You are always a fan of US Soccer when you are outside the country

...and it was the same in Manama, Bahrain at Club Dublin. There was no home turf for the expat nation here. Even with the number of Americans that live in Bahrain, there are as many English. So Club Dublin and its television screens were divided between the two. After the hope and disappointment of an offside goal from Dempsey, the other half of the room erupted. That, well that, was a bad sign.

I sat next to Glen. I only remember his name because he was a 50 something civilian contractor, and old American men in Arab countries seem to insist that young American girls remember their names.

With around 87 minutes played he says to me, " This is why soccer will never be big in the United States. After 90 minutes two teams draw zero to zero. Americans like high scoring sports. They like to know someone won!"

Forty five seconds into injury time, he jumped higher than I did. Donovan pulled off the unlikely goal. He danced around with as much furor as Devin, the soccer player from Cornell. Because in that moment, he was as great a fan of American soccer as the people in the South African stadium.

I leaned over, begging to have the last word with Glen, "And that, that is why soccer should be big in the US"

Surreal Blender

In many ways, I have started to settle into a routine and most days just feel like another day of work. The only real differences I notice at the office are the guy across from me that wears a thoub everyday and the call to prayer I hear every morning ringing from the minarets.
It sounds similar to this...I love it

Yesterday, however, that routine was thrown in a blender with some tequila and lime. And the margarita that came out could have tanked entire collections of Ernst or Gaudi. In the morning, as unlikely as it would seem, I ended up on a high fashion photo shoot. With models standing around in couture gowns, the brand manager for Al Zain arrives. In his hands is roughly $1 million dollars worth of jewelry...and guess who got to play with it? Me! I can't help that the cavewoman-esque enjoyment of all things sparkley yet sophisticated. Would I ever buy diamonds? No. Would I wear someone elses? Absolutely, because it is ridiculous to have the value of an entire house in your hands/on your body.



In other news, I just found out that my childhood friend, Tom, has outdone me again. Apparently he just got released from a Lao prison yesterday in time to celebrate his birthday. He was arrested for building a boat out of bamboo in order to sail it down the Mekong River.

Of course he is released just in time to celebrate his 24th birthday, with a special birthday present.

Looking for work in a Foreign Country

"As an American with blue eyes you can go anywhere here."

I am still trying to come to terms with that statement. I have never been confronted with a situation in which I was so blatantly privileged relative to my location. (or at least assumed privileged, which regardless, has similar lived effects) I don't want to sound like the victim here, but I am still trying to figure out how to cope.

I don't know how to combat this kind of privilege. I ask Bahrainis about it, and they usually just tell me to take advantage of it. That feels so wrong, but is so easy.
I would love a job here, but I know that I could get unfair preference....woof....

In other news, we watched the world cup game tonight at Turbo's. It was a blast, and it was followed by rock band. It is so surreal to watch three Bahrainis play rockband to Iron Maiden and Tenacious D songs....

...but so far that surreal element is what characterizes my Bahrain experience.

Strange n ights

Last night I held a sobbing Filipino hooker in my arms. For ten minutes we stood in the ladies restroom at a club as she bawled; it was the only thing I could do for her. She didn't speak English...I picked up one word, "son." That is the kind of moment you never forget-- heartbreaking...as though I held the weight of the world's injustice in my arms, and she was a 45 kilo migrant sex worker.


My night became even weirder from that moment on. A member of the national staff with my internship program and I were speaking with some facilities managers at the Best Western (the club is inside the hotel). A third man randomly enters the conversation, but is in no way affiliated with the others. We are cordial, but nothing more.

About a half hour later, our group leaves the club. They drop me at my door, and I head up to my flat. A few moments later, I hear loud knocking and the door bell ring several times. There is the random third man. I open the door enough to tell him to fuck off, and asking how the hell he found my flat...and he proceeds to push his way in saying, "I like you...I like you.." (how can you like me, when we exchanged all of five or six words?)

He had followed me home, apparently.
I didn't let him get very far before I punched him and threw him out of the building as he tried to kiss me. I let security know and I promptly walked next door and crashed in a different flat.

Woof.

Thoughts on governance in the GCC

"Past attempts at broader based regulation in terms of national taxation systems [in the Gulf Cooperation Council], enforcement of intellectual property rights, information-gathering through censuses and business surveys, residency registration, or even just the enforcement of traffic rules, have proven difficult and have met considerable resistance."

I really enjoy that this is an excerpt from an article on governance systems and renewable energy throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council. I mean...really, traffic issues are so bad here that they have made their way into a report on the state of renewable resources and governance in the GCC, which has nothing to do with traffic rules....

Hilarious.

Bahrain: A Western, Feminist perspective...

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute. "
- Rebecca West





For most of my trip, I have had the privilege of seeing Bahrain from the eyes of some amazing men. I cannot explain the debt of gratitude I owe to Diesel, Essa, Farrah, Simi, Hassan, Turbo and many many others. We have watched the sun rise over the Gulf, and spoken at length about a variety of things. However, as I get to know the females in Bahrain, I am beginning to get a clearer picture of the way things are, the way things are perceived, and the way some wish things would be.

As a strong and wordy disclaimer, I have been immersed in the culture for two weeks and there is sooo much more for me to understand. My upbringing is strongly Western and I consider myself a feminist. I will be a feminist until the day that what women look like is less important that what they do. I will work until the word "unfeminine" is gone, and women are no longer considered typically weak if they show emotion. For that, and a whole lot of other reasons that I won't get into here, I am a feminist.

With that out of the way, we can focus the attention back to Bahrain. Two days ago, for the first time in my life I felt uncomfortable sitting down in a restaurant that full of only males. It was only uncomfortable because I knew as a woman, I was not supposed to be there...not because of a few glaces from others(granted the discomfort passed immediately because I can always wrap myself in my Western-ness and say, "screw it") My entire life, I have been the only girl at a number of places like the local gaming shop, or hanging out with friends. It has never been an issue with me.

Here it is different, there is definitely the correct place for women to be or not be (especially if you are Bahraini. I seem to get a pass because I am from the US). To be clear, part of that is also for the comfort of women. As a group, we frequent this one restaurant and we use the side entrance, the family entrance. There are curtains on the booths and private areas for women who may want to remove niqab (the face covering that some women choose to wear). Every restaurant has a family section. The men tend to assume it is really for the women to feel more comfortable; to prevent stares. It doesn't always feel like that to me.

At the same time, Bahrain is definitely the most open of the countries in the Gulf in many ways, including women's empowerment. But here, there is kind of an artificial sense of how open the country is; a superficial sense of "modernization" here. Women work, drive, and can more or less decide on veiling....with the caveat that it is alright according to their family and community. "My family's heart would break if I didn't veil"

Lately, I have been hanging out with more women, asking questions. "Why do all these women wear so much make-up who are also in full abaya and hijab?



"We take what freedom we can get, I guess"

English, Arabese, Engrabic, Arabic

"I am overly dependent on the English language," Allowi explained with feigned distress. Bahrain must be the worst place in the Arab world to try and learn Arabic. All of our Bahraini friends speak perfect English--to the point that they text in English because it is easier and faster.

At the same time, it has prevented a lot of the culture shock that I was expecting to feel, and more importantly, lead me to the single greatest usage of an English word in the Gulf.

Chicken nugget. Here if someone is a 'chicken nugget' it means they are spoiled. It was explained to me that a spoiled kid sits down to a meal, regardless of what it is and screams out, "I want chicken nuggets"!

Awesome, and true.