Wait! That is my baby!!
Jan 9th, 2016
I don’t know if you know this, but the definition of hell is JET LAG. Actually I take that back, the true definition is, “jet lag with one or more children under the age of five”. In my case I have three children under the age of five, so this shit is TERRIBLE. For the past three nights we have kept all three boys up till 9:00 PM in hopes of a full night of sleep. Each night Austin has woken up at 11:30 ready to play. Then after an hour of playing he has gone back to sleep till 3:00 AM, and that is when all three boys have decided to start their day. We have been forcing them to stay up till nap time, then we have woken them up mid-nap (when they think they are down for the night) and we have dealt with angry, hostile men for the rest of the night. Luckily, alcohol is legal in Bahrain. Unfortunately, the amount of alcohol I want to drink would classify me as an alcoholic. Screw labels, alcohol it is!
Today we went to the Bahrain Fort with the pissed off (but surprisingly well behaved) kids and saw our first glimpse of the island. It was both amazing and humbling to see something so old. The boys enjoyed running around the ruins, and Mason (of course) tried to scale the walls a few times. Once we explained how old the fort was and that he had to be careful not to break things he came to the conclusion that dinosaurs lived there.
We then went to the Seef Mall. The mall was spectacular. It was funny to see American stores and restaurants like Papa Johns, Burger King, and H&M next to stores that sold very traditional (expensive) clothes. All the American shops had signs in both English and the phonetic version in Arabic. There are a lot of malls on the island because the summers are so hot. Inside the malls they have a kid zone which looks like a hybrid between an arcade and a small amusement park. We took the boys to an indoor jungle gym, and we bought them some tradition Bahraini food… Papa Johns (I know, I know, but sometimes it isn’t worth the fight).
While we were at the mall I had my first mini internal freak-out followed by a calming inner-dialogue. I mentioned in my last post that people in the Middle East love children. Well everyone, get ready for this fun story… I was sitting on a bench watching my older boys play in the indoor jungle gym. One of the Bahraini men who worked at the mall started smiling at, and talking to Austin while I was holding him. He asked how old the baby was and then took him out of my arms. He didn’t ask to hold him, or gesture toward the baby. He just took him. Then he started to walk away from me just bouncing the baby, and playing with him. I am so glad I was warned about this COMMON occurrence before we got here. It is not abnormal for people here to pick up babies and play with them. They love kids, and from what I have been told, having children around is a great icebreaker. After a couple of minutes he gave me my baby back (which was a relief) and went back to work.
Talking about a love for kids… Momma, Papa, Me-ma, and Pe-Pa stop reading here. I don’t want to give you four a heart attack. Everyone else, RELAX! This is going to sound a lot worse than it actually was. This morning while the boys were eating breakfast I heard them yelling, “Hi! Hi! Hi!”. I went to the window to see who they were talking to and 4 of the local nannies were pushing kids in strollers and waving to my boys. As I went out to say hi, they said to the boys, “What is your name? Do you want to come and walk with us?” When I explained to them that Austin was sleeping and that I couldn’t leave him they said, “No, we will take the boys to the park”. So I let them go. Now before you all write me off as the worse mother ever, please understand that we live on a compound where all the nannies have to be screened. This process takes 3 months, and the background checks are extensive. Not only that, but I had met one of the nannies the day before, and our neighbor had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. So yes, they took my kiddies for 10 minutes, and the boys were so happy when they came back home.
The people here are wonderful, and kind. Everyone from the neighbors to the Middle Easterners I’ve come into contact with have been so friendly and hospitable. When we started the FAO (Bookie’s current job) application process I told Bookie that I did not want to go to the Middle East. Now I feel guilty about that initial feeling. I am beside myself about how great everything is. I cannot express how happy I am to be here and how much I am looking forward to exploring our new home. There are so many things to do I don’t even know where I want to start.