Surreal Bahrain

Surreal. That's really the only way to describe the week I have had in Bahrain. Here for a mid-year training for English Language Fellows in the region, I have found myself in a bizarre world of connections and intersections that seem, strangely, both millions of miles away from the world I left in Marrakech and, yet, oddly familiar.

I left the desert of Marrakech on Tuesday wearing a down jacket and a winter hat. It had rained hard on Monday, and the Atlas Mountains, covered in spectacular new snow under a bluebird sky, provided an amazing backdrop for the city as my plane took off. I touched down in Casablanca 30 minutes later, and the reunions began. I found Wendy, my fellow Morocco Fellow, in the airport there. One more plane and 8 hours later, we landed in Doha, Qatar, where we found a Fellow from Algeria. Another few hours of waiting and a quick 30 minute flight put us in Manama, Bahrain at 3:00 a.m. When we checked into our hotel at 4:30 a.m., there was another fellow just arriving from Algeria. The reunion had begun. People I had met at a whirlwind pre-departure orientation in Washington, D.C., last August were now reemerging on the other side of the world. All of us, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed back in the summer, were now at least five months into our Fellowships in various countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The uncertainty, excitement, and questions of the pre-departure orientation had been replaced with experience, more questions, and and endless supply of crazy stories.

I took one look at my posh hotel room, with its enormous bed and huge bathtub, and fell into a deep sleep. It took all of the energy I could muster to get out of bed in time for the buffet breakfast a few hours later just before it closed. An odd sun shimmering in a gray, hazy smog of skyscrapers and cranes greeted me through the window. The buildings were interspersed with acres of sand and gravel.  A fifteen story painting of the king shimmered across the street. This little Arab monarchy sitting in the Persian Gulf just oozes money. Fast and fancy cars speed down the city streets in Manama, which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway across the gulf.

Once I made my way downstairs, I was astounded by the buffet breakfast which featured food from all over the world. I ate until I was ready to pop. Then I waddled into the mall attached to our hotel. Shimmering marble, sparkling chandeliers, designer shops, glinting gold jewelry, and restaurants I haven't seen since leaving the U.S. overloaded my senses. Elegant women's eyes peered out from beneath black abayas, hijabs, and niqabs. While women in Morocco tend to wear the hijab in multi-colored personal statements of style, it is rare to see women covered from head to toe in black. The men in their thawb (long white robes) and keffiyeh (red and white checkered head scarves) strolled nearby toting shopping bags of their own. I was astounded. Three floors with endless options for consumption beckoned. I marveled as everyone skillfully navigated the multiple escalators connecting the various floors of this shopping nirvana. In Marrakech, the escalator that descends to the lower level of the mini-mall to the grocery store works irregularly. When it is working, there is regularly an escalator virgin waiting nervously at the top - someone from outside the city who has never seen an escalator before. I smile as I watch adults working up the courage to step on to the strange moving stairs that will take them down to do their shopping. Bahrain is a world apart.

Like a kid in a candy store, I walked the mall and soaked up all of my options. I made a mental note of the grocery store treats that I would need to buy and all of the food I would need to eat. Back at the hotel, I found a gym and realized how much I have missed being able to exercise without worrying about how I dress or what people think. I changed into my sneakers and indulged in every piece of equipment, free bottle of water, and fluffy little sweat towel that they provided. When I had finally satiated my little first-world gym rat side, I settled into my gigantic bathtub with takeout Indian food and Krispy Kreme donuts for dinner with CNN on the TV. I felt momentarily guilty about leaving Andy, Brianna, and Nolan to fight over the limited lukewarm water in the shower back in Marrakech, and then I dropped into a blissful sleep and forgot.

Manama Street Art with Fellows

Bahraini Breakfast for Dinner

Post-workshop smiles

The next three days were a whirlwind of workshops - two days of training and sharing with Fellows and a day working with Bahraini teachers of English. Nights were free to connect, share stories, and indulge in all that Bahrain has to offer.  Three intense days together felt more like weeks, and saying good-bye to this group of 11 Fellows who bonded so quickly over shared challenges and successes felt like a wistful departure from an adult summer camp (without the mosquitoes, Koolaid, or sleeping bags).

Pita oven in the souq

Abaya shops everywhere

Oud Tunes

The bliss of hotel living had been so complete, and the appeal of the surrounding sand and haze so lacking, that I had neglected to get out and "see" Manama. We had been out to dinner twice, but it had happened in that weird way of being whisked from hotel to restaurant stuffed in the back of a taxi. I had emerged, eaten, and returned in that same bubble of safety. With an 11:00 p.m. flight ahead of me today, and good-byes and my last hotel breakfast behind me, I decided it was time to strike out into the sand and see a little bit of Bahrain. I covered up, put on my sun glasses, and headed out into the hot haze in the direction of the Arad Fort. I walked along the highway on a deserted sidewalk (walking in the desert is apparently not a favorite pastime of Bahrainis). I eventually found the 15th century fort, took a lap, and headed back toward my hotel. I didn't linger. There wasn't much to see. I felt satisfied to have soaked up some vitamin D and to have gotten some exercise before my flight home. On the walk back, I spotted another fancy mall. Never one to miss an opportunity to overindulge, I decided I should probably stop in and make sure I hadn't missed anything in Bahrain.

Bahrain color spotted at the Arad Fort

As I went through the doors into the mall, I was greeted by a security guard with a metal detector. A perfunctory security check is also pretty common in Morocco at swanky restaurants, hotels, and malls. As I opened my bag and the guard scanned my body with his metal detector, he smiled politely and, with all of the indifference of the bagger at the supermarket asking if I wanted "paper or plastic," he said, "Hi Ma'am. No bombs today?" I laughed uncomfortably and looked at him to see if he was joking. He just smiled - politely waiting. "Not today," I said and carried on into the mall. Bahrain. Surreal.

Surreal Sunset on Bahrain