Bahrain

Of course its my country so I love it, I love going there and visiting family and friends.  The relaxed atmosphere, and the unpretentious state of mind with everybody is something that cannot be denied.  Poeple still set on the floor, have lunch on a sufra (a round mat made from palm tree leafs), and smoke the Gadu (a pottery sheesha and a bamboo stick, which by the way is used by some parents to hit their kids if they don't study).  Also, everybody is a cupcake maker, and every one does catering and sell things on Instagram.  The thousands of Instagram accounts for food lovers, shoping sites,Bahraini style Ebay hash tagged to the rest of the gulf countries, so everyone from the gulf buys Bahraini products.  I was surprised to see watches and shoes sold on Instagram too as well as Halwa, khanfaroosh and Rahash, so a lot of our delectable are not only being sold but also are being displayed to the world to feast their eyes on!! 

Sipping coffee in one of the most crowded cafes (Costa in country mall) I can hear students discussing their assignments, tutors teaching kids, lawyers discussing cases and of course the umpteen number of politically minded people and those bloggers and tweeps discussing what is being pushed on those internet sites and what is written on twitter and on blogs.  I found it so interesting that sometimes you see the black cars of the police hurrying on the roads going to a certain place and people continue to drink their frappuccinos without even a blink.  I think black cars and and smoke had become a fact of life and people had continued their lives as normal. 

My son decided to go and live in Bahrain, so my husband and I didn't discourage or encourage him, he is an adult and he can do what he likes.  Anyway, one day he calls and says that the country is going to shreds, and on another day he calls and says that he loves how everyone asks about me.  He says that people first ask him who he is, and as soon as he says that he is the son of Suad, they all say great, say hi to her as I played with her when she was little, or I was a friend to her dad, or I am her cousin, and so on and so forth.  He says that some people just try to make it sound that he is a relative even if it is from the grand grand father side.  He thinks that something like that hadn't happened to him when he lived in Dubai, or when he lived in New Zealand; that is why he thinks that living in Bahrain is an experience and he thinks that everyone in the world should try to live in Bahrain for a while.

I agree with my son, and now my daughter will also get married and go to Bahrain to live there, she will be proud of my family and I, as everyone she will meet will tell her that she is a relative.  Of course its not that everyone in Bahrain is a relative, its just that everyone wants you to feel welcome and live happily in that marvelous Kingdom. 

I was at an exhibition for the past four days, simultaneously there was another conference going, so during the break some of those attending the conference come to us as everyone has a daughter or a son who needs to study abroad somewhere.  One of my visitors asked me if I was Bahraini? I said yes, and he almost wanted to kiss me, of course he was also a Bahraini, and was wearing the emblem of Bahrain, so I asked him to get me one; to my surprise when I arrived today, the university Rep that I was helping at her booth gave me the golden emblem and said that it was from my Bahraini friend!!! I scratched my head thinking, which Bahraini friend will bring me this? then I remembered the guy who came the previous night and I had asked him to get me one of those broaches.  Do you think that a non Bahraini would do something like that? I guess not.

I am not racist, nor a discriminator, and I will never differentiate between people on any basis, but I must tell you this, The Bahraini people are outstanding, and whoever I talked to had or have a Bahraini best friend; during this exhibition a lot of the exhibitors told me so themselves.  Of course I am a best friend to almost 191 nationalities, so there you go.

I think socoilogists will have a fun time studying Bahraini people, and I am going to take my friend Dr Ivana to Bahrain so she studies us first hand.