed from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain on Monday afternoon via the causeway linking the two countries. The Gulf Cooperation Council is a group of six Gulf states -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar -- that encourages cooperation among members in a number of areas, including the economy and security.

Also on Monday, a key part of the capital was taken over by protesters, a Human Rights Watch official told CNN. About 100 demonstrators blocked access to the Bahrain Financial Harbour with barricades such as trash cans and cinder blocks, in effect shutting down the commercial district, Faraz Sanei said. There was no police presence, he added. Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa said the demonstrations are not peaceful. "What we are witnessing in Manama is no peaceful protest. ... It's (a) wanton, gangster style takeover of people's lives," he said on Twitter.

A pro-government group of lawmakers is urging the king of Bahrain to impose martial law for three months in the wake of the protests.

Protests on Sunday appeared to have been among the most violent since police tried to clear the capital's Pearl Roundabout in February, leaving seven people dead, according to demonstrators.

Most of Sunday's injured suffered gas-related injuries, including burns and breathing problems, according to Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Doctors and nurses were among the injured. At least five people were in critical condition and at least two people lost their eyes because of bullet injuries, he said.

Manama, the capital, was in effect sealed off Monday, journalists there told CNN. The highway stretching from the Pearl Roundabout to the Bahrain Financial Harbour was blocked by trees and other debris. The government Sunday denied accusations that unjustified force was used against protesters at the harbor, along a key highway and at Bahrain University. Britain's Foreign Office warned against all travel to the Gulf kingdom Sunday until further notice, saying, "The risk of further outbreaks of violence has increased."

The nation's Independent Bloc of lawmakers called on Bahrain security forces to intervene to protect national security and stability, the Bahrain News Agency reported later Sunday. The bloc is made up of the 22 pro-government members of the lower house of the legislature. "Extremist movements are resorting to escalation and sectarian mobilization, which led to an unprecedented disruption of security and hostile sectarian polarization at health and educational institutions," the group said in a statement. The members of parliament asked King Hamad to enforce a curfew and deploy security forces across the country.

During protests in the tiny island nation, moderates have been demanding a constitutional monarchy and hardliners have called for the abolition of the royal family altogether.

The country has a Shiite Muslim majority population, but its rulers are Sunni Muslims.

CNN's Caroline Faraj and Jenifer Fenton contributed to this report.

Birthday Bash

2011-03-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

On a more positive note, I had an amazing birthday this year. My fifth graders planned a surprise party for me. Well, it wasn't a complete surprise (one of the little darlings spilled the beans the week before), but I was really shocked at what they were able to put together. In the morning, no one even mentioned it was my birthday; they were all giving me sideways glances and grinning so I knew that they knew, but I played along with them. We carried on the morning as usual. Then for lunch, they all left and another teacher took me downstairs "to talk". At this point, I really don't know how they managed to pull it off, but they all snuck back up to my room, decorated the whole thing, and were waiting to surprise me. After the break I went back upstairs and found them all hiding in the dark. When I walked in the room, they screamed HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and covered me in snow spray and confetti. They had party poppers, streamers, posters, everything. Then I walked to the back and saw three giant chocolate cakes, muffins, snacks, candy, drinks, everything. They borrow instruments from the music teacher so they were all playing the drums and singing to me. It was a blast. They were so excited. Needless to say, we didn't do much for the rest of the day, which of course they loved as well. :) I even got presents--two purses, a teddy bear, a photo album, and a silver mirror. It really was one of the best birthday parties I've ever had!

the birthday girl

presents!

birthday hugs

the party planners

video

2011-03-13T12:47:00.001-07:00

Here is a video from one of the news stations showing today's events:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F2FQCCmsBU&feature=player_embedded

March 13

2011-03-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Protests have continued for the past few weeks, with the protesters moving to different locations around the island--the Pearl Roundabout, the Financial Harbor, the Royal Court, the US Embassy. So far things have remained peaceful. Until today. Below is an article taken from CNN.com which summarizes the days events...

How does this affect me personally? Well, students arrived nearly an hour late to school as many roads were closed resulting in traffic jams in an already heavily-trafficked area. Then by 10:00, parents started arriving in mass to pick up their children. By noon, we called the day, and everyone headed to the courtyard to wait for the parents as the influx was too much for the office to handle. Now we will just wait to see what happens tomorrow.

From CNN...

(CNN) -- Supporters of the rulers of Bahrain threatened about 5,000 university students protesting against the government at Bahrain University Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

Elsewhere in the strategically important kingdom, riot police fired tear gas at protesters to break up the blockade of a highway, the government said.

A video posted by an opposition party showed police appearing to fire two tear gas canisters at a man standing only a few feet from them. He doubles over after the first shot, and drops to the ground after the second, which appears to hit him in the face.

The man is not obviously threatening the police in the video, which was posted Sunday by Wefaq. The opposition party told CNN it was filmed Sunday near Pearl Roundabout, the center of month-old protests in the kingdom.

About 150 supporters of the royal family tried to get onto Bahrain University campus during the protest there, but only some managed to get in. An unknown number of people were injured, but it's not clear how many or how badly.

Security forces tried to prevent the regime supporters from entering the campus, and allowed people to leave the grounds but not to enter.

The tense standoff was one of at least three protests Sunday against the rulers of the small Gulf kingdom triggered by popular demonstrations that brought down the long-time presidents of Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year.

The latest protests came a day after America's defense secretary said he's "convinced" that Bahrain's royal leaders are "serious about real reform and moving forward," but emphasized that they must move quickly.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was visiting the restive island kingdom, where he huddled with King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman and talked about the importance of engaging with opposition forces.

"I think that the concern now is that it's important that they have somebody to talk to and that the opposition be willing to sit down with the government and carry this process forward," he said.

On Sunday, some 250 young people organized a protest in front of Bahrain Financial Harbor in the capital Manama, witnesses said.

Text messages exchanged between them and others in the area warned of regime supporters approaching from Muharak, another island, but it's not clear the warnings are accurate.

Police and anti-riot squads stationed near the harbor fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, leaving 20 injured, according to Salmanya Hospital. Al Wasat cameraman Mohammed Al-Mukharaq was among the seriously injured, his editor said.

The government says protest camp tents were "removed," but did not say how.

Many protesters mobilized to block off King Faisal highway to prevent the pro-regime groups from entering Bahrain's main island.

The government and eyewitnesses disagree about how the blockade ended.

Eyewitnesses and journalists say security officers asked them to disband and open the highway, and they complied.

The government said attempts by uniformed police officers to persuade the protesters to re-open the road reached an impasse and that a group of protesters attacked unarmed police officers, resulting in one police officer being stabbed and another sustaining a serious head injury.

Police then sought to disperse approximately 350 protesters by using tear gas in order to clear the road, the government statement said.

"The Ministry of Interior is currently undergoing operations to reopen the King Faisal Highway and advised all protesters to return to the Pearl Roundabout for their own safety," the government statement said.

The roundabout has been the center of protests in the kingdom for a month.

Bahrain, which sits in the Persian Gulf and is the base of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been wracked by anti-government protests since mid-February.

Sunni Muslims -- even though they are a minority in the kingdom -- dominate the government of Bahrain.

The Shiite Muslim majority has staged protests in recent years to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption, issues they say the country's Sunni rulers have done little to address.

Many of them are in the anti-government coalition that has been demanding reform as part of the eruption of discontent sweeping across the Arab world for the past several months. They have staged dramatic protests and camped out in the capital's Pearl Roundabout

Initially, protesters took to the streets of Manama to demand reform and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. But some are now calling for the removal of the royal family that has led the Persian Gulf state since the 18th century.

Bahrain is in the shadow of Iran, a predominantly Shiite country and antagonist of Bahrain's close ally, the United States.

But Gates told reporters Saturday he "expressed the view that we had no evidence that suggested that Iran started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region."

However, he said, there's evidence that Iranians "are looking for ways to exploit" the protracted processes unfolding in the region, "particularly in Bahrain."

Three hard-line groups in the Gulf kingdom -- the Haq, Wafa and Bahrain Freedom Movement -- have united and called for the ruling family to step aside, they announced this week.

The new coalition is calling for a democratic republic with no ruling family -- a step further than other opposition groups, which are calling for a constitutional monarchy.

It appeared the hard-line groups represented a minority of the protesters at the roundabout.

In response to the protests, the government has promised to build 50,000 new housing units and hire an additional 20,000

police officers, roughly doubling the size of the force. Members of Bahrain's majority Shiite Muslim community are not allowed to join the force.

Bahrain's king reshuffled his Cabinet last month as protesters continued to call for reforms. He has also touted a "national dialogue" and urged Bahrainis "to engage in this new process" and "move away from polarization."

Journalist Mansoor Al-Jamri and CNN's Christine Theodorou, Dominique van Heerden, Mohammed Jamjoom and Jenifer Fenton contributed to this report.

Friday

2011-02-19T05:27:00.000-08:00

Friday morning was very quiet. We went to church like normal, although there were considerably fewer people in attendance. There was no fellowship after the service; instead people were encouraged to just head home. Around noon on Friday, a pro-government really began in Juffair, near the Grand Mosque. Tons of people flooded the area, waving the flag and holding pictures of the ruling family. Many decorated cars also circled the area, sporting Bahrain decorations, honking their horns, and cheering for Bahrain.

On the other side of the city, things were not so cheerful however. Thousands more people were gathered for the funeral procession of one of the men who was killed earlier this week. At some point, the procession decided to head back to Pearl Roundabout where the protesters had been camped earlier in the week. As soon as they came within sight of the Pearl, the army opened fire on them. This time they were not using tear gas or rubber bullets but live ammunition. Unknown numbers of people were taken to the hospital; the number of dead and injured still has not been confirmed. The hospital became the new center of the protest movement. Thousands flocked to the hospital compound. They came in such droves that doctors complained of not being able to work and ambulances were not able to get through. While there are many stories circulating about the exact events of last night, we all know, things are not looking good.

Thursday

2011-02-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm sure you are seeing things on the news about Bahrain. It's not nearly as bad as it looks. The atmosphere is tense, yet there is no immediate danger around us.

I'll sum up what's been happening so far:

Protesters had been camping at the Pearl Roundabout for a few days. Daily more and more people were joining the crowd. Now, when I say camping out, don't think of Egypt or any of these other more violent countries. It was more like a carnival atmosphere. Entire families with children and infants were there, all enjoying themselves. People set up tents with shisha, there was a popcorn machine. They even set up a projector and were showing TV on the base of the roundabout! It certainly was a very peaceful and almost happy occasion. That was all interrupted this morning. When I woke up at 5:30 I could hear the helicopters going crazy as well as a ton of police sirens and popping sounds. When I turned on the news, I saw that the police had attacked the people camping there. There are conflicting reports about what actually happened. Some say the police attacked without warning; others say that had been asking the people to leave, and since they refused, they attacked. Either way, it wasn't pretty. Three more people were killed, bringing the total deaths to 5. Most of this activity is happening in the area of the Pearl. the injured parties were taken to a nearby hospital and the activity continues to stay in that part of the city. By us things are very quiet. The guys on the corner are still smoking their sheesha pipes and people are buying shawarmas like usual. It seems a bit surreal to see such normal, every day activities and then see the news reports of violent clashes breaking out. It reminds me a bit of when I was in Kenya actually. We are just staying home and playing it safe.

a local perspective

2011-02-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

This was taken off a local blog. Just to give you an idea what is in the hearts and minds of the people.

Bahrain

by BuRajaa on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 3:49am

This is not an “event.” People are dying. This is not people sitting down behind computers creating Facebook pages, and promoting them on Twitter. It’s blood, it’s real and it’s scary.

I never had intentions of writing about politics, or interfering or even stating my opinion over the Internet because I thought it was irrelevant. But I want to now. Where does one start? Do you talk about the divide that cuts through Bahrain? Or do you blame the ignorance and fear we have towards each other?

Let’s take a step back together, a few days ago protests were staged and I thought, here we go again. This is all they do on this island. And then two people died. Now it does not matter if you perceive the young men that died to be martyrs or not, the fact remains that human life was lost. Bahraini citizens lost their lives. Regardless of your religious orientation, or political inclination that news must have made you feel the need to be sad.

That’s when I started reading about what the protestors wanted. A constitution written by the people, like the one written in 1970's that was absolved. A more representative government that can be held accountable to the people’s elected officials. And finally the protestors asked for equality between the country’s citizens.

What happened next was that an already divided country of Sunni’s and Shiite’s was divided even more. Now there was the question if you were “pro-government” or “anti-government?” One Twitter user posts that the greatest enemies of Bahrain today would be those that use rhetoric that would create a larger rift within society. So far that I say well done, well done to those responsible for emphasizing the concept of “us” and “them.”

I have come to understand that humans have a tendency to fear what we cannot understand. In my opinion I believe that had the people that got into their cars in spite of the protestors and honked their horns around town really understood what the protestors were asking for then they would not have felt the need to do so. I know that some of the protestors were chanting to overthrow the Ruling Family, but those people were a very small minority.

It doesn’t matter what I think about what the protestors’ motives were. And it doesn’t matter what you think either, because at this point our brothers are dying. Bahraini’s are allowing the death of other Bahraini's.

I am overcome with a sense of frustration that I find difficult to explain. We live in the same land, we drink the same water, we eat the same food, we play the same games and we swim in the same sea. Yet we find a way to distance ourselves from each other by simply adding a hyphen. I am a Sunni-Bahrain, Shiite-Bahraini, Saudi-Bahraini, Iraqi-Bahrain, Irani-Bahraini. Who cares? I don’t. The people that are hurting outside are brothers of mine, and I will pray for them before I go to sleep tonight, and when I wake up tomorrow. Not because I agree or disagree with their protest, but because they are my brothers. And I do sympathize with them.

I grew up with the belief that Bahrain was the greatest country in the region, and I still think so. While our neighbors were in tents, our women were driving cars. While nomads roamed all over the gulf, Bahrain was a thriving civilization. Dilmun, Aradus, Awal, Tylos, don’t all these different dynasties mean anything to you?! Our land is so beautiful that the Greeks wanted part of it, so did the Portuguese, and the English after them. And what do we do now that we have it all to ourselves? How do we honor our forefathers that are buried in this land? By allowing this to escalate to this extent.

Sure today Bahrain does not have as much as oil its neighbors. The land is not as fertile as it used to be. And yes our country has yet to win a Gulf Cup. But I’m still proud to be a Bahraini, and if I were not than I would wish I were a Bahraini. Our strength as a country comes in our differences, and our tolerance to accept those differences, and learn from each other, and live together.

Something good can still come out of this. We have diversity that others would pay to have. This is an opportunity for us to prove to the world that we can live together and that we refuse to become another Iraq or Lebanon torn in different directions. I have faith in our leadership, and I hope you do to. But I have more faith in our citizens. People that grew up walking the same streets, singing the same songs and watching the same shows can and should come together.

Today Bahrain is at its worse, and the only way up is for us to embrace each other as equals. Wake up and look around you. Look at the faces of your loved ones, listen to their voices over the phone, and you will understand the sorrow that we all share right now. Once this is over we will build on a stronger foundation.

Please do your research, read, ask and listen. It is your responsibility to educate yourself and avoid listening to hearsay.

God save Bahrain, it’s King and it’s citizens from any harm.

Day Three

2011-02-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

Day Three and the protests continue. Yesterday one protester was killed by the riot police. Today was the funeral. At the funeral procession, two more people were killed bringing the total deaths to three.

funeral procession

We thought the protests were over, but it seems they are starting afresh. Here are some photographs showing the most recent action. People are gathering at the iconic Pearl Roundabout in the heart of Manama to protest. Apparently, they are bringing prayer mats, sleeping bags, food, and water, indicating they will not be leaving soon. So far there has only been a gathering; no violence has broken out.

Day of Love?

2011-02-14T08:22:00.000-08:00

There is an eerie feeling in air. The streets are uncharacteristically quiet--no people wandering about, very few cars on the road, just a general feeling of people hiding out, anticipating. Most offices were closed today or else told the employees to head home early. Rey left his office about 2. Although school was scheduled today, I stayed home due to losing my voice (something that seems to happen every year about this time!). Some of the main highways were closed, even the bridge going to Saudi, and all the malls closed by 6:00pm. My neighborhood is very quiet, deserted even. But we are hearing rumors of activity in other parts of the country. Protesters breaking into the mall, police firing tear gas and rubber bullets, tires burning in the streets; helicopters have been circling on and off for most of the day. Police have been on high alert since the weekend. Facebook messages and texts have been flying back and forth all evening as people are passing along what they hear. It appears the worst of it is happening now. Rey just received a message from one of his friends saying the protesters are fighting back against the police--guns are being fired and smoke hangs over sections of the city. While we don't know how much these rumors are true, one thing is certain: things are happening in Bahrain. Thankfully we are all safe, and our area remains quiet.

Here is an article explaining the events of last night:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/14/general-ml-bahrain-protests_8307276.html

Here are some photos from this afternoon:

protesters and the police on the street

tear gas

police

the domino effect

2011-02-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how much you have been following the situation in Egypt, but here in the Middle East, it's all the latest talk. There are many Egyptians living in Bahrain, including some of my good friends at school. We have all been eagerly following the news updates to see how the situation would be resolved. None of us quite imagined that Mubarak would ever step down, but now that he has, it is an inspiration to many, including people here in Bahrain.

We have been hearing rumors for weeks about protests planned for Bahrain. The projected date? February 14. And now that the date is upon us, it seems they are not merely rumors. There are, in fact, protests planned for February 13 and 14. We received a text message informing us of the planned locations of the protests; there are also fliers being passed out on the streets advising people to close their shops and stay home. As far as we can tell, the protests seem fairly well organized and are intended to be peaceful. However, there are many rumors that the protests will not be peaceful. The police are on high alert. Even today as we drove around, there were police everywhere. I've never seen so many police around: parked at intersections, on horses, patrolling the streets; people are getting ready.

The protests are being organized by the youth of Bahrain who are calling for an end to government corruption. They want a constitution by the people ensuring their rights. Here is a website with a statement issued by the Bahraini Youth for Freedom organization. (If you scroll to the bottom, you should get the English Translation):

http://bahrainonline.info.tm

Please keep the next few days in prayer. We really don't know what is going to happen. We pray that the situation will be resolved peacefully.

Merry Christmas! (Bahrain style)

2010-12-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

In my mind Christmas is connected with images of snowy front lawns, stockings over fireplaces, and steaming cups of hot chocolate, so even after four years, Bahrain Christmases don't feel very Christmas-y to me. But in the midst of sandy streets, sunny afternoons, and ice cold Pepsis, we still do our best to embrace the holiday season. Every year our church has the tradition of going Christmas caroling. Church members sign up to have the carol team visit them in their homes and share a few Christmas tunes. Generally the carolers are made up of the youth group and the worship team. We all pile into the vans and spend the night driving around to the houses, making music, and eating goodies. Last night we caroled from 6:30 pm to 1:00 am. A good time was had by all. :)

happy carol singers

decorated palm trees

candlelight carols

youth

visiting the hospital

getting warmed up

sandstorms instead of snowstorms!

garden

2010-11-16T00:35:00.000-08:00

So now that the temperatures are coming down from sauna level, I decided to plant a garden. I have truly come to treasure all things green, as there is a severe lack of them in the desert. It started out as a small school science project: we are learning about seeds and plants, so the kids had to bring in various seeds from the foods they eat and we planted them in cups. I took all the left over seeds and started my own garden. So far we have sprouting lentils, mustard, basil, cucumber, watermelon, tomato, sweet melon, and some small flowers. I must admit, I get a childlike pleasure watching the baby leaves push through the dirt. :)

pumpkin cheesecake!

2010-11-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

a taste of fall

2010-11-15T04:31:00.000-08:00

I've been reminiscing about fall a lot these days. I think it's the season I miss the most--the changing leaves, wearing scarves, bonfires, fall treats...

so I decided that although it's still about 80* here, I would eat like it's fall. My first project: apple crisp! Living on a desert island in the Middle East, all our food is imported from various countries. Where do we get golden delicious apples from? IRAN! Who would have thought! They make for same tasty apple crisp though!

Rey was quite happy with his first taste of apple crisp! :)

Next on the menu...pumpkin cheesecake!

pani puri

2010-11-15T04:21:00.000-08:00

So although I have been married to an Indian man for almost one year now, I have yet to pursue the art of Indian cooking. This is my first attempt; nevermind that most of it comes prepackaged. :) Pani puri is an Indian snack. Pani means water and puri is the puffed, hollow pastry thing you see below.

The puri is filled with mashed potato, a sweet red sauce, and then filled with a green water. Below Rey is preparing some.Finished product: all ready to eat!The correct way to eat pani puri is to dunk the entire puff into the water and shove the whole thing into your mouth. Below some of the youth boys enjoying the tasty treat. Rey is satisfied. :)

Yum!

I myself have mixed feelings about this snack, mainly because there are so many things happening in your mouth at the same time. The potato is hot but the water is cold. The red sauce is sweet but the green water is spicy. The puri is crunchy but the potato is mushy. My Dutch mouth is not quite used to so many sensations at once! It is quite the experience though, so if you ever get the chance, give it a try! :)

October

2010-10-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've updated my blog. Here are some interesting things that have happened in October.

Being a Muslim country, there are strict rules regarding the sale of alcohol. Several Gulf countries ban it completely, but Bahrain, being the Las Vegas of the Middle East, can't really do that. They do face an interesting dilemma however, as Muslims are not supposed to purchase or consume alcohol. So what do you do when you have a liquor store that Muslims are not supposed to enter? You make a drive through! That way, they aren't technically entering the store to purchase alcohol. They simply drive up, place their order, and a store employee will bring the goods, conveniently concealed in a paper bag, right to the car. Problem solved!

Bahrain Marathon

Believe it or not, there is actually an annual marathon in Bahrain! They mark out a track in the desert and along the highway, starting and ending at the Formula 1 track. It's actually a relay event; teams enter with 16 members, who will each complete one leg of the marathon, approximately 3 km. It's been my desire to do this ever since I've gotten to Bahrain, and this is the first year I was able to. I joined a team about 3 weeks ago, which does not give much time for training! But I decided I would just to my best and have fun. I was assigned to run leg 14, a long straight stretch along the highway. I had been training at night, so I wasn't exactly prepared for the bright shining sun that blazed down on me at 1:30 in the afternoon! :) It quickly sapped my energy, so I wasn't able to achieve my goal time, but it was still a fun event. Here are a few pictures:

our medals :)

the end!

my training partner, Stephen, the model/runner

youth boys--Stenson and Jobert

a little taste of India

2010-09-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours planned a traditional Keralite dinner. Kerala is one of the southern states of India, and a lot of my friends are from there. In this traditional dinner, all the guests sit on mats on the floor, and the food is served on banana leaves. Each person gets a leaf for a plate. Then all the food is eaten with your hands. I must say, there were quite a few excited Indians to see the white girl eat with her hands! With the help of my coach, Dipti, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. :)

Dipti and I

eating fat rice and dal with my hands

a little collage of the evening

Dipti, me, Habiba

our host, Sunil, in his traditional Indian outfit

banana leaf plates and hungry people

Rey and Stan

public notice

2010-08-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

the heat is on

2010-08-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

While we were in the US this summer, Rey and I gave the keys to our apartment to Rey's dad and a good friend of ours. Both those people came over regularly to make sure everything was ok. Rey's dad usually switched the AC on for a few hours (pretty much every day) to keep some air moving in the house. Despite his best efforts, the inside temps must have reached insane highs because this is what we found when we got back

our candles had begun to melt!

Ramadan

2010-08-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Once again we are in the month of Ramadan, the time when Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. Most restaurants are closed in observance of this month and pace of the country pretty much slows to a crawl. Considering that the outside temperature is still well above the 100 mark and everything is closed, this also makes for the most boring month of the year.

no eating, no alcohol, no smoking, no sex, no medication/pills, no ice cream

paper beads

2010-08-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

My new favorite hobby is making paper beads. My friend, Morgan, brought me a necklace from Uganda made of paper beads. I really love it and decided that I would go about making some of my own. Here are the results of the first batch:

strings of beads hanging in the bathroom while the varnish dries

first batch of finished beads

first necklace

home improvement

2010-08-21T08:06:00.001-07:00

With all my time at home these days, Rey and I decided to do a little redecorating.

our sitting room BEFORE

Rey hard at work

AFTER: our new RED wall :)

summer

2010-08-15T04:42:00.001-07:00

Well, we are back in Bahrain after a much needed vacation. Our trip to the States was wonderful. It passed much too quickly, but we enjoyed every moment. Here are a few highlights:

a warm welcome at the airport

exploring Chicago

weekend at the lake

trip to San Diego

hanging with the fam

Dordt friends reunion

lost in translation

2010-05-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

I've taken up a job in the afternoons and evenings. I'm teaching at an English language school. A British school. They don't mind having Americans, but they ask that we (ok, I) emphasize the British over the American, which normally isn't a problem. (Most of the kids don't even realize I'm not British, which also tells you how much they are speaking English if they can't hear a difference!) Then one day I came to the lesson on the short "a" sound. The page had a box in the middle with various words in it, and on each side there was a column. One said "bag" and one said "bath". The kids were supposed to separate the words into the bag and bath column based on the short a sounds. Are you confused? Don't worry, I was too.

When Americans pronounce the words bag and bath, they sound the same. They both have a short a sound. So how are you supposed to separate the words when they have the same sound???? Then it hit me. In England, it's not bath, it's baaaath. With a stretched out a! So it's a different sound! Normally there is a CD with this book, but of course, today the CD wasn't working, so I was stuck trying to put on a British accent to distinguish between the a sounds for the kids. You can probably imagine how awful this lesson was going. I have no clue what the right answers are, I'm putting on a horrible fake accent, and all the 9 year-old kids are looking at me with blank or confused expressions. I tried in vain for about 5 minutes to get the point across, but when the frowns of confusion got worse instead of better, I decided I was doing more damage than good. I guess you can't win them all.

a sneak peek

2010-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's high: 45*C

Translation: 113*F

and it's only May

cucumber revelation

2010-05-10T07:40:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was sitting with my Egyptian friend at lunch. The two of us have formed quite the unique friendship this year. She speaks fairly good English and of course I am soaking in all the Arabic I can get, so most of our conversations turn into language lessons, but we get along really well and most often end up cracking up about one thing or another. Well, on this particular day, she happened to reach into her bag, pulled out a whole cucumber and gave it to me. I stared at it somewhat confused, but took it and thanked her. Inside I was thinking, what in the world am I supposed to do with a whole cucumber. I soon got my answer. After a few more minutes, she grabbed her own cucumber and without hesitation, took a huge bite out of it, like a banana. Again, I struggled to contain my shock as I watched her chomp on the cucumber like a banana. Finally I said, I've never seen that before. To which she replied, what? A cucumber? I laughed and quickly filled her in that we typically cut up a cucumber and eat it in slices where she eats it whole like a banana. She laughed and shook her head in her characteristic "Oh Jena" fashion. Of course this is how you eat a cucumber! she replied. Then she went on to explain it makes so much more sense to do it her way; then you hold your sandwich in one hand and the cucumber in the other and alternate bites. Seeing my face she just laughed again. You don't get out much, she concluded.

What an ingenious idea.

Today I took a whole cucumber in my lunch.

souq art

2010-05-01T00:56:00.001-07:00

a while back, Morgan and I went on a little tour of the souq (market) looking at some art work that was on display. I took my new camera and felt like quite the little photographer (yeah right, I can barely work the thing!) But I do like these pictures.

picture day

2010-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

A monumental event that takes place every year: picture day. So much time spent worrying about hair and clothes and smiles. This year I witnessed some things that, I have to admit, were a first for me.

Number 1: The BOYS being more concerned about their hair than the girls. I saw more boys run to the bathroom working on the perfect spikes and mohawks and gelled-up do's than I've ever seen before.

Number 2: Since hair gel technically isn't allowed at school, boys sticking their heads in the water fountain and bathroom sink to try to achieve those above mentioned hair statements.

Number 3: No joke, two boys literally ripped the top button off their shirts with their teeth so they wouldn't have to button it up.

And in the end, we all looked like dorks. I just laughed when I saw this picture. :)

Mother's Day

2010-04-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

Bahrainis celebrate Mother's Day at the end of March. I was quite shocked when I received a giant, purple, 3D card from one of my students. It read:

Dear Ms. Jena,

I Love you Ms. Jena you are my best teatcher in my life

and I give you thise because I Love you and it the mother days (three hearts)

and don't be angry with my markes, I will promes you I will get a very nice markes I will make my best to get full markes.

you are same my mom, I Love you Ms. Jena.

HAPPY NEW MOTHER DAY (heart)

From your lovly,

____________

Earth Hour

2010-03-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the world celebrated Earth Hour, a global initiative to raise awareness about the damage being done to the environment through human carelessness and the need to make positive changes. The goal of Earth Hour is for people to switch off all the electricity for one hour. This year is the second year Bahrain participated, but this was the first year that Bahrain officially made the list as one of the participating countries. The financial towers, the World Trade Center, and the Grand Mosque, among other things, all shut off their lights from 8:30-9:30. A local group called Thirst Quenchers was spearheading the event. Our youth group was among some of the participants. The event started at 7 with a live band. When the time came to shut off the lights, the group put on a program about environmental awareness using skits, songs, and dance. Our youth group was asked to help by moving huge screens back and forth across the stage. As director of traffic, I had the best job by far. :) But the kids did a great job, and the Thirst Quenchers were so thankful we were there. In the summers our youth group teams up with Thirst Quenchers to distribute water bottles in the labor camps, so we have a history with the group. It's really great to see young people getting involved in things like this.

a lesson in parenting

2010-03-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

The foll0wing events are completely factual. The names have been changed for the sake of the involved parties.

A somewhat puzzled looking secretary entered my room this morning. I was in the middle of class, but she walked right in front of me and whispered:

Is Joe at school today?

Me: Joe? No, he's absent.

Secretary: I just called his father, and his father says he's in school.

Me (with an equally puzzled look on my face): Really? No, he's not here. He's been absent all week. He came for a little bit in the morning yesterday, but then he went home because he still had a fever.

Secretary (looked even more puzzled): That's weird.

Later in the day, I went to the office to check on the situation.

Me: What ever happened with Joe?

S: Well, I called his father back and said both his kids are out of school today.

Joe's Father: WHAT??? How is that possible?

Secretary: I checked with both teachers, and they are not here.

Joe's Father: They should be in school!

Secretary: Well, they aren't.

Joe's Father: (Pause) Oh, yes, that's right. The driver called this morning and said the kids threw up in the car on the way to school. They went home. Thanks so much for calling.

birthday celebration

2010-03-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

Birthdays at school are the best. They really are. My students absolutely LOVE celebrating my birthday. It happens every year, and this year was no exception. Once again I was showered with gifts and flowers. Interestingly, this year I realized that my least favorite students, the ones who drive me nuts, the ones who make me lose my cool, and frankly the ones I show the least love to, are the ones who were the most excited about my birthday, and the ones who were so eager to give me presents. Kinda made me rethink some things...

But anyway, on to the festivities!

I made made a cake and brought it in to share with my class. From the reaction of my students, you would have thought my simple, yellow, Betty Crocker cake was a masterpiece from the most renowned baker. Many were absolutely begging me for the recipe because they just couldn't believe that I made such a thing. Ha!

I should actually back up a bit. It all started with the flowers that came to the school from my dad. Every year since we were little he has gotten us flowers for our birthday, and not even the Atlantic Ocean or a 9 hour time difference can break that tradition. :) They came a day early and were delivered to the library where my class was trying to read. Immediately they were consumed with a burning desire to know who sent flowers to their teacher. I even had 6 girls sneak into the room during recess to read the card that was stuck amidst the blooms!

On the day of my actual birthday, Rey surprised me with a mountain of gifts. I asked him the day before if he was going to wrap them, and from the sheepish look on his face, I knew he had forgotten. So he was busy in the morning searching for wrapping paper. He ended up finding some and when he got it home, he realized it was clear with small gold flowers and hearts on it. So much for secrecy! :) But it was an A for effort!

The gift mountain awaiting me after school:

Rey had to work in the evening, so I relaxed at home until he was done. Then he and I plus a few close friends went out to an Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves with a delicious dinner.

So here are the final results of my big day:

Pajamas :) (this is the second time I've gotten pj's from a student!)

decorated box, perfume, watch

mug (Smile, it will make people wonder what you are up to), Indian version of a George Foreman, called a Sanjeev Kapoor :) (from Rey's parents), AWESOME digital camera (from Rey), bunny

an extremely Arab gift--perfume set, candle holders, wallet

and a GUITAR!!! I'm sure many of you are laughing right now, but believe it or not, this is what I wanted (also from Rey. Despite the clear wrapping paper, he did a VERY good job!) It is my goal in my 25th year to defy nature and learn to do something musical: play the guitar!

oh that makes sense

2010-03-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

I have been having a hard time at school lately. The students are just not getting the material. No matter how many times and ways I teach it, they are just not getting it. Two weeks ago I was called into the principal's office to discuss last quarter's report card grades. Needless to say, she was not very happy about the number of F's I gave, and she was additionally concerned about how many students were failing EVERY subject. Of course I was not unaware of the situation; in fact I had been feeling like quite the failure myself due to this lack of progress with my students. This week we had a meeting with all the grade 5 teachers. The principal is getting concerned about some of the students moving on to grade six next year, and she has finally decided to do something about it. The middle school has a remedial reading/English teacher who is able to come to the elementary school in the mornings to work with the fifth grade students that are really struggling with basic English. The principal compiled a list of those students she thought were eligible for the program and wanted our feedback. As she passed around the list, I was shocked. There were 14 students listed and 12 of them were mine! That means that out of the 14 weakest students in all of grade 5, one went to 5B, one went to 5D, and 12 came to 5A with me.

What kind of planning is that???

convictions

2010-03-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

I attended a conference in Dubai this past weekend. It was techinically a conference for university aged students, but a friend invited me to go along and I'm glad I did. I've been getting extremely discouraged and frustrated working with the youth ministry in my church, and this weekend was a great source of encouragement. This group, FOCUS, is completely centered on the Gospel and sharing it with the people around them. I've never been one to evangelize much, mostly because I feel I don't know how to do it, but the Bible is very clear that spreading the Gospel is something we are called to do. One of the speakers read this quote, and I was beyond convicted. This is coming from an athiest, which makes it all the more convicting:

“… I’ve always said, you know, that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there is a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that…” — Penn Gillette, (of Penn and Teller), atheist, quoted in Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine

May we all be bold and unashamed in our proclamation of the Gospel.

the local scene--some of my favorite pictures

2010-02-06T03:37:00.001-08:00

bike
red door
pottery in the kiln
Islamic design
tapestries in the souq
shisha
@ the fort
:)
The Qu'ran
Indian sweets

wedding bells

2010-01-23T09:55:00.001-08:00

The big event for December was, of course, the wedding. Everything went extremely well. The ceremony was wonderful, and the reception was loads of fun. Everyone spent the night dancing away.

Once I compress the size of the rest of the photographs, I will upload them to a website and post the link.

back again

2010-01-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

after a loooong break, I am back. and so much has changed since the last post. My family came to Bahrain in December. I had an amazing time with them. We got to see some sights of the country and just hang out for a while.

our Christmas card :)

at the Tree of Life

We kicked off the wedding celebrations with something called the rose. This is a Goan (Indians from Goa) tradition. It starts off simply enough: each member of the family blesses the engaged couple by putting some coconut milk on their cheeks. Well, this quickly spirals out of control as handfuls of milk are thrown on heads, down shirts, and into open flies. Then out comes the eggs, tomatoes, chocolate syrup, and ice cold beer. All being dumped on the couple and bridal party, who sit helplessly on a tarp. But it was all in good fun. Several showers and a set of dry clothes later, we were all enjoying ourselves.

the results of the rose

RAIN

2009-12-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

You will not believe it but I am curled up in bed right now listening to the RAIN falling outside!!! I never thought I would say that in Bahrain!! It's been cloudy and a little bit drizzly all day, but now it is actually RAINING! And the forecast has rain for the next 5 days!!!!! AMAZING!

Eid Mubarak!

2009-11-29T05:43:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time for the second Eid of the year, so we have six days off of school again. The first Eid occurs at the end of Ramadan in celebration of the end of the month of fasting. During the second Eid, many Muslims remember the sacrafice that Abraham was willing to make with his son Isaac. It is tradition that on the first day of Eid, Muslims will slaughter their own lamb early in the morning and then eat it later in the day with family. Although I knew this, I was still a little shocked to step out of my apartment on Friday morning and see a pool of blood in the street. One of the neighbors was cleaning blood and entrails off his front step and the remants were pooling outside my building. Lovely.
It is also during this Eid that many Muslims make a trip to Mecca. I saw on the news that Saudi was getting hit with rain, so all the Muslims in Mecca were getting poured on. I was quite excited about the prospect of rain, and we did enjoy a lovely five minute rain yesterday evening. Unfortunately, before I could get my shoes on and go to the roof to enjoy it, it was over.
The rain has brought in some cooler temperatures, so it seems that winter is drawing near. In the last week I have seen people sporting jackets, snow hats, and even scarves; all necessary in these chilly 75* days. :)

what are they thinking?

2009-11-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

One of my better students was studiously bent over his desk working on his math assignment. As I walked closer, I looked at his hand. "What is that?" I asked, to which he enthusiastically replied, "It's my pencil, Miss. I've had it since last year!"

harvest

2009-11-05T10:48:00.001-08:00

this is the best I can do :)

morning surprise

2009-11-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

after a rather unsettling few days at school, I was treated to an unusual surprise one morning. Upon meeting my class in the courtyard, one of my more disruptive and generally rebellious children walks up to me and hands me a small purple box. "From my mother, " he says.

Hmmm...a nice gesture or a bribe??? I'm not sure yet...

welcome back to school

2009-10-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would give you a little update on the happenings of MKS. We've only been back in school for three days, but from what I can tell, most classes are pretty chaotic. I think it's just because the kids have been out of school so long; they can't sit still, can't concentrate, and won't stop talking. That seems to be pretty consistent all across the board. It's like they've forgotten everything completely. Here are just a few examples from the last two days:

1. I was on duty in the cafeteria and right in front of my a little fourth grader punches another boy right in the face. Then he ran away laughing. I caught him by the arm and asked him why he did that and he said, "It's ok; he's my cousin." I took him to the principal.

2. On the second day I called my first parent. This kid is one of two extremes. He is either completely spaced out, like he's on a different planet or he's talking non stop about anything and everything. In either case, he does absolutely nothing in class.

3. At the end of the day yesterday, we were wrapping up our lesson when suddenly one kid says something to another one, which causes him to jump out of his chair and push the first kid up against the wall like he's ready to fight. I wrote a note to send them both to the school counselor, and one of them refused to leave claiming he did nothing wrong. Then the other one also refused to leave. So I said I would keep them after school then, which made the defiant one put his head on his desk and start crying. I took them both to the office after school.

4. One of the kids from number 3 (not the crier, the other one) has decided he is not going to do anything in class. He doesnt' bring his books and he just sits there. Today they were supposed to be working on their vocabulary and writing sentences. He ripped a giant hole in the middle of his paper and wouldn't write anything. When I asked him why, he said he was sick. I told him if he was sick he should take his paper and go to the office. he refused to leave or do his work, so I sent another student to get the counselor. She talked to him for about 15 minutes and called his parents.

5. And this one takes the cake! At the end of the day we usually play hangman while the bus kids are leaving. There is one kid, the spaced out talker from number 2, who sits right in the front so I can keep an eye on him. Well, while we were playing, he was messing around with his water bottle. It has a long shoulder strap which he took off the bottle and was playing with. I didn't mind because he was quiet and not bothering anyone. Well, in the span on a minute, and I kid you not, it was that fast, he had made a loop with the strap, put it around his neck, and tied the other end to the leg of his chair. By the time I turned to look at him, he was on the floor on all fours howling and barking and jumping around like a dog. My jaw dropped, and I literally stood there with my mouth hanging open. Then I called his name and asked him to sit down, so he quickly scrambled into his seat and is frantically aplogizing while still wearing the dog collar and leash. I just started laughing because at that point, there was nothing else I could do.

The life of a school teacher...

virtual shower

2009-10-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

This summer my aunts threw me a wonderful wedding shower. Due to my unusual circumstances, they made it a virtual shower where all the guests wrapped up pictures of what they wanted to give me and enclosed the monetary amount to make that purchase once I returned to Bahrain. Well, I've moved into my new apartment and have begun the shopping! Actually, many people generously donated dishes, kitchen appliances, towels, and sheets, so I've only purchased a few things. Here are some pics of the new items...

my favorite...a must have for those who don't enjoy cooking...a crock pot!

hanging by the front door...these colors match my tan furniture and yellow table cloth

this is the green color I'm going to use in the bedroom

kitchen supplies...

I have this interesting gray/white/black squared tile ffloor to ceiling in the kitchen. with bright yellow cabinets

apartment pictures coming soon!

the waiting game

2009-09-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

so school has officially been postponed until October 18th. This swine flu paranoia is really getting out of control. The teachers still have to go to school every day though. It's torture. We sit there all day with nothing to do. We pretend to work for an hour and then all gather in one room for coffee. Then pretend to work some more. Tomorrow they've organized aerobics for us to do in the morning with the PE teacher. That could be fairly entertaining.

Here's some before and after pictures of my class. (The before pictures were taken one week before school started.)

the fort

2009-09-23T01:55:00.001-07:00

The boys in my neighborhood have been working on this fort for weeks now, and I have been eagerly watching their progress. This thing is awesome. It started out with just the wooden frame, but now it's got everything. I want to hang out there. Seriously. They found a book of fabric samples which they took apart and nailed to the walls for covering/decoration. They put carpeting on the ground with cushions and wooden chairs for their sitting enjoyment, thin screens on the ceiling to block the sun, a bulletin board on the outside to post their important announcements, a wooden platform for shoes so the carpet doesn't get dirty, and of course, the necessary framed picture of the king prominently displayed on the wall. The best part is that the whole thing is covered with Christmas lights, so it's lit up every night. Every evening I walk by to see what progress has been made or what the boys are up to. Usually they are just chilling inside, playing chess or carems or just hanging out. It's funny because it's quite typical for older Arab men to sit outside on the street smoking shisha and playing dominoes. This is like the kids version. :)

the joys of moving

2009-09-13T09:14:00.001-07:00

the first three weeks I was staying with the pastor, living out of suitcases

finally moved into the new place, but it took a while to get everything working...

dishes in the bathroom sink

more pictures once I've unpacked some :)

personal bubble

2009-09-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

It is a generally know fact that Americans have a rather large personal bubble. We like to keep our distance from people, especially in public places. In a waiting room, we politely leave that empty seat between ourselves and the people waiting next to us. At the gym we use alternating tread mills if we can. In church, we leave a respectful distance on the pew between families. We often don't even realize we do it; it's second nature to us. In fact, we don't often realize we have a large personal space bubble until we travel somewhere outside the US where the rules of personal space are completely different or perhaps non-existant.

This is my story.

It was a Thursday afternoon, the last day of the working week. The first week of school was behind us, thankfully. The street and parking lot were packed with cars and buses and wandering students, all eager to get out of there. The teachers were no exception. I punched out at exactly 1:35, the time we were allowed to leave, and made my way over to the high school where the "teacher's bus" was waiting to take us home. I arrived after the short walk, hot and sweaty as the temperature outside was a boiling 110*. I climbed aboard and quickly realized I was one of the last teachers to arrive. (How the others all manage to get there before I do is a mystery. I'll have to work on that.) I slumped into the only free bench--the front row. No sooner had I sat down than I realized there was a black bag sitting on the bench next to me; someone else was already sitting here. Sure enough, as I turned around I saw the bus doors opening and a middle aged teacher from the high school got on. I recognized her from earlier in the week. She was Lebanese, a math teacher, and she always sounded angry, barking orders into her cell phone in Arabic. I apologized for taking her seat, but she seemed unfazed. She slid in next to me, and we were on our way. The bus ride is not a long one; most of the teachers live within five minutes of the school. Since I live farther away, I am the last to get dropped off. As we rolled along, I suddenly realized I was in a jam. The teacher who sat next to me was the second to the last one off the bus. That meant that the bus would empty out, and there would be the two of us, crammed into the front row. And I was stuck next to the window. I had no way out. I consoled myself by saying, I'm sure she'll move to an empty row when one opens up. That's what I would do if I was on the aisle. But I forgot that I was no longer in America dealing with Americans. The bus emptied out and the Lebanese teacher showed no signs of moving. I rode along in silence, listening to her sharp Arabic, thinking, this is nuts. There I was, the sun mercilessly beating down on me through the window, my blood beginning to boil. What is wrong with this lady, I thought, as our legs knocked against one another over every bump. This entire bus is empty and it's hot and she insists on cramming into the front row with me!?!?!? Just move. I tried for five minutes to send a silent message to her brain telling her to get out of my row. When that didn't work, I tried shifting around in my seat to show that I was uncomfortable. I tried moving my bag, inching my leg away from hers, glancing around at the empty seats around us. But nothing worked; she wasn't bothered in the slightest. She didn't care that it was hot. She didn't care that our legs kept rubbing against each other. She didn't care that the whole bus was empty. So why did I care so much? Why was I torturing myself over this? Because it's just ridiculous, I thought. All she has to do is move!!!! But as the minutes ticked by I slumped against the window in resignation. Just look out the window. It will be over soon. It's really not that bad, I told myself. But nothing worked. The only comforting thought was this: next week, I won't be the last one to get on the bus.

the beginnings

2009-09-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

So school did indeed start on the 6th of September. The mandatory temperature checks got over fairly quickly, but I'm sure that was due in large part to parents showing up at 6:30 when school was scheduled to start at 7:40. We still had to wait, baking in the sun until 8:00 hoping the rest of our students would show up. They didn't. Most classes only boasted a 50% attendance rate the first day with only moderate improvement as the week progressed. I topped out at 20 out of 27 students. So things were a little slow going the first week. Everyday we got our temperature checked to make sure we didn't have swine flu, and every day I was given a new class list as there were daily changes to the roster. It's very difficult to get things going when your class is so transient. So we didn't, get things going that is. Most of us just spent the week trying to get to know the students and maybe review things from the previous year to assess where are students are at academically. I gave some "tests" at the end of the week to get a feel for the level of my students as well. They were quite revealing.

First, I gave a spelling test. I randomly chose words that I thought a fifth grader should know, seeing as I've been teaching seventh grade for the past two years and really had no clue where they would be. So I went with what I thought were safe words: whale, science, skirt, pencils, beautiful, glasses. I was trying to go for a variety; some with silent letters, some with different endings, that sort of thing. Over 50% of the students failed. Ok, so we need to work on spelling.

Next was the reading test. I read a story out loud to the students. It was a folk tale from West Africa about how the world got wisdom. Here's what happens: the sky god gives spider the gift of wisdom. Spider wants to keep it all to himself, so he puts it into a pot and tries to hide it in the tallest tree. When he can't, he breaks the pot and everyone gets a little bit of wisdom. After reading the story, I asked the students some basic questions: who is the main character, what gift did he get, what did he do with it, and what happened at the end. Again, I thought it was fairly straightforward and simple. Again, a ridiculous number of students failed.

Finally we came to the math test. I had looked through the math book and saw that the students learned two-digit multiplication last year. So I made up 10 problems for them to copy from the board and work on. After putting the problems on the board, there was a chorus of "Oh, this is easy! We did this last year!" Oh good, I thought. It turns out only three out of 20 knew how to do it. The rest just started multiplying any random number they felt like.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me this year.

On the plus side, I find the students to be quite enjoyable. They don't yet have the attitude of a seventh grader and they really are quite nice. I think it's going to be a good year. :)

first day of school

2009-09-05T00:52:00.000-07:00

Well, school was officially postponed until the 6th of September, tomorrow. All of the teachers were very thankful for the extra days to prepare our classrooms and do some lesson planning. The main issue revolving around the topic of starting school is swine flu. For never hearing about it in the US when I was home for the summer, I sure hear about it all the time here. And cases keep popping up. Since most of the student body leaves the country for the summer holiday, people are worried about students coming back with swine flu and infecting the school. So to prevent such a disaster, my school has decided that they will scan each and every person before allowing them to enter the school premises. That means that tomorrow morning, every person that wants to enter Modern Knowledge School must have his or her temperature checked. There are close to 2,000 students at MKS. And they must all be checked in a single file line. And most of them will come with a parent on the first day. Maybe both parents. And a housemaid. They will all need to be checked in a single file line. Oh, and did I mention that we will probably only have two, maybe three, scanners to check these temperatures? So 2,000+ people will need to wait outside the school, in the heat, for their turned to be scanned. I can just imagine the chaos and frustration...

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. :)

back in the boiler

2009-08-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in Bahrain. Things have been pretty interesting the last two weeks.
First of all, it's ridiculously hot. Like you open the door and step into a sauna kind of hot. The only thing I want to do is take a cold shower, but you can't even do that because even the cold tap gives warm water. I turned off the water heater so I could take "cold" showers, but it's still like taking a hot shower. So we run to our air conditioned locations and park it there

When I first got here, my life was pretty much in limbo. I arrived on a visitor's visa, which only lasts two weeks, I couldn't get in touch with anyone from the school, I had no place to live, and I didn't know when school was starting. Now, a few weeks later, I"m happy to report that at least some things have become clearer.

1. My visa is in the hands of the school now. They are getting a month's extension until all the paperwork is complete. Basically they have to take care of all that, so it's not my problem. Cross that one off the list.

2. Teachers started school this past Tuesday, so I have a better idea of what's going on there. However, as of Thursday, my classroom was still being cleaned (it was filthy), the furniture was all shoved into the center of the room, the AC was really working, and the new lights hadn't been installed. School is supposed to start on Tuesday. In America, we would get really worried about all of these things because it would appear that nothing is ready and it won't be ready on time; however, as a two year veteran of this system, I've come to realize that it's better to just sit back and relax. Things will get done when they get done.

3. I found an apartment! After one short week of searching, I found a nice, brand new, two bedroom apartment! It's not far from where I lived last year, and I can get a ride to school everyday! The only downside is that it is unfurnished, and by unfurnished, I mean completely empty. I am buying window air conditioner units, a fridge, and stove this weekend, so hopefully, I can move in next week. We also hit a huge sale at the furniture store, so I will have a bed to sleep on! All of that should be delivered in the next few days. Cross that off the list.

4. As I mentioned before, school is supposed to start on Tuesday; however, we have been hearing rumors that the governement has declared school can't start until the end of Septmeber, after Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam. No one is really listening to that, and the private schools are planning to start September first. Yesterday I just heard another rumor that the goverment has mandated that none of the schools can open until the 6th of September, next Sunday.
So I guess on that front, we are still in limbo. But hey, 3 out of four isn't bad. :)

I have picutes of all these new changes that I will try to post once the internet is set up in my new place.

2009-06-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

HERE IS WHY I AM READY TO GO HOME
The forecast for my last week in Bahrain:

WedJun 17
Sunny
112°HIGH
91° LOW

ThuJun 18
Sunny
112° HIGH
89° LOW

FriJun 19
Sunny
110° HIGH
88° LOW

SatJun 20
Sunny / Wind
108° HIGH
88° LOW

SunJun 21
Sunny
108° HIGH
88° LOW

MonJun 22
Sunny
109° HIGH
87° LOW

TueJun 23
Sunny
109° HIGH
87° LOW

WedJun 24
Sunny
111° HIGH
87° LOW

ThuJun 25
Sunny
113° HIGH
89° LOW

who would have thought

2009-06-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

all the way from Sioux City, Iowa :)

gifts from my students

2009-05-25T07:43:00.001-07:00

a Bahraini house dressan engraved "Mr. Jena" heart keychain a matching bust set of lotion and perfume

the only good thing about 110* weather...

2009-05-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

laundry.

wedding in Dubai

2009-05-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

Rey's brother, Melvin, and Charlene

Rey's parents

The next Mr. and Mrs. Phillips

my little green escape

2009-05-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Rey got me these plants from the Iranian market. I'm trying to keep them alive on my balcony in spite of the boiling temperatures. :)
Any one know what kind of plants they are???

the other side of the island

2009-05-08T09:50:00.001-07:00

my creative student

2009-05-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I assigned my students to write a story that was set in Bahrain. Here is one of the best ones. I was laughing out loud as I read it.
What follow is the original text. Words in [ ] have been added by me. :)

MKM's Unit Tests
Final Edition

In Bahrain Mall once upon a time there was a kid and his friends. They want to cheat in the test, their names was Mohammed, Khalid, and Mohammed. they call themselves "MKM", first M for Mohammed, K for Khalid, and M for Mohammed. They wanted to cheat in english test that Miss Jena gave them, it's spelled "Je-e-ena". Khalid always wanted to take the -1 book from her, cause every time they do something she says -1! is that the way they treat children like us. [Students get points for behavior and participation in my class. When they misbehave, they lose points, hence the -1]

Mohammed and Khalid first went to steal the key from Miss Jena and then give it to Khalid to stay talking with her, and in night they came to steal the unit test papers from Miss Jena classroom. That was only a plan they didn't do it but they think it's easy to make a lie on Miss Jena.

So first they started, Khalid started jumping as Mohammed (1) was giving him a sign and he gave out a sound "hoo hoo hoo" like a monkey, in the class Omar said, "That is crazy." Then Miss Jena enters and usually says like a machine "-1 and go to Miss Ferial" [She is the section supervisor and if students misbehave, they get sent to her office :)] Khalid didn't stop until I took the key and gave it to him. I said to him, "Goodbye friend, " Miss Jena asks me if I want to leave. I refuse. [If students are really acting up, I ask them if they want to leave my classroom]

At night I went to Miss Jena's class. It was dark and looked scary because the teacher have a dead body under the table!!! I was scared but Mohammed came from behind me and said, "Let's do it man, let's rock and roll. I answered, "You like hip hop, don't you?" He ignored, Khalid came also, "I am suspended" that's what he said. We went to the table and near the cupboard we opened it. There was a skeleton. We screamed like girls. Then the teacher said surprise and said "Let's sing" We sang it's your brithday by 50 cent and we said we will not cheat again.

Where do they come up with this stuff???

the funeral

2009-04-21T11:06:00.001-07:00

I saw my first funeral in Bahrain a few weeks ago. It was quite the experience. I'm glad I was in my car or else it would have been quite frightening. We turned the corner from one of these little side alleys onto one of the larger back roads and were immediately met by a mob of men coming down the street. They were chanting and parading down the street together. We pulled off to the side and watched in confused fascination as they came closer and closer. As we watched, we realized that the men were passing something between themselves. Once the men from the back passed it forward, they would walk up the line to the front where they were ready to receive the burden again. It was only as they got closer that we realized what they were passing: a dead body. It lay on a simple wooden platform, and the body itself was tightly wrapped in cloth; the topmost cloth was a decorated piece of green fabric. They marched down the street in this fashion, displaying the body, all the way to the cemetery, where the body would be placed in a grave. No coffin, no flowers, no nothing. This was the middle of the day, about one o'clock and only men were present. I learned later from a friend that this was really quite common; the cemetery is right at the end of our street and Bahraini's always bury the dead in this fashion; so I guess I shouldn't have been shocked, but it's not really what you expect to see on a random Tuesday afternoon.

the facelift

2009-04-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

My project over spring break was to paint my living room. Here is the before and after:

engaged

2009-04-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

So here's the story. We were on a camping retreat for the youth group (Rey has just joined the leadership staff), and we are out in the middle of the desert. Now, this camping trip would probably be considered one of the worst ever, by our standards, but the kids loved it. First, as we are driving out to the desert, it starts raining. Yes, it never rains here and the day we decide to go camping, it rains. So we get to our site, which is basically in the middle of no where in the desert. It stops raining for about 30 minutes but then starts up again, so here we are trying to set up tents in the rain with 30 kids who have never been camping in their entire lives. They have no clue how to set up a tent, and we are trying to do it in the rain. Then some of the tents don't have all the pieces so the kids are standing there holding the tents together and I'm trying to tie the poles together with pieces of cloth that I ripped up. We finally get the tents together but there aren't enough for the leaders so we have to sleep in the car. Anyways, we are planning to cook dinner over the fire but the person in charge of dinner forgot to bring lighter fluid. All we have are huge pallets of wood and four lighters. So it takes forever to get the fire going, so now we are wet and starving and trying to cook hot dogs on hangers. The rain finally lets up for a bit so we can enjoy the camp fire but it's still drizzling. Then one of the leaders is getting ready to do his lesson, and Rey stops him and says there is something he would like to share. He starts this speech about why he is joining the youth group and how he wants to support me, etc. and then he pulls out this box and I'm like, WHAT?? All the kids are screaming and oohing and ahhing, so he gets on one knee and asks me and yeah, that was that. :) It was really sweet. So that was the good part of the camping trip. But things just kept going. At about 3 in the morning, it got super windy and one of the tents blew over with a kid inside so Rey had to go rescue him. Then in the morning it finally cleared up but it was sooooo hot. Then our vans couldn't come pick us up so we were stuck in the bloody hot sun for 2 extra hours in the desert, and then we got stuck at KFC for 2 hours because of the stupid vans again. So yeah, that was the memorable engagement story. :)

my mother, the can lady

2009-03-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

My mother is in the habit of getting up before work to go walking. She used to go with her good friend and our neighbor until she moved; these days she is going solo. I'm not quite sure when it started, but at some point my mother realized that people leave an awful lot of cans on the side of the road. Of course being the clever, economical Dutch woman that she is, she looked at those cans and saw an opportunity: both to make the world a little cleaner and to make a few bucks. So she started walking with a bag so she could pick up all the stray cans that people had carelessly thrown out the window of their cars. At first our neighbor was a little embarrassed to be seen walking with "the can lady," but she soon got over it with a little shake of the head and an "Oh, that's just Sheryl." Well, here I am, 24 years old, and turning into my mother. Since starting the school recycling program, I am completely nuts about recycling. It's come to the point that I am incapable of walking past plastic bottles and cans along the road now. In the two short minutes it takes to walk from school to my house, I manage to pick up enough items that I can barely get the door open. So, I've resolved to start carrying a recycling bag. Yes, I am joining the can lady in her quest to clean up the planet. :)

going green

2009-03-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a green day at school to celebrate our drama this year, which is about recycling. We organized the green day as a fundraiser for the drama as well as to promote recycling and taking care of the environment. We sold flowers and plants to the students, had a delicious Chinese buffet for lunch, and sold other snacks and green colored food to the students. My contribution was to designate certain trash cans as recycling cans and guard them with my life to make sure that no one dumped their ice cream into it! :) I also had nice environmentally friendly and recycling washable tatoos which I passed out to the students, who were thrilled to have them on their faces; however, the supervisor soon spoiled our fun when she made the students wash them all off before the first period was even finished. Sad.

We've also teamed up with a German company who is working to lauch the first recycling campaign in Bahrain, which we desperately need! In fact, we just had four large recycling containers delivered to our school this morning, the second location for the containers on the whole island. I'm super pumped about this whole campaign. I've created recycling bins for my classroom and am giving extra credit to every student who returns a canvas bag filled with recyclable goods. GO GREEN!

Some pictures from green day...

seventh graders

2009-03-23T08:47:00.001-07:00

The wonderful, smiling faces I see every day...

how insightful

2009-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

I'm currently teaching my students about organization and sequence in writing. I gave them a small assignment to practice these ideas. Each student needed to choose something that he or she is an expert at. Then, he or she needed to write a one page "How To ____________" paper giving me step-by-step directions on how to do that particular skill. Here was my favorite:

How to Annoy Children

Hello everyone!
First I will tell you how to annoy and bother a child and make him cry. In the beginning hold someone from his head, then start making crazy faces. Tell him that he's stupid and he has cheap clothes. Later, take an ice and put it inside his shirt. When he goes to sleep take a tissue and make it a small curl, after that place the tissue inside his nose or ear and tickle them to bother them. Eventually, run away!

made in the....USA????

2009-01-25T08:27:00.001-08:00

local pottery

2008-12-21T01:23:00.001-08:00

my favorite food

2008-12-21T00:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-27T06:24:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

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 :)

2008-11-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

feels like spring...

2008-11-05T07:10:00.001-08:00

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???

2008-11-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-06T08:18:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-09-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

*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

2008-09-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-20T11:58:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

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. :)

2008-05-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

not so sunny rise

2008-05-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

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.