A Little About Bahrain

Having lived in the tiny Gulf Kingdom for roughly four months now, and trying to find something to do to make myself feel productive while not doing actual work, it seems like a good time to relay some of my impressions of the country.

Overall, it is a very comfortable place to live.  I haven’t really met anybody here I would consider mean or unfriendly.  It’s quite an interesting combination of Western culture infused into the Gulf Islamic world.  Giant malls, the latest technology, internet, Starbucks, bars, and of course KFC can all be found here.  My students all download American television shows and are more up to date on them than I am.  Street signs are written in both Arabic and English.  The financial harbor has a number of large modern buildings, with more construction constantly going on.  Well paved roads and overpasses abound.

Yet when you go to a mall, you are bound to see both men and women in their traditional clothing, often as a family unit.  If you go out at night, while you may see a Saudi who has come across the causeway, you aren’t likely to run into a Bahraini grabbing a drink.  All of these nice roads are undoubtedly bordered by sand that abounds as it is a desert island.  Everything here moves on its own pace and schedule also.  Things get done when and if they get done (inshallah).  People eat dinner at 8 o’clock and go to the mall at 9:30. Fridays are desolate, as the majority of the population does seem to take seriously their holy day.

There is also the VERY LARGE portion of the population (not citizens) that comes from Southeast Asia and India blended into the mix.  If you go into a restaurant or a store you are much more likely to be waited on by a foreigner than by an actual Bahraini, though it does happen on occasion.  As such, pretty much everybody is able to speak at least passable English just as a means of everyone being able to communicate with each other.  Foreigners come here for work, somewhat akin to Mexicans coming into the USA to find better jobs than what they can back home, and the Bahrainis are eager to bring them in.

There of course is the protesting going on that makes the news on a regular basis.  It has been happening since before I arrived, and I see no reason it would stop anytime soon.  However, even with that I feel completely safe.  I have personally never actually witnessed any violence in my time here.  On the contrary to feeling like their may be anger directed at me I’ve had various Bahraini’s tell me they admire America and want to become like it.  Now I wouldn’t walk down every back alley at 3 am, but that’s just common sense for anywhere.  Generally every day is like groundhog day though. I wake up, it’s clear and sunny (and now the weather is perfect).  It’s quiet outside minus the construction.  I’ll pass people here and there on my way to the store or the British Club, but I live outside of center city Manama, so it’s not very hectic here.  I really cannot say I have felt anything but welcome in my time in Bahrain.

As far as things to do and such, it is not like living in NYC or anything like that.  You definitely need to “find” things to do.  As I’m not rich though, it doesn’t really matter to me because I couldn’t afford to do a ton of things anyway.  Teachers at my school certainly make up the majority of people I hang out with, and I get the sense it is like that for many expats at their place of employment here.  That’s quite all right though, because luckily they are a great group of people.  There’s a reason we have many teachers come back after their first contract is over.  A typical week though would basically revolve around work (time consuming, no way around it), and going to the gym on weekdays.  Weekends are a time to relax, often by going down to the Brit and when it’s warmer hopping in the pool for a few hours or reading a book in the sun.  There always seems to be some reason to go out or get together every weekend whether it is someone’s birthday, a holiday, or whatever else qualifies.  In short, except for the fact that my friends are different, I can wear shorts in December, and I don’t have a gaming system (yet, I fear Skyrim would cause me to cease to exist), my life really is not that different.

That is just a little taste of life here.  I will attempt at filling in more thoughts later, maybe with an occasional anecdote here or there.