Pack your bags, Pinky. We are hitting the road.

Hello All,

Packing my bags and getting ready to travel to Tampa.  Will leave in about 6 hours for my 1:40 am flight.

Pinky, by the way, is a little stuffed pink elephant Sarah made and gave to me to keep me company on my deployment.  I take Pinky to all the exciting places I go.  Needless to say, she will be traveling to the US with me.

Looking forward to being back in the US but dreading the -7 hour time change.  Midnight on the East Coast is 7 am here in Bahrain.  By the time my body gets adjusted, it will be time to return to the Middle East.

Sarah is starting a two week trip to the East Coast today also.  She will spend a week in N. Va. with her Aunt/Uncle/cousins and then down to NC for a week with Jodi and Chase.   Her Aunt lives 15 minutes away from Dulles Int Airport and I am trying to get my flight back to Bahrain rerouted through there.  That means I would get to see Sarah.  Wouldn't that be something!

Being in the Middle East is starting to wear me down already.  The Arabs are awful drivers and the Indian and Pakistan workers do whatever they want on the roads, rarely stopping at stop signs.  They are really starting to piss me off.  Additionally, I can't understand much of what they say even though they are speaking English.  I swore I would never buy another Dell computer when they moved their call center to India for that very reason.

There are 5 construction sites that I can see from my balcony.  I am not sure who is going to live in all these apartments they are building.  Jodi always complained about the construction hours in our sub-division which begins at 7 am during the week.  Out here construction starts every day at 5 - 5:30 am making sleeping past then a little challenging.

I also hate when US ships make port calls here, as is the case this weekend.  I am sure it is great for those on the ship but sucks for those of us who live here.  There are long lines in all the places there are not normally lines and throngs of people everywhere.  These port calls also unleash a special kind of stupid amongst a certain percentage of those coming ashore.  Excessive drinking and bad behavior out in town create problems that those who live here are tasked with fixing, especially repairing the damaged public's perception of US service people.

As I had mentioned previously, the living conditions here are great compared to Djibouti but there are a lot of things I miss about Djibouti, believe it or not.

Ramadan starts the day I return from the US.  I was in the PX today and they had several racks of "Ramadan approved clothing" (had a placard that said so).  For 30 days starting 20 Jul, no shorts for anyone, knees of women must be covered as well as shoulders.  You can also be stopped by the police if you are seen eating or drinking in public during daylight hours and be given a ticket with the fine due on the spot. I think it is the equivalent of $100 USD.

Anyone who wants to bad mouth living in the US needs to spend a few months in the Middle East especially women who are second class citizens here at best.  Sorry ladies.  You're not in Kansas any more.  

Cheers,
Michael