Cross Country Road Trip a Success!!!

Eid arrived last Friday! The once desolate desert expanding farther than I could care to imagine (only about 34 miles, ha!) is now thriving with life and activities. The main strip outside of our apartment building is now full of traffic all day and night. The shops are open, restaurants are open, and people here seem to once again be enjoying themselves. The enjoyment surely arises from their ability to eat during the day while staying hydrated. It is a completely different city and its wonderful.

This past sunday I had the distinct pleasure of being asked to be a godfather for my new baby sister, Allison. Words alone will fail to express how humbled I was when asked to serve this role. I was present at the baptism via Skype - it was one of the best moments of my year and will surely be one not soon forgotten. A precious baby girl!

Emily, myself, and two of our friends (Allison and Colton) decided to rent a car. It was a nice, brand new car for which we bargained the owner down – VERY NICE. We were not ready for the freeing feeling we experienced and we rather enjoyed every minute. Since we arrived our life has revolved around when Jamel could pick us up. Much of our time was spent either in the school building or searching for something to do within walking distance of the apartment building. Amazing as it is, we quickly grew tired of being soaked in sweat after only a five minute walk. Staying positive is something with which Emily and I place much focus. I have found it easy for others (those who have been here longer than myself) to fall into a negative mindset about this country and the people in it. While we enjoyed the five minute walk, and the sweat we earned, we were happy to have the car and battle the abundant cabin fever.

It was last Friday and we were all very ready to experience eating and drinking, in public, DURING THE DAY! Our first stop was one of the lavish palaces which just happened to hold a gigantic shopping center – ok its just a mall, but my goodness I can't begin to explain how immensely huge the building seems. There is even an indoor water park! The sparkling in Emily's eyes as we passed Prada and Gucci....priceless. We quickly found a nice cafe and ordered a nice lunch with tea and coffee. It was nice to be out and about on our own experiencing at least some of the outside life in Bahrain. Feel free to look the mall up on the internet – City Center and Seef Mall. We ate, walked around, and then quickly became bored and felt as though we should hop back in our car and explore. Why not? We felt cooped up for the past two weeks and the last thing we want to do is be indoors. Of course, we went to the other unnecessarily large mall. The girls were happy – Colton and I were enjoying ourselves as well.

It soon was dinner time and we found ourselves wandering past the food court. This isn't like any food court in a mall I have ever seen. Five star restaurants were lined up one after the other. Of course being the financially conscious teachers that we are, every menu was checked for prices and we all decided on the most reasonable, a Mediterranean grill. The food was delicious, cheap, and filling. What more could you want? It was great! We began to calm down a bit and some of us were in need of a nap so we left, came home, and realized that the day behind us was probably one of the best since we arrived.

A friend of mine from freshman year of college sent me an email two weeks back. Can't be any more random – turns out he was moving to Bahrain and living within a five minute drive from my apartment! Incredibly strange, but an amazing coincidence. We failed to keep in touch, as he transferred at the end of our freshman year, but since being in Bahrain Kent has hung out and become good friends with everyone in our group. What are the odds?


We rented our car for the week and we were going to get good use from it, keeping in mind that we filled our tank for only $5. Gas is cheap, cheap, cheap and if I had the money I would buy a car for the sole purpose of being put in a fantastic mood upon pulling up at the pump - rather than feeling the inherent pit that comes with spending $40.

The next day the Grand Mosque was holding an open house for all non-Muslims in the area. Allison, Kent, Colton, Emily and myself all decided to have another family trip. The two girls entered and went to the changing room to cover up. What I didn't expect was that upon entering, us three guys were frowned at by small elderly Arab women gesturing for us to follow her through a small opening. We were taken to a back room with white thobes because our shorts (Yes, Mrs. Meyer we were all three wearing shorts) were too short. I have never considered myself to sport the “daisy-dukes” trend; however, if the shorts show ANY section of the knee one must cover up. We didn't mind it, it was actually quite comfortable. We walked around to the different tables/artwork/speakers admiring the culture that we had experienced for the previous month and realized we had little knowledge beyond raw, surface level facts. Soon we grew tired of our thobes and the five of us moved on to explore the island and to see the Tree of Life.

We weren't sure how to get there, but we headed south and knew that within an hour we would reach the southern coast. We saw few signs and ended up driving to the middle of the desert without so much as a sign to point us in the correct direction. Luckily, we passed the middle eastern oil museum and asked the security guard for help. He pointed in a direction and told us to “go until the road runs out and then go to the right.” We promptly followed the road until it ran out and turned right. We drove for another ten or so minutes until we passed the prison and then saw signs for Manama. Obviously something was wrong, ha! Everyone was frustrated and exhausted from gazing upon miles and miles of nothing except sand. As we turned around we saw a big tree in the middle of the desert. We experienced our Ah-Ha moment and with smiles on our faces we drove towards the tree. Not a single sign! Its a national monument without so much as an arrow showing the way. We are on the only road we can see and realize that there isn't a road leading to the tree, which seemed a mile or two of the road. In our little four door we went off-roading and made it without much trouble.

It was a neat sight to see this blooming tree in the middle of a place so uninhabited and barren. As we walked closer we noticed two nice vans selling ice-cream and refreshments, but what really caught our eye was the graffiti covering the tree, as well as the people climbing from branch to branch! It was quite sad to see how poorly this tree, which has managed to survive and thrive in such an unforgivable place, had been maintained and preserved. We took several pictures, realized we should follow suite, and did some climbing on our own. After we took in as much life as we could from the tree it was time to leave, and while we failed to see signs for the tree of life we did see signs for a wildlife preserve. We got in the car and discovered the the car had promptly sunk in the sand. It took about five minutes to push the car on top of some harder land, but we did it and left for the wildlife preserve. Unfortunately it was closing in fifteen minutes from when we arrived and agreed to put it off for another day.

The sun was setting and we decided to find a beach to watch the sunset. It was an amazing beach with thousands of people. Besides the faint smell of fish, it was the perfect end to a perfect day. Our first successful cross country road trip, completed in seven hours.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I am certain that this day was filled with what made each of us come alive.