Zoie, the desert pup, had her first night here, and Brooke had a little trouble getting her to go to sleep until midnight; so when 6:30am rolled around, she wasn't very excited about taking Zoie out for a walk! I was proud of Brooke, though, because she wants to start her own pet business here, and she made herself wake up and do the job right instead of accepting Jordan's offer to do it for her. We couldn't believe how nice the weather was at 6:30 in the morning! It was perfect. Now we know why everyone gets up early and goes to bed early... the evenings just aren't cool like the mornings.
I've had several friends lose weight on the HCG diet, so Jordan and I drove to the pharmacy on camp this morning to get a couple of bottles to take back to the States... it's about a tenth of the price here! Jordan was wearing a sleeveless shirt around the house and didn't want to change, so she decided to throw her abaya on over it! lol -- almost like a big bathrobe!
That's a mosque & minaret behind Jordan. It's already 108 degrees at 10am. I'm glad I didn't wear my abaya... too hot! Check out those yellow flip flops! Now if those don't attract attention!
Here's the teeny tiny pharmacy on the compound... a little of everything.
And our nice pharmacist...
Then we went to the adjacent commissary to pick up a few groceries. This commissary is not in the housing camp, but it's still on the compound. Jordan found some abaya shampoo! I guess we need special detergent to clean our abayas. I love the black bottle... can't mistake that for anything else!
We tried to take pictures of things going on around us without disturbing others, so some of these are kind of blurry. Here's a father and son shopping together. This man is not wearing the traditional Saudi headdress, so I'm guessing he is not a Saudi.
Jordan had fun taking some pictures. She liked the Arabic on this ketchup. She's going to be taking Arabic in school next week!
These men were so nice and wanted to pose for our picture.
Below is a lady shopping in her abaya. She is wearing a head covering, call a hijab, which is placed over the head and fastened under the chin.
I don't think the woman below is a Saudi because of her blue hijab. Saudi women wear all black.
There are all kinds of people that shop at the comm. It's a strange place -- almost like you're not in any specific country.
This lady is wearing the niqaab which covers all but her eyes. She was very quick to get into her van. Her driver was waiting with air conditioning running -- I bet she was hot!
Bruce flew back to the states today to finish working on the gate he had started last month. It wasn't quite finished when we left. This will keep people from driving up our driveway looking for a connection to the Kedron Hills neighborhood while we're gone.
Now that we have a car, Bruce made the daring feat of driving to the Bahrain airport to catch his flight. It's really scary to drive here, but he said it wasn't too bad today - probably because of Ramadan and it being daylight. He said the hardest part was finding a parking lot that had spots in it!... way to go, Bruce!
I took the girls to the pool this afternoon, but as soon as I took a picture of them swimming, a life guard came over and told me that I was not allowed to take pictures. He didn't know why; it just wasn't allowed. Here's the one picture I got.
At least while we were there, we saw some of the swim team, and got to talk to the swim coach. We didn't realize the swim team practiced all summer long (in this heat!) The coach invited the girls to start swimming tomorrow, if they're ready.
Below is the entrance to the pool, gym, playground, and snack bar, with the guard shack just behind the telephone. The telephones are really neat because you don't need any money to use them and you can call any number on camp.
Adjacent to the pool entrance is the entrance to the elementary school. The guard shack and lots of walls are all you can see from the outside. They try to keep their kids safe here! Everyone seems to like the schools on camp.
Taco shells are kind of expensive here, so I packed a giant bag of corn tortillas in my luggage and made taco shells the old fashioned way for dinner tonight (like my mom used to) by frying them in oil. The girls didn't want them at first, but after tasting them, they loved 'em!
It's difficult to keep from getting depressed when we first get here... not really sure why, but I guess because of the drastic changes and lack of social interaction. I have to give them credit, though, for trying to make it as welcoming as possible. Brooke has already found out what groups she wants to join - the Theater Group and the swim team. In addition to high school, Jordan will join the swim team, of course; and Reese just wishes there was someone to play with.
That's all for today.
-- Pattie --
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