Bahrain

The birthday of the Prophet Muhammed fell in March this year (since the Islamic calendar is lunar rather than solar the timing of the holiday varies year by year), and for the three day weekend I went to Bahrain with three girlfriends. Bahrain is a small island near Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and is a mere 55 minute flight from Kuwait. There are many similarities between Kuwait and Bahrain, but it still felt good to have a change for the weekend.

Our first stop in Bahrain was the Al-Fateh Mosque, and we were able to get a tour inside the mosque. Many people have asked me if I have to wear any special clothing, such as a headscarf or abayya (the usually black robe some Muslim women wear) in Kuwait, but the only times in the Middle East I've ever had to wear anything special have been when visiting mosques, and Al-Fateh mosque was no exception. The Al-Fateh Mosque is relatively new (completed in 1990s) and can hold over 7,000 worshippers inside.

Bahrain also has a new National Museum with many life size displays of traditional Bahraini life, as well as information on the excavations in Bahrain of the pre-Islamic people who lived on the island.

My brave friend Mariam decided she was up for driving in Bahrain, so we rented a car and were able to get outside of Manama, the capital of Bahrain. We enjoyed dinner and drinks at a beautiful Egyptian restaurant one night, and tried to find the "Tree of Life" and visit some forts around the island our second day.

The tree of life is only about 60 kilometers from Manama, but due to a lack of road maps in Bahrain we ended up circling the 15 minute radius around the tree for about two hours before we finally found it. While this tree might not look lik anything special to people back home used to foliage, it grows in the middle of the desert and has been in the same spot for hundreds of years. It's very rare to find naturally growing trees in Kuwait, and so we were excited to finally find the tree and get our photo ops with it.

Back in Kuwait the next weekend I was finally able to visit the Kuwaiti Grand Mosque, which I found to be one of the most beautiful mosques I've visited. Unfortunately my camera died early in the mosque visit, but I was able to snap some good examples of tessellations in the mosque that I used with my kids in our patterns unit.

The final exciting event in March before Hannah's visit was the Irish ball, sponsored by the Kuwait Irish society-who even knew such a thing existed? It was a fun night of dancing with hundreds of other expats at a posh hotel. It was a great beginning to the weekend when my sister arrived, which you can read about in my next entry!