Day Forty-One

24 September 2006

(great fruit drinks)















I had a very relaxing Sunday. I was not on duty so I slept in (as much as one could with all the bells and announcements pertaining to leaving port early this morning), ate my usual omelet for brunch, e-mailed, wow what else…I cannot really remember. I also worked out while listening to Brahms’s Requiem and reading CS Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. I got made fun of by my friend Bos’n for it (he seems to catch me every single time I read while doing my workout), but I tell him I just get too bored. I have to ride the bike since I like to read. We recently got new elliptical machines, but I do not like the new ones very much anyway.

I had a wonderful 2 days in Bahrain. It is the first Arab country I have ever gone to. It was a good experience. The colors seemed to be every shade of tan. Tan with white, tan with red, tan with yellow…The city was quite modern with a lot of new construction (especially of modern shaped buildings). Bahrain is quite a wealthy place that imports a ton of Pakistani, Indian, and Thai people to do a lot of the physical labor type jobs. Because of this, a lot of the smells, fabric colors, and handcrafts reminded me of what I had seen in India. There is not much vegetation at all. You could see a few young palm trees outside various buildings. The trees themselves even took on a shade of tan because of all the dust in the air. There were several large beautiful Mosques and occasionally you could hear the call to prayer. Walking around, at least half the men were in the traditional long white robe with head coverings in white, red, or blue colors. Only about half of the women were in traditional black robes with covered faces. But more often than not, the black fabric would have beautiful sequin patterns.
(so decadent)

(Pat and Valerie)

I got off the ship in mid-afternoon and went to the apartment complex where the Navy pilots live when they are on their 6-month deployment. There were rooms and beds for every one of the pilots that are currently on board the Saipan. I was lucky and got to tag along with the one female pilot from our ship (who also happens to live across the hall from me right now and is a wonderful person who has been so much fun to get to know). Since there are not any females living in the apartments right now, we were given a huge apartment all to ourselves. It was beautiful! All furnished, several bathrooms, two rooms, and view that overlooked the water. We were in shock that we got to stay there and it was all free! We then went out to the gold souk and market (that again reminded me of the markets I saw in India—small shops, side-by-side, open to a narrow street so every space is filled with things for sale). It was fun. We then ate at a lovely restaurant where I indulged in wonderful food. After that we found ourselves at Casa Blu. We listened to a wonderful Arabic guitarist/singer while we ate chocolate fondue and smoked apple shisha (on a hucka). All the men would join in singing on occasionally and clap out different beats (the clapping reminded us a lot of the flamenco music we experienced in Spain—the connection was becoming more clear to us). We then swam in the pool on the top floor of the apartment complex. I then took a long shower (without shower shoes and without turning the water up and down to save water. I have a great appreciation for non-ship board showers. Ha!). Valerie and I used the pedicure kit Brigitte sent with me, ate pancakes for breakfast, and drank coffee and juice after waking up in our own real-sized bed from which we had a view of the water. Rough, eh? We then returned to the ship to drop off our stuff and pick up another pilot that was just getting off duty. We had a superb lunch complete with lovely chocolate deserts and fresh fruit juices. After lounging around in the apartment during the hot afternoon, Valerie and I went to a rug flop that was sponsored by officers on base in Bahrain. For a party that was basically required for most Saipan officers to attend, it was fun and they had good food. The rugs the vender showed were beautiful but over priced. Valerie and I returned to the Navy base where we played a game of pool in the Officer’s Club and then went to listen to the last few songs of band that was playing in the outdoor amphitheater on base. It was fairly crazy there…a lot of drunk sailors. Val and I stood out like sore thumbs for some reason. When we stopped to listen the entire band acknowledged our existence and so everyone in the crowd looked over to see who they were waving at. Then a horde of drunk sweaty chiefs (high ranking enlisted) dragged me onto the dance floor for a moshing session to Nirvana. They all took great pride in making sure I was very well protected from the crowd while I jumped around with them. It was something…they loved having their female doc out there with them. Ha! I then told Val we needed to go to the back so that we would not draw any more attention but suddenly found a young blondie’s face in my ear asking what my name was. We got to the back and one of our girl’s in our Bible study (who Val and I have been encouraging in the lifestyle and spiritual changes she was making) came over to apologize for being drunk; though, we were both much more concerned about her being too familiar with a guy from the ship (he is the last thing she needs right now). The band ended and the guitarist then came and sat with us. He was a very friendly chap from Whales that did not think I could be old enough to be a doctor. After our fill of getting too much attention, we went back to the ship contented and ready for another long stint without walking on land.

(Valerie making pancakes)

(a wonderful morning)

The day and a half we were gone was great. Valerie was fun to be with. She was also great to travel around with because she had been in Bahrain for a few months last year so knew where to go and how to haggle. She was especially good at getting decent prices for taxies. They sure did want to charge way too much! We were lucky with transportation several times--we found ourselves in the right place at the right time for getting free rides from people. Once an officer heard we were needing a taxi to the base and took us there himself. Our conversation with “Mad Turk” was funny and gave us a very brief history of the Arabic world. Then some young sailors invited us to ride with a duty driver they to the ship instead of waiting for the bus in the heat. They asked us our rate (rate is what enlisted personal go by—it is their job (i.e. HM is “hospital man” aka corpsman). They were a little surprised to know they were carting around two officers, but we were thrilled that they thought us to be so young! Another time Val asked a very handsome, American looking sailor where we could get a taxi. He said that his duty driver would take us wherever we needed. Apparently he was a captain on one of the ships in port. We definitely got hooked up our entire time on liberty which made our time so special. We knew we had been blessed.

So that is Bahrain…We go now into the bright blue for our next mission before our next port! Ship life continues on…
(rug flop)