April 2013 – robinchartier

Wild weather

So it’s May 1st tomorrow. This is our third spring in the Middle East. By May 1st it is always SMOKING HOT SEE YOU IN OCTOBER hibernation weather. But this year? It’s lovely. And crazy. We had rain today. All day. We had rain and thunder and lighting storms last week. We’ve had cloudy and overcast days. Calvin went to the waterpark over the weekend and I was wondering if it was warm enough. Our friends in Oman are getting so much rain that school has been cancelled, roads are flooding and cars are being washed away.

It’s not nearly as bad here (and I love the magical wetness that falls from the sky), but traffic has been horrendous today. Some of the traffic lights are down, major intersections are backed up for blocks and even more car accidents than usual.

Yesterday. Pre-rain. This is the heat index that changes from green to yellow to red to black based on the temperature. With each level (above green) there are restrictions for outdoor Physical Training, etc. Black flag conditions basically mean don’t go outside except to get from one air conditioned building to another. It stayed black flag conditions for months last year. It’s amazing that it’s May and still green.

This crazy looking bunny is Camille’s Build-A-Bear creation. Josh took Camille and Caleb on a special outing over the weekend. She calls it “Panda Bunny” (no clue how she came up with that name) and she picked out glittery shorts and a tank top for it, but like all of her other dolls, it mostly hangs out naked.

A nearby neighborhood with all sorts of restaurants and street art that rotates seasonally. Since it’s still so beautiful out, we can walk to lunch and eat outside. What makes this painting special is that there are actually random couches out on the street here and you’ll see taxi drivers lounging like this right on the curb, waiting for a fare. I have been dying to take a photo of them, but haven’t figured out how to do it discreetly yet.

I didn’t take any photos of the rain today. We’re supposed to have storms the next 2 days so there will be plenty of enormous puddles to drive through tomorrow. I had more photos of unimportant things to post, but my internet connection is being delivered on the backs of beetles at the moment. One more way that the island grinds to a halt every time it rains.

ETA: I’ve changed the comments format to “embed.” I don’t know if that will be better or worse. It seems like some people have problems no matter which format is used. I have it set with as few restrictions as possible. Hope that improves things for some of you and doesn’t mess it up for those of you who didn’t have problems before.

Sin City

A friend posted this article today on FB and it made me laugh. Top 10 Sin Cities in the World
It turns out Manama is ranked at #2, behind the nastiest place in Thailand (Josh has plenty of stories of the horrific things he saw in Pattaya) and ahead of Amsterdam? The drug capital of Europe that brags about easy access to weed and hookers?

I wouldn’t have ranked Manama at #2, though there is plenty of ugly here. It tends to appear late at night when I’m tucked in bed like a grandma with my Judge Judy and my knitting.

It is true that Saudis come over by the thousands on the weekends. Their weekend is different than ours, so the crush begins on Wednesday nights. By Saturday things are back to being relatively peaceful, aside from our own local protesters and tire burnings.

The biggest issue with the influx of Saudis is they drive like everyone else on the road is beneath them and traffic laws don’t apply to them. Josh can always pick out a Saudi driver and then says, “See? KSA!” (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) as he points to the tell-tale letters on the license plate as the car speeds by, swerving in and out of the lanes and running red lights.
There is a saying that Allah can’t see over the bridge between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain so “what happens in Manama, stays in Manama” to paraphrase Las Vegas’ popular slogan. Thus, they feel free to come over here and drink, hook up with prostitutes, and even let their women drive cars. Nothing like a group of unlicensed women drivers on the road to make you feel like staying home.

Maybe I’m hanging out in the wrong (right) parts of town, but in my opinion, Vegas is WAY seedier. There’s no gambling here, a much smaller percentage of drunks staggering down the street and 99% of the women walking around aren’t falling out of their tops and their bottoms. If they are, you can be pretty sure they’re a prostitute.

From the article:

The featured Mancation destination in the Middle East is a modern capital with strong European influence since 1/3 of the population are foreigners. It’s the only country in the region that allows alcohol. It’s notorious for it prostitutes from all over Europe and Asia who are best found at the hotels.

So welcome to the party oasis of the Middle East. Connected by a causeway to nearby Saudi Arabia, Manama is a popular spot for Saudis to kick back from their country’s restrictive laws. Here they can get hammered, go clubbing, mingle with the opposite sex, and if they’re really daring, they can pick up prostitutes — a practice that’s illegal but widely available. While Manama is still largely a Muslim city, a third of its residents are foreigners, so it has led to a much more liberal culture that gave women the vote in 2001, and let them drive cars. For many Saudi males this proximity to an open culture is irresistible and many jam the causeway and fill flights to the city every weekend.

latest creation

In case you aren’t Facebook friends with me, the latest update on Patrick’s surgery is that he is through it and in the middle of the most difficult part of recovery. The surgery ended up taking almost 8 hours and he has a raging headache as a result of being facedown for that long. Plus the pain from the actual surgical procedure, plus whatever other pain and discomfort he’s experiencing as a result of being required to lie flat on his back for a week. Of course this information is all 3rd hand from one sister to another sister to me so it’s possible that Carrie is reading this thinking, “Yeah, that got lost in translation.” The details may not be exact, but I’m positive that he still needs much prayer. These first 4 days are supposed to be the worst of it and I’m praying he sleeps through most of it and doesn’t remember the rest of it.

Today is Friday (our Sunday) and I had to snap this picture of Camille on her way into church. Mostly because her new sweater looks awesome on her and I’m kind of proud of the fact that I made it.

I’m also really excited that this “big girl” is going to Friday School class all by herself. It only took 7 months, but I finally got to go to a grownup church service today. Miracles do happen.

payoff

Patrick is heading into pre-op right now and everyone is beginning the dance: Kristy’s husband Darin (whose knowledge of neurosurgery has been a tremendous asset) is taking the pre-surgery shift, my Dad is either on the scene or about to join the support team (or he might be on Jack duty), Patrick’s parents are standing by to take the second support shift and all of us outside of the radius of the hospital are praying for the doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists who are starting the scrub-in routine. Praying that they are well rested, extra sharp and efficient, and that their steady hands are guided by the one who created them.

While that family event takes place on the other side of the world, life goes on as usual here. Carter had a big project due today at school. To say he’s not academic-minded would be an understatement (he’s smart, but couldn’t care less about books). Each 5th grader had to pick a famous person to research. He originally picked Albert Einstein, but couldn’t find enough information on him so he switched to George Washington. (Seriously, that was his excuse.)

It has been difficult to find a balance between him taking responsibility for his own work and making sure the work actually gets completed. My feeling is if I have to sit next to him to make sure he does his assignments I might as well be homeschooling him. Needless to say, Carter does the bare minimum to get by. As you can see below, they had to answer 10 questions about their person (major accomplishments, character qualities, etc). Number 11, “Any other important information” was obviously redundant and therefore, not worthy of an answer. I’m sure he covered everything he could possibly say about the Father of our Nation in the first 10 points.

And look at those sources — he told me he needed a minimum of 6, but that was only if he wanted to get full credit. He thought 3 (improperly cited) sources was plenty. As I was hyperventilating over his project on the way to school this morning (he forgot it at home so it required a special trip to drop it off), I was wondering what I was going to do with this kid. Until I read over question #4:

Since I don’t expect anyone else to be able to read his chicken scratch and his very inventive spelling, this is what he wrote in response to “Who is an everyday successful person that influences you?”

My mom because she is a hard worker and she does a lot of things like picking us up from after school activities, taking us to Taekwondo, and she makes dinner. She takes care of our baby sister and our dog. That might help me by working harder and to not give up.

I guess he’s doing just fine.

vigil

Instead of being in Bahrain tonight, I’m mentally with my family in CA and CO. My brother in law is going in for surgery tomorrow that could change his life. It sounds dramatic to say it’s life or death, but I know he feels that way about it. The pain he has been experiencing is worse than death and he’s been living under its weight for 16 years. Ever since we found out a few weeks ago that he would be having surgery in an attempt to . . . fix** his spinal cord, I’ve been praying we’ll be able to celebrate April 25th as the day that he is born into a pain free life. The ugly irony is he has both paralysis and pain, but I’m praying that God’s answer to the pain lies in the surgeon’s hands tomorrow.

I don’t have any wise words or reflections on the will of God. I’m putting this out there because just as I fondly look back on all the places we’ve been and the things we’ve done as family, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to look back and remember the day when we all prayed and God answered.

** I’m not sure exactly what they are doing in surgery. Something about the nerves and scar tissue and a long and difficult recovery. And that it might not work.

So we pray.