Our Trip to Bahrain

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!

Here are two pictures from the weekend. It was nice to be out in public and not wear an Abaya! The first is of Allison, me and Krystle posing with the I love Bahrain sign near a restaurant we went to. The second is Travis and I at the restaurant, The Meat Company.

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!