February 17, 2016

Hay, with a Side of Mase!

I am happy to report that I was not one of the four Americans arrested earlier this week. To all my friends and family who were unsure, thank you for having faith that I would not throw bottles and fight with police officers. On Sunday, while all of you were buying/receiving flowers, Bahrain was celebrating The Day of Rage (Happy Valentines Day). Sounds fun, right? Februrary 14th, 2011 was the first day of an uprising where the Bahraini people started protesting the government. Long story short, the government didn’t take to the protests kindly, and swiftly shut them down. Every year since, the government has increased police presence to minimize the political violence. I did not, and do not, plan on involving myself in any type of political rally, and am going to avoid them as much as possible. On a different note, I am pretty sure I have diplomatic immunity, which means I could totally throw Molotov Cocktails at whoever want… right? (something is telling me that isn’t how diplomatic immunity works… )

The Day of Rage was practically unfelt by my family. Like I said earlier, there was an increase in police presence, and in some places, check points. We also heard police helicopters flying throughout the night, but we didn’t the protests/demonstrations. We are safe, and there are security measures put in place by the embassy to make sure I stay that way. We live in a compound with 24/7 security, so please don’t worry.

On a different note, I am hoping all you wonderful people could help me solve an issue. As some of you know, we had to leave our dogs behind, and sadly we had to split them up. My wonderful parents took Loki, and a family friend took Willie. We got the unfortunate news earlier this week that Willie needs a new home. It sounds like he isn’t the correct fit with their family. If anyone is interested in taking Willie till we get back, we would be eternally grateful. If you are interested, or you know anyone else who would be, please send me a message so I can give you details about when we get back and details about Willie. He is a really great family dog, and trying to make new arrangements for him while we are so far away is difficult. We are looking into the Dog on Deployment option, but there is an 11 hour time difference, so getting ahold of someone has been difficult. This has definitely been an added, unexpected stress, but I am sure it will work itself out.

On a different, totally unrelated note… PICTURES!

We went back to the Camel Farm! We had visitors last weekend! A couple of friends who have also moved to the Middle East came to Bahrain for a few days. It was so nice to see friendly faces from our time at DLI (Defense Language Institute in Monterey Bay)! They spent an afternoon with me and my crazy boys, so we went to the Camel Farm.

The workers at the Camel Farm took us to meet the baby camels. These babies are only a couple days old.

Mason is still unsure about the Camels. While we were in the holding area for the female Camels and their calves, we came across a couple protective moms. When our friend got too close to her baby, the camel started growling. I am not fluent in Camel, but I am pretty sure the “B”-bomb was thrown around a few times (you should have known better Amanda and Ashley). A few minutes later I took my kids over to a different Camel and calf to say hi. As we were approaching, the baby got up and walked away, which lead to the momma following her baby. Unfortunately, Mason was in the middle of the direct path to her baby. He didn’t get trampled, but she got very close. That lead Mason to believe that we was almost eaten by a camel. He can be a tad dramatic at times (I don’t know where he gets it. Not from his Dad and Pipa…) You cannot tell from the picture below, but he was wailing. To this day he says that the Camel almost ate him. Poor Mase.

This past week hasn’t been extraordinarily exciting because my kiddies have been sick. Austin somehow caught Roseola (I think Baby Kalli gave it to him via Skype…Thanks Baby Kalli). Then, instead of Hunter and Mason contracting it at the same time, they waited until the other was better to show signs. It has been a very dramatic for the past 10 days. Hunter is on the tail end of it now, and then we should be clear…hopefully. Here are a few more random picture I have taken:

A little brotherly love