This was taken on April 29th
Did summer officially start?
A 50 degree change from four months ago.
Baby It’s Hot Outside
08 May 2012 2 Comments
in Island Tales - Expatriate Living Tags: Bahrain, desert climate, over 110 degrees, summer
Playing Baseball in a Shamal
06 May 2012 2 Comments
in Island Tales - Expatriate Living Tags: Bahrain, Baseball, Dubai Little League Tournament, friendship, Perth Australia, sportsmanship
Bahrain’s Minor League
As we drove up to the baseball field the wind blew in from the northeast. The shamal blocked out the sun and sand filled the air. But the game wasn’t cancelled. I consoled the kids.
“You can tell your kids, when I was growing up we used to play baseball during sandstorms.”
Actually it’s been quite a year for Ace, Mark and Susan’s baseball team.
Baseball is NOT Bahrain’s national sport. However, the season began with enough kids for three teams in the Minor League. The third team folded within a few weeks as players and coaches quit coming to practice.
Tires burning behind the baseball field.
The two remaining teams played each other 22 times this “season” amidst burning tires and tear gas. Often they spent hours on the road as traffic was diverted by political demonstrations.
For the top fifteen players, going to Dubai for the Little League Tournament was the highlight of their year. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai each fielded two teams of their top players and for the first time, three teams from Perth, Australia showed up.
The Bahrain team played their hearts out and endured despite some tough umpiring. They lost all their games to Dubai, Qatar and two of the Perth teams.
After forging ahead, the Perth teams recognized they had the upper hand and in both games they displayed good sportsmanship and eased up. They quit stealing bases and called in their back-up pitchers. They still won by a huge margin but they did not completely trounce our younger, less experienced team.
And as they shook hands after the final game, the Perth coach told our kids that they heard about what had been happening in Bahrain. They wanted to remember them and asked if they could trade jerseys.
Our team eagerly traded their red jerseys for the Perthian blue and white. The next morning they all went to the Wild Wadi water park together. The trip ended with heart-felt hugs and promises to see each other at next year’s tournament.
Yesterday morning as he got out of the car, Mark said in an Australian accent,
“Remember to put a shrimp on the barbe for me, Ma.”
Despite the losses, it was a perfect life lesson in sportsmanship, playing for the love of the game and the camaraderie of team sports.
My Beautiful Bahrain Book Launch
04 May 2012 9 Comments
in Food for the Mind - Books, Island Tales - Expatriate Living Tags: Anthologies, Bahrain, expatriate living, Fiction, Memoirs, My Beautiful Bahrain, writing
My Beautiful Bahrain will be officially launched this Saturday May 5th.
40 international writers submitted their poems, memoirs and stories about living in Bahrain.
Yours truly submitted a short story called Ali and the Hummer.
It’s a story about a man literally chasing the girl of his dreams, a leather clad woman who drives a pink Hummer.
Written a couple years ago, you might call it history as the chase takes place around a now-dismantled Bahraini landmark that was prominently featured in international headlines.
You might call it fact as I personally witnessed all the elements.
You might call it a complete fabrication, a figment of an over-active imagination, because at the end…
Well, I can’t tell you the end. That would spoil the story.
This Saturday evening May 5th at 8pm there will be at least 40 people gathered at Jashanmal’s in the Seef Mall Atrium to celebrate this book.
I invite my spouse, children, my fellow yoginis and sculptors, any visiting family members, my compound neighbors, the gardener, anyone named Ali and all of my loving and supportive friends with money to join us for a glass of mint lemonade to celebrate this event.
BTW mention my name and you’ll get a 10% discount. What more can you ask for?
The Most Beautiful Moon on the Walls
29 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Food for the Soul - Poetry, Island Tales - Expatriate Living Tags: Bahrain, Dalal Abu Amna, music, Nasir Shamma, oud music, poetry, Rami Alyousif
An Evening of Poetry, Music, and Singing:
The Most Beautiful Moon on the Walls with
Nasir Shamma, oud player
Rami Alyousif,poet
Dalal Abu Amna, Palestinian singer
Monday, 30 April at 8pm. Sheikh Ebrahim Center in Muharraq Bahrain.
Post mortem. I hope someone remembered to go see this.
Culture Clash – If Only It Was This Easy
27 Apr 2012 Leave a comment
in Island Tales - Expatriate Living, Stories from Far Away Lands - Travel Tags: Bahrain, culture, Dubai, etiquette, funny signs, tourists, travel
As I chewed my Paul’s sandwich in the Mall of the Emirates, I watched a Chinese woman surrounded by a crowd of people blow her nose onto the marble floor. I thought of this sign and wondered whether management should put up a “USE A TISSUE” sign.
In fourteen languages it might work.
Who will Prevail? – Mother Nature or the Desert Sheikhs
23 Apr 2012 6 Comments
in Island Tales - Expatriate Living, Stories from Far Away Lands - Travel Tags: architecture, Bahrain, Bastikiya, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Dubai Creek, sustainable architecture, wind towers
View of area next to Dubai Mall from Burj Khalifa
Dubai reminds me of Las Vegas – without the gambling. From the desert’s blank slate ambitious people employed modern engineering and literally created a fanciful world reminiscent of Arrakeen from the Dune series.
After years of going to Dubai for “events” and shopping, during my artist sister and mother’s visit, I finally went against traffic and followed Sheik Zayed Road to its origin at the Dubai Creek. Two-story floating palaces anchored along the corniche’s edge reminded me of the Nile River cruisers. Reaching the water, our taxi turned left and followed the Al Seef Road to its end at the wrought iron gates of the Ruler’s Court.
Arabian Horse outside Bastikiya Dubai
The road veered left, past the painted Arabian horse to the first roundabout. There on the right is Bastikiya.
Wind Tower House in Bastikiya, Dubai, 2012
Bastikiya is a restored village previously inhabited by the Persian pearl and textile traders. It is one of the last remaining historical neighborhoods in Dubai. Compared to the tourist filled Dubai Mall with its dancing fountains, aquarium, 1,200 stores and view of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, Bastikiya felt like a ghost town. But what it lacks in excitement the small village made up for in its artist charm and peacefulness.
Alley pathway between houses in Bastikiya Dubai
The old-Dubai architecture is similar to Bahrain. Tiny alleys between mud houses with palm-frond roofs (barasti) are a kind of human warren built as a fortress against the desert. Most houses had a central courtyard. Larger houses also incorporated wind towers.
Wind tower were natural air conditioners that took advantage of ocean breezes.
Tallest wind tower in Yazd, Iran
Brought to the Gulf by Persian immigrants, wind towers date back to the fourth millennium BCE in Iran and are found in central and southern Iranian deserts. There are several types of wind towers including a style built over a cellar or an underground reservoir. The evaporating water cooled the air and the inside of the house.
Windtower Shutters in Muharraq, Bahrain
Equipped with shutters, the tower could be opened from any of the four sides. Depending on the wind’s direction, the shutters were opened to capture the wind and directed it to the sitting rooms below.
Windtower House. Inside sitting room. Muharraq, Bahrain
In Bahrain most of the old houses with wind towers have disappeared. A few Muharraq wind tower houses have been preserved by the Sheikh Ebrahim Center for Culture and Research. La Fontaine Center for Contemporary Art, a restored private home, has a wind tower.
Perhaps someday in the future, this tiny village using traditional desert architecture with thick mud walls and wind towers will be the last building standing in Dubai. Only time will tell.
Out of It – A Novel
13 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Food for the Mind - Books, Island Tales - Expatriate Living Tags: Adhaf Soueif, Bahrain, Gulf Weekly, Mahmoud Darwish, Out of It, Palestine, Selma Dabbagh, Words
Out of It by Selma Dabbagh
In 1973, Mahmoud Darwish wrote,
“Gaza has not mastered the orator’s art. Gaza does not have a throat. The pores of her skin speak in sweat, blood and fire.” – Journal of an Ordinary Grief
In its review of the novel Out of It, the Egyptian Independent said author Selma Dabbagh’s “portrayal of Gaza is, in some ways, not so different from the gaping wound Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish presents.”
The wound still hasn’t healed. In fact it has turned septic and widened as now five generations sit within its weeping gap. But 30 years later, Gaza has found an orator.
British-Palestinian, Dabbagh is like one of the “PLO Brats” she created; the English-speaking, Diaspora who carry Holy Land DNA in their blood. The granddaughter of a politically active Palestinian, Dabbagh grew up outside Gaza where her story takes place; yet she carries the memories of place and of the wounds her father sustained in a 1948 Jaffa attack. Dabbagh’s intelligent, urbane characters promise to give readers an alternative view of the Palestinian OTHER.
I haven’t gotten a copy of the book – yet. But I am excited to see my friend, fellow bookclub member and former Bahrain resident return to the island to talk about her debut novel.
It wasn’t so long ago when conversations about our toddlers were interspersed with her laments about the difficulty of finding the creative space to finish her book. But her acclaimed talent and perseverance prevailed against potty-training and garden birthday parties with bouncy castles.
In the land of unexpected coincidences, Selma, featured on the cover of this week’s GulfWeekly, tells of her Bahraini good luck when we met Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif at a Shaikh Ebrahim Center lecture in 2008. In 2011, the stars finally aligned and international publisher Bloomsbury UK took on Out of It.
Selma Dabbagh was at the 2012 Dubai Literary Festival. It was a great opportunity to meet this engaged, articulate and passionate Palestinian.
The US version will be published in August 2012 and an Arabic translation is expected in December 2012. The WORDS bookstore and cafe has her book in stock.
To get to WORDS take the exit at the Burgerland roundabout towards Budaiya. WORDS is located in the Palms Square shopping center located between the third roundabout and the fourth roundabout (Al Osra) on the Budaiya Highway. Phone number is 17 690 790.
Tales of Dragons, Rabbits and Roosters 