Love the Airlines in the Middle East

I love airlines in the Middle East. Granted, I had to travel to the office to make the change, but today I changed my itinerary for our vacation only two days away - departure city, return date, added an extra flight and changed the return city - and only paid $20 per ticket because of Dubai's airport tax. Amazing! My cab ride to get to the office cost more.

Other great things about the airlines I've been on here: planes are nice, clean and new, food is plentiful, individual tvs usually even on short flights, great customer service, etc. And their change/cancellation fees are either non-existent or minimal. I was dealing with Qatar Airways today. Go Qatar! Now I'm even more excited for our trip to Greece!

Witness at the Scene

So I called my friend Monica to see if she wanted Dave to bring her kids home from school, too, since I wouldn't recommend her being on the roads to go get them. Yes, she did of course after hearing about what I encountered.

Dave picked them up just fine but as he drove from the school to the first roundabout just outside it, he sensed something was wrong. A car was up on the median and started squealing its tires like crazy to get moving all of a sudden, entered traffic the wrong way around the circle and crashed head-on into another car. It was so obviously an intentional crash that one of Monica's girls asked, "Did that guy mean to hit the other car?" Dave just said, "I don't know," and gunned it to get out of there as fast as he could, seeing other cars acting strange as well.

So he took the other way home that I hadn't gone to avoid that protest and got still more of an eyeful. Hundreds of men gathered together with clubs and stick in their hands looking like they were looking for a fight. It was such a relief to have the whole family home and safe. But the afternoon was filled with jitters about what we'd witnessed and what it could be meaning was happening out there.

Later that afternoon we got an email from the school explaining that they had gone into lockdown for ten minutes following that car accident, which they heard from the school, and then mostly because of the gunshots that were fired at the scene of the crash. So scary and I'm glad Davey was out of there before that! Imagine if they had accidentally hit the wrong car and it was Dave with a carload of kids! So scary!

Caught in the Action

The last week that Dave was gone in Houston was really hard for me. I was so exhausted, physically and emotionally, from the stress of everything happening in Bahrain and felt like I would never make it through the week. We hadn't left the house in a week and a half (I did run across the street from our compound once to the Midway Supermarket to restock our produce and we did take the kids to play at the park and ride bikes at the tennis court in our compound) and, being 5 months pregnant, I was emotional. But somehow I made it through the week and Dave came back on March 4th.

It was so good to have him home and over the next week, life started to return to normal a little bit; Dave was home every night, Davey went to school and Charlie went to school one day. We still went out as little as possible and were always trying to figure out what was happening across the country but we didn't see any of it. Then the weekend of March 11 and 12, protests were all over and church was cancelled. But we didn't hear to much and Sunday we planned to live life normally. Davey went to school.

Everything changed for me and I think everyone in Bahrain that day. Later, I found out that several mothers had felt an impression to pick up their children early from school; I don't know why I didn't have that impression too and wish I had. Either I wasn't listening or I wasn't meant to do it. Either way, when I went to get Davey from school I decided to go the longer route that would avoid passing a royal palace in Riffa that had been the scene of large demonstrations and clashes over the weekend, not knowing if it would still be a bad way to go. As I drove down the freeway, I saw three ambulances going both directions with lights flashing. I was curious but not too alarmed yet. As I continued in the left lane, two cars came driving toward me in my lane, traveling at highway speeds! I was able to get out of the way but was spooked. Then several more cars were driving the wrong way up the freeway, in the right lane/on the shoulder.

By this point I, and the cars around me, was traveling much slower, wondering what was happening making these cars do this. There was only one exit left before the freeway ended and I thought about getting off but didn't because I didn't know how to get to Davey's school from there. Just after that, I came upon tons of cars parked along the road and had to come to a stop as there was a large traffic jam near the end of the freeway and I found myself in the middle of a freshly-tear-gas-fired-upon demonstration. People were everywhere, coughing and holding their heads in pain from the tear gas and I quickly turned off my exhaust. Cars were going every which way on the freeway, but no one could get through in the direction of traffic so we all had to turn around, in the middle of a tightly packed traffic jam. As I was trying to turn around, more tear gas was fired. I must say I was getting scared and upset. I was trying to call Dave but he was in a meeting and ignored my call the first couple times. Fortunately he got the message that I needed him and picked up after a couple tries. Thank goodness he works right next to (less than 5 minute drive) Davey school so I sent him to pick up Davey, unsure how long it would take me to get out of there and if I could get there the other way either.

Luckily near where I was, the freeway was not divided by metal barriers, but by cement blockades so some men were able to move one and cars were able to get through to the correct lane of traffic to get away from there. The drive home was uneventful though filled with tears and nervousness.

And even crazier, Dave had a very eventful drive home. More on that in the next post.

Bahrain Protests

Thousands of Protesters Take Control of Bahrain's Main Square

Published February 15, 2011 | Associated Press

Thousands of protesters poured into a main square in Bahrain's capital of Manama Tuesday in an Egypt-style rebellion that sharply escalated pressure on authorities as the Arab push for change gripped the Gulf for the first time.

Security forces have battled demonstrators calling for political reforms and greater freedoms over two days, leading to the deaths of two protesters and the main opposition group vowing to freeze its work in parliament in protest.

In a clear sign of concern over the widening crisis, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa made a rare national TV address, offering condolences for the deaths, pledging an investigation into the killings and promising to push ahead with reforms, which include loosening state controls on the media and Internet.

"We extend our condolences to the parents of the dear sons who died yesterday and today. We pray that they are inspired by the Almighty's patience, solace and tranquility," said the king, who had previously called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the growing unrest.

As the crowds surged into the Pearl Square in the capital of Manama, security forces appeared to hold back. But key highways were blocked in an apparent attempt to choke off access to the vast traffic circle -- which protesters quickly renamed "Nation's Square" and erected banners such as "Peaceful" that were prominent in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests there.

The dramatic move Tuesday came just hours after a second protester died in clashes with police in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Oppositions groups aren't calling for the ruling Sunni monarchy to be ousted, but they do want an end to its grip on key decisions and government posts.

Other demands -- listed on a poster erected in the square -- included the release of all political prisoners, more jobs and housing, an elected Cabinet and the replacement of longtime prime minister, Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

The nation's majority Shiites -- about 70 percent of the population of some 500,000-- have long complained of discrimination and being blackballed from important state jobs.

Many in the square waved Bahraini flags and chanted: "No Sunnis, no Shiites. We are all Bahrainis." It also appeared they were planning for the long haul. Some groups carried in tents and sought generators to set up under a nearly 300-foot monument cradling a giant white pearl-shaped ball that symbolizes the country's heritage as a pearl diving center.

Bahrain is one of the most politically volatile nations in the Middle East's wealthiest corner despite having one of the few elected parliaments and some of the most robust civil society groups. A crackdown on perceived dissent last year touched off weeks of riots and clashes in Shiite villages, and an ongoing trial in Bahrain accuses 25 Shiites of plotting against the country's leadership.

A prolonged showdown could draw in the region's two biggest rivals: Saudi Arabia, as close allies of Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, and Iran, whose hard-liners have spoken in support of the nation's Shiite majority.

Bahrain is also an economic weakling compared with the staggering energy riches of Gulf neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which can afford far more generous social benefits. Bahrain's oil reserves are small and its role as the region's international financial hub have been greatly eclipsed by Dubai.

One protester, 24-year-old Hussein Asamahiji, echoed the complaints from Tunisia and Egypt: a lack of jobs and allegations that the ruling elite monopolizes the best opportunities.

"We simply want the chance at a better future," he said. "Egypt showed it's possible."

The bloodshed already has brought sharp denunciations from the largest Shiite political bloc, which suspended its participation in parliament, and could threaten the nation's gradual pro-democracy reforms that have given Shiites a greater political voice.

The second day of turmoil began after police tried to disperse up to 10,000 mourners gathering at a hospital parking lot to begin a funeral procession for Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, 21, who died in Monday's marches.

Officials at Bahrain's Salmaniya Medical Complex said a 31-year-old man became the second fatality when he died of injuries from birdshot fired during the melee in the hospital's parking lot. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to journalists.

After the clash, riot police eventually withdrew and allowed the massive funeral cortege for Mushaima to proceed from the main state-run medical facility in Manama. He was killed Monday during clashes with security forces trying to halt marches to demand greater freedoms and political rights. At least 25 people were injured in the barrage of rubber bullets, birdshot and tear gas, relatives said.

The main Shiite opposition group, Al Wefaq, denounced the "bullying tactics and barbaric policies pursued by the security forces" and said it was suspending its participation in parliament, where it holds 18 of the 40 seats.

The declaration falls short of pulling out the group's lawmakers, which would spark a full-scale political crisis. But Al Wefaq warned that it could take more steps if violence persists against marchers staging the first major rallies in the Gulf since uprisings toppled long-ruling regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

A statement from Bahrain's interior minister, Lt. Gen. Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, expressed "sincere condolences and deep sympathy" to Mushaima's family. He expanded on the king's pledge: stressing that the deaths will be investigated and charges would be filed if authorities determined excessive force was used against the protesters.

But that's unlikely to appease the protesters, whose "day of rage" Monday coincided with major anti-government demonstrations in Iran and Yemen.

In the past week, Bahrain's rulers have attempted to defuse calls for reform by promising nearly $2,700 for each family and pledging to loosen state controls on the media.

State media reported that the king telephoned the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Tuesday. No further details were given, but Bahrain had earlier appealed for an emergency summit of Arab leaders to discuss the widening protests.

Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty also has extremely close ties with the leadership in Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a causeway. Bahrain has given citizenship to Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and across the region to bolster its ranks against the country's Shiite majority.

Bahrain's Sunni leaders point to parliamentary elections as a symbol of political openness. But many Sunnis in Bahrain also are highly suspicious of Shiite activists, claiming they seek to undermine the state and have cultural bonds with Shiite heavyweight Iran.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/15/bahrain-marchers-join-funeral-clash-victim/#ixzz1E65My21h

Valentine's Day in Bahrain

Dave is in Houston for two more weeks, so Valentine's Day was going to be quiet around here no matter what. But it was guaranteed to be quiet because of the protests and demonstrations planned here last night and all day today. I kept Davey home from school just to be safe. With the scale of what's happened in Tunisia and Egypt, you never know what could happen here.

This morning my friend called me about 9am after being out and said everything looked normal except for the very small amount of traffic. She called again later about noon saying that the police were out en force gearing up for the protests scheduled to happen in a few hours. She said she saw 10 police cars and more men than that and 20 cars and men outside the entrances to two villages she passed, holding bazookas. Apparently, they are not afraid to use force here.

I just watched a couple videos from last night posted to You Tube of people being fired on with tear gas and rubber bullets. From what I could see and reports seem to be, these were fairly peaceful protests. The protesters here often burn tires and wooden structures in the road to impede traffic and make a statement. I have heard of them throwing moltav cocktails, which do scare me. But my basic impression of all of this here is that the protesters will get no where. There are just not enough people in Bahrain to make much of a statement. There are a million or less people in the country and half of them, if they're lucky, are Bahraini and about 70% of those are the Shiite muslims who, reportedly, are the ones staging the protests. The government has quite a fair bit of money. It would be easy to squash any insurrection and judging from the strong police presence and force used so far, though not deadly, still tells me these guys aren't going to get anywhere.

I do support free and equal democracy. Even living here, its hard to get a feel for how much representation the people, especially the poor Shiites, have. But I do wish I didn't feel intimidated to leave my home and that my husband were here to keep me company.

As a side note, I decided to have a last-minute get-together with some gals from playgroup this morning to have the kids decorate valentine cookies. 3 ladies showed up and several more were planning on it until their husbands asked them to stay home.

Helpful Boys

Bahrain is so dusty (as I'm sure you could guess) that we have to clean our porches outside quite often. Davey loves to help...

Charlie also loves to be helpful, loving every time he can get a hold of a kleenex or a wipe that he can use to clean everything in sight.

Davey Should Live in Europe

You might find this a little distasteful to read, but I had to write it down...

Yesterday Davey pointed to my underarm and said, "What's that?"

Me: "Uhh... hair, Davey." I'm thinking: thanks for pointing that out. (It had been a few days since I'd shaved... at least it wasn't so bad it was totally obvious to him.)

Davey: "I want hair like that."

Me: "You'll get some when you get bigger. I cut mine off, though."

Davey, getting emotional: "Don't cut it off!! It looks nice!"

Last Few Days Exploring Salalah

More of the town of Mirbat. Not nearly so remote as Rakhyut but still felt just as back in time. I think this town has looked the same way for hundreds, probably thousands, of years.

Mirbat

Harbor in Mirbat

On the way home we had some good fun enjoying the dunes along the beach...

Nice jump Dave!

I love this picture! My three men :)

Charlie trying to figure it out

Davey got the hang of it

It was such a fun day of exploring

I think the dunes are beautiful

On the way home from Mirbat, we stopped at Khor Rori and to see the ruins of Sumhuram. Sumhuram was an important port city along the Frankincense trading trail dating back to the 4th century B.C.

View from far

More up close

My cute boys exploring the ruins

These sites we saw were amazing... so old and, like the rest of the region, seemed so untouched and accessible. We found a piece of a pot...

The pot shard we found

Up close

The port of Khor Rori in the background

This is the place LDS scholars believe to be the place Nephi built his ship.

Better view

Looking up the inlet, next to the city

View a little further down

I also forgot to mention that our kids had some adopted cousins we met at the hotel. They were amazing at playing with them and keeping them entertained that I actually got to relax and enjoy the sunshine even when Dave was in the room with Charlie to give him a nap. We happened to be on the same flight as them back to Muscat when we left... here's a pic of them hanging at the airport...

We absolutely loved our trip to Salalah. It was the perfect combination of relaxation and adventure.

Eid in Oman - Rakhyut & Mirbat

If you look at the last picture in the previous/first post about or trip to Oman, you can see most of the town of Rakhyut. It is tiny. It looked like a town with a population of maybe 100 or so. But probably more with the size of Arabic families. There were perhaps two restaurants and a mosque or two. So remote and tiny but so beautiful.

When we arrived, I was super hungry and feeling faint (being pregnant). I had to take a chance on one of the restaurants and let Dave try to find me something. I had some chicken and was happy not to get sick. But I mostly stuck to the rice he got me. This town, like Salalah, was super-conservative Muslim from its appearance. I didn't see a single female. I can't imagine living such a life always in the home, no public life at all. Especially with the town being located on such a beautiful beach!

Needless to say, I decided not to shed my clothes and wear my bathing suit on the beach. But the boys had a lot of fun playing in the sand and running waist-deep into the water. The beach had a super low grade decline into the water so it would have been hard to get deeper. They loved it.

The beautiful beach at Rakhyut

Playing in the mud

So untouched

In addition to the camel problem, this area also had a cow problem. So many everywhere just roaming and not looking in good health...

No Mooo! heard here... I think they were too weak

I wish I could have gotten a picture of the actual checkpoint to get the feel of the remoteness of the location and intimidating feel.

I settled for a picture of the sign.

You can see that it is literally up in the clouds.

A view down the steep mountainside just past the checkpoint. Both sides were steep like this.

A view of the mountainous drive. It all felt so remote.

Another day we took a day trip up the coast the other direction to check out the town of Mirbat, a fishing village.

The town is on the far end of the curving coasline, top right of the picture.

Isn't the water beautiful?

The tomb of a local saint, Bin Ali, and neighboring graves.

Davey being silly enjoying the veiws up the coast.

Charlie was sleeping in the car.

Some of the town of Mirbat.

Davey was so interested to see a Dhow boat up close. There were some locals on board that seemed to be inviting them onboard but Dave decided not to go on...

Some beautiful doors we found exploring the back streets

Admiring the architecture

More beautiful doors

More of Mirbat in the next post...

Eid in Oman

We love Oman. We had taken 2 vacations to Muscat since living in Bahrain and decided to go back to Oman again and explore Salalah, on the south coast, this time. There was a week long "Eid" or festivity or holiday, in November, so off we went! It was a great combination of relaxing at a nice resort and exploring the area.

Salalah is the second largest city in Oman, known for its frankincense trade and lush, greenness amidst all the surrounding desert. In the summer, it receives some of the monsoon rains from India. So it wasn't still super green and lush when we were there but definitely more naturally green than anything else I've seen in the Gulf.

And it is considered to be the land of Bountiful from the Book of Mormon where Nephi built the ship and his family sailed to the Americas. It was fun to research this aspect before going and then see it for ourselves.

Our hotel was decorated for the occasion

It was a great place to stay with kids with two pools geared just for them and a great playground and splash park.

Charlie not parting from his trains even in the pool.

This picture just screams of childhood joy and free-spiritedness

Charlie enjoying the splash park.

The slide was perfect for my little ones.

Davey had fun making friends at the pool and organizing water games for them all.

The pools were so great we only walked out to the beach once.

Just two minutes' drive from our hotel were some amazing ruins dating to before 2000BC. The city was a trade hub along the Frankincense Trail.

Part of Al Balid City

Evidence of the ancient city was sprinkled everywhere around the town, still so untouched and it was obvious that so much is still undiscovered. It amazes me to walk around these places and try to imagine life at that time.

A pretty mosque in town

Trying to capture some of the landscape

Enjoying some fresh coconut water from a streetside vendor

Charlie's turn

Another pretty mosque in town

For our first excursion, we took an afternoon drive down to Mughsail beach. The beaches are so beautiful and there's a blowhole where the water is said to jet up to 90 feet high. I say "said to" because both times we tried to catch it we must have timed it wrong. But it was still a beautiful spot to check out. And to people-watch. For the first time since living in the Middle East (!), we saw a group of about 20 muslim men lay out a blanket and perform their afternoon prayers.

The boys checking out a cave on the walk to see the blowhole.

A beautiful glance up the beach from the blowhole in Mughsail.

Another day we took a drive to the town of Rakhyut, which was very interesting and felt very adventurous as the town is located so close to Yemen (less than 15 miles) that you have to pass through a military checkpoint and present your passports. I must say I was intimidated.

See these switchbacks? It was quite a drive to Rakhyut.

The mountains we passed over were incredible. They seem to follow the coastline all along the southern part of Oman and you drive way up on the tops with dramatic steep drops down to the ocean on one side and valley on the other, also seeming to drop back to sea level.

Only in this part of the world...

And, seriously, this sign was needed. This part of Oman seemed to have a camel problem. There were camels everywhere. Some of them looked like they were taken care of and belonged to someone (rope reigns on them and healthier) but many/most bore no signs of ownership. There were seriously so many everywhere and the inhabitants of this region so sparse that I can't imagine someone able to keep track of them all and having a consistent or commercial use for them. Transporting any product of/from them would be so costly, this area is so remote.

Well, hello camel.

We were stopping all the time for these things!

Our first view of Rakhyut.

More on that in the next post...