February 28, 2012 - The Day Before the Women's Retreat

Tuesday, Feb. 28
At 9am this morning, a driver picked me up at my door with three other ladies from the leadership planning team for the women's retreat, and we headed to Hawar Island in Bahrain.  I left Brooke and Reese with a list of their school work and we said goodbye (Bruce will be home at lunch to check up on them and Jordan will be home from school at 3:15.)

Here is a map of where we went:  We left Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, drove across the causeway to Bahrain, then drove to the southern tip of Bahrain and rode a boat to Hawar Island, almost all the way to Qatar.

Here are some pictures of the drive to Bahrain.  This is the causeway between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

These are houses near the southern tip of Bahrain.

Being the newest ex-pat in the car, I was a little naive and camera-happy, and was told to put my camera away at this point.  With all of the unrest in Bahrain, there were many soldiers with guns everywhere.  At one point, our driver got lost and we stopped where two SUVs full of soldiers were parked along the side of the road, and asked directions.  These soldiers were all carrying guns and were surprised at first that we stopped to talk to them, but they were happy to give us directions and help us on our way.  One soldier who was wearing spiked gloves reached for a juice box in the back of the SUV, and I would have loved to get a picture of it, but I was warned not to.

We finally arrived at Ad Dur Jetty where we were to catch our boat to Hawar Island.

 Here is our boat to the resort.

We had assembled 100 binders to give to the women, not to mention all the other retreat supplies; and here they are being loaded onto the boat.  We will have the entire resort to ourselves this weekend since it is the first weekend of their open season.

Here is the captain.

Lori, Me, and Karen.

I think these people riding with us were all employees.

Leaving the jetty.

Carmen, Lori, and Karen.

Hawar is the largest of the Hawar Islands of Bahrain.  Its area of 24 sq. miles is nearly 80% of the Hawar Islands group.  In 2002, Bahrain applied to have the Hawar islands recognized as a World Heritage Site due to their unique environment and habitat for endangered species because they are home to endangered species and provide an interesting place for birdwatchers and divers.

Here we are arriving.

 
We're so excited to finally be arriving!  The whole trip took about 3-1/2 hours.

This looks like typical Saudi, though, with a pile of unused building material.  The slide looks a little rickety, but fun!  I'd love to bring my girls here.

We were met with a glass of mango juice.

The lobby is very pretty.

We checked into our rooms.  I will be sharing with another lady from the retreat that I haven't yet met.  This is my room.

Here is the view from my room.

I love the little garden.

Listed in the Guest Services booklet, it tells you where you can find a Holy Qur'an.

...or if you need a prayer mat.

Then we went to the restaurant for lunch.  We are the only guests at the resort until the other 90 ladies arrive tomorrow.

This is the view from the restaurant window.

Then we were given a tour of the grounds... these are the resort geese.

Look at the size of this jelly fish!

This is the suite where all the ladies can gather and play board games or have conversations.

A beautiful sunset to end a relaxing day away from the kids.

 

While I was away, Bruce took the girls to the middle school's theatrical production "Comedy of Errors."  Because he and Brooke helped build the sets, they were given free tickets!  Then they went to the commissary and bought ice cream.

It was a little scary walking to my room tonight because I was the only person staying in this wing of the hotel, and most of the lights in my room weren't working, so I had visions of horror movies as I heard my heels on the lonely tile floor as I walked down the long corridor... but I survived.

- Pattie -