Last weekend was spent in
Bahrain for assessment professional learning. When I first signed up for it, I
opted to take the bus. I was under the impression that it was only a 3-4 hour
bus ride over there. It seemed doable and I thought that was the better choice.
At that time a plane ticket didn’t cost much, but it seemed silly to spend the
money if we could take a bus for free. Then, a few days before we left I
learned that it was actually going to take 5 hours to get to the border and
then going through customs and immigration could take a while as well. I
immediately regretted my decision, but tried to look at it as a fun road trip
with friends. It started fun, but ended in tears.
We boarded the bus at 3:15
on a Thursday afternoon, right after school. I had my kindle, a large bag of
snacks, my iPod and a water bottle for emergency use only. We were told that we
would only be stopping once during this journey and that left me a little
stressed out. I normally pee every one to two hours (TMI, sorry), so I was a
little concerned. To prepare myself I barely drank anything during the day and
certainly wasn’t planning to drink on the bus, unless absolutely necessary. The
ride started out great. Krystle, Allison, Lindsey (another teacher) and I
passed the time by playing Heads Up. We were laughing and enjoying ourselves
for quite awhile. We stopped once to use the restroom, and as you can imagine
it was not a pretty site. The squatty potties reminded me of China and only the
brave used those rather than the western toilets. I had to go and didn’t want
to wait, so I squatted with my pregnant belly. I was successful and quickly got
out of the dirty, wet restroom. In Saudi there are water hoses in every
bathroom to squirt yourself down. As you can only imagine, it makes for quite a
wet floor. This just adds to the already difficult task of peeing with an Abaya
on. Not only do you have to hold up your Abaya, you also have to take care not
to let anything drag on the floor at the same time. You become pretty
multitalented. Oh, and there are not just sinks, there are usually washbasins
for your feet. Many Muslim women wash their feet, pray and then wash again (I
think). So water is pretty much everywhere!
The second half of the ride
began with sharing food, more laughs and fun. We seemed to be making good time
and I was actually thinking that it was fun and I was glad I took the bus.
Those thoughts did not last long. As we entered customs and immigration
everything took a turn for the worse. We were moving along and seemed that it
would only take an hour or so to get to the other side. However, we quickly
learned that we were supposed to switch buses before going through. Our bus did
not have clearance into Bahrain. Somehow the bus drivers didn’t communicate and
after waiting in a line for about an hour (I may be exaggerating a little) we
had to TURN AROUND and get to the other bus! This was a process and by the time
we got back in line in the right buses, the line was much longer.
These new bus drivers were
not very talkative. No one was explaining what we were doing, why we could only
be in one line (the longest) and why we were not moving AT ALL. I was starting
to get uncomfortable. At this point, we were on the bus for at least 6-7 hours.
I was tired, cranky and ready to punch someone. I finally asked the driver what
we were doing and why we were moving. He just smiled at me. This is when I
began to really lose it. I asked again, demanding an answer. Finally, I learned
we had to be in the bus line and it was a slow process. We would have to wait
our turn, get off the bus, take our passports, get them stamped, then return to
the bus. It was a long time until our turn. While waiting our turn, we were
able to get out and use the bathroom, which again was not very nice, but I was
thankful to walk and pee. After showing our passports twice, once for Saudi and
once for Bahrain, we were off. But the damage had been down. I lost it. I had
cried, yelled and thrown a fit, you name it, I did it. Luckily, everyone on the
bus was very understanding and I did not lose any friends.
We arrived to our hotel at
1:30am, 9 hours after we left school! The conference started the next morning
at 8:30am, but the bus was leaving at 6:45. I went straight to the room, Travis
brought me some food and then I went to bed. We were all pretty tired all
weekend, but survived. I apologized many times for my craziness on the bus, but
most people said I had only vocalized what everyone was thinking. I hope that
is true!
When it was time to go back
to Saudi, Krystle, Allison and I decided to take a car back. It would be much
quicker and much more comfortable. The customs line was like a drive through
since there were only three of us and we had an SUV to ourselves. Here is
another Saudi fun fact, women can’t ride in the front seat of a car unless it
is their husband. That means we would have had to squeeze in the back for our
journey back. However, our car had a third row, I went in the back so I could
put my feet up when needed. I didn’t want swollen ankles and feet again! It ended up being totally worth the
cost. We got home at 9:30pm and thought we had to work the next day. Travis
took the bus and didn’t get home until 11:30. Unfortunately, the King of Saudi
died over the weekend. Fortunately for us, we got the day off of school on
Sunday because of it. We were able to recover a bit. If we didn’t get that day
off, I don’t think I would have survived the work week!
It really was a nice weekend
though. It was great to get out, do some learning and get some good work done.
My next professional learning is in Istanbul! I love working abroad! How many
teachers get to travel to other countries for work? It’s one of the many perks
of leaving the USA!
