Shiny on the outside, Rotten on the inside

I often feel that living here is like going backwards in time 30 years. There's a strange mix of old and new ideas constantly butting heads. On the one hand, it's common to see Arabs in traditional clothes driving around in glossy BMW 750s. On the other, you go into the airport and there's an entire wall of squat toilets.

The shopping malls carry the latest fashions but you go into the grocery to buy a tube of toothpaste and you find out that in this area they only manufacture tubes with the old screw caps, there's no flip-up cap to be found anywhere.

Water is still suspect around these parts. Sweetwater, which is desalinated seawater, is said to be safe for drinking, and is used as a selling point in compounds. We still don't drink it though.

I bought some plastic cling food wrap (ya know, Saran wrap) and there's not even an included cutting edge on the box. I got home and opened the box and to my dismay, had to find scissors to even cut off a stupid piece.

When Elena was born, I used the Pampers & Huggies that were sold here, thinking they were the same as in the States. Plastic diapers with plastic tape fasteners. Whoa, when I went back to Seattle a couple months later, was I surprised to find the REAL Pampers and Huggies with Velcro fasteners, elastic waists, and breathable materials. Same brands, but different standards for manufacturing. One is made for the American consumer, with the so-called advanced technology; the other made in Saudi Arabia for the laggards living in the Middle East.

They are building sleek, modern-style office towers here. Tall, futuristic shapes; shiny green glass windows, skyscrapers of the 21st century. But then down on the ground, many roads are unpaved so the shiny, fancy cars driving along get covered in layers of dust blown up by the wind and traffic.

In my opinion, the quality-of-life here just cannot live up to what I am used to. On the surface, you see many nice things, but then you realize that everything is just for show-- there is no substance. Fancy cars, designer handbags... everything nice is pretty much limited to retail consumerism. There are no recycling programs, trash is EVERYWHERE, people just throw bags of trash out the window while they are driving. Many people are uneducated. Many people don't have the opportunity to travel. The internet is censored. In Saudi, tampons are freakin' banned-- there's such limitation on unknowing people who don't read broadly and aren't aware of what it is like around the world.

I feel like there are many resources available to this area, for the number one reason that oil $$$ can buy a lot. There should be no reason why I feel like I'm living in the past. I don't want the nice cars and designer shades if I can't even tear off a piece of Saran wrap.

Merry Christmas!

Let the record show

That today, I was able to turn off the air conditioning in the house. It is about 68 degrees in the daytime, I'm still wearing sandals and no jacket. The Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers here are wrapped in big scarves covering their heads and faces; the gas station attendants are wearing winter jackets and gloves! Arab little kids are in thick coats and ski hats! They're selling fleece infant buntings in the stores!

At night it just started getting nippy, around 55 degrees. I better start wearing socks.

Yoga comes naturally to babies

I noticed that Elena started incorporating Yoga into her daily calisthenics. She also does the Cobra but I couldn't snap the picture in time. She can use some improvement in her form but with practice it will come. Namaste.

Downward facing dog

Plank

Child's Pose

Elena's Hungarian Grandma

This woman is the mother of a fellow pilot at Jeff's company, a Hungarian by the name of Jozsef. He also happens to be our neighbor. Both his mother and mother-in-law (not pictured) came for a three week visit and these grandmas took great care of Elena. They cooked dinner for us many times and while I ate the grandmas watched Elena so that I could relax while eating. We went to a friend's BBQ and they did the same.

I'm sorry to say that I don't even remember their names, because I only called them "grandma." Neither of them spoke English, but one was brunette and the other blonde, and I remembered the blonde as the in-law, so that's how I kept them apart. We did lots of sign language and sometimes Jozsef's six-year old daughter had to do some simple translating, even though she has only begun learning English six months ago! I guess it shows that human kindness transcends words.

This grandma cried so much on her last day in Bahrain when we said our goodbyes.

Introducing Elena as... Erykah Badu!

Yesterday we met Osama...

Osama is an 8-year old boy with a mop of curly brown hair and long, thick, naturally curled eyelashes. Elena and I were at the mall when Osama came up and started talking to us. He had obviously seen "Ice Age" because he came up to Elena in her stroller, pulled down the sunshade and said, "where's the baby?" then pushed the sunshade back and exclaimed, "there he is!" He did this about 8 times and each time his mother told him, "The baby is a girl!" But Osama didn't listen.

He proudly announced that he spoke Arabic, English, and French. So I responded with, "Salam Alaykum" (a standard Arabic greeting meaning Peace Be Upon You). He squinted and stated, "You are American." Bright kid! I must've had a horrible accent.

It figures that it would take a child to be the first person, ever, since I've come to the Middle East, to guess that I was American. It's probably because he could decipher how I spoke English, and my physical looks didn't factor into his assessment. Adults on the other hand, already have all kinds of preconceived notions, and the way I look obviously doesn't fit into their profile of what an American looks like.

Osama was a smart, cute kid, with a friendly, abaya-wearing mom and Elena and I had a good time chatting with them. (I was waiting for my friend who was breastfeeding her baby in the dressing room, so we sat with Osama and his mom for about 15 minutes.) These are the kinds of encounters that I find so enjoyable-- just being able to interact with locals and see the good side of them and how normal and pleasant it can be... because honestly about 90% of the time interacting with locals only brings frustration, confusion, and heartache!