A different life just 10 minutes away

Another very full day for me. I stayed up real late Thursday night chatting with old friends. I love that social outlet which the internet provides. So I only got 5 hours sleep heading into church. Our regular pastor, Graeme, was back from his long vacation. A lot of people now are coming back to Bahrain as the school year is about to commence. Things are getting back to normal. Well as far as normal can be during Ramadan.

I was all excited after church to take a 3 hour nap. I watched a couple of episodes of 24 season 4. While the show is riveting…this particular series is about Arabs that control a device to meltdown nuclear plants. Now the plot and characters are formulaic, but it’s a formula that works, thus they’ve had seven seasons sandwiched around Kiefer Sutherland’s rehabbing. But their depiction of Arabs is sooooo far off the mark in this one. I know its Hollywood. But the perception of the Arabs is solidified through Hollywood and the media. Their depictions are really off target. But lets face it, most Americans don’t care if their stereotypes are inaccurate. They just want to be entertained. As far as political correctness is concerned, America is still the greatest country in the world. I always extol the virtues of the Middle East, but I need to reveal the dark side, just to show Im objective. This is a very racist area, even amongst Arabs. America is truly the trendsetter for the world as examples of racial equality. Its not perfect, but I think it’s the best the world has to offer.

So I was all read for my 3 hour nap, and took all of 20 minutes and was done. Oh well. So I hopped in the kayak early. Did an hour ride at sunset. Made it all the way across this time. It was cool. Every once in while I’ll see a small fish about 6 inches long hop out of the water and skip along the surface, like a dolphin would. I noticed a dark spot in the water that glimmered a bit. I actually rode over a school of fish that were stagnant. As I rode over they sprung to action and swam away fast. About 20 of them skipped out of the water 3 or 4 times to get away. It looked really neat. I was tempted to go follow the school to see if they’d do it again, but then I thought better of myself. I was worried that one of them might accidentally jump into my boat. That would really have freaked me out. So I just moved on. After the kayak ride, it was sunset, so I went up to my pool at the rooftop, and just lounged and relaxed. It felt like I was at a five star hotel. Im kind of a wimp when it comes to fish and spiders.

I got invited to a birthday party for one of the Germans. Four of the crew were living in a villa in downtown Muharraq. Where I live in Juffair…doesn’t feel like the Middle East. This place however was certainly the Middle East. It was like a movie set with the small alley ways. It had a lot of character. I’m glad I was only visiting and not living there in that character. Its much nicer to visit. I think my experience here would be a lot different If I lived there. I like the luxury apartment I’m in. I get complimented on it all the time when I have guests. Im blessed. We had a barbecue at the roof for one of the German guys. It was hot. The humidity rose as the evening wore on. I was sweating bullets. I made it for abour 3 hours then excused myself. One of my friends was having a party at the roof of my building at the pool. They invited me along. So I spent about another 3 hours at this party meeting all sorts of new and interesting people. This was not a Navy-Gulf Air crowd. It certainly was different and very refreshing. But now Im tired. Its 1:15 and I still have about an hours worth of computer work to do. All in all…another very good day.