Volume 1 Issue 5c
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A Little History Lesson
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Bahrain (Bah-rain) means two waters and is actually one main island with a few smaller islands connected by causeways. The two waters part comes
from the fact that there are under ground aquifers that pump fresh ground water into the ocean. There are supposedly places in the ocean near the
shore where the water is fresh water. In the ancient times people would come here and bury the dead, because for some reason fresh water in the
desert is a gift from God (who knew). As a result there are thousands of graves in some parts of the island. It is my understanding that they are
stone tombs covered with sand to prevent erosion or disturbance. Pretty smart for ancient folk.
Saudi Arabia on the other hand means rich lazy Arabs that took American beauracracitic red tape multiplied by 10, a country that fails attempts to
be purists, and the only way they are ever in a hurry is driving (if you can call it that). But more on that in a later section.
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To the 15, the 10, the 5, He Made A Touchdown
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Near famous words of Dave South in January 1999. I'm not so sure about this pilot his landing was about as gentle as a train wreck. But finally I
landed in Manama (Panama with a M instead) Bahrain. I got a 2-week vista at the airport for only 5 Dinas, 2 weeks is all they would give me. We
caught a cab and headed for the apartment. I've never been in a cab before, but this had to be the nicest one I’d ever seen. I think it still had
that new car smell to it.
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My Humble Abode
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Yea so when they told me corporate housing I had a little different idea than what I'm in. Don't get me wrong it's a nice place. They must have
just meant corporate housing in the sense that the corporation owns it or maybe that the only people that live there are from different corporations.
Supposedly this is one of the places that flight attendants stay on their time off, but I haven't seen hardly anyone. It's a decent sized 2
bedrooms, 2 baths, living/dinning room, kitchen/washer and dryer. It's not much different than any place you’d see in the States, except all the
appliances are smaller. The frig, micro, w/d are all made by Fagor. It sounded Spanish to me, go figure Spanish appliances in the Middle East.
The directions on the w/d (if you can call them that) are like I've never seen. Besides being in Celsius and kilograms the setting are all in
pictures and not very descriptive ones. The washer is so big I could fit probably 1 pair of pants, 2 shirts and 2 boxers or a decent Thanksgiving
turkey. The dryer isn't much bigger and it took me a while to figure out the settings at first, so it took about 3 hours to dry one load of clothes.
As if being small wasn't bad enough they are on the same power switch so both can't be running at the same time. For a country that runs solely on
220 volts that seemed like a lack of planning. I've got the master bedroom with bathroom attached; Richard has to walk across the apt to use his.
In my room there is a dresser with mirror, two night stands, a big wooden closet with mirrors, a king sized bed. Guess they don't believe in
building the closet into the room. I sure am glad for the bed; I think this would be miserable sleeping in a single with my feet hanging over. The
bathroom has a sink so big I tried to climb in it to take a bath before seeing the real tub/shower. There's a regular toilet and something else next
to it. I really have now idea what it is, but it's shaped like a toilet with no seat, is a little lower to the ground, and works like a sink with
faucet and pull stopper. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know because I'm totally lost. The only thing is it's a foot washer or mini-tub
for really small people.
