Lots of really interesting things happened today. I was so buzzed from last night that I didn’t get in nor get to sleep til really late. I always justify going into the office a couple hours late in the morning if I work late the night before. I give the same courtesy to my staff if they are working.
So I went out to lunch with Sidd, the owner of Aqua Fuego to review the comedy night. He was very happy. We doubled the attendance from the previous week, and from the buzz, everyone enjoyed it more than the first week. So we are progressing. Everyone told me how much they liked it and how much they appreciate me doing something different in Bahrain. I got a wonderful sweet note from someone I’ll call Mrs. Finland. She is an incredibly sweet person. She is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. At first I wanted her in the competition but she declined. Later, a day before the first competition…I kind of begged. So she agreed since I had only one other girl in the competition because Ms. Dutch was gone on holiday. I’ll talk about Ms. Dutch at a later date…because she deserves her very own blog. So this is a portion of the email that Mrs. Finland sent me today.
“Well we are off to Finland Saturday, so I’ll be seeing you sometime after Ramadan. I’ll think of you when I’ll were my rubberboots and eat smoked salmon in the white night. Positive thoughts and good luck, keep up the good work! It’s great to finally have something like this in Bahrain, you have really left your mark already.”
You know what’s amazing about Mrs. Finland’s home. There is no running water. Yet they are two very successful people. Its just a different culture how they adapt. It’s a whole different world out there…and Im privileged to be able to experience it. I have good friends from over 30 different countries right now. How blessed am I? Ok..speaking of friends from different countries. My friend from Egypt invited me to his church tonight. He came to my Monday group so I figured I should go to his church. I knew it was a Christian church and I knew it was at the National Evangelical Church which is part of the American Mission Hospital. The NEC is home to about thirty different churches, Filipino, Indian, Egyptian, Christian, all in different languages at different times. They have churches there all throughout the week. So I showed up at this church, sat down next to my friend and immediately thought…What did I get myself into? Everyone in the church looked and noticed me when I came in as I was the only white guy. So I couldn’t leave. Then I realized why they were all looking at me. IT WAS IN ARABIC!!!! OR EGYPTIAN I couldn’t tell. So I want you all to know that this blog has become an amazing coping device. Instead of dreading the next two hours…I thought…I can’t wait to blog about this. Some of my friends read this blog and tell me its funny. I don’t see the humor in it really…but this was funny. Everyone afterwards was so gracious and friendly. I think i must shaken everyone's hand in that church.
It wasn’t the worst sermon I’ve ever been to. The ultimate had to be when I lived in Taiwan and the president of the company invited me to his church. I was honored, but I didn’t want to go….but I had to to save face. So I went to his church…it was in Mandarin…and there was a guest speaker. The guest speaker handed out sermon outline notes. He had a sermon with 285 points on it. The only thing I could read were the numbers. 285…he couldn’t possible say something about 285 points could he? Two hours and forty five minutes later…I realized he could. So next time you complain about your pastor going over 25 minutes…fly with me to how they do church in other cultures.
So I got lucky with the Eyptian church…it was only an hour. I had prepared for two. So Im thinking..maybe I ought to learn Arabic.
No comments:
Post a Comment