You're a black donkey

A very low key day today. I kind of liked it that way. I don’t have much to write tonight as Im going to try to get in bed early. I have a big week this week with deadlines. I tried to bring home work with me this weekend, but I put it off until just a couple of hours ago. I got most of it completed.

I went kayaking for the first time in two weeks. I thought the water was getting too cold but I was wrong. The water in the middle of the day its pretty nice. The weather is starting to get very comfortable here. When I say comfortable, I mean 90. It feels wonderful. So I went out today and the water was great. Because the Arabian Gulf (The whole of the Middle East doesn’t call it the Persian Gulf anymore…it’s the Arabian Gulf) is so shallow the water temperature rises and falls very quickly. Most of the time in the summer the water is upwards of 90-95 degrees…now its down to 80-90 degrees, its still very comfortable. It was low tide, so I paddled to the other end of the bay and docked at a sand barge. I laid down on the beach and used my kayak for a pillow. It was a totally relaxing 30 minute nap. Then I paddled back.

I had a great night. Bahrain is tied in their region for the World Cup qualifier. So they had a special home and away match with New Zealand to determine which country qualified for the World Cup. It was held at the National Stadium, which is the biggest in Bahrain. It held about 40,000. Im pretty spoiled with all the stadiums in the U.S. This stadium looked like it was something from the 1960’s. The match was free and I can understand why. Bahrain is a very modern country and a beautiful place, but this stadium looked like something from the third world. I think most would agree that the bathrooms in most stadiums are bad…but the bathrooms in this place were disgusting. Wow!!!! I thank the Lord Im a guy and that I wasn’t wearing flip flops. There wasn’t really any concessions in the stadium either. Most of the concessions as you walked in consisted of homemade meals placed on a table in front of the car. There were a lot of stands for drinks. That consisted of a bunch of 2 liter bottles and they’d pour your soda for you. The good part was that it was only the equivalent of a quarter. I bought three Bahraini jerseys for my children. They were only the equivalent of $9 each. Compare that to the cost of a jersey in the U.S. They are anywhere from 4-5 times that amount at least. The game had a lot of spirit to it. Moody was being quite amused by all the swearing in Arabic that the fans were yelling at the players. Apparently the curse words in Arabic were…”You’re a black donkey” and “kick it you homosexual” It seemed tame compared to the types of swearing I hear at U.S. football games. Throughout the match on the loudspeakers the announcers/cheerleaders would invoke Allah to help the Bahraini players do better. But alas the prayers didn’t help. The game ended in a nil-nil tie. I wanted at least one score to hear the crowd go wild, instead there were a lot of sighs and references to black donkeys. Still it was a great night out.